Seattle Schools Community Forum: Opting Out Heats Up

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Opting Out Heats Up:
Opting Out Heats Up

It's getting to be testing time and BOY, are there a slew of states and groups and people worried that the opt-out movement will continue to grow.

First, for great information on opting out, United Opt Out is a national group.

There are two interesting developments on this front.

One is that the National PTA has warned the state Deleware PTA not to dare to step out of their party line on testing. (There is some kind of state law in play.)  Here's their position statement on assessments. (partial) They have a lot of blah, blah about parents and their concerns, but, in the end, side with the feds.

National PTA does not support state and district policies that allow students to opt-out of state assessments that are designed to improve teaching and learning. While we recognize that parents are a child’s first teacher and respect the rights of parents to make decisions on behalf of their children, the association believes the consequences of nonparticipation in state assessments can have detrimental impacts on students and schools.Seattle Schools Community Forum: Opting Out Heats Up:

As a KIPP supporter, this new book about charter schools is hard to believe - The Washington Post

As a KIPP supporter, this new book about charter schools is hard to believe - The Washington Post:

As a KIPP supporter, this new book about charter schools is hard to believe

Jim Horn is the most vocal critic of our nation’s (and the District’s) largest nonprofit charter school network, KIPP. Among journalists, I am KIPP’s most enthusiastic supporter.

That makes me an odd judge of Horn’s new book on KIPP and schools like it, “Work Hard, Be Hard: Journeys Through ‘No Excuses’ Teaching.” But I think he deserves attention as a hard-working scholar and talented writer who brings together, from several sources, concerns about the rapid growth of charter schools similar to KIPP.

I wish the book were not so one-sided. In the great tradition of American polemics, Horn is entitled to his strongly anti-KIPP view. But he never satisfactorily explains how a charter network, if it is as harmful to teachers and children as he says, could attract nearly 70,000 students to 183 campuses in 20 states and the District.

Support for KIPP’s exceptional principal training, teacher creativity and additional learning time is so strong among parents, researchers, politicians, funders, the media and young educators that arguments on the other side often go unheard. Horn examines the thorniest issues, such as the dependence of KIPP-like charters on wealthy foundations and government grants, whose money they use in addition to their per-pupil allotment of tax dollars.

The independently run public charters are usually outside the reach of elected school boards and teacher unions. Some critics say they are out of sync with democratic values and push children too hard. Horn, a professor of As a KIPP supporter, this new book about charter schools is hard to believe - The Washington Post:

Ten Years Post-Katrina, the New Orleans Community Forms BENOLA | deutsch29

Ten Years Post-Katrina, the New Orleans Community Forms BENOLA | deutsch29:

Ten Years Post-Katrina, the New Orleans Community Forms BENOLA

On February 26, 2016, Jennifer Berkshire released this 20-minute audio interview with long-time school choice advocate, Howard Fuller. I have written about Fuller in my ed reform who’s-who, A Chronicle of Echoes, for his involvement in founding the corporate reform vehicle, the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO).

  

Howard Fuller

One of the prevailing questions about Fuller is the degree to which he is simply carrying out the wishes of funders such as the Walton Foundation as opposed to trying to use those funds to truly empower parents and communities. (I even hesitate to use the word, “empower,” because it has long been co-opted by corporate reformers and pasted over their obvious top-down efforts to kill community schools in favor of under-regulated “choice” strategically placed just out of true control of those whom “choice” supposedly empowers.)

That noted, after hearing Fuller’s interview with Berkshire regarding his assistance in helping native New Orleaneans form an actual grassroots organization, BENOLA– and after both an extensive formal interview with BENOLA founding member, Ashana Bigard, as well as another discussion with her over the phone in preparation for this post– it seems that Fuller is earnestly trying to help establish what has been grossly absent in the post-Katrina New Orleans state takeover: Involvement and investment by the New Orleans community itself.

  

Ashana Bigard

Given Fuller’s long-time Walton involvements, what makes Fuller’s efforts to actually empower New Orleans community members particularly interesting is this October 2015 report announcing that the Walton Foundation 2016-20 strategic plan involves trying to drum up community support for its charter school reforms– and one city of particular focus is New Orleans. The Waltons have put the reforms in place and want to purchase a campaign to bring communities into line with supporting the Walton charter efforts. However, what Fuller appears to be trying to do is bring the Waltons (and other corporate reform investors) around to seeing that they should fund community groups and give those groups the freedom to make their own decisions– not to just toe the Walton-decided line.

On February 27, 2016, I transcribed Berkshire’s interview with Fuller (that transcription can be found here: Berkshire-Fuller interview). In the remainder of this Ten Years Post-Katrina, the New Orleans Community Forms BENOLA | deutsch29:

Because I love my daughter…Because all of our children are simply that important! - Wait What?

Because I love my daughter…Because all of our children are simply that important! - Wait What?:

Because I love my daughter…Because all of our children are simply that important!

We are opting out children out of the unfair, inappropriate and discriminatory Common Core testing craze because our children deserve public schools that are focused on providing all children with a comprehensive, quality and empowering public education.

