2016 United Opt Out Conference: Transcending Resistance, Igniting Revolution | Seattle Education

2016 United Opt Out Conference: Transcending Resistance, Igniting Revolution | Seattle Education:

2016 United Opt Out Conference: Transcending Resistance, Igniting Revolution

United Opt Out National Conference

Friday, February 26, 2016

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Philadelphia, PA

 Transcending Resistance, Igniting Revolution

It is time for revolution.  

It is time for non-negotiable demands.

It is time to reclaim our public schools and demand all for all children.

Join us in Philly as we dialogue with an incredible group of revolutionary leaders who will help the Opt Out movement, the people’s movement, to craft a revolution that will tear down the test and punish system and help reshape our country, our communities, and our public schools so that equity and true democratic thinking becomes our reality.

February 26, Friday Evening Keynote
Stephen KrashenFebruary 27, Saturday Morning Keynote
Chris Hedges
February 27, Saturday Afternoon Keynote
Antonia DarderFebruary 28, Sunday Morning Keynote
Mercedes Martinez 
February 28, Sunday Afternoon Keynote
Bill Ayers 

BREAKOUT SESSIONS

Book Talk with Ricardo Rosa: Capitalism’s Educational Catastrophe: And the Advancing Endgame Revolt!

Community Empowerment

Student Activism

Opt Out 101

Black Lives Matter

Teachers of Professional Conscience

Media and Messaging

Our Demands: What’s Next?

More TBD soon!

PANELS

Global Privatization “and the Advancing Endgame Revolt”

Civil Rights: Reclaiming the Narrative

For more information, go to eventbrite.

2016 United Opt Out Conference: Transcending Resistance, Igniting Revolution | Seattle Education:

In Denver suburb, a school board race morphs into $1 million ‘proxy war’ - The Washington Post

In Denver suburb, a school board race morphs into $1 million ‘proxy war’ - The Washington Post:

In Denver suburb, a school board race morphs into $1 million ‘proxy war’

Americans for Prosperity, the national organization founded by the Koch brothers

When voters cast ballots Tuesday in a school board race in suburban Denver, it will mark the climax of a two-year battle over public education that has reverberated well beyond the Rockies.

Spending on the school board election in Jefferson County, Colo., is expected to top $1 million, with money pouring in from Americans for Prosperity, the national organization founded by the Koch brothers, as well as a libertarian think tank and teachers unions.

The contest is actually a recall election, with activists trying to kick out three conservative members who won seats in 2013, becoming the majority power block on the five-member board.

“This is not a school board race, this is a proxy war,” said Jon Caldara, the president of the libertarian Independence Institute in Denver, which wants to keep the three conservatives in power. “This is a proxy war between education reform and union power.”

Tina Gurdikian, a parent who helped spearhead the recall effort, agrees that the election is a stand-in for a larger national debate about public education and she said she sees it as an ideological fight.

“This is really part of a national agenda by special-interest groups like Americans for Prosperity to privatize public education,” said Gurdikian, who has two children in the Jefferson County public schools. “We have a nearly $1 billion budget, and I think a lot of people look at that and want a piece of it. Privatization can work for some things, but not really public education. It In Denver suburb, a school board race morphs into $1 million ‘proxy war’ - The Washington Post:

Wendy Lecker: Why use the SAT? - StamfordAdvocate

Wendy Lecker: Why use the SAT? - StamfordAdvocate:

Wendy Lecker: Why use the SAT?

A new large-scale, longitudinal study should make Connecticut policy makers think twice before continuing with their ill-advised policy imposing the SAT as the new “mastery test” for 11thgraders.

Last spring, after opt-outs and outcry from parents and students, Connecticut lawmakers decided to quickly abandon the unvalidated SBAC test — but only for 11thgraders. In its place they decided to adopt the newly redesigned SAT.

Jettisoning the SBAC was a step in the right direction, but adopting the SAT presents a host of new problems.

First, the SAT is supposedly a test to predict college “aptitude,” not to assess what Connecticut high school students have learned.

Yet Connecticut plans to use the SAT to judge and rank schools and, of course, sanction them when they perform poorly. The State Department of Education confirmed that after it receives the 2016 results, cut scores will be set to determine “mastery.”

I asked SDE who will set the cut scores and how they can possibly have proof that these scores are valid representations of “mastery” when the test is new, as they will only have one year of results and it isn’t designed to test mastery. SDE refused to answer.

And even though the College Board itself opposes the use of the SAT for teacher evaluations because there is not enough evidence of its validity or reliability for this use, Hartford public schools is already planning to use the SAT in teacher evaluations this year. The district intends to compare spring 2016 SAT scores against students’ fall 2015 PSAT scores.

Second, while the SAT provides accommodations for certain students with disabilities, it does not provide any for English Language Learners (ELL). SDE plans to simply use the accommodations previously used for the CMT and CAPT for the new SAT.

However, experts in this field confirmed to me that one cannot simply transfer accommodations from one test to another. When I asked SDE for any proof of the validity and reliability of using CMT/CAPT ELL accommodations for the SAT, again, they refused to answer.

Proof that there are significant problems using the SAT for accountability purposes in Connecticut comes from a study just published by the University of California.

The study examined 1.1 million students from 1994-2011. It found that one-third of the variance of SAT scores could be explained by parental education, socio-economic status or status as a member of an Wendy Lecker: Why use the SAT? - StamfordAdvocate:

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/1/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM

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An alternative to high stakes testing works. New York schools have proven it. | Seattle Education

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Online Charter School SUCK - The Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO)

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