This comment came from “Albany Mom”: I
agree with the writer that “if parents do not advocate for their
children, who will?” However, I need help
knowing how to advocate for my child. Who is going to
help? My husband and I have struggled with the
demons of Common Core this year, watching our 9 year old son sink
into what looks like depression. We can’t afford private school, so
I have coerced, offered rewards, and tried everything to encourage
him. He has developed sleep problems, moody and irritable, and
hardly eats. He has impulsive aggression with his younger sister.
He has lost his previous love of creative play, especially with
Legos, and now is chronically bored unless he has a video game. I
have banned video games since I think it is an escape and he is
becoming addicted. He is withdrawing from me, just as he is from
school. When his father is home on weekends, he tries to talk to
him, but it is more like “you don’t have a choice, just man up and
do your best”. It seems like we can’t change the school
environment, so we have to change our son to adapt to
it. Every morning is a struggle just to get
him out the door, and every night is another dismal episode of
boring homework (always worksheets with the “common core” logo at
the bottom). He cries frequently at home, and even broke down two
times at school this year when he became frustrated. I know that
caused a loss of dignity for him, and I met with his teacher to ask
for help. I can sense the teacher feels pressured too, and is
concerned about his test scores. He says son daydreams in class. I
was referred to take him to a child guidance center for counseling,
but that is not helping. A therapist can’t change the school
either, so is just trying to help him adapt to it.
I recognize it is not possible for me to make him like
school, and forcing him to go makes me feel like a bully. He may be
more sensitive than some children, but I think public schools need
to be happy welcoming places for children, and not like “work
camps” that make them feel worthless and trapped. This has caused
our family ongoing stress and fear, and it seems to be getting
worse. This is indeed a “psychological plague”
that is taking my child’s spirit, and I think there
are millions of other children out there experiencing
similar emotional distress from CC. Now I ask
this question to Arne Duncan: “Is it healthy
and realistic to expect the nation’s children to adapt to an
environment that is obviously causing them psychological
distress?”
Students have the power to stop the destructive forces that are ruining their education and treating them as data points, not humans who want to learn. They are holding a conference in Los Angeles, where they will discuss strategies to resist school closings, high-stakes testing, data mining, and other current efforts to turn their educational opportunity into an opportunity for entrepreneurs to use them. They can learn from the creative tactics of the Providence Student Union, which has utilized politicl theater to gain public support.
Go, students, go! You own the future. Don’t let the profiteers, bureaucrats, technocrats, and futurists steal it.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Hannah Nguyen
University of Southern California
Phone: (408) 644-9717
Email address: hbnguyen@usc.edu
USC Hosts EmpowerED 2014 Conference to Highlight Student Voice and Organizing in Education
Students everywhere are tired of feeling powerless
when it comes to decisions about their education.
That’s why they’re fighting back.
LOS ANGELES, MARCH 23 — On Saturday, March 29, at the University of Southern California, over 130 youth from all over Los Angeles will participate in EmpowerED: Los Angeles Student Power 2014. EmpowerED is a student-led education conference that will engage the local student community in discussing and strategizing what it will take to transform our education system to serve all students –and incorporate student voices.
EmpowerED 2014 is hosted by Students United for Public Education’s LA Chapter as a part USC EdMonth. This will be SUPE-LA’s first major event and the first EdMonth event to include local students in a discussion about educational policy issues.
EmpowerED will provide an opportunity for students in LA to learn about the student organizing that is expanding throughout the country, raise their voices on important educational issues, develop leadership and organizing skills, and collaborate with their peers on how to build a movement for student power. Israel Muñoz, co-founder of the Chicago Students Union who has spoken about his experiences on NBC and TED, will deliver the keynote address.
“Students spend most of their day in school, but almost never have a voice when it comes to decisions about their education. My fellow student organizers and I are tired of feeling powerless and have organized student unions to make sure our voices are heard,” says Muñoz. “We are very excited to share our stories with LA students, as well as hear their experiences and work with them to build a stronger local and national student movement. I am honored to be a part of a groundbreaking event that fosters peer-to-peer student empowerment and youth voice.”
Israel Muñoz marches with the Chicago Students Union
to protest mass school closings in his community.