We are fighting back against the so-called “education reformers” because public education is the foundation upon which fulfilling lives. Its purpose is not to make the corporate elite richer.

We are taking back our public schools because education is more than a standardized test score and our public school teachers should be evaluated on the quality of their work and not on test scores driven by factors beyond their control.

This weekend, the 2016 Opt Out Conference in Philadelphia is bringing together parents, teachers, academics and public education advocates from across the country to discuss developments and share strategies in our on-going battle to protect our children, teachers and public schools from the corporate education reform industry and the standardized testing companies that are turning our children into guinea pigs and our public schools into little more than testing factories and profit centers.

Steve Singer is a public school teacher, parent and fellow education blogger and advocate was among those who have been participating in the sessions.

His willingness to be a powerful voice for children, parents, teachers and public schoolBecause I love my daughter…Because all of our children are simply that important! - Wait What?:s 

United Opt Out Conference: Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened #UOO16Philly

United Opt Out Conference: Sunday, Feb 28, 2016 - YouTube:

1. 
   

   

   1:34:13

   United Opt Out Conference: Sat. Session 1 - Meet UOO Leaders - Keynote, Chris Hedges

   Robert Lamothe

   • 1 day ago
   • 82 views

   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 ...

   • NEW
2. 
   

   

   1:39:35

   United Opt Out Conference: FRIDAY Welcoming Reception with Stephen Krashen

   Robert Lamothe

   • 1 day ago
   • 27 views

   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 ...

   • NEW
3. 
   

   

   50:14

   United Opt Out Conference: Saturday Session 3

   Robert Lamothe

   • 1 day ago
   • 9 views

   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 ...

   • NEW
4. 
   

   

   1:17:49

   United Opt Out Conference: Saturday Session 6

   Robert Lamothe

   • 21 hours ago
   • 13 views

   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 ...

   • NEW
5. 
   

   

   58:25

   United Opt Out Conference: Saturday Session 4

   Robert Lamothe

   • 23 hours ago
   • 2 views

   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 ...

   • NEW
6. 
   

   

   48:24

   United Opt Out Conference: Session 5

   Robert Lamothe

   • 22 hours ago
   • 3 views

   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 ...

   • NEW
7. 
   

   

   WATCHED

   54:30

   United Opt Out Conference: INTERNET CONNECTION DOWN - HOPING TO GET IT BACK SOON - Sunday, Feb 28

   Robert Lamothe

   • 1 hour ago
   • No views

   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 ...

   • NEW
8. 
   

   

   1:33

   Dr. Mark Naison, Professor of African American and History at Fordham University

   Lori Lalama

   • 5 hours ago
   • No views

   This video was recorded at the United Opt-Out Conference in Philly February 2016.

   • NEW
9. 
   

   

   56:31

   United Opt Out Conf.: Sat. S2 - Ricardo Rosa and Joao J. Rosa

   Robert Lamothe

   • 1 day ago
   • 26 views

   Ricardo Rosa and Joao J. Rosa: Capitalism's Educational Catastrophe: And the Advancing Endgame Revolt!

   • NEW

 

Big Education Ape: Commentaries from #UOO16Philly | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing http://bit.ly/1pipXf3


Big Education Ape: How Radical Must We Be To Get the Schools Our Children Deserve? United Opt Out Musings | gadflyo... http://bit.ly/1VLSfci


Big Education Ape: United Opt Out Conference Highlights Dual Role of Technology in Education | gadflyonthewallblog http://bit.ly/1QkcpKn


Big Education Ape: Don’t miss the LIVE STREAM of the UNITED OPT OUT Conference this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. | ... http://bit.ly/1VLRTT9

Hypocrisy of My Teachers Union: If It Looks Like A Duck & Quacks Like A Duck, It’s Duck, Baby – The Testing Games

Hypocrisy of My Teachers Union: If It Looks Like A Duck & Quacks Like A Duck, It’s Duck, Baby – The Testing Games:

Hypocrisy of My Teachers Union: If It Looks Like A Duck & Quacks Like A Duck, It’s Duck, Baby

Can I take a quick break from the Testing Games to point out a quick example of hypocrisy?

Specifically, I’d like to note the hypocrisy of our Florida FEA union suing our state for the Best & Brightest scholarship, based on it being a form of age discrimination against older teachers, when our own local union bargained to give huge raises to young teachers and nothing to old fogies like me. Really? Really?

Old fogies unite.

Here is my point:

On Monday, the Florida Education Association put some heft behind the words, filing a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Florida Commission on Human Relations. The complaint states:

“The exemption of first-year teachers from the requirement that they provide evidence of being rated “highly effective” under the respondent employers’ performance evaluation system further discriminates against and has a disparate impact on teachers older than 40 years old. First-year teachers are overwhelmingly younger than 40 years of age.

OK. Makes sense. They filed a lawsuit.

But, now this. Our local Lee County union, TALC, just released it’s proposed contract changes, bargained for local Hypocrisy of My Teachers Union: If It Looks Like A Duck & Quacks Like A Duck, It’s Duck, Baby – The Testing Games: