Last night, I posted an appeal to support Peggy Robertson, who is under fire for her bold advocacy of opting out of mandated testing.
The story in the Denver Post said that the Colorado Education Association was ambivalent about standing by Peggy. Its story said:
Kerrie Dallman, president of the Colorado Education Association, said the state’s largest union has a legal duty to represent its members but also recognizes Colorado law requires standardized tests.
She said: “It may be difficult to defend those who don’t comply,. We absolutely will do our best to defend our members who are acting in the best interest of our students. “
There can be no doubt that Peggy Robertson is acting “in the best interest of our students” by defying the state.
In a comment sent to this blog, Kerrie Dallman, president of the CEA, says the Denver Post story was erroneous. The union will support Peggy.
She wrote:
There is no ambivalence, CEA will support Peggy if there is any job action take against her. We will do all that is within our power.
Clearly Denver Post writers did some picking and choosing from my comments provided to them.
Check out my guest commentary in the Denver Post on the same issue:
http://www.denverpost.com/guestcommentary/ci_27612734/education-reformers-denial?source=infinite
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Hi, I love your blog and want to thank you for all your reporting! In Florida, the newly adopted FSA test that was to be rolled out today ended up being postponed due to technical problems. The problem is being reported in TBO for Hillsborough County, but here in Sarasota it hasn’t hit the press yet. At my school, an announcement was made a half an hour before the test was supposed to start that today’s testing would be postponed. Here is the TBO link: Volume causing testing issues at Hillsborough, state schools
| | | | | | | | | | | Volume causing testing issues at Hillsborough, state sch…TAMPA — Hillsborough County public schools and others across the state are having technical problems with the delivery of the new Florida Standards Assessment. | | | | View on tbo.com | Preview by Yahoo | | | | |
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The Denver post belongs to Media News Corp, and I found this:
Media News Group is known as a cost-cutter in the newspaper publishing industry. The company has a reputation for buying smaller daily newspapers in a single area (examples include Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area) and consolidating their operations, including sharing staff writers and printing facilities. As a result of the cost-cutting, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times,[14] some former employees say that the newspapers are focused on making a profit to the detriment of good journalism.
Singleton consolidated several news sections (such as sports and features) to one local office away from the metropolitan area, having a few reporters do the job of what had been many individuals. This subsequently gutted each newsroom, leaving far less local news than before.
And the LINK: In August 2006, the company took out around $350 million in loans to purchase four newspapers from McClatchy Company. Among those providing the loan was the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
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Whether or not the state requires testing is a different issue than whether public employees have a right – even an obligation – to inform parents of their rights. Sharing what the law does or doesn’t permit differs from encouraging a parent to take an action.
This is a democracy. We’re supposed to have a transparent government where citizens have a right and need to be informed to make self-governing decisions.
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Amen.
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The testing site is 100% cheerleading:
“Good morning everyone! PARCC testing is in full swing. As last week came to a close, more than 300,000 PARCC assessments were completed in Ohio and New Jeresey – with a few in Illinois and Colorado. The rollout has gone smoothly, with only a handful of minor glitches. The biggest drivers to the call center have been things like forgotten passwords, firewall seetings and other easy fixes that can be made at the school or district level.”
Of course, you might want to take that with a grain of salt since they’re reporting on their own work, with what seems to be no oversight other than that at individual schools.
In what way is this any different than the contractor, Pearson, posting “news updates”?
http://www.parcconline.org/live-updates-week-march-2
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This is the fascist, corporate PR propaganda behind the tyranny of testing.
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You wonder if it’s going to continue like this after the testing:
“PAARC Tests? Still perfect!”
Does this seem like a legit “experiment” to you, or pretty much a fixed product?
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The PARCC wasn’t designed to improve education. It’s a product that was created to destroy public education.
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I feel like I’m in Orwell’s 1984!
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Or “Animal Farm”
Or “Lord of the Flies”
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LL, “Some animals are more equal than others” and we send them to Lakeside School.
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I love the video and how teachers and students are “lightening the mood” as we all jump for joy at this new way of testing! Is this from The Onion?!?!?!
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Kerrie has been ambivalent. She’s just running for re-election, which is why she is stating this.
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You are the best, Diane. I wonder if this country knows what you do!
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quote: “the Colorado Education Association was ambivalent about standing by Peggy. Its story said:”
this came up in a discussion of another teacher; I think it was in OH and people say “the union can’t defend her; it is against the law what she is doing” to not give the tests. In the 60s we had good lawyers standing with us on the anti-war platform and some priests and other professionals…. the teachers should not have to fight this one case at a time in courts, alone, after they have been suspended or re-assigned or whatever the punishment is from the administration.
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What other laws should teachers be able to “opt” out of? Praising vigilantism seems like a dangerous precedent, no matter how much you get a thrill from flouting the law in this case.
