Hashtag Mayor Joe Petty
Posted By Walter Bird Jr.
A minor local Twitter firestorm has erupted over Mayor Joe Petty's move to have the School Committee reconsider votes it took more than a week ago related to a controversial new test for students.
The hash tag #sayno2joe has been created on Twitter and attached to a number of Tweets angrily denouncing Petty's call for reconsideration of several March 6 motions related to the controversial Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exam that will be given to hundreds of students in Worcester in less than two weeks.There has been a push by some critics to allow children to opt out of the test, an element of the educational standard Common Core, despite a legal opinion from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) that no such provision is available.
The committee at its last meeting took a voice-only vote on two motions, according to committee member Tracy O'Connell-Novick. One was her motion of sharing the protocol of how opting students out of the exam with parents, teachers and administrators. Novick also asked to have the protocol included as backup on the agenda for the next committee meeting, Thursday, March 20. A second motion included a number of requests, including one to send a letter to the state modeled after one sent by the Norfolk School District, which is allowing its students to opt out of the test.
In his motion for reconsideration, Petty has included several other items, but Novick says those were not voted on at the previous meeting. The committee also did not take a roll call vote, despite being afforded the opportunity to do so by the mayor.
"We're still going to allow kids to opt out," says Petty. "You just send the wrong message [by sending a letter to the state]. People still can opt out of the exam if their child doesn't want to take the test."
While it is not unusual for elected bodies to reconsider items - the City Council regularly employs this practice - it is typically done at the same meeting.
Petty's move has spurred a Twitter movement of sorts and has given birth to #sayno2joe. One Tweet says: "@MayorPetty parents have right to refuse their kids useless tests!" Another asks: "Can the ppl of Worcester, MA do a re-vote for @mayorpetty's position?" A separate Tweet says: "Mayors promise to uphold dem! Parents refusing tests not used to help kids democracy." And another Tweet states: Hey @MayorPetty standing in way of parent right w refuse tests isn't very democratic!"