Bill Ashton, an English teacher at Jacqueline M. Walsh High School in Pawtucket (RI), has been suspended for telling students about “OPT-Out” and other aspects of the Common Core-inspired PAARC test. The students and many parents in the school are protesting his suspension.
Students of Mr. Ashton have created a Facebook page to demand his return. It is called BRING BACK MR. ASHTON.
This is a time for truth and courage. Mr. Ashton joins our honor roll for living in truth.
The Network for Public Education released a statement supporting students, teachers, and administrators who opt out or support it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Hello this is the girl who started the page and Id just like to say thank you soon much for this, it means a lot we love our english teacher for all the things he has taught us and for the way he treats us. I would also like to mention the page is just called “BRING BACK Ashton” Thank you once again.
Thank you for getting this started and bringing this to our attention. It is obvious that Mr. Ashton is “highly effective” in student engagement. I hope this makes it to his Danielson rubric.
By the way, you are in good company. Fifty years ago, the high school students of Selma were instrumental in protesting for voting rights. Unlike their teachers, who also eventually joined the movement, they were not afraid of losing their jobs.
Keep up the good work!
Hopefully, the Danielson rubric will go where it belongs – into the circular file.
Isn’t it amazing that corporations are treated under the law now as citizens, able to donate any insane amount of campaign monies, and the right of teachers, students, and parents to freedom of speech is being trampled by Obama, Arne, and the UK/Libyan company Pearson? Sickening. Need to get some lawyers and organizations on the side of right, and we are that side.
At my school and in my district, I don’t think anyone would get suspended or fired for this. However, it is well known that if you ruffle the feathers of your admin you’ll have a good chance of ending up at a different school or with all low-level classes or both.
Gee, this seems like another good argument not to have student test scores tied to their teacher.
This is so sick. “You have freedom of speech until you disagree with me; then you’re fired.” That’s not what Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, and all the rest were talking, arguing and fighting for. That’s what they were fighting against- unilateral, despotic, power-centric governance that did not respond to The People that were being governed but only to its own self-interest.
Mr. Ashton himself needs to take this all the way to the Supreme Court if need be. There is no way that’s not a First Amendment violation. I don’t care what sorts of non-disclosure or other agreements he was forced to sign when he took his job – that has to be a form of duress, especially in the public system. There is no way an employer, especially a public employer, has the right to tell an employee what they can and can’t say.
Of course, given the composition of the current Supreme Court…. Sad when even the judicial system is bought off.
They’ll likely argue that a public school is ‘not a free speech zone’ (John Roberts)
Most if not all corporate Charters are even more of a “NOT a free speech zone”, because the free speech protection offered by the Bill of Rights doesn’t extend to the private sector. For the public schools, it took a Supreme Court ruling to limit freedom of speech when it conflicts with teaching and learning—the primary focus of education.
I have been told by the NEA lawyers for the Utah affiliate that the state is perfectly within its rights to take action against the licenses of teachers who even tell students that they and their parents have the right to opt out of the testing.
http://www.standard.net/Education/2014/04/24/25-SAGE-warning.html
And what would admin do if every teacher did the same?
The good news is that here in RI, representative Greg Amore has introduced a bill that would force the RI Department of Education to create a formal opt-out procedure as well as inform ALL parents of said procedure. In the past Amore shared authorship of another bill to lower the frequency of evaluations of top-scoring teachers (which passed). This was a key blow against the corporate reformers here in RI. My son is lucky enough to have Amore as his civics teacher.
The NEA may claim that the state has a right to limit free speech. I doubt that would survive a constitutional challenge.
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
–The great George Orwell
FIRE the administrator who made the decision to fire the teacher.
How about releasing a statement telling the leaders of the NEA, AFT/UFT etc. to instruct their members to inform students about their right to opt out? That’s not a violation of any law such as the Taylor Law in NY. Would the districts suspend very teacher? That would put the last nail in the coffin of high stakes testing. Problem is the union leaders, especially the AFT/UFT are in bed with the reformers while trying to give the appearance of fighting for teachers.
