Spring is coming.
People are standing up and speaking up.
Teachers at Garfield High in Seattle say “no more.”
Teachers at Ballard High School support their colleagues at Garfield.
The Seattle Education Association supports the Garfield and Ballard teachers.
Randi Weingarten tweeted her support.
Superintendents, one after another, are saying the testing obsession is out of control.
The principals of New York State stand together to demand professional evaluation, not trial by testing.
Parents are defending their children by supporting their teachers and their community schools.
The PTA of Niagara County in New York say hands off our public schools.
Communities are opposing school closings and corporate takeovers.
Students are speaking out because they know what is happening to them is not right.
Journalists are starting to recognize that the “reformers” are not real reformers but privatizers.
It is starting to happen.
We will put education back into the hands of educators and parents and communities.
We will work to make our schools better than ever, not by competition, but by collaboration.
Last year, someone emailed and asked me to create and lead the movement to stop the corporate reformers, and I said I couldn’t do it, that all I can do is write and speak.
That truly is all I can do, but when I started this blog in late April, it turned into a platform for the movement, and leaders are emerging all over the country, and learning about each other. They are communicating.
I am not the leader, I am the facilitator. You are the leaders.
Over 6000 New Yorkers in less than 2 weeks have signed the petition to halt High Stakes Testing in NYS. If you live in NY, sign on and pass to a friend or neighbor.
I’m from IL but I’d sure sign. As a school superintendent with 30 years experience I’ve seen this testing explode and displace what is truly important….relationships between teachers and students. ENOUGH!!!
That is wonderful, and thank you for it. However, what is going to have to happen in NY–and EVERYWHERE ELSE IN THIS COUNTRY–is what happened at Garfield H.S. Teachers are going to have to 100% refuse to give the tests, and administrators are going to have to stand up right there with them. Petitions and talk are not going to do it. (It would also be VERY helpful if 100% of the parents refused to let their children take the tests, as well as if 100% of the older students REFUSED to take the tests.
Amen. It is time to take our schools back. Education is so much more than mere testing. It is about relationships and student achieving their full potential. Quit beating up on teachers and students. They are performing exceptionally well under, in many cases, terrrible conditions!
K. Scot Reynolds
Thank you for your kinds words. I have always thought that if an administrator intended to give a teacher a poor evaluation, that administrator should walk in the teacher’s shoes and then rethink that evaluation.
Oops … “kind”
Leaders, please let me know that you are out there. I am trying to put together a movement in CT. Perhaps we could join forces. My email address is bmorri6409@sbcglobal.net.
Teacher Unions have encouraged an atmosphere of “things are good enough!” and “they just can’t learn on account of their home lives!”
People are fed up giving the unions more and more money for vague promises to really really educate the children this time. SOMEONE has to do SOMETHING for the children since the Unions won’t!
And what about teachers in states that have no unions? Are you angry at them too?
Diane might mean “states that have no collective bargaining”. As far as I know, the NEA and/or AFT is active in all 50 states. From the NEA website: “NEA state affiliates regularly lobby legislators for the resources schools need, campaign for higher professional standards for the teaching profession, and file legal actions to protect academic freedom and the rights of school employees.”
Right Diane, or am I missing something?
There are a number of states where public employees do not have collective bargaining rights, mostly in the south. Wasn’t that the crux of the battle in Wisconsin? And in Ohio? Republicans have successfully pushed right-to-work legislation, most recently in Michigan, intended to cripple unions.
Some people do not seem to understand that the privatization movement in education and the anti-union movement are parts of the same movement. Of course unions have their flaws but look at the education results in states that have RTW versus the unionized states. That achievement statistic is not a coincidence.
“Right-to-work” is separate from collective bargaining rights. Some states have RTW, bans on collective bargaining, and the right to strike. They have unions–after all, unions aren’t outlawed anywhere–but they are simply ineffective. RTW bans closed shops, which cuts into the unions’ financial support and makes them weaker.
Go to Michigan and study the EAA schools that have no unions. Come back and tell me that you have found that this is a superior product for poor children. Give me a break. Oh yes, Charter CEOs are really looking out for the children while they travel the country in their Lear jets. Sickening.
Surely this comment was meant as satire.
To what “people” are you referring in “People are fed up giving the unions more and more money…”? teachers?
What unions “educate children”?
