Newark Students Wage War with Anderson #OccupyNPS #OurNewark

Newark Students Wage War with Anderson:



Newark Students Wage War with Anderson

The rising tide against March's debut of the statewide PARCC test may have helped fuel the Newark Students Union Feb. 18 sit-in here at the Newark Public Schools' Central Office.

Up to 12 NSU students, parents and NJ Communities United college students-activists have been sitting in State District Superintendent Cami Anderson's office here a 2 Cedar St. since 8:30 p.m.

The group, according to eyewitnesses, had left en masse from the NPS Board of Education Business Meeting after Science Park High School Senior Kristin Towkaniuk and several students and organizers spoke during the panel's public hearing segment.

They left Conference Room 1010 for a down elevator - but got off at the former Two Guys Department Store's eighth floor. They then ran to Anderson's offices and plugged in their computers before NPS security and Corporate Counsel Charlotte Hitchcock could stop them.

The protesting students had begun announcing their action and appealing for support on social media when Hitchcock and NPS Director of Security Eric Ingold arrived from the board meeting. They told the protestors that they were "trespassing on private property" before calling the Newark Police Department.

One student replied, "Thank you," and rejoined the group's online broadcasting. Hitchcock returned a few minutes later to announce that protestors will have restroom access and that food will be delivered to them.

2 Cedar St., except for NPS employees and law enforcement, has otherwise been in lockdown.

"Local Talk" found six news vans and three more NPS security cars along Cedar Street more than usual 8:45 a.m. Feb. 18. Except for reporters and technicians keeping warm in their trucks, there were very few people standing outside the corner of Cedar and Broad streets.

"I told the guards I had to leave early on a family matter and that I'd return in the morning," said one unnamed high school senior. "I just came back. The guards aren't letting students, media, anyone but school employees, back in."

Board member Antoinette Baskerville-Richardson posted on her Facebook page 11 p.m. Feb. 17 that the protestors were "in good spirits and are live-streaming from Anderson's office. (Board member) Marques Aquil-Lewis bought them pizza."

Baskerville-Richardson added, however, that she, Aquil-Lewis, board member Donald G. Jackson and husband-labor organizer-Freeholder Wayne Richardson were waiting to "be allowed" to check in on the students Tuesday night.

There have also been questions, like in a similar sit-in last May, about whether the protestors are actually receiving food and/or drink. Pastor and former councilwoman Mamie Bridgeforth said that she was at first stopped from bringing food to NPS headquarters by guards and officials before they relented.

"Senior staff members have tried every trick to get them out," said NAACP-Newark Branch President Deborah Smith-Gregory outside 2 Cedar St. around 1:30 p.m. Feb. 18, "including starving them and not bringing them food the community has brought them."

There was one report circulating that Central Office staff members were calling the protestors' parents,

- See more at: http://localtalknews.com/newark/education/2042-newark-students-wage-war-with-anderson.html#sthash.QVCN2DR0.dpuf

Tonight I am informing you that I am a conscientious objector to this test Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:


 Tonight I am informing you that I am a conscientious objector to this test

By:  Oregon BAT and BAT Leadership Team Member Kathleen Jeskey

I’ve been a teacher since 1987. Since coming to Canby in 1999, I’ve helped implement Backpack Buddies, a dental screening program, and canvassed for at least two levies. I have never shied away from hard work to make a difference in students’ lives, and have always had high standards for them and myself. I have never been resistant to change that I believe will help them.

I am disturbed by what is going on in education right now. Local control is being taken away. Top down mandates have subverted the democratic process. Among those I find most troubling is over reliance on test scores and the new Smarter Balanced Assessment in particular. 

Not all teachers give state tests. That falls heavily on elementary teachers. We know our students well. They spend seven years with us. We understand their strengths and weaknesses. We know a lot about their lives. We know that this test will be incredibly difficult for many of them. “Frustration level” is a term used to describe text so difficult for a child that he may give up. This test is at frustration level for many. It will especially harm the most at risk and fragile who already struggle. Belief in one’s self is necessary for success. We spend so much time trying to build them up to believe in themselves as learners and for many, all these tests do is crush them.