The conference will bring together leading high school student activists from across the country who have organized and led student unions in response to the lack of student voice in top-down policies of the current education reform movement, such as high stakes testing, budget cuts, and mass school closings. In Los Angeles, these policies have further destabilized already under-resourced communities through cutbacks on the arts and humanities, mass teacher layoffs, and the reconstitution of major high schools like Crenshaw and Dorsey.
These experiences run nationwide. As such, EmpowerED will host a discussion panel with Providence Student Union’s Cauldierre McKay, Portland Student Union’s Sekai Edwards, Newark Students Union’s Kristin Towkaniuk, LA’s Coalition for Educational Justice organizer Taylor Broom, Alliance for Educational Justice’s Tre Murphy, and Chicago Students Union’s Israel Munoz.
A large part of the event will consist of hands-on, interactive workshops and open forums. There will be workshops led by all speakers and panelists on various topics such as student unionism, creative direct actions, public speaking, social media, and LA-specific movements for educational justice and student voice. Community groups like K-12 News Network and the California Student Union will also lead workshops on student voice in the budget and student organizing at the college level.
At the end of the day, students will have the unique opportunity to generate artwork that portrays their vision for student voice in education. This artwork will then be displayed in an exhibit called Collective Voice: The Wisdom of Young People on Education, at a 2015 national educational conference in Washington DC.
There will be a Livestream of the event for those who cannot make it to LA to attend. For more information about the EmpowerED 2014 conference and to access the Livestream video on the day of the event, go to empowerED2014.com.
View our promo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIFz2qCHYcI
Follow Us on Twitter: @empowerED_2014
MEDIA INTERVIEWS
Local media is invited to attend the conference on Saturday, March 29, 2014 to:
Interview EmpowerED attendees and speakers during lunch (12:00 – 12:30 PM)
Capture footage of the featured student organizing panel (12:30 – 1:30 PM)
About Students United for Public Education
Students United for Public Education (SUPE) evolved out of the work of college students involved in defending public education from its attackers. In particular, SUPE was founded to fill a void in the movement for public education — before SUPE, there was no national student organization devoted solely to this cause. Under the guise of “closing the achievement gap” and “school choice,” for-profit corporations and their political representatives have sought to privatize and sell off public education. SUPE understands that a profit motive cannot guarantee a good education. Instead, only a robust and well-supported public education system — along with the courage and will to directly confront problems of racial and economic inequality — can provide a quality education for all.
SUPE is a community based organization because we know that public schools are the heart of every community. In other words, SUPE understands that in order for our goals to be reached, we must fight with K-12 students, parents, teachers, and community members and elevate their essential voices. We aim to work with communities to find out what their needs are, and have them lead the way in the struggle as we work as equals to organize the change they believe is best. Find out more about Students United for Public Education at: studentsunitedforpubliced.org
About USC EdMonth
EdMonth at USC is the first national student-led movement and discussion about the state of education in our country. Downtown Los Angeles and the USC campus will serve as the backdrop for educators, parents, policy makers, business leaders, elected officials, engaged citizens and students to engage in a national, collegiate student-driven discussion on the issue of improving education in our country. USC EdMonth is organized by the USC Academic Culture Assembly and USC Program Board. Find out more at: edmonth.usc.edu
© Copyright 2014 University of Southern California. All rights reserved.
Hannah Nguyen
(408) 644-9717
hbnguyen@usc.edu
University of Southern California | B.A. Sociology
Students United for Public Education | Co-National Organizer
USC EdMonth | Executive Board Member
EmpowerED 2014 | Executive Director
The Rochester Teachers Association is suing the state for its flawed evaluation system, which unfairly judges teachers.
Erica Bryant explains why in this article.
“Years ago, I visited the Kennedy Space Center and bought a coffee mug from the gift shop. It is decorated with some NASA equations, including one used to calculate the speed an object needs to escape Earth’s gravity. This formula fits on one line.
“By contrast, the document that describes how to measure student growth for the purpose of evaluating New York’s teachers and principals is 112 pages.”
Even in 112 pages, the teacher evaluation system is unfair and senseless and penalizes teachers who work with the poorest students.
A reader, Karen Taylor, sent the following reflections about her life as a teacher today:
Titanic, 2014
I am finishing the eighth week of my twenty-seventh year of teaching in public schools.
