PSAT for 2-11-14: Educate yourself about some Illinois General Assembly primary candidates!
Early voting for the March 18th primary begins March 3, so this is a good time to educate yourself about who’s running and what they stand for, especially in the area of public education support.As a non-profit organization, PURE cannot endorse or promote any individual candidates, but we can share information about candidates’ positions that may have an impact on the future of public education. For Public Schools Action Tuesday today we’ll look closely at the Illinois state representative races in the 26th, 39th and 40th Districts, where there are candidates with special track records supporting public schools.
26th District
For example, the former executive director of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO), Jay Travis, is running against incumbent Christian Mitchell in the 26th District, a very long, skinny district roughly paralleling the lakefront from near north to far south Chicago – map here.
Travis has a years-long public education advocacy track record through her work at KOCO. Here’s her vision for education, from her campaign web site:
Supporting Excellent Neighborhood Public Schools
At KOCO, Jay was at the forefront to build strong neighborhood schools for all families. She led a successful campaign to prevent the first wave of school closings in Kenwood, and built a community coalition to overwhelmingly pass a Chicago referendum supporting an elected, representative school board that would be accountable to parents and taxpayers.
As state representative, Jay will continue to fight for all children, regardless of race or
Opt out threats continue
E-mail sent today (2/11/14) from the principal of Chicago Public Schools magnet school Franklin Fine Arts to a parent who indicated she would like to opt her child out of the ISAT:
This letter is going to all parents today. Please send this blast to those that are buzzing right now and preparing their letter. This will seriously hurt the school.You received a letter from Barbara Byrd Bennett, our Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Public Schools, regarding testing. First, ISAT is a required test under No Child Left Behind. Opting out of this test is not an option.In addition, I want to clarify the purpose of the ISAT. It does provide an analysis of how our children are performing in relation to the Common Core Standards. This test will give us a baseline of what to work on with your children in preparation for the new statewide test next year.Also, this test is linked to our Adequate Yearly Progress. We are a Tier 1 school because our children do well on the test. The more students not taking the test will mean that our status will drop to Tier 2 or 3 and put us on probation.I understand your frustration. I understand your purpose. I realize that testing is an issue throughout the United States. However we are all held accountable for the performance of our students. Not having your child take the test will seriously jeopardize our school and staff and status.If you would like to have a meeting regarding this assessment, please feel free to contact me.Margie D. Smagacz, NBCTPrincipalFranklin Fine Arts Center
225 West Evergreen
Chicago, IL 60610
(773)534-8510 Fax: (773) 534-8022The Mission of Franklin Fine Arts Center is to provide all students, including those with special needs, a foundation for progressing to higher levels in education. This foundation includes a challenging educational program that encourages students to work collaboratively, a focus on individual learning styles, the development of life and social skills, and the promotion of respectful behavior toward peers and adults. We also provide a rich fine arts education as an independent core subject as well as integrated into other curriculum areas.
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Ms. Smagacz’s concerns are unfounded:
- ISAT is not being used to determine school level this year.
- Opting out of the ISAT is an option according to CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett.
- The state of Illinois allows for a student who refuses the test not to be counted in a school’s overall percentage of students tested.
- Common Core tests are still being written – to say that ISAT is important as a way to “practice” for the Common Core tests or to judge how students will do on those tests is a poor excuse for putting children through two weeks of meaningless testing.
Please see this More Than a Score ISAT fact sheet for more information.