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Sunday, March 22, 2015

List of Student Protests Against the PARCC | Teacher Under Construction

List of Student Protests Against the PARCC | Teacher Under Construction:

List of Student Protests Against the PARCC

This entry was posted on March 22, 2015, in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment
About 11 student protests against the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exam have sparked in 5 different states across the country. These states include: California, Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, and Rhode Island.
Students protesting at the K-12 level is nothing new. Students across the country recognize the power in their voice, and that they have every right to fight for more than what they are given.
As I am only 2 months away from graduating and entering the field, these young people give me hope (as they always do). These collective acts of courage deserve to be recognize, especially when future educators like myself are constantly encouraged not to go into the field. Too often we are told that we just have to “ride the wave of reforms out,” or that “this is just the way things are.”
Students have a lot to teach us. Students like the ones protesting the PARCC teach us that we cannot sit back hopelessly and accept oppressive reforms.
People always ask me how I can stay optimistic, or how I can want to still go into teaching when I see “what’s happening to it.” My answer? Students like the ones cited below.
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CALIFORNIA
PARCC-Protest
COLORADO
030715_test_protest_02-L
ILLINOIS
54f9bdee18602.preview-620
NEW MEXICO
PARCC3
IMG_2296-1000x626

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Privatization of public resources and services - #‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬

Privatization of public resources and services - Jesus "Chuy" Garcia for Mayor of Chicago:

Privatization of public resources and services


 The city's primary responsibility is to ensure that the public has equitable access to its services and assets, and my responsibility as Mayor will be to protect these for future generations. Therefore, I am generally opposed to the privatization of public assets and resources.

The City of Chicago has embarked on the dangerous path of giving away its revenue generating assets to private interests, and is consequently losing revenue and control of its public infrastructure systems. However, there is a difference between government relinquishing control of its assets and partnering with private firms with the capacity to produce public goods.
In some instances, it makes sense for City government to partner with private industries to produce public infrastructure (e.g. contracting road improvements, sewer installations, etc.) provided that we establish a diligent protocol to approve only those contracts that ensure proven efficiency, quality, and cost effectiveness and that prioritize contracts with the least negative impact on surrounding communities. But it is not in the best interest of the public to turn over the provision of social goods and services to private interests. Doing so often decreases the opportunity for appropriate scrutiny over vital details such as spending, service quality and hiring.
If a private entity can profit from providing a service, then the city should be able to improve its capacity to do the same. But, in cases where privatization is our last resort, I will establish strong oversight that ensures that any costs savings claimed by privatization are demonstrable for the term of the contract, and do not come at the expense of service quality for city residents or employees’ ability to earn a living wage. Any leases or contracts that deprive the city of long term control of and benefit from its assets, as exemplified by the parking meter deal, will not be approved. All contracts will be limited to twenty years or less and subject to City oversight. I will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of city service delivery, establishing opportunities for checks and balances, including public input, City Council scrutiny and independent impact analyses.Privatization of public resources and services - Jesus "Chuy" Garcia for Mayor of Chicago:
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Too much sugar? Too much TV? Too much testing? BustED Pencils Online Radio

BustED Pencils Online Radio by Busted Pencils | BlogTalkRadio:





BustED Pencils

BustED Pencils Trending News: Pearson and Spygate.

Too much sugar? Too much TV? Too much testing? Live from Next Door Brewing

Literally join Jed and Tim at 5:00 pm CST  live from Next Door Brewing Company as we talk public school activism with parents, teachers, and citizens prior to Too much sugar? Too much TV? Too much testing?  We want YOU to come and talk to US.
Madison public school activists will hold a panel discussion at 5:30 CST
at Next Door Brewing Compnay on 2439 Atwood Ave, Madison, Wisconsin 53704.  



UPCOMING BROADCASTS

Literally join Jed and Tim at 5:00 pm live from Next Door Brewing Company as we talk public school activism with parents, teachers, and citizens prior to Too much sugar? Too much TV? Too much testing? We want YOU to come and talk to US. Madison public school activists will hold a panel discussion at 5:30 at Next Door Brewing Compnay on 2439 Atwood Ave, Madison, Wisconsin 53704.
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ON-DEMAND EPISODES

After a stimulating conversation with Bob Braun last night about his breaking news story that proved that Pearson was spying on New Jersey students wilth the collaboration of the New Jersey Department of Education,, Jed and Tim continue... more

BustED Pencils Trending News: Pearson and Spygate.

Posted on  by Tim Slekar
What a week for the giant test publishing company—Pearson.  As was first reported on Bob Braun’s Ledger on Friday March 13th, it was confirmed that Pearson was spying on New Jersey students taking the common core aligned PARCC test. BustED Pencils talked to Bob on Sunday, March 15th for a detailed discussion of the “authorized” (by the… Read more »

BustED Pencils Trending News: Pearson and Spygate.

