If you want to understand why the entire teaching staff of Garfield High School is boycotting the MAP test, watch this excellent video.
The only way to stop the destruction now descending on American education is to stand together–like the Garfield teachers–and say no.
No to pointless testing.
No to the misuse of testing.
No to the collection of students’ personal data for marketing stuff to them.
No to the closing of community public schools.
No to the attacks on teachers, their salaries, their benefits, and their academic freedom.
Say no to profiteering on our kids and schools.
Say yes to what is right for students, educators, and communities.
Say it together.
In unity, there is strength.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Hi Diane,
I would add :
NO to incompetent teachers whose actions are harmful to our children;
NO to teachers without the proper qualifications making medical diagnoses and labeling your child
YES to teachers who teach the entire class and not only a few students. There are teachers who believe they are alone in the classroom or who believe only small numbers of students are capable of learning.
Yes to teachers who can teach. In other words, make sure their tool kits allow them to adjust their teaching styles to the class and not the other way around.
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Angela, for someone who claims to “listen”, you do not. I think the majority of teachers agree we must find a fair and balanced way to evaluate teachers. However, we cannot use a faulty statistical system to do that. And that is why using VAM is not the best way to judge the effectiveness of a teacher. You should look into PAR (Peer Assessment Review) which is working very well in places like Montgomery County, Md.
And for the record, teachers do not make medical decisions. We do however observe behaviors and meet with the parents. In NYC it’s up to the parent to decide if they want their child evaluated. I had a first-grade student who had very bizarre behaviors. She also could not complete tasks and I couldn’t give her a passing grade. Her parents were outraged with my observations even when I presented them with her classwork. Something was wrong with their child and they refused to accept it. The next year they apologized profusely after they decided to take their daughter to a neurologist. She had a brain tumor. In NYC, teachers can only refer a child. The parent has the right to decide if they want their child evaluated either through the school or by their own doctor. I wish the NJ schools would have done the same for my grand nephew. I communicated my observations to my niece, but the school told her their was nothing wrong. It wasn’t until he was in middle school that they saw their was a problem but by then it was too late. His behavior got worse and he was finally diagnosed with Tourette’s. As a young teenage he became ostracized by his peers. This led to him becoming angry and acting out leading to not only a few suspensions but showing suicidal tendencies. This led to hospitalizations, only to have him back home without any services. I may not have an MD like you, but it is my responsibility to make sure my students receive the best possible services and care. And it would be a form of malpractice if I didn’t refer my students. Not every student is put on meds or placed in a special ed class. Some just need to be in a small group setting one period a day. Others need counseling. My job is to make sure they have the skills in life to succeed. Not just academic but social skills as well.
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I don’t think you are listening to me. We live in two different worlds and I am sharing my experience with teachers. Are you saying my experiences and thoughts are not valid?
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I’m a parent who has gotten 4 kids through high school, and one in 10th grade. He is an ESE student whom I advocate for….Long before I was an ESE parent, I spoke out for teachers. I believe teachers are highly outnumbered in middle and high school. I’d like to see unity on this topic, knowing people will say it’s not feasible…
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You are right the vast majority do not fit my description, neither do the vast majority of doctors fit the image portrayed by the media. However, there are significant number of teachers who do fit that description and I have had contact with them.
I am very too familiar with our educational system and my experience was not good!
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Angela the VAST majority of educators do not fit your description. But you seem to be off topic regardless. The topic is unity not how to divide. Good administrators should deal with the problems you mention. Education is under assault the assault is led by mega corporations and billionaires who want to do nothing more than profit from your child’s education. The teachers at Garfield said NO to THAT. The FOR PROFIT reformers say the same things you do as their justification to test, test, test, then tear the system down. Then they want to replace it with a system where they profit and your child’s education is secondary to the shareholders.
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Phred1953 stating my experience is not an attempt to divide just because it differs from the unified experiences here.
To go beyond tests and ineffective monitoring, we do all need to listen to each other. I hear you and I GET IT!
We all do have different incentives and motives. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with For Profit because even NON-profits are FOR PROFITS. To me the difference is one of accouting.
I respect teachers and there are many excellent teachers. I would not be here if it were not for the encouragement of some of my earlier teachers/professors.
However, I do not respect systems that harm children and vulnerable people without a voice. As a parent, I experienced and witnessed it.
There are reasons for the groundswell of disatisfaction with public schools, teachers and educators. I am simple stating my off-topic opinion and first hand EXPERIENCE. 🙂
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“There are reasons for the groundswell of disatisfaction with public schools, teachers and educators.
Yep..among them…
Parents who are mislead by disinformation..media spin…out right lies. These stories are created intentionally by the fake crisis bunch who are making money off the “our failing schools” myth.
Another groundswell of dissatisfaction comes from some branches of the conservative religious community (usually Christian). They want the public schools to teach and endorse their version of the story as opposed to teaching any other version, not teach evolution, etc. These are the “they took god out of the public schools” bunch.
Yet another groundswell comes from the bigots who want to gentrify a neighborhood, but do not want their kids to go to neighborhood schools. So they want vouchers, tax credits and charters to re-segregate the schools. This is the “those schools” with “those kids” set. (BTW: we have a lot of these 2 types in my area of the country!)
Still another groundswell is created by the small government types. These are the folks who don’t like government in general, don’t want to pay taxes, think government does nothing right and private enterprise always does better. This is the “I want to drown government in a bathtub” group.
So, yes, we can agree that there is a groundswell, However, I cannot believe that groundswell is to any large extent actually parents dissatisfied with the education their children are receiving. I do know that most of the people I have encountered who were upset also belonged to one or more of the above groups.
That said, I am sorry you seem to have had such a terrible experience with the public schools. There are such things as bad teachers and administrators. However, in my experience (public school student k-12, then teacher for many years) they are a very small minority and there are (and always have been) ways to address this without dismantling the whole public school system.
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I found the video to be empowering and appropriately provocative.
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