Today I had a startling insight- that somehow I have been given the task of saving the sinking Titanic. Public schools are the Titanic, run aground against icebergs of state-mandated test scores and the failing family structures of our children.
I’m instructed, prodded, encouraged, and held responsible for saving all the students who may have little or no support. And there certainly aren’t enough life rafts or life preservers to meet their needs. There are no other sturdy crafts nearby to rescue them.
I alone am responsible for this future generation.
And the band plays on deck with strains of, “No Child Left Behind”, “Higher Order Thinking Skills”, Hands-on Learning,” and “Data Driven Instruction.” I hear “Key Academic Vocabulary” and “Learning Objectives” played between each set.
And though I hum and sing and dance with all the rhythms, the deck still capsizes. Children are still struggling to hang on until I can reach them.
Believing that “all children can learn” is our lighthouse. All children can learn, as the beam pronounces. Yet as it circles I remember……they can’t all learn in the same way or on a state-mandated timeline.
The lives I save are measured by “my scores”, while in reality, the scores are very faulty life-preservers for our children. Those scores reflect a single moment in time, like a tiny ripple in the ocean of their lives. And many children perform unbelievably well when the reality of their tsunami-riddled lives are filled with abuse, neglect, alcohol, drugs, and hunger, with very little room left over for worry about a test score.
But they hang on, and they try to hum and sing and dance and move, except for when they are distracted by the memory that their dad gets out of prison next week and their mama needs them to babysit tonight because she has to work late.
So I inflate their little life vests with a hug, a joke, a smile. I give them a pencil and read them a book and we laugh, and for a moment, the ship is stable. And they read a book in English for the first time, and we celebrate, and I pretend that the iceberg has melted and we will sail again.
Because I love this big old ship and all the passengers it holds, and I treasure the message of the lighthouse. But the reality of the iceberg is not just sinking our ship. It is bruising and battering those of us who serve it and seek to save our children.
Carol Burris, principal of South Side High School in Rockville Center, New York, and Alan A. Aja, assistant professor of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at Brooklyn College (City University of New York) here explore and explode the claims that the Common Core Standards will promote equity for the most disadvantaged students. The assertion is often made that these standards, because they are common and because they are rigorous, will lead to higher performance by all students. The theory is that students will learn more and try harder if the standards are made “harder.”
What Burris and Aja show is that the Common Core testing to date has widened the achievement gap between haves and have nots.
They write:
In New York for example, one of the first states to roll out the new curriculum, scores from Common Core tests dropped like a stone—and the achievement gaps dramatically widened. In 2012, prior to the Core’s implementation, the state reported a 12-point black/white achievement gap between average third-grade English Language Arts scores, and a 14-point gap in eighth-grade English Language Arts (ELA) scores. A year later enter the Common Core-aligned tests: the respective gaps grew to 19 and 25 points respectively (for Latino students the eighth grade ELA gap grew from 3 to 22 points). The same expansion of the gap occurred in math as well. In 2012, there was an 8-point gap between black/white third-grade math scores and a 13-point gap between eighth-grade math scores. In 2013, the respective gaps from the Common Core tests expanded to 14 and 18 points.
Despite these dismal results, the New York State Education Department and the Board of Regents decided to go full steam ahead:
Rather than heeding the warning that something is very wrong, New York’s Board of Regents adds the highest of stakes for students—their very ability to graduate high school. In February, the New York State Board of Regents established the college-ready scores that students will need for graduation, beginning with the class that enters high school in four years. These scores, which up until now have been known as “aspirational” measures, have been reported by the state in the aggregate and by sub-group for the past several years. If these scores were used last year, the New York four-year graduation rate would have plummeted to 35 percent. This low rate masks even worse outcomes for students with disabilities (5 percent), as well as black (12 percent), Latino (16 percent) and English Language learners (7 percent). New York Education Commissioner John King even told reporters that he was disappointed that the scores were not phased in sooner because the delay means more students would leave high school “unprepared.” He need not worry. With his preferred cut scores, most students—especially students of color, poverty and disability–will not leave high school at all.