There is NO WAY that the unions will stand up for us in this. We’re on our own, and, in some states, we will lose our jobs.
There aren’t enough of us willing to do this to have safety in numbers. A teacher in a district south of mine in Utah was officially fired last week. Last spring, she refused to grade her own students’ work on a “diagnostic” test that was not state mandated. The district discontinued its use this year, but the teacher was still fired for insubordination.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/550/379/225/bring-justice-for-local-teacher-who-was-wrongly-fired/
Agreed. Teachers can grade their own students’ work? We can’t do that in many places. Imagine telling a college professor (a profession historically male, by the way) that he or she can’t grade his/her own tests. Hah!
I Signed support for fired teacher. I still think this blog should put pressure on union leaders to support their teachers. Could start by challenging rules that limit teacher’s right to speak out about issues such as opt out.
Unfortunately most if not all charter schools do not have unions. Any teacher that tries to set up one usually gets terminated. I believe charter schools should have to play by the same rules as the public schools since they do pull from public funds. Mr Ashton is probably underpaid for what he does because of this. I hope he gets a better job out of this or the school gets sued for wrongful termination.
About 90% of charters are non-union.
Michael,
The AFT has been lying in that bed for a long time.
My High School English teacher has been suspended for telling the truth about testing, and opting out of the PARCC TEST!!! Please help us spread the word and help this teacher get his job back! These students all love Mr. Ashton from JMW School for the Performing and Visual Arts! 401-729-6332.
https://www.facebook.com/BRINGBACKMR.ASHTON?fref=ts
Help us spread the word through Facebook and news outlets!
So, is Bill Ashton’s union filed a grievance and/or provided hi with legal representation? Has the local or state union taken a public position on ‘Opt Out’, PARCC, or standardized testing ? I would suggest that posters to this blog should write the local paper and hustle down to Pawtucket to lend their visible support for Bill Ashton. Intellectual postings just don’t wash.
I suggest this blog site take a position on the union leaders who refuse to fight for teachers/public education and essentially support the “reformers”
Michael, you have identified the ‘elephant’ in the middle of the room. If we support ‘Opt Out’, then we must take the next step and take a stand against unions that have not taken a position on ‘Opt Out’ and who are not aggressively protecting their membership. Moreover, uions must support the rights of parents and students to ‘Opt Out’. If we want to stop the machine of standardized testing, then it is time to ratchet up our support for all forms of resistance. Parents and teachers must demonstrate to school committees that standardized testing us no longer a viable option. By the way,what are the AFT and NEA positions on the rights of teachers to inform students and their parents of their rights?
That’s the problem. The unions should start by filing lawsuits against rules that prohibit a teacher’s freedom of speech such as bans on informing students they can opt out. Can’t believe such bans would stand up in court.
AFT is busy playing footsie with Gates.
So is the NEA, if my state’s affiliate has anything to say about it.
Here’s an example of how frighten some teachers can be.
This year I have one student in a testing grade on my caseload. At the IEP meeting in November the parents stated that they wished to opt their child out of both the state and district standardized tests, and they backed up their wishes in writing. The district notified sped case managers in January that we needed to amend IEPs to add accommodations for Smarter Balance immediately. The IEP program was updated recently, but accommodations for Smarter Balance were not added. I had already included generic testing accommodations that could apply to any testing the child might encounter.
When my colleagues asked help in interpreting the confusing amendment instructions, I explained that I hadn’t pay attention because my one and only 3rd grader had been opted out. The resource teacher, who could retire this year if she wished, got a look of sheer panic on her face. She wanted to know if I had mentioned the subject of opting out first, and was afraid that I personally might get sued or fired.