The test is not developmentally appropriate. The length of the test alone is problematic. Eight and nine year olds will be testing an average of eight hours and are expected to use new on line tools and type in extensive answers. Again, I’m speaking of third graders, many of whom do not have computers in their homes. In addition to inappropriate tasks, time is taken away from learning and schedules are disrupted for weeks. 

Test results are not available in a timely or useful manner. We will not get results until at best near the end of the school year and are not allowed to see student answers to analyze errors. Nor will their next year’s teacher be allowed to see that information.

In the past we could tell the state if a question was flawed (no correct answer, was confusing, or incorrectly translated). There is no longer a mechanism to do that, and we are not allowed to discuss any test items that may be incorrect or poorly constructed; at all; with anyone; not even our supervisors. And I am concerned with the quality of this assessment. It seems that development has been rushed and established ethical practices have been ignored. 

And it costs a lot. Our kids have lost so much: elementary PE and band, middle school sports and foreign language, high school art courses, the list is long. How many things could they get back if we stopped spending so much money on testing? 

And then there’s the whole data thing: What’s collected? Who sees it? How is it used? How is it protected? 

Giving this test when the state says that up to 70% will fail weighs heavily on my conscience. I would never give a test in my class that I knew most students would fail. That is not good practice. The failure rate for Special Education students and English Language Learners will be even higher. States that have already given Common Core tests, have had Badass Teachers Association:

#OccupyNPS #OurNewark Newark superintendent meets with protesting students on fourth day of sit-in, district says | NJ.com

Newark superintendent meets with protesting students on fourth day of sit-in, district says | NJ.com:

Newark superintendent meets with protesting students on fourth day of sit-in, district says

NEWARK — Newark Public Schools Superintendent Cami Anderson has met with the small group of students who are in their fourth day of a sit-in at her office to demand her resignation, district officials said today.

"This morning, Superintendent Anderson met with the group of students who have been demonstrating since Tuesday and listened to their concerns," district spokeswoman Brittany Chord Parmley said in a statement.

"The conversation was productive, and we see this as a promising step towards an ongoing constructive dialogue where both sides are heard and valuable learning time is not compromised."

A representative from the student union was not immediately available to comment on the meeting.

The small group of student activists has been demonstrating since Tuesday night, when they gathered on the 8th floor of the Newark Public Schools' headquarters, where Anderson's and other administrators' offices are located. The students, who are demanding Anderson's resignation, have stayed in the building, despite school district attempts to have their parents remove them.

Local politicians, including Anderson-critic Mayor Ras Baraka have thrown their support behind the student group.

The protest comes as state officials are deciding whether or not to renew the Newark superintendent meets with protesting students on fourth day of sit-in, district says | NJ.com:

Newark mayor backs students occupying superintendent's office | #OccupyNPS #OurNewark

Newark mayor backs students occupying superintendent's office | Fox News:



Newark mayor backs students occupying superintendent's office

 Students holed up since Tuesday in the office of the Newark, N.J., school superintendent in an effort to force her to meet with them or resign gained a powerful ally Thursday -- the city's mayor.

"They're obviously frustrated about not being able to have a voice in what happens around their own education," Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said at a news conference outside of school district headquarters Thursday.

"As the mayor of this state's largest city, I am also frustrated that I do not have a say-so in what is happening in the education of the children that exist and live in these communities," he said.

At least eight students, who call themselves the Newark Student Union, seized Superintendent Cami Anderson's office Tuesday night during a public schools advisory board meeting, and have remained on the floor where Anderson and other administrators have offices. They're protesting Anderson's leadership of the school district, including school building assignments and her support for charter schools.

The students claim the district is trying to "starve out" the Newark Student Union by purposely depriving them of food.

"For anyone tuning in right now, right now we're giving a live stream explaining what's going on. We have a food situation," one student is heard saying in the background of the live stream. "They haven't given it to us yet."

Another student said the protesters are surviving on chips and candy they brought in themselves Wednesday night.

