PARENTS CAN!
School closing controversy in Chicago
pureparents at Parents Across America - 39 minutes ago
PAA co-founder Julie Woestehoff was quoted in several newspaper stories (Chicago Tribune here, Sun-Times here) about Mayor Emanuel’s proposal to push a school closing announcement deadline back several months. Emanuel wants to close as many as 100 Chicago schools in 2013. The Tribune editorial board, which usually takes the corporate reform side, quoted a PURE blog post in agreeing with PURE’s opposition to the mayor’s plan. Unfortunately, the state legislature handed Emanuel the extension today, Julie reports.
More tests, more parents opting out: radio interview includes PAA’s Julie Woestehoff
pureparents at Parents Across America - 39 minutes ago
Local Chicago NPR station interviewed PAA co-founder Julie Woestehoff of PAA affiliate PURE for a story about parents opting out of testing in the city. The story highlighted the resources PURE offers to parents concerned about excessive testing in the schools.
“Educate All Kids Like Sasha and Malia” by PAA co-founder Leonie Haimson
pureparents at Parents Across America - 39 minutes ago
“Obama’s education policies are failing children, except for his own,” writes PAA co-founder Leonie Haimson, of NYC’s Class Size Matters, in an essay published by In These Times. Leonie writes: Rather than follow blindly in the path of privatization and unleashed free-market competition that led to the collapse of our economy, it’s time for Obama to start listening to the priorities of parents and treating teachers as professionals. Cramming kids into classes of 30 or more and putting them on … →
PAA-CT leader’s article on Washington Post Answer Sheet
pureparents at Parents Across America - 39 minutes ago
This excellent piece on school funding was co-written by PAA-CT founder Wendy Lecker and reposted on the Washington Post Answer Sheet blog. Here’s a quote: In Connecticut and nationally, courts have consistently ruled that underfunded schools amount to constitutional violations of children’s right to an education. In New York, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Washington and many other states, courts determined that there is a causal connection between students’ poor performance and inadequate school funding. Unlike the modern corporate education reformers, who … →
Action of the week for 11-29-12: No “Cliff”hanger for our children!
pureparents at Parents Across America - 1 hour ago
Congress and the White House are working to resolve the “sequestration” threat set up by their failure to agree on a federal budget last year. Without a budget agreement, massive across-the-board program cuts will kick in. This may include: Loss of 100,000 Head Start slots. * Service cuts to 500,000 special needs students. * An end to Title 1 grants, affecting 2 million students. * Huge class size increases and service cuts as districts are forced to terminate tens of … →
Part 4: High Stakes Testing and Opting Out : The Consequences
DoraTaylor at Parents Across America - 6 days ago
The Consequences As long as policy and funding are determined by test results, we will be dealing with the consequences. There is the narrowing of focus to math and reading and less focus on history, social studies, the arts, foreign languages, writing, physical education, or developing research and critical thinking skills. The emphasis on test scores precludes looking more carefully at the cause of low test scores which include poverty, health and family issues as well as the effect … →
Schooled by experts: Chicago researchers share some facts about school reform
pureparents at Parents Across America - 1 week ago
This morning I attended an excellent symposium on a variety of education issues presented by CReATE (Chicagoland Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education), the nearly two-year-old group of 100 Chicago-area academic experts who have already created some excellent resources to help parents, community groups, students and others to better understand the truth about corporate school reform. CReATE’s first effort was a paper called “Chicago School Reform: Myths, Realities, and New Visions”, which clarified some of the education issues discussed during … →
Voters have spoken: No corporate school reform in Bridgeport!
pureparents at Parents Across America - 1 week ago
By Wendy Lecker Originally published on November 18, 2012 in the Stamford Advocate In this age of instantaneous global communication, it is incredible that a simple message sent by voters in Bridgeport has not reached leaders in Hartford, just 50 miles away. On Nov. 6, a rare event in modern politics occurred: democracy prevailed over money. Average citizens defeated a Bridgeport charter revision proposal backed by a veritable who’s who of well-endowed corporate education reformers. This David-vs.-Goliath victory is also … →
Part 3: High Stakes Testing and Opting Out: The Variables
DoraTaylor at Parents Across America - 1 week ago
The Variables High stakes testing has ramifications including ending careers and affecting communities by closing schools. Hence, we need to look carefully at the variables that might affect a student’s performance on a test. Teachers and principals do not work in a vacuum. They have students with lives outside school. Students live in a real world. The real world affects how they behave and their ability to focus in class. These factors include: English being a second language The physical … →
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