While I have signed forms in previously years promising not to share the contents of state tests. (I have read previous tests aloud to students who qualify in reading.) I have never encountered any form that takes away any ability to mention opting out. I don’t recall seeing such in our contract either. Not to give deformers ideas, as so many teachers are frightened already, but who says?
Diane,
How about a reading list for high school students who refuse the test. How about starting with Reign of Error and then maybe 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, The Crucible, Emerson’s “Self-Reliance,” Neil Postman’s Technopoly, Campbell’s The Power of Myth & Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron, just to get the party started! Reading can be a subversive act in so many ways!
Our Commissioner of Education, who still works for us and is collecting a paycheck (one of the highest if not the highest paid commissioners in the Nation), has already accepted a job in another state and is working as a “consultant” simultaneously collecting paycheck from them. In her absence, Elliot Krieger from the RI Department of Education has been fielding emails and questions. We emailed him earlier this week, and asked: If a district gets less than 95% participation rate on PARCC, can that district loose funding, as is being threatened to us parents at local school committee meetings and such when we talk about refusing PARCC. He said, no, that the 95% participation rate is simply a goal or a target for AYP and a district will not loose funding for missing a target. This Pawtucket teacher Mr. Ashton was saying the same information that was told to us directly from RIDE, and is now suspended.
I wonder what Mr. Ashton’s evaluation will look like this year. Bill Ashton is obviously a great teacher. He obviously knows and recognizes what is happening to our children and is compelled to speak out. Obviously, his students and their education mean more to him than does remaining silent and picking up his “enormous” paycheck every two weeks. I understand how Bill Ashton feels all too well. It’s not easy speaking out when others are afraid to do so. It is not easy to be the bearer of information that many wish to breeze over or ignore. In 2011, I posted a bulletin board in my teachers’ room ( also in a RI school) that highlighted Bill Gates’ funding and involvement in our country’s education system. The bulletin board was just the facts. I added no opinions. I posted informational articles and a pictorial chart showing Gates’ connections to CCSS, Pearson, Achieve Inc., McKinsey, College Board, Student Acievement Partners, and other “education friendly” named organizations in which we were being “asked” to participate. I was told to take it down in front of all of my colleagues during a faculty meeting, but I refused. No one spoke a word. A string of officials, one at a time, came to look and said it needed to come down. I refused. My union was called in and finally I got some support. Two weeks, later, I took it down. It was a lonely time for me to say the least. Nothing was ever the same after that. I left my beloved profession after 28 years, completely stressed, defeated, and horribly sadden. Now, after the fact and when the Gates information and more is plastered all over the internet, many have told me I did the right thing. I’ve been told that I could never teach under the current conditions. (I have no doubt that is true.) I’ve been told I could never keep my mouth shut, or I could never administer these bogus horrific PARCC, STARR, Smarter Balanced or
iReady data collecting tests without speaking out. Teachers tell me I could never teach from a script or tell one of my fourth graders that they HAD to draw out tally marks and dots in order to add two, three digit numbers together because this is the way it will be asked on the tests. (The same “tests” that will evaluate me.) So, even if I stayed then, I’d be gone by now, by suspension or firing. It’s true, I never could go down without a fight. So, Bill Ashton, I’ve signed the petitions going around to support you. I will follow your story. And, I will not go down without fighting for you, a teacher who knows the truth and cares enough to share it for the sake of his kids. I declare you “Proficient With Distinction,” Mr. Ashton. Too bad they are not all like you.
These truly are sad times in our country.
This is exactly the reason teachers don’t speak their minds or share their opinions. Mot teachers are afraid of this happening to them so they keep their mouths shut. Teachers need to organize and speak as a group.
Hello, my name is maggie, and my friend hope and I are the “ring leaders” of the Facebook page, and protest of everything that will be going on. And I just want to say thank you so much for writing about what is going on and helping us bring attention to it.
UPDATE: Ashton’s back! You kids ROCK.
Any loss of pay?