Terry, “people” like you need to realize that the union membership is not responsible for educational policy decisions. Just as enlisted men are not responsible for wars. “People” should be fed up with state DOE’s, superintendents and school boards who are following the pied pipers of school reform.
Terry F,
I used to think like you, and I used to blame the unions. I worked in the private sector, and I just didn’t understand unions. I changed careers to become a teacher at a low income public school. Teaching is just simply difficult. Teaching in low-income areas is enormously difficult. I had thought that teachers were lazy, until I became a teacher. It is a difficult job. Even Teach For America, who recruits leaders from the nation’s top colleges, has a hard time supporting their teachers. It is not the unions. It’s all of us. We have to decide what we want in American public education, and we have to realize that poverty is an enormously difficult problem. Poverty can’t be used as an excuse for ineffective teachers, but neither can effective teaching solve poverty.
Thank you for your honesty. I have heard similar stories from a few of the teachers I worked with.
Props.
” Even Teach For America, who recruits leaders from the nation’s top colleges”
HA HA HA AH HA AH AH HA AHA AHHHA HHHA HA AHA AHHH A HA HA HA AH HA. Shit If I’d wanted to here more crap like that I’d of turned on the TV to FAUX NEWS.
And I can’t even get FAUX NEWS (by design).
Faux News, how clever. I’ll use that. Thanks.
Pat,
That particular one has been around since that network came into being. It’s certainly not my “coinage” (and I can’t for the life of me think of the word meaning to coin a new word-someone help).
Who are these fed up people who give their money to the union? Could you elaborate? Your post doesn’t make sense and your point Ken. Could you be more direct?
It will be a month soon since 12/14/12…..let the teacher bashing begin!
Terry, you could not be farther from the truth. Prior to my recent retirement I served my local as a union President for 12 years. Every fiber of our being is about kids and what is right for kids. The union fights for fair wages and decent working conditions. We fight for small class sizes because we know that is more beneficial for our students. The union you speak of is made up of teachers- teachers who love their students and who have been called to this profession. I am encouraged that the vitriol against teachers and the unions which support them is being fought against.
Terry, the teachers at Sandy Hook belonged to a union. We can know with certainty that they did the ultimate SOMETHING for the kids.
There are some “things are good enough” teachers in our schools. But they are a miniscule minority and they are not the sole contributing factor to the issues we still face.
Just to clarify, some states BAN the right of public employees to strike.
Join us at OCCUPY DOE DC April 4-7 to bear witness to more voices
I hope you can attract a ton of people. It’s time for change.
Our army of professionals are amassing, our first objective should be to gain momentum in the media, we need to turn this conversation around. Tweet those news shows, political round tables, and the print media. Demand that our voice be heard
Demand Diane’s voice be on their shows.
True, Diane. I have two grown children employed in the public sector in southern states: North Carolina and Virginia. They have no bargaining power- hence little to none real power. They are merely associations to which public employees belong.
I teach in Delaware, where unions have bargaining rights, but where public employees may not strike. As a result, teachers may work years without a contract, and are virtually silenced.
You do still have a voice – at the school level. Talk to parents about opting their kids out of the high-stakes tests. I believe that the only thing that will stop the testing madness is a huge number of opt outs. If people will refuse to take the tests there will not be valid data to “prove” the schools and teachers are failing. There will be no need for states to spend hundreds of millions of dollars implementing the Common Core if no one will take the CCSS tests (which cost taxpayers $350 million so far).
With all respect, you clearly work in a much different environment than do I.
First of all consider that out of just over 80 students, I saw a total of 8 parents in two days of conferences.
Secondly, if it became known to administration that I spoke of “opting out” to even one parent, my life would become a living hell. I have seen it.
What environment are you in? Where is your union?
Delaware, where our union signed on for RTTT, is silent on the barrage of measures being imposed on teachers, surrendered valuable planning time for structured, gulag PLC’s, but is busy calling for political action on issues such as the “fiscal cliff.”
Yes, where is our union?
I firmly believe that the unions should help take the lead in resisting. But, they will not do so until WE MAKE THEM! So, for any leaders of small resistance groups out there, please contact me at bmorri6409@sbcglobal.net, so that we can coordinate our efforts and perhaps start forming a national movement.
In his letter from the Birmingham jail, Martin Luther King wrote, “There are just laws and unjust laws. And we are obligated to disobey the unjust laws.” A nationwide movement of creative insubordination may be the only way to put a stop to the injustice now imposed on America’s public schools, teachers and especially students.
