Press Release
Date: March 9, 2014
Contact:
Jesse Hagopian, Teacher, 206-962-1685 hagopian.jesse@gmail.com
Brian Jones, Teacher and Doctoral Student, 646-554-8592 brianpjones@yahoo.com
Wayne Au, Professor of Education, 425-352-3797 wayne.wk.au@gmail.com
LEADING EDUCATORS SUPPORT TEST BOYCOTT
In a public petition released today, more than fifty educators and researchers, including some of the most well-respected figures in the field of education, pledged support for the boycott of the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) by teachers at two elementary schools in Chicago, Saucedo Scholastic Academy and Drummond Elementary School and called on Chicago’s mayor and schools chief to rescind threats of punishment for those who participated in the action.
Among the signers of the statement are former US Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, and activist and educator William Ayers. They compared the teachers’ decision to civil rights activism. “Like early participants in the Civil Rights Movement,” they wrote, “the teachers at Saucedo and Drummond who have refused to administer the ISAT have taken an enormous risk for what they believe is right.”
Jesse Hagopian, a high school teacher in Seattle and one of the organizers of a boycott of the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test last year, took the lead in gathering signatures to support the Chicago boycott. “I know from experience how frightening it can be to take this kind of action,” Hagopian said, “no one would jeopardize their livelihood unless they believed deeply in what they were doing.”
Sarah Chambers, a special education teacher at Saucedo, told Hagopian that parents, students and teachers were standing together on this issue in order to “take back our public schools from the profiteers who are making millions from these tests and test-prep materials.” Chambers added, “This is one step towards reclaiming our public schools and our humanity.”
The ISAT test is not used for student promotion or teacher evaluation. It’s only purpose is to satisfy the state’s accountability requirements for the No Child Left Behind legislation. The signers also noted that hundreds of families at both schools chose to opt their children out of the tests 112 students at Drummond and roughly 450 at Saucedo. Teachers who refused to administer the test conducted lessons with the students who opted out.
Despite the fact that the test is already slated to be discontinued next year, state and city officials have stated that these teachers may lose their jobs and perhaps their teaching licenses. “Threatening to punish teachers who prefer to teach rather than give standardized tests is not in the best interest of students,” the statement argues. Noting the growing discontent with the over-use of standardized testing, the signatories called the test refusers “teachers of conscience” who are “standing up for authentic teaching, learning, and assessment.”
The petition is released in advance of the Chicago Teachers Union’s call for a Day of Action on Monday, March 10 to support the boycotting teachers. The CTU is encouraging members and supporters to wear red, call the Chicago Board of Education directly, and attend a rally that day in Chicago at 4pm.
*
PETITION TO MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL & CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS CEO BARBARA BYRD-BENNETT:
CELEBRATE CHICAGO’S TEACHERS OF CONSCIENCE, DON’T PUNISH THEM!
Teachers at two public elementary schools in Chicago, Saucedo Scholastic Academy and Drummond Elementary School, have refused to administer the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT). By taking this bold action at great personal risk, these teachers are standing up for authentic teaching, learning, and assessment. We believe that these teachers are heroes who are worthy of praise and thanks, not punishment and censure.
The teachers at these schools believe that boycotting this test is in the best interest of their students. Hundreds of parents and students agreed. At Drummond, 112 students out of 178 students refused to take the test. At Saucedo, roughly 450 of 1200 students refused also. For teachers who declined to administer the test, this was not a day off — they were able to conduct actual lessons with students who opted out. Threatening to punish teachers who prefer to teach rather than give standardized tests is not in the best interest of students.
The ISAT test is being phased out, and will not be given next year. The results from this test will not be used to improve teaching and learning, to determine grades or promotion in Chicago Public Schools. It’s only purpose is to satisfy the accountability requirements of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation. NCLB demands that schools raise test scores every year, pressure which has led to an abusive over-emphasis on standardized test preparation nationwide.
Like early participants in the Civil Rights Movement, the teachers at Saucedo and Drummond who have refused to administer the ISAT have taken an enormous risk for what they believe is right. And like those early Civil Rights protesters, they are facing intimidation and threats that they may be fired or lose their teaching licenses.
We, the undersigned, call on Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett to stop all threats and punishments directed at the teachers of conscience at Saucedo Scholastic Academy and Drummond Elementary.
