Two members of Academic Professionals of California, five faculty from the California Faculty Association and a student from Dominguez Hills spoke to the CSU Board of Trustees on March 17th about the Early Start Remediation proposal. Their Statement is reproduced below, as are links to a recent article and short video on the subject. continue...
by Rosemary Lee
Last Friday May 22, 2009 Santee high school students led a massive student protest and marched down to Beaudry. Picking up from the energy of the past student protest by CEJ, Santee students have taken to the streets twice in the past 7 days with protest growing larger in strength and intensity every time.continue...
Dear Friends,
A year has passed since I decided not to give my students the WASL here in Seattle. I was thrilled and heartened by the dialog which ensued and by the outpouring of strength and support I received through hundreds of emails and phone calls. Though my school district suspended me for two weeks without pay I feel the results were well worth the consequences.
Today we have a new SPI in Olympia, Randy Dorn, who unseated the WASL Queen, Terry Bergeson, in November. He ran on a "no confidence in the WASL" platform, but the jury is still out on whether anything significant will actually change.continue...
On Tuesday, March 10, President Barak Obama finally told us his ideas for the future of public education. This launched four days of surprisingly honest and open statements about corporate intent towards the public schools. The privatization of the public education is now an open campaign. Things are moving quite rapidly.
1). The President was quite explicit. Excerpts from his speech at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce are at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/us/politics/10text-obama.html.
"But right now, there are many caps on how many charter schools are allowed in some states.... I call on states to reform their charter rules, and lift caps on the number of allowable charter schools, wherever such caps are in place".
"Good teachers will be rewarded with more money for improved student achievement, and asked to accept more responsibilities for lifting up their schools." continue...
from Juanita
Reporter Phyllis Fletcher from KUOW radio called this evening to let me know that her report on our brave Seattle teachers and parents who refused to use an inappropriate assessment for their students with severe disabilities will air Friday morning, sometime between 5:00 and 9:00. The story will play twice and then will be available on their website. continue...
In Spanish
WE received this from our friends in Mexico. It concerns the standardized test called PISA, and was sent by the student committee of the Mexican section of the Trinational.
Hola! Queridos profesores
El día de hoy se aplicará la prueba PISA en mi país, la cual representa una forma más de exclusión social, ya que al estandarizar los conocimientos; se deja de lado toda forma singular del proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje. Por ello y como parte del trabajo que hemos venido realizando hemos hecho un pronucniamiento que queremos compartir con ustedes, para que este evento sea observado por toda la sociedad y se reflexione respecto a los impactos del mismo.
Cómite Estudiantil en Defensa de la Educación Pública de la Coalición Trinacional
Reciban un saludo fraternal
María, Hortensia, Alfonso, Montserrat y Eric
A conference on the impact of standardized evaluation on education in the Americas was held in Mexico City February 19-21. It was organized by the IDEA Network (Initiative for Democratic Education in the Americas) with representatives from 13 countries throughout the hemisphere participating. The primary objective of the conference was to collectively construct an understanding of the impact of standardized testing on public education, share stories of resistance to such testing and alternatives generated by education organizations throughout the Americas. The following is a speech given by Steve Miller, a teacher activist from the Oakland public schools:
Six days after he took office, Barack Obama was bored, sitting around the White House. At least, that's how he tells it. So he and Michelle decided to take off and drop in on a school. So they picked Capital City Public Charter School in Washington, DC.
Obama could have gone to one of the city's long-struggling ghetto schools, perhaps one which is being threatened with closure. He could have reaffirmed his support for the historic demand for equal, quality public education that drove the struggle for Civil Rights. He did neither.
By attending a charter school, Obama openly demonstrated support for one of the tools of social engineering that are being used to batter public schools and drive them towards privatization. Testing is the other major weapon. continue...