"They are knowingly detaining our food," the student says. "As students, as people, we have a right to food. And we have a right to protest in this office."

In a letter to parents on Wednesday, however, Assistant Superintendent Brad Haggerty said the district "will continue to provide her with water, food, and access to a bathroom until you retake custody of your child."

A phone call placed to the superintendent's office by FoxNews.com on Thursday went unanswered. Spokespeople for the district and state Department of Education didn't immediately return calls Thursday from The Associated Press Newark mayor backs students occupying superintendent's office | Fox News:

EDU-frackers are in Charge. Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:

EDU-frackers are in Charge.

By:  Sue Goncarovs

The FDA and EPA are regulatory agencies with complicated approval processes. It takes a great deal of money and years of proof to get permission to sell products for human consumption or use.   Each and every part of the process requires EFFICACY--scientifically, accurate, with the long-term effects measured and re-tested over time.  There should be NO“short-cutting” with respect to public health, so every precaution must be taken. 
FDA and EPA are the Regulators; Chemical, Anti-microbial, Sanitizing, and Pharmaceutical Companies are the Regulatees. While the enforcement authority of the FDA and EPA are not absolute, states have parallel authority, and we depend upon these state and federal agencies to ensure the quality of the food we eat and water we drink.

The Department of Education is confused. Instead of regulating the Testing Companies, the DOE has partnered with Testing monopolies.  The DOE plays the role of ‘broker of funds and influence’ rather than one of governance.  This is like the FDA and EPA “partnering” with Lilly and BP rather than hold them accountable legal oversight.

Profit-making Testing Companies should be regulated with scrutiny and oversight enforced.  Testing Companies should have to provide sound, efficacious data about their products the way FDA and EPA examines every step of the required efficacy steps taken by General Mills or Lysol. In spite of ALEC, many corporations not only accept regulation not just as part of the cost of doing business, but as a moral imperative for the privilege they bear so they can sell things for human consumption.  This is called Corporate Responsibility.

Scores based on faulty, unproven tests pose a deeper public threat than the maker of faulty drugs or pesticides because there IS NO oversight mechanism in place to mitigate their damage. There is no “Superfund” like there is in EPA, for example. At the DOE, the Edu-frackers are in charge.

School systems should not be forced to  choose unproven, disprove or untested instrumentation or to be influenced by individuals and private corporations with large, war chests; and yet the DOE finds no conflict of interest by allowing and encouraging Test Profiteering.

There are many good reasons to have a Department of Education; aiding and abetting collusive practices is not one of them. The DOE shouldn’t be hiring former employees of Educational Testing Companies nor should they be allowing private companies to have control over local school authorities. They should have the regulatory authority to nail the revolving door shut with tough rules against it.

BP was fined for its responsibility in the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and we, as a nation, are grateful for the oversight.

Public Education is at a crossroads, and the DOE needs to accept its responsibility to regulate; the federal role should be to step back and look at the mess that Testing Companies are making.  Parents need to step up to the mic and say ‘no more.’  As taxpayers with a vested interest in their children’s future, parents need require the DOE to help their children, not 

Badass Teachers Association:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Chicago's hard-hit suburban schools resist charter invasion

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Chicago's hard-hit suburban schools resist charter invasion:

Chicago's hard-hit suburban schools resist charter invasion

Parents, teachers, activists, and students showed up at the Chicago Heights District #170 Board meeting on Feb. 12 to oppose opening the district to the LEARN Charter School Network. LEARN was voted down by an almost unanimous vote. (John Booz, Tribune)

Chicago Heights is a south-of-the-city suburb with a high concentration of poverty and a rapidly-growing Mexican immigrant population. District #170 schools have in many ways borne the brunt of an eroding tax base, loss of manufacturing jobs and the recession of the past decade. While the schools struggle to implement the district's reform plan, including a new middle-grade STEM academy, and prepare at the same time, for the next round of PARCC tests, progress remains slow. Test scores remain the carte du jour for judging schools and teachers, leaving districts like the Heights vulnerable to interventions by the state.