The current path that is mistakenly called “reform” but might as well be called “destruction” will have terrible consequences for students, educators, schools, and communities, they warn:
In the meantime, the Common Core aligned-tests will be used to justify the continuance of market-based education reforms. This means firing teachers and principals based on test scores, closing urban schools with higher low-income populations and the proliferation of charters as punishment (which ironically scored worse in language arts and the same in math as New York City public schools in the latest round of Common Core-aligned tests). These strategies, straight from what economist Naomi Klein calls the “shock doctrine” school of economics, lead to further gutting and pseudo-privatization of the most necessary of our public goods, while continuing the false narratives that teachers and their unions are the problem or that racism, poverty and inequitable resource distribution are merely excuses.
At the meeting in Austin of the Network for Public Education, I singled out a large number of people and groups who are turning the tide on behalf of the public good. One of them was Austin’s own Sara Stevenson, a librarian at a middle school. Sara reads the editorials in the Wall Street Journal and responds whenever they lash out at teachers or public schools. This keeps Sara very busy, because public education, teachers, and teachers’ unions are a favorite whipping boy/girl of the WSJ, which hates unions and anything that is not yet privately managed.
Sara was previously added to the honor roll for her courage and persistence on behalf of public education.
Today, Sara came to the defense of Mayor Bill de Blasio, responding to Peggy Noonan and the WSJ’s barrage of attacks on him for denying Eva Moskowitz the eight charters she wanted (she got five) and not allowing her to take public space away to grow a middle school (194 of her “scholars” were displaced); if she had gotten what she wanted, children with special needs would have been pushed out to make room for Eva.
One thing wrong in Sara’s letter: Eva’s salary is $475,000, not $400,000. Her 22 schools have fewer than 7,000 students.
Sara writes:
LETTERS
De Blasio’s Focus on the 96% Is Right
Bill de Blasio, is more concerned about the 96% of NYC school children who attend public schools than the 4% who attend charters.
March 14, 2014 6:19 p.m. ET
Regarding Peggy Noonan’s “The Ideologue vs. the Children” (Declarations, March 8): Bill de Blasio is more concerned about the 96% of New York City school children who attend public schools than the 4% who attend charters. And it’s true that charter schools benefit from Wall Street hedge-fund managers’ huge cash infusions. Eva Moskowitz, head of the Success Academy charter-school chain, makes around $400,000 annually to run 22 schools. In contrast, my superintendent in the Austin Independent School District, Meria Carstarphen, oversees 117 schools comprising 85,000 students and makes $283,000 annually. Furthermore, my superintendent is held accountable by a publicly elected school board of nine members who must approve her decisions. How about Success Academy pulling children out of school for a field trip to Albany for a political rally? Imagine what Ms. Noonan would be saying if those “evil” union teachers took their students out of learning opportunities for a day of demonstration. There is a lot more to this issue than she and the Journal are acknowledging. Dig deeper. See the larger picture.
Sara Stevenson
Austin, Texas
Parents and other supporters of public schools will rally today against Governor Cuomo’s attempt to wrest control of the New York City public schools for the benefit of his campaign contributors.
Dan Morris. 917.952.8920.
Julian Vinocur. 212.328.9268.
Media Advisory for Fri. March 14, Noon, Cuomo’s Midtown Office
Rally Against Quid Pro Cuomo State Budget Deal and Gubernatorial Control of NYC Schools
*Parents condemn Cuomo’s pay-to-play budget deal with charter school lobbyists who are bankrolling his re-election campaign and want to undermine New York City’s power over its schools.*
WHAT: Public school parents, community leaders, and elected officials will rally against the budget deal Cuomo clearly orchestrated with the Senate Majority to advance the extremist, anti-de Blasio agenda of charter school lobbyists who are heavily funding the Governor’s re-election campaign. This disturbing Quid pro Cuomo opens the door to gubernatorial control of New York City schools.
WHO: Outraged public school parents, community leaders, and elected officials who won’t stand for Cuomo and the Senate Majority cutting a pay-to-play budget deal with charter school lobbyists.
WHERE: Governor Cuomo’s Midtown office: 633 Third Avenue, between E40th and E41st Streets.
WHEN: Friday, March 14, Noon.
Michelle Gundersen, a veteran teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, here describes how the school system is harassing parents and children who try to opt out of unnecessary state testing.
Her own son, without her prompting, said he wanted to opt out of the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT), a test that will soon be phased out and replaced by a Common Core test.
But it was not so easy for other children to opt out, because their principals quizzed them about who prompted them to do it.