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Someone please help me understand something here. Yesterday, Peggy Robertson, one of the leaders of United Opt, an organization that has been leading the anti-testing charge since long before it was cool to opt out, came under attack in a Denver Post article. Ms. Dallman was quoted in the article as saying (and yes, I’m paraphrasing) that it will be difficult to defend teachers who don’t comply, but that the CEA would do the best it could to defend teachers who refuse to “comply” because they are legally obligated to do so. Well, I’m sure that we can all rest easy after that principled and passionate defense of a leader in the opt out movement. I was very disappointed with Ms. Dallman’s failure to stand strong in support of Peggy. Maybe the reporter didn’t represent Ms. Dallman’s statements accurately, but I haven’t seen any evidence that she has set the record straight here in Colorado.
Forgive me, but I am confused as to what the CEA’s stand is on the testing issue. Does the CEA support the opt out movement or not? One of the things that makes me question the CEA’s stand is the fact that the CEA took $100,000.00 from the Gates Foundation in 2012 and another $300,000.00 in 2013. All of this money was given to the CEA so that they could “augment communications to teachers, de-bunk myths, create teacher buy-in for SB 191 and College Ready Work tools in integration pilot districts” and “help train teachers and teacher leaders on implementation of CO teacher evaluation system, academic standards and accountability system, in support of integration work led by Colorado Legacy Foundation.”
So, it seems that the CEA under Ms. Dallman’s leadership has let the fox into the hen house. There are few things more corrosive in public education than Gates money. Moreover, SB-191 is quite possibly the worst piece of education legislation ever passed in this state. Why would the CEA promote SB-191 and at the same time claim that they are against all this testing? Which is it?
As a CEA member, I expect much better.
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What else is new? Why is everyone so surprised that hidden from view, all this chicanery is ongoing. Money talks and after removing the veteran teachers, so the schools would fail (in the first assault which the unions allowed to happen) and mandating NCLB & VAM & CC and testing in phase 2, they are on to PHASE 3:
— giving the legislatures power over the schools AN D THUS ENDING THE INSTITUTIONOF PUBLIC EDUCATION and the road to opportunity for all citizens (including those lazy immigrants)
This is the next phase, so the oligarchs can re-write history, and dumb the people down to the point that they are unaware that the America they knew is GONE! and behind the scenes the dirty work is being accomplished… just as it was in Phase one when this happened: http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
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Diane,
I find the timing of this article to be very interesting. CEA, under Kerrie, hasn’t supported the anti testing movement until now. CEA supports common core, and you can’t have one without the other.
While I value the words here, I do not believe that Kerrie believes this. There are some hard facts that show CEA leadership is not in support of grassroots groups that are opposed to this testing.
Under Kerrie’s leadership, CEA gave Raising Colorado $50,000 in October 2014 leading up to the elections. The director of Raising Colorado, Jen Walmer is the Colorado director of DFER and the registered agent for Raising Colorado, an independent expenditure committee affiliated with DFER. In other words, CEA gave $50,000 to DFER. If you don’t know who DFER is, check out this DFER legislative report detailing their strategic role in ramming SB191 down the throats of legislators and teachers.
DFERS or Democrats for Education Reform support testing and common core. . I agree with this post, but am not sure why Kerrie is stating this now. Maybe it’s because she’s up for re election at the end of April?
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Power of Denvor School Board occupied by pro-charter members mouldering for gorilla cookies bought out by billionaires outside the state.
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Ms. Dallman calls out the “reformers” in her guest commentary but she fails to disclose her work within the reform community. Why are we seeing a sudden about-face now?
In 2012, Ms. Dallman was an inaugural fellow of the Aspen-Bellwether’s Teacher Leader Fellow Program; both Aspen and Bellwether organizations are heavily funded by the reform-driven Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Ms. Dallman’s Teacher Leader Fellow bio reads:
“Dallman… is an active participant in the Teacher Union Reform Network (TURN). Dallman’s leadership was critical in securing a $39.5 million federal Teacher Incentive Fund grant, which was awarded to JPS in October of 2010. The grant will fund a five-year study to assess the impact of Jeffco’s proposed “Strategic Compensation” plan (a targeted performance-based compensation system) on student achievement and on attracting, retaining, and rewarding high performing educators. She was one of only four teachers appointed by Governor Bill Ritter in 2010 to serve on the Council on Educator Effectiveness, which is charged with making recommendations on implementation of SB 191, Colorado’s groundbreaking evaluation law, to the State Board of Education.” http://bellwethereducation.org…
You read that right… She was active in TURN, she helped secure grant funding to implement a pay-for-performance system and she assisted in implementing CO’s “groundbreaking” teacher evaluation law.
Further, Ms. Dallman co-authored a Denver Post opinion piece with Sen. Michael Johnston in March 2014 title, “Giving Colorado’s teacher evaluation bill time to succeed.” Why would Ms. Dallman work so hard to ensure SB 191’s success? http://www.denverpost.com/opin…
Who is the real Kerrie Dallman? Is she a Reformer or a Reformed Reformer? Either way, her abrupt change of heart is suspicious given that CEA has a presidential election next month.
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This is exactly why we are so cynical. Behind the scenes the charlatans are at work. On stage they talk out of the other side of their mouths.
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