Gov. Rauner now threatens even more draconian cuts to school budgets and health and social services that will negatively impact the schools and communities in Chicago's inner-ring suburbs. He's proposing that suburbs' income tax revenue be cut in half

Towns like Chicago Heights have become the new target areas for poorly-Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Chicago's hard-hit suburban schools resist charter invasion:

Park the PARCC: toolkit for refusal | More than a Score Chicago

Park the PARCC: toolkit for refusal | More than a Score Chicago:

PARK THE PARCC: TOOLKIT FOR REFUSAL

Your child can refuse PARCC testing.  Although the IL State Board of Education does not recognize parental right to opt children out of testing, they have instructed districts that they can develop a policy for those students who refuse testing.

In the federal school code mandating annual testing, Section 6311 (b)(3)(c) (ix) says that “Assessments shall […] provide for the participation in such assessments of all students” not that schools must force every child to participate against their and their families wishes.

We recommend informing your school in writing of the following:

My child will be refusing all PARCC testing. I expect school officials and employees to treat my child with kindness and respect and allow them to engage in alternative quiet activities during the test. Please let me know what arrangements you are making for my child and others who refuse PARCC.

Below are materials you may find useful for during the testing window:

• CPS specific opt out/refusal letter
• Refusal/opt out letter for anywhere in Illinois
• Printable stickers for children who are unlikely to be able to refuse verbally can wear to alert school officials
• Myths and Facts about PARCC in Illinois (comprehensive guide to question of funding loss and more)
• Administrator’s Pledge on Ethical Treatment of Students Who Opt Out
• United Opt Out Get Tough Guide
• Student refusal card
• ISBE documentation of not testing code for Student Refusal
• ISBE Non-Regulatory Guidance on the use of Code 15 in Student Assessments (ISBE is in process of revising this)
• MTAS statement on misinformation from ISBE  (11.11.2014)

As of Friday, February 20th, CPS has not yet informed all schools whether they will take the test and has not released a districtwide policy for refusing students.

Let us know what is happening before and during the testing window at your school: Call (413)-3OPT-OUT or email info@morethanascorechicago.org or tweet @MTAS_chicago.

We are happy to give support and advice to any parent/guardians running into difficulties.

Expecting children to refuse high-stakes standardized testing themselves and ignoring parent/guardian wishes on this matter is wrong. We need an opt out law in Illinois.Learn more here about HB 306 the Opt Out Bill and call your state rep and senator to demand that they support it.

More resources on PARCC:
Sample PARCC tests: Go to “Test Preparation” -> “Sample Tests”
Park the PARCC petition requesting that IL State Board of Education seek a waiver from the US Department of Education
Park the PARCC position paper (pdf in English and in Spanish)
What you need to know about PARCC (English and Spanish)
How and Why to Park the PARCC webinar recording (Powerpoint slides)
Evanston Township board meeting. Discussion of problems with PARCC administration for high schools beginning at minute 47.
Public letter from 30 Illinois school districts opposing 2015 administration of the PARCC (2.3.2014)
Letter from 42 Illinois school districts asking for a delay in PARCC administration(1.30.2015)

Parents Across America: PAA Webinar: Impact of Poverty, Race and Cultural Bias on Educational Opportunity

Event Info Page:

Parents Across America: Race, Poverty & Education

Parents Across America: Race, Poverty & Education

Monday, March 2, 2015 7:00:00 PM CST - 8:00:00 PM CST

Given the current state of racial tension in the US, and the fact that more than half of our public school children now live in poverty, this webinar will add relevant data to set the context for a candid discussion about the ways that race and poverty impact educational opportunity for the majority of our children, and what it will take to provide them with an equitable, high-quality education.

 Register Now 

 

Speaker

Dr. Paul Thomas and Nathan Harris

Featuring Dr. Paul Thomas of Furman University and PAA Board member Nathan Harris.

