This is a terrific profile of Jeanette Deutermann, the parent who has mobilized thousands of other parents on Long Island to opt their children out of state testing. Being a modest person, Jeanette would be the first person to tell you that she relied on a large team of other parents to launch what is now recognized as the largest social movement in the state in many years.
Jeanette works closely with other parents and with educators across New York State, as well as with Peggy Robertson of United Opt Out. She is one of the founding members of New York State Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE), which helped to spur opting out in upstate New York and elsewhere. NYSAPE represents some fifty parent and teacher organizations.
She is living proof that one person can make a huge difference. Unlike the reformers, she really is doing it “for the kids,” including her own.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Jeanette is more like Tom Paine.
A question regarding charter schools for the next debate:
Thomas Paine on Charters (1805):
The famous writer of the American Revolution questioned
the right of the New York State Legislature to create charters
in violation of the Constitution.
In his biography by John Keene (1995) Paine mentions it in his essay,
“Constitutions, Governments and Charters” (1805):
“the pamphlet set its sights on the current scandal surrounding
the New York-based Merchants’ Bank, whose directors had been recently granted a lucrative charter after bribing several members of the State legislature.
Paine insisted that such corruption resulted from the legislature’s misuse of ‘assumed power’ of granting charters and monopolies to individuals and companies in the market place”
Joseph Mugivan
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Tennessee has placed so much emphasis on the ACT that my daughter, who takes Honors classes on the college track, did poorly on ACT and they put her in the Bridge Math– a lame course created so kids graduate with a 4gh math class that reviews basic math skills. Talk about low expectations and fostering mediocrity! Wow, Tennessee!
I would definitely be for an opt-out option for standardized tests. Testing and data collecting has gotten way out of hand here.
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Jeanette is simply a treasure!
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Now if we really want to use Erin Brochovitch:
Of all of the mainstream media reports, this one actually describes the locations, each one being near a State certified spill site.
http://www.rt.com/usa/311365-legionnaires-new-york-city-outbreak/
My school was an early victim of vapor intrusion from a toxic site in Elmhurst, Queens, no mention of this issue, in the South Bronx no less. The CDC will rush to label it with Legionnaires disease, which occurs at only one site, or maybe even H1N1, if that suits the Press. In any event climate change is releasing vapors from toxic sites during sudden rise of temperatures, as we are now experiencing.
I was fired, as a teacher of 15 years experience, as well as an adjunct in literacy, for demanding an air quality report of my school. The Principal of my school, as well as the Union safety director retired the following year. New York City Council speaker Christine Quinn called for an investigation under her new “Teacher Whistle Blower Law” legislation, influenced by my advocacy work, and the City, even under DeBlasio, buried it.
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Joseph…love to know more.
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It shows the depth of our country’s knowledge of history and women activists that Erin Brochovitch would be the example.
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More interested in the air quality advocacy troubles you experienced. It is interesting the “solutions” a district is/isn’t willing to pursue when you talk about the air and water children are exposed to.
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No mention if anyone has visited these sites and tested for volatile organic compounds, who would imagine pollution in the South Bronx?
In 1997 the Assembly passes an advisory that required all of these preemptive protocols to be followed, but not actually air quality testing in the schools. Indoor air quality is much worse than outdoor air quality. Every school closed during H1N1 was within a block of a spill site, now it’s Legionnaires Disease, which is why the agency is called the Center for “Disease Control”.
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My feeling is that indoor air quality/water quality is likely on the “prevent too much scrutiny” list.
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Mother earth is beginning to cleanse herself with these high temperatures, getting worse, before it gets better.
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Congratulations to Jeanette and thanks for the hard work.
Bruce & Sheri Lederman
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and best wishes for both you and Sheri this week!
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There aren’t enough words to describe Jeanette Deutermann’s brilliant spearheading and mobilization of the testing resistance.
Let me just offer: Amazing!
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She is a true hero! And as well as she has done in Long Island, not enough people are hearing her message. (Does she not seem to be the embodiment of what Secretary Duncan calls the prototypical Common Core detractor?)
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Thank you Jeanette for all your hard work, tenacity, and for being savvy enough to see this charade for what it really is. And of course the thanks extends to all of the NYSAPE network.
I’m hoping the movement can grow even further this year and spread to the boroughs.
As you have seen already our government officials don’t pay much attention to the public’s wishes. They’re too busy taking care of their wealthy donors.
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Ms. Deutermann’s movement is on a direct collision course with New York State Ed. Commissioner MaryEllen Elia’s determination to shove Common Core curriculum and testing down the throats of parents, teachers, and students whether they like it or not.
She’s going to go through the motions of making a half-ass attempt at “communicating” to these parents, then when that fails, start delivering consequences… with her allies in the legislature and in the governor’s office. Funding to districts with large numbers of parents opting out will be cut off like a faucet next year.
http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/2015/08/nysed-commissioner-elia-threatens.html
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Jeanette is not only a remarkable advocate for children and public schools and a most compelling speaker, she is a warm and wonderful friend. A true woman of the people!
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Watch for the switch to questar to mean changes in administration methods and scoring codes. I am not saying I know anything-it’s simply the move I would make if I was on that side: alter the approach to eliminate the loophole.
I am a 100% supporter of student and parent rights. As a teacher, I have had to advocate for my own children in a way I’m not really allowed to advocate for others. I have also seen situations where parents have participated in a “refusal” because it’s fashionable, they want to appear “up” on the recent trend, or because their kids are whiners that don’t like to do anything they can get out of.
The best we can do is to unite and hold our leaders accountable. We are not a state full of unaware children that need a parade of authoritarian schemers to try and placate, and then mandate us into doing as we’re told. We are citizens, voters, professionals, students. They work to represent us, and if they don’t-they should find another line of work.
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There aren’t enough words to describe Jeanette Deutermann’s brilliant spearheading and mobilization of the testing resistance.
Let me just offer: Amazing!
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Every movement needs a tireless, bold leader. We need more Jeanette Deutermanns throughout the nation.
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Jeannette, you are my hero! Thank you for being an advocate and a voice for teachers and children all over the United States! We are on the bottom of the ladder in education in our country, and legislators continue passing laws that benefit no one, except the pockets of themselves and textbook companies. We are becoming an uneducated society!
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Jeanette has much on her plate and needs to be sure that this OPT OUT movement stays on track. From the beginning, I have been concerned that the OPT OUT message is divisive if we bring in other social issues and not stay on task. This is a “non partisan” movements of parents. Although I have many liberal sympathies, I was in shock that there are those in the movement (United Opt Out) linking up OPT OUT with Occupy Wall Street and Weather Underground activist, Bill Ayers, what will be next?, Planned Parenthood?, Gay Marriage?, Fox News?, Donald Trump?.
My quotation from Arundhati Roy is accurate, that there are those that will kill the efforts of OPT OUT with a grand social agenda to distract us down a blind alley of general “social justice” and divide this community.
John Lennon once said, “If you go talking about Chairman Mao, you ain’t going to make it with anyone, anyhow.” We need to keep our eyes on the prize, and avoid, and denounce these provocations.
Despite her excellent efforts, Jeanette needs to address this issue of bipartisanship, which is being challenged by some.
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Susan B Anthony maybe, or Mother Jones, but Erin Brocovitch, an environmental activist? The editor may just not know any woman activists.
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