I couldn’t agree more! But, we need to get organized. Small, isolated stands will lead us to failure. Please, any leaders out there, please contact me!
Thank you America! For taking back our schools!!!!
Yet one of the strongest unions in the country, the UFT, has given in to almost every reformer demand, and even now it seems they may accept a deal using VAM without the consent of our rank and file. If teachers in NYC are waiting for their union to carry this torch, you will be waiting an eternity. We need NYC principals and teachers to stand together and say NO just like the teachers in Seattle did. Just like the teachers in Hawaii have been carrying the torch when their union wouldn’t.
Terry, I don’t know what Kool Aid you are drinking, but without a union, who would file a safety or health grievance? If your child’s school is loaded with lead or asbestos, do you really think Bloomberg will come to the rescue? Same goes for violence. When principals don’t report it, the union does. The union keeps a paper trail. And who do you think fights for small class sizes and The Arts and more support services? The Unions!!
TEACHERS CONDITIONS ARE STUDENTS CONDITIONS!!!
Education if failing because of the decisions that come down from above. We don’t choose the curriculum or make up the curriculum calendars. We don’t select the texts or the methodology. We don’t select the best ways to access. And we are not the ones wasting millions of tax dollars on Harvard business grads salaries who are now running the school systems–or should I say destroying them. We are not the ones wasting millions on testing companies–or companies like Pearson who can’t even compose good test questions. In fact, teachers are not part of the collaborative process–and we should be. That’s why schools in Montgomery County are doing well. Teachers are a part of the hiring and firing process. They have a sense of ownership in their schools. Or we can follow the Rhree method of improving our schools–all that takes is a good eraser and the promise of extra dollars in your pocket.
If the unions will not help organize our resistance, we need to take our unions back! Can you imagine the impact if we started picketing the unions? Please, all leaders contact me about organizing our efforts collectively! My email is bmorri6409@sbcglobal.net.
YES!! Take Our Union(s) Back!!
These are exactly the words I have spoken to colleagues, on those occasions when we are wondering how we got this far down the wrong road.
Where do we begin?
We begin by having leaders of the many small pockets of resistance contact each other to organize our efforts nationally. We could then plan actions to not only fight the corruption but to take back our unions and bring their powers into the fight.
Diane — add California to your list where our State Supe is calling for a testing moratorium.
Amen. As a teacher whose children of poverty have been steamrolled by the testing culture, and a mother whose Gifted son was ‘bubble-practiced’ (even in AP classes) into almost dropping out, I pray that we have reached the tipping point back into sanity.
I applaud the Garfield High teachers! The only way to take back our schools is to act and act NOW! Imagine if, in my state of Connecticut, we teachers took sick days to hold a public teach in in front of the State BoE during CAPT in March. Not only could CAPT not take place, but we would attract media attention to the fact that, during that two weeks, no teaching is taking place in CT schools.
Diane, you give me hope. Thank you for speaking for the teachers, students and parents. You were honored at Columbia Teachers College for your outstanding work at the same time as my mother, Ruth Christ Sullivan. Her name is next to your plaque on the wall. I wish I’d had a chance to speak with you back then. I’m proud to have even this remote connection to you. I really appreciate your leadership — yes, leadership — on school reform. We need your voice.
– Just a teacher
It seems the teachers in Seattle are not feeling the support (Tweets don’t count). Read the comment posted under this piece.
I posted just today (1/15) under Carol Burris’ comment–please go back and read it. For some reason, everyone seems to have gotten way off the topic of Diane’s post.
That is to say–just as spring comes, so does “standardized” testing. Let THIS be the year that we stop it–ALL of us (we’re playing “all or nothing” here). Just to let you know–I’m not just advocating this because I’m retired & “safe” (not ever–we’re still fighting to keep our pensions here!); I had been trying to get this going with the special ed. testing through our state special ed. organization(s) for a few years and, unfortunately, the momentum wasn’t there: there wasn’t even a state dialogue, let alone a national one. But now we have it–in this blog, and as Diane said,
she’s a facilitator–WE are the ones who must get it done. It’s not important anymore to “be like Mike.” It’s important to be like Garfield.
(Note: I want to sign their petition, but it’s on Change.org. Do we still become Students First members if we sign one of theirs?! Garfield Teachers: please put a petition up on SignOn.org or SumofUs!)