 Know more 

 

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PART 4 of a SERIES : “THE MOST SUCCESSFUL TYRANNY” | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing

PART 4 of a SERIES : “THE MOST SUCCESSFUL TYRANNY” | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing:

PART 4 of a SERIES : “THE MOST SUCCESSFUL TYRANNY”

 Says Allan Bloom, “ The most successful tyranny is the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities.” Now I admit, I was never a fan of Allan Bloom, but in this regard he is certainly right about how our elite sheep education reformers have grasped hold of the media and have controlled “the awareness of other possibilities.” From Wendy Kopp to Arne Duncan to Michelle Rhee, all we have heard is how the American Education System is broken and must be replaced. They have convinced the public that teachers are incompetent, lazy, union slugs. Try to convince people otherwise these days. The tyranny is in place and we must overthrow it.

All of the professional training in the schools our excellent sheep-like leaders has made them single-minded.  Says William Deresiewicz, “Our rush to efficiency, our addiction to methodologies, and ‘metrics’—testing regimes, protocols…spreadsheets, the management mentality in all its incarnations—[the humanity of] humans has been torn from what they do.”

The professions many of our education reformers, leaders, and philanthropists enter too often ignore that. They are trained with specialized efficiency in mind. They plow ahead with that capacity to do what they believe their job is: to recreate education in this country to resemble how they see it: an efficient, metrics based, testing regime with school leadership based on the management mentality, not a “principal teacher” mentality.  It is all they know. It is how they succeeded. Thus, those are the schools and systems they support. Those are the not for profits they support. Those are the charters they support. As much as they believe they are the dissenters, they, in fact are the tyrants who refuse to collaborate with their workers. They refuse to question themselves. They all live in the same “Ghetto of the Mind.” They become the Emperor or Empress with no clothes.

How does all of that effect teaching? These elite leaders who come from the same “Ghetto of the Mind” say that all it takes is to put a great teacher in front of every class and all will be well. Three things are wrong with that. First, most great teachers do not park themselves in front of the room and second, most great teachers don’t fit their concept of greatness. Deresiewicz tells us, “Teaching is not an engineering [STEM] problem. It isn’t a question of transferring a certain quantity of information from one brain to another” and teaching test taking strategies so that test scores rise and all of a sudden a PART 4 of a SERIES : “THE MOST SUCCESSFUL TYRANNY” | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing:

Read the series: @Doing The Right Thing http://bit.ly/1Lj93B1

How Gentrification Is Leaving Public Schools Behind - US News

How Gentrification Is Leaving Public Schools Behind - US News:

How Gentrification Is Leaving Public Schools Behind

Urban neighborhoods are diversifying, but traditional schools are not reflecting the changes.

WASHINGTON – Ellington Turner and his mother, Marlece, began to cry.

The seventh-grader had just gotten word that his school, MacFarland Middle School in Washington, D.C.’s fast-gentrifying Petworth neighborhood, would be closed following the 2012-2013 school year.

That year, MacFarland, the only public middle school in Petworth, was one of 15 Washington public schools scheduled to be closed.

[READ: How Cheap and Free Parking Is Screwing Up Cities]

For the Turners, and for some of their fellow Petworth residents, the neighborhood school had been a comfort, even though the students’ test scores often lagged behind D.C. averages.

“We didn’t have a voice in the closings of the schools. [The city] said we had a voice, but I think in the long run they knew a year in advance they were closing the schools, and we were blindsided,” Marlece said while recounting her experiences in 2012 on a radio show last May.

Since 2008, about 40 public schools in the District of Columbia have closed or have been targeted for shutdowns, in many cases in favor of charter schools. The chief reason, according to the District, has been low enrollment.

But coinciding with closings, the city’s population has been changing.

Washington, D.C., had been the first American city to have a majority black population. That majority held for more than 50 years before the city’s black population fell below 50 percent in 2011.

Over the past 20 years or so, the nation’s capital, similar to many American cities, experienced the urban phenomenon of gentrification: the movement of largely middle-class, often white Americans back into cities, often choosing areas with low living costs, typically populated with minority residents.

