Whether you are a teacher, a parent, a student, a principal, a school board member, or a concerned citizen, please join the Campaign for Our Public Schools.
Speak out against high-stakes testing and privatization.
Write a letter to President Obama and other elected officials.
Here are instructions.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Fine! re:
“Let’s raise our voices NOW against privatization, against high-stakes testing, against teacher bashing, against profiteering. Let’s advocate for policies that are good for students, that truly improve education, that respect the education profession, and that strengthen our democratic system of public education. Let’s act. Start here. Start now. Join our campaign. Speak out. Enough is enough.”
So where is the PEA in NYC?
And would there be funding for an organized approach in NYC? And can the UFT be smart, sane and an ally?
Individuals writing letters and such is good but a “movement” is better! And that needs organization and organizing! And funding.
Best, Neal
Neal H. Hurwitz NY, NY
My letters, email and snail mail, are ready to go. Thank you for organizing.
Hi Diane,
Just sent off a letter to President Obama through the Whitehouse site. I also sent a copy to my state legislators, Senator Jim Hargrove, Representatives Kevin Van De Wege and Steve Tharinger as well as State Senator Maria Cantwell. Here’s a copy of what I wrote, which will appear on my blog in the morning (http://www.educatoral.com/wordpress/):
Dear Mr. President,
I have been teaching for over 21 years. I started my career teaching elementary in South Central Los Angeles. I then moved to WA State and have taught at two middle schools in WA State. I am currently a Science teacher at Chimacum Middle School. I am certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards as an Early Adolescent Generalist, which I am working on re-certifying this year.
When you speak about education I agree with you. You are completely correct that our children should not be taught to pass a test at the exclusion of getting a good education. I think we agree that ALL children in this country deserve an excellent education. What does that look like?
ALL students need
• early childhood education that includes play and not testing or test prep.
• to learn to be critical thinkers that can do more than read and do basic arithmetic.
• to get feedback that will help them learn. That feedback should be information and not as rewards and punishments.
• to be assessed continuously, formatively, and not just tested. Students can show what they know in many ways such as portfolios, creating things and doing things.
• access to 21st Century tools and resources to prepare them for whatever their future.
Privatizing education, charter schools, voucher programs, and standardization are NOT the types of education reform this country needs. Our schools and our children should NOT be for sale. Instead of spending millions on charter schools put that money into making public schools better. No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top must be stopped. Students learn best when they get support and when they cooperate. Education is a cooperative effort and should NOT be a competition.
You yourself say that we should not teach to the test so don’t make tests determine so much. Standardized, often multiple-choice, tests are a weak, lower form of assessment and do not tell us much about what our kids know and even less about what they can do. Those scores do NOT tell if a teacher or a school or a child is incapable or ineffective. Assessment, as education, should be differentiated.
As for me, I don’t need merit pay or any other incentives to do my job and to do it well. All I need is to make enough money to support my family. I need to know that I will have the materials to educate my students and I don’t want my job security to depend on a one-day-a-year test into which I had no input.
Thank you for your time.
October 15, 2012
Dear Mr. President,
This is my thirtieth year of teaching in a small rural district in central Pennsylvania. Four years ago you gave me hope for the students in my classroom. I had so much hope that not only did I vote for you, but also for the first time in my life I contributed monetarily to a presidential campaign. This year I have not contributed to anyone’s campaign. Now also for the first time in my life I may not vote in a presidential election. I will not vote for Romney. For my students and students all across America, I’d like to have a reason to vote for you again. Please give teachers all across the country that reason.
Very simply put, NCLB and Race to the Top are not working. The enactments of this piece of legislation and this program as they are being used have set in the motion the most destructive educational trends in the last fifty years or maybe ever. Some of the outcomes of NCLB and RTTT have been privatization, charter schools, vouchers and merit pay. All of these are leading to an educational system in America that will be so segregated by income and availability.
Private schools and charter schools are free to choose what students they take. It is well documented that charter schools often exclude students with high needs and do not score, any better than local community schools. Charter schools and private schools are not designed to educate the masses. Our founding fathers felt it was essential to educate everyone for there to be survival of our democratic form of government. Right now, the programs that you are supporting will not do that.
Inner-city youth and students in poor rural areas are in schools that being labeled because of all the testing mania. If the schools are labeled as failing, then the students must be failures also. Is that really the message NCLB and RTTT wants to send to thousands of students? But what other options do rural students have? Charter schools will not take students with disabilities. Their private managements have been in the news about scandals with money issues. In rural areas such as where I teach the next closest district could be 30 miles away and it is in the same boat as far as test scores and funding problems.
Your programs have led to kindergarten students crying because they are given standardized tests the first week of school due to the need to show growth. Of course, all this could be resolved in Arne Duncan’s mind and many others’s if only teachers did a better job. In enters the talk of merit pay. After teaching for thirty years, both of my grown daughters make more money than I do. More money for individual teachers will not solve problem of higher test scores. I became a teacher, like most others, because I care about the students. We do need supplies and we need more teachers. We have had to cut teachers and our classroom sizes have grown. Lack of supplies and larger class sizes, all while trying to meet higher and higher testing goals, is what makes us tired and demoralized.
.
If you continue with RTTT and programs like it, the public education that our founding fathers wanted for all children in the country will be no more. Please don’t let that happen. Ask us what we think and ask us what we need. Please come to my school and come to my classroom. Go to many schools and talk to the teachers! I implore you to become the President that gave us hope four years ago. Please save the students!
Sincerely,
Cheryl Barnes
7th grade math teacher
cabarnes@centurylink.net
Shade Gap, PA