Massachusetts Teachers Association Takes On High Stakes Tests, School Takeovers
On Tuesday I shared news from Connecticut teachers who had succeeded in passing resolutions pushing back on high stakes testing and the Common Core. This came on the heels of a report from Michelle Gunderson of similar efforts by which members of the Chicago Teachers Union approved a resolution expressing their rejection of the Common Core State Standards. Today, we have a third report, this time from an activist named Mary Porter in Massachusetts. A single swallow may not make a spring, but here is the third one! These stories reflect the experiences and viewpoints of the teachers who wrote them. Change seems to be in the air in our teacher unions.
Guest post by Mary Porter.
Activist rank-and-file movements are ramping up teachers unions' fight for justice, reason, and community solidarity by passing resolutions and winning offices across the country. These are my personal observations on some of the historic changes at my own state's annual meeting.
Five hundred first-time delegates attended the 2014 Massachusetts Teachers Association Annual Meeting May 9th and 10th, and I was among them. I'd long been aware of the work of the Educators for a Democratic Union (EDU) caucus, which had worked tirelessly to organizein the past. Nonetheless, I didn't imagine it was possible to change the actual course of my state's union until I picked up an EDU flyer on October 24, while attending a talk by Diane Ravitch about her book The Reign of Error at Memorial Church in the Harvard Yard.
I went to the EDU caucus meeting with my husband, who teaches at University of Massachusetts at Massachusetts Teachers Association Takes On High Stakes Tests, School Takeovers - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher: