Gulen 101 with Sharon Higgins
From Tim Furman, who made this video for sponsor Rogers Park Neighbors for Public Schools in Chicago, this is the recording of the recent webinar, Gulen 101: Session One, with Sharon Higgins. Please share widely. It was a good first session, both for people new to the topic and for those already knowledgeable. We’re having session two in March. You’ll have to adjust the sound from time to time; my
ACT: Hispanics are not for sale!
by Lourdes Pérez Ramírez, founder of PAA Florida affiliate HispanEduca ACT has been courting Florida for more than 4 years, making fun & enjoying students’ failure with FCAT. After all, money speaks, right @ACT? What an irony! The testing mogul is coming to a state where Hispanics are becoming the majority minority in many counties. However, in 2011 ACT (specifically ACT former Media Relatio
Standardized movie shown to 400 in Orlando
An eye-opener: Orlando’s showing
of Standardized: Lies, Money, and
Civil Rights documentary
By Lourdes Pérez Ramírez, founder of PAA affiliate HispanEduca
More than 400 people and a nine-member panel made up of teachers, school board members, education advocates, and legislators gathered at Howard Middle School in Orlando, Fl on January 25 to attended the documentary Standardized: Lies, Money & Civil Rights — How Testing is Ruining Public Education.
The public had the opportunity to ask the panel about a myriad of issues including how parents can opt out of these tests without penalizing their children in the future, and even about the possibility of changing Florida’s law about high-stake tests.
Two of Florida legislators attended the event in clear support of addressing the negative consequences that the testing frenzy has caused in this increasingly Hispanic state. House Representative Karen Castor Dentel (D), a former teacher, is currently writing a legislation piece to require districts to give clear instructions for “Opting Out” of the mandated high stakes tests. Florida’s Osceola County Senator Dareen Soto (D), who represents a county where more than 50% of the population is Hispanic, also joined the panel and talked about the education needs of his county.
The crowd’s reactions to the documentary were the best evidence that the event was a total success.
“This is an eye-opener,” said Myrna Candelario, an education psychologist from Puerto Rico who came from Tampa to get “the gist of this testing issue and how it is affecting children from a psychological perspective.”
“These people put together a great event; I congratulate the organizers and the public for supporting this,”