Signed*:
Curtis Acosta
Founder
Acosta Latino Learning Partnership, Tucson
Wayne Au
Associate Professor of Education
University of Washington, Bothell
William Ayers
Retired
University of Illinois
Bill Bigelow
Curriculum Editor
Rethinking Schools
Stephen Brier
Professor
Ph.D. Program in Urban Education
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Phyllis A. Bush
Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education, Fort Wayne
Alex Caputo-Pearl
Teacher
Frida Kahlo High School, Los Angeles
Julie Cavanagh
Teacher
Public School 15, Brooklyn
Sumi Cho
Professor of Law
DePaul University College of Law
Linda Christensen
Rethinking Schools
Anthony Cody
Co-Founder
Network for Public Education
Tammy Oberg De La Garza
Assistant Professor of Language and Literacy
College of Education
Roosevelt University, Chicago
Bertis Downs
Board Member
Network for Public Education
John W. Duffy
Retired
Illinois Education Association
Lisa Edstrom
Barnard Education Program
Barnard College, Columbia University
Stephanie Farmer
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Roosevelt University, Chicago
Judith Gouwens
Professor of Elementary Education
College of Education
Roosevelt University, Chicago
Helen Gym
Asian Americans United/Parents United for Public Education
Rethinking Schools
Jesse Hagopian
Teacher
Garfield High School, Seattle
Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
Nini Hayes
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Julian Vasquez Heilig
Associate Professor of Educational Policy and Planning
University of Texas, Austin
Robin Hiller
Executive Director
Network for Public Education
Brian Jones
PhD Program in Urban Education
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Denisha Jones
Assistant Professor of Education
Howard University
Stan Karp
Rethinking Schools
Bill Kennedy
Urban Teacher Education Program
University of Chicago
Karen GJ Lewis
National Board Certified Teacher
President
Chicago Teachers Union
Barbara Madeloni
Educators for a Democratic Union
Eleni Makris
Associate Professor
Northeastern Illinois University
Morna McDermott
Associate Professor
Towson University
Deborah Menkart
Executive Director
Teaching for Change
Nicholas M. Michelli
Presidential Professor
Ph.D. Program in Urban Education
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Mark B. Miller
School Board Director
Centennial School District
Pennsylvania School Boards Association
Isabel Nuñez
Associate Professor
Concordia University Chicago
Dani O’Brien
College of Education
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Bob Peterson
President
Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association
Anthony Picciano
Executive Officer
PhD Program in Urban Education
City University of New York – Graduate Center
Bree Picower
New York Collective of Radical Educators
Amira Proweller
Associate Professor
DePaul University, College of Education
Diane Ravitch
Research Professor of Education
New York University
Mary Cathryn D. Ricker
National Board Certified Teacher
President
Saint Paul Federation of Teachers, Local 28
Karyn Sandlos
Assistant Professor of Art Education
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Mara Sapon-Shevin
Professor of Inclusive Education
Syracuse University
Nancy Schniedewind
Professor
State University of New York, New Paltz
Tim Slekar
Dean
School of Education
Edgewood College, Madison
Simeon Stumme
Associate Professor
Center for Policy Studies and Social Justice
Concordia University, Chicago
Daiyu Suzuki
Doctoral Student
Teachers College, Columbia University
Peter M. Taubman
Professor
Brooklyn College
Dora Taylor
President
Parents Across America
Angela Valenzuela
Professor
University of Texas, Austin
Lois Weiner
Professor
New Jersey City University
Randi Weingarten
President
American Federation of Teachers
Barbara Winslow
School of Education
Brooklyn College
*organizations are listed for identification purposes only
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I hereby add my name to this list. –Robert D. Shepherd
I hereby add my name to this list, too! Thank you, all.
Yvonne Siy-Runyan, Ph.D.
Professor Emerita, University of Northern Colorado
Past President, National Council Teachers of English
Former Classroom Teacher, Grades K-12 (inclusive in HI, MI, OH, CO, CA)
Former District Reading Speacialist (Boulder, CO)
Former Language Arts Coordinator (Boulder, CO)
Better yet, can you sign the petition in support of teachers, parents and students who are standing up against over-testing, since CPS has told the teachers to expect “severe discipline” and threatened to fire them or even take their teaching certificates?
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/support-the-testing-boycott
As a follow up, can you also take a moment tomorrow, Monday, and make a phone call to the Chicago Board of Education at 773-553-1600 between 9 and 5 Central Time?.
When you call, you don’t need to say a lot, just reiterate the main message of the petition, which is:
“I’d like to leave a message for all members of the Board of Education. There should be no retaliation against teachers who stood up against over-testing.”
Thanks!
This is another matter altogether, but it’s really important:
Two economists at the Brookings Institution, Joshua Bleiberg and Darrell M. West, write, in a piece published March 6, 2014, on the Brookings website:
“The Common Core should vigorously enforce their licensing agreement. In the past textbook writers and others have inappropriately claimed that they aligned course content. Supporters of standards based reform should recognize that low quality content could sink the standards and enforce their copyright accordingly.”
Let’s be clear about what they are calling for here:
They are saying that the CCSSO should be a censorship organization that reviews curricula and gives it a “nihil obstat.” In effect, such a policy would create a national curriculum censorship organization, for if a state has adopted the Common Core, a publisher will not be able to sell product in that state without it being Common Core aligned, and in order to say that the product is Common Core aligned, the publisher would have to get CCSSO approval.
When I first read that the Common Core had been copyrighted, a disturbing thought occurred to me: “Were they planning, in the long term, to set up a national office to preapprove curricula?”
Now, that’s exactly what Brookings is calling for.
The Thought Police.
If you don’t find this REALLY CHILLING, you aren’t thinking AT ALL.
This is what totalitarianism looks like, folks.
Just when you think it can’t get worse, this.
Well we better find those old World War II bomb shelters to stock our unaligned CC curriculum for safe keeping.
Cold war, Jon, cold war bomb shelters, not WWII.
Agreed it is thought police. I hope you (all) will be equally zealous in defending free speech from assaults on it by the administration through the IRS and the FCC.
Always, Harlan! You can count on me for that!
And why not. Educators believe in SCHOLARLY research.
Please add my name. I am impressed with this progressive action. Wish I could participate .
Go Team…
Now this really IS a legitimate civil rights era type of protest showing extraordinary courage and deserving of the support of all of us. It is civil disobedience for justice, equity, and fairness.
I went to the link at Moveon.org and signed the petition. I was surprised that LESS THAN 3000 people have signed so far. There should be 300,000 minimum signing in my opinion.
Well said, Harlan!
again
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/support-the-testing-boycott