Petworth is one such neighborhood undergoing these changes. Locally owned coffee shops and freshly paved bike lanes dot the landscape, which has seen the percentage of its once heavily black population plummet over the past decade.

[ALSO: Could Philadelphia's School Funding Crisis Have Been Avoided?]

One of the least understood impacts of gentrification is its role in a neighborhood’s education system. While proponents of gentrification cite a range of positive impacts, including decreased crime rates and increased property values, the impacts on traditional neighborhood schools are murkier.

“We believe [the school closings] are all part of the bigger picture of what’s happening here in the city and among cities around the country that have high populations of people of color where neighborhoods are rapidly gentrifying,” said Daniel del Pielago, the education organizer for a group called Empower DC that specializes in rallying residents around community causes. “To us, what we’re seeing is that a lot of these schools that are being closed are in areas where gentrification is How Gentrification Is Leaving Public Schools Behind - US News:

These Newark Students Have Been Camping Out At Their School District Headquarters For Days #‎OccupyNPS‬ ‪#‎OurNewark‬

These Newark Students Have Been Camping Out At Their School District Headquarters For Days:

These Newark Students Have Been Camping Out At Their School District Headquarters For Days

Cami Anderson, superintendent of Newark Public Schools, speaks during an interview in New York in 2014. A group of students occupied Anderson's office in February 2015 to protest her policies. (Photographer: Chris Goodney/Bloomberg via Getty Images) | Bloomberg via Getty Images

Instead of going to class or eating dinner at home with their parents, a group of New Jersey students has been living inside the headquarters of Newark Public Schools this week.

Since Tuesday evening, eight students have occupied the office suite of NPS Superintendent Cami Anderson. The students -- who belong to a group called the Newark Students Union -- do not intend to leave until Anderson meets with them and hears their concerns about how the district is being run, Thais Marques, a local community organizer who has been staying with the students, told The Huffington Post. The students also want Anderson to agree to go to the next district advisory board meeting. Anderson stopped attending these public community meetings last February, after facing verbal attacks.

The school district has been run by the state since 1995 because of its low test scores. Gov. Christ Christie (R) appointed Anderson as superintendent in 2011.

This year, Anderson's controversial One Newark plan went into effect, which expanded school choice in the district and added charter schools. The Newark Students Union has repeatedly protested One Newark, saying it was developed without sufficient community input.

The students have been sleeping in the superintendent suite with Marques and one other community organizer. Both organizers come from New Jersey Communities United, a group that provides organizing space and resources to the Newark Students Union. Some members of the group have been sleeping on the floor or on a miniature couch, and others have been sleeping sitting up, said Marques, who co-founded the student group in 2012 when she was at NPS.

Students at the NPS headquarters this week. (Photo courtesy of New Jersey Communities United)

Parents and community members have brought the group meals and other resources such as clean clothing. While some students came equipped with basics like deodorant and toothpaste, others are relying on care packages that NJCU organizers are putting together, according to NJCU Executive Director Trina Scordo. They have not showered during the sit-in.

Members of the Newark Student Union discuss their sit-in strategy. (Photo courtesy of New Jersey Communities United)

Still, spirits are high, high school junior Tanaisa Brown told HuffPost.

"It's all positive vibes and energy. We have everything we do need," said Brown, the secretary of the Newark Students Union. "I got to see my mom and little brother and they ordered food for us. Things are going well."

The group's long-term goal is to see the district returned to local control, says Brown.

"We want to have an open and honest discussions with [Cami Anderson]," said Marques. "She's making decisions completely without engaging the community."

In response to the current sit-in, NPS spokeswoman Brittany Chord Parmley toldNJ.com that student activists have "repeatedly ignored district requests to meet and engage in a constructive dialogue ... while we appreciate their passion, this is not the appropriate forum to engage in productive conversation." The district has also asked the parents of demonstrating students to pick up the teens so that they may return to class.

Anderson has regularly denied claims that she did not solicit community input for the development of One Newark and that the school reorganization plan is negatively affecting families.

HuffPost reached out to NPS for comment and is waiting to speak with the district's