In one case, a child was asked to take a visual survey comprised of emoticons, to explain how she felt about opting out and who urged her to do it.
Funny, isn’t it, that our education policymakers prattle on about “choice,” but the one choice parents are not allowed to make is to say NO to standardized testing, even to totally useless tests.
No choice there.
When she read that parents in New York are planning an Opt-Out rally on March 29, this reader sent the following poem:
“Way to go NEW YORK ! BRAVEHEART of our Nation!
“I Opted Out in Texas by resigning. As an educator, I could no longer violate my professional ethics or my conscience and participate in a state school system that abuses children. I felt that I was being manipulated and “used” to abuse children in order to support an immoral cause. It was creating emotional distress for me just as it is the children. I wrote this piece to express my protest. I hope you are not offended by my frankness. I am an Aspie, so I have an excuse for telling the truth:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“We Should Have Listened to the Lorax !!!
It came in so boldly in very plain sight
That no one reacted with outrage or fright.
The teachers all worked it to lift children’s scores
too busy to notice their role shift to wh – – – – .
They followed directives and put it to use,
so how could they know they were causing abuse.
It called itself “common” and bragged without shame,
That all kids would need it to be just the same.
To measure the contents of what children learn
came methods of strictness all callous and stern.
It claimed to have rigor to help kids succeed,
but most could not see underneath was all GREED.
It first made a difference and upted some scores
but then it continued with more more and more.
The children were sweet and so nice and polite
They all were submissive without any fight.
They did it to please those they trust to know right.
They did it in spite of their bindings so tight.
They suffered in silence and gave their best try
They never complained or even asked “why”?
…..but some did cry.
Their innocence plundered their self now askew,
They hardened completely while no one even knew.
Their spirits were taken their childhood replaced
A new breed of children – a much meaner race.
Now where are those sadists who made up such rules
to torture young children with cruel cunning ruse?
They’re safe in their castles no thoughts of that time,
When children were maimed by their heinous crime.
Our nation is dying this loss is too great
The end of our children will be our last fate.
The Lorax was trying to speak for the trees.
I speak for children….begging….on my knees.
Please notice the children are having distress
Don’t let them suffer the harm from this mess.
This hidden agenda is well on it’s way
to make a Police State….that’s all I can say.
…and now I’ve gone away.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Illustrated signed copies are available: fairyprincess78704@gmail.com
Another third-grade teacher weighs in on the damage that politicians and legislators and testing corporations are doing to children:
Forget all of our methods classes in college. Forget developmental learning. Forget that children are not all the same. Every word above is true. I too am a third grade teacher. Or perhaps I should say I am now a third grade test administrator.
Education is no longer recognizable. There is very little time for teaching. We can no longer encourage children to think through issues and come to conclusions. They must have only the conclusion that is on the test(s). Students are now afraid to take any risks which is what all our great thinkers and innovators do. They are afraid it won’t be the correct choice on the test.
I have been a student, a parent and a teacher. This is a situation in which no one thrives. Not even the lucky students that test well and naturally. There is no time to challenge them to be lifelong learners, only test passers. Once they get to real life, and must perform at a job, sadly they will learn that no one gets paid to pass tests. We are raising a generation of students that hate school and we are giving them very little in the way of skills to navigate life.
And finally, I have to say, I don’t know who is writing these so called tests but I can tell you they don’t seem as if they have been in a classroom for a while. I have taught third grade for 20 years. These measures are not developmentally appropriate . The only purpose I can see is to separate the fortunate from the unfortunate. I can’t wait to see how sad our drop out rate is when these kids have learned that they are not successful because a test said so. We know from research that boys, especially African American boys, will quit trying if they see no way to succeed. Shamefully, we are setting ourselves up for a disaster. Why won’t anyone listen to the educators? Why have politicians begun running our schools, our curriculum, and our future? The people voting to enact these absurd tests haven’t been in a classroom in a very long time. How does that give them the knowledge to impact our future in such a drastic way?
I won’t quit. Someone has to be there for these kids. But the state of North Carolina is not helping their students and have demoralized their educators. Every day I go to see those smiling faces and everyday I have hope that things will change before it’s to late. You can be sure I will do my research when I vote and I encourage others to do so as well.
Diane Ravitch's blog 