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Student Privacy Matters is the home of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

Uncategorized | Student Privacy Matters:





Student Privacy Matters



  • Our letter to Reps. Polis and Messer

    February 11, 2015 Dear Representatives Polis and Messer: We write on behalf of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, a nationwide network of parents, citizens, and privacy advocates, concerned with the widespread, rampant, and poorly regulated data collection, data-sharing, data-tracking,… Read More »
  • Press Release 1.29.14

    Press Release 1.29.14

    For immediate release: January 29, 2015 Contact: Leonie Haimson, leonie@classsizematters.org, 917-435-9329                                                                                                                            Rachael Stickland, info@studentprivacymatters.org, 303-204-1272 Obama privacy bill fails to put children’s safety first Education Week has gotten hold of a draft student privacy bill out of the White House that… Read More »
  • Press Release 1.12.15

    Press Release 1.12.15

    For immediate release: January 12, 2015 Contact: Leonie Haimson, leonie@classsizematters.org, 917-435-9329;                                                                                                                            Rachael Stickland, rachael.stickland@gmail.com, 303-204-1272 Parent Coalition for Student Privacy on President’s Announcement of Need for New Federal Student Privacy Protections The Parent Coalition for Student Privacy thanks the President for… Read More »
  • In Wayzata, Minnesota, a school spies on its students

    In Wayzata, Minnesota, a school spies on its students

    Nathan Ringo is a high school 11th grader at Wayzata High School in Minnesota.  The post is reprinted with his permission from Boing Boing; the Minneapolis Post has also reported on his work to protect student privacy, and its impact.… Read More »
  • Restoring Privacy in the Era of Big Data by Kris Alman

    Restoring Privacy in the Era of Big Data by Kris Alman

    Edward Snowden became a household name after he leaked top secret documents that demonstrated the vast scope of our government's domestic surveillance programs. Much of this work is outsourced to private companies--such as Booz Allen Hamilton, owned by the Carlyle… Read More »

  • ABOUT US

    Student Privacy Matters is the home of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, and a national clearinghouse for information on protecting student privacy.  We are currently a project of Class Size Matters, a 501(c)3 nonprofit.  To join us click here. For more information, please contact info@studentprivacymatters.org
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Marie Corfield: Can God save the children from #PARCC?

Marie Corfield: Can God save the children from #PARCC?:



Can God save the children from #PARCC?


This is the worst PARCC story I've heard:

A friend of mine who lives in one of New Jersey's many wealthy suburbs with excellent schools and parents who routinely hire tutors for their children as early as first grade was with her daughter at a children's Stations of the Cross event at her church. 

The 14 Stations of the Cross are specific locations or 'stations' throughout the nave of a church where small sculptures or paintings depict the Passion of Christ starting with his condemnation to death and ending with his body being placed in the tomb. To 'do the stations' one moves through them chronologically, praying or reflecting at each stop. Every Catholic religious instruction program teaches children how to do this during Lent. 

In this particular program hands-on activities were set up at each station. Children could write notes about any number of things as they related to the stations: people they needed to forgive; people from whom they needed forgiveness; things for which they were sorry; things they wanted to do better; etc. 

At the station where Jesus carries his cross children were to reflect on their burdens. The cross is a symbol of man'sMarie Corfield: Can God save the children from #PARCC?: 
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Action Now endorses Garcia for Mayor - ‪#‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬

Action Now endorses Garcia for Mayor - Jesus "Chuy" Garcia for Mayor of Chicago:

Action Now endorses Garcia for Mayor

Action Now, one of the City’s largest grassroots organizations, has announced its endorsement of Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia in the April 7election for mayor of the City of Chicago.
“I know first-hand the power of grassroots groups to hold politicians’ feet to the fire and bring about economic fairness and social change,” said Garcia. “That’s why the support of Action Now is so important to me. These grassroots activists have challenged Mayor Emanuel directly for his track record of broken promises, bad choices and wrong priorities. They’ve fought against his closures of neighborhood public schools, his public safety failures on our streets, and his refusal to address the wave of foreclosures and disinvestment that have created so much harm in our communities. I am honored to have their support.”
“When Action Now pushed for a higher minimum wage, Chuy Garcia was there. When we protested Deborah Quazzo at the Chicago Board of Ed, Chuy Garcia was there,” said Katelyn Johnson, Executive Director of Action Now. “Our members want an elected, representative school board, safer neighborhoods and corporate accountability. Instead of having to fight City Hall, we would have a proven, fearless champion in City Hall in Chuy Garcia -- one who will dialog with constituencies and find collaborative solutions to our problems. Chuy Garcia’s values are our values.”
Action Now organizes for safe, stable, vibrant communities grounded in living wage work, quality public education, affordable housing and democratic engagement between neighborhood representatives and elected officials.
On all those counts Mayor Emanuel falls short, says Action Now President Gloria Warner, who is working with fellow Action Now members to get people to the polls on April 7 -- as well as getting people registered to vote and voting early. For the run-off, grace period registration and voting began on March 11 and ends April 4.
“We can transform this city if we can get people to the polls,” said Warner. “Emanuel will be remembered for favoring politically connected corporations, wealthy insiders and his Hollywood pals over the needs of ordinary workers, the disenfranchised and the forgotten,” she said. “We have the power to end Emanuel’s reign of misplaced priorities with a candidate who really will put ordinary people first. Chuy Garcia is a man with a big heart, he is a neighborhood guy and he shares our commitment to civic engagement and accountability. He’ll be a great mayor.”

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Jersey Jazzman: NJDOE, Hespe Turn Blind Eye to Segregating Charter Schools

Jersey Jazzman: NJDOE, Hespe Turn Blind Eye to Segregating Charter Schools:

NJDOE, Hespe Turn Blind Eye to Segregating Charter Schools 



 I've said before that Hoboken, NJ is one of the most interesting case studies of charter school expansion in the country. Charter school parents have amassed significant amounts of social, political, and financial capital for their children's schools, making them equivalent, in my view, to New Jersey's high-performing yet segregated suburban schools.

Keep this in mind as we look at the latest charter school news from Hoboken:

HOBOKEN -- The Hoboken Board of Education’s legal fight to block the expansion of a local charter school hit a new snag last week. After resolving to reconsider its approval of Hoboken Dual Language Charter School’s expansion to seventh and eighth grade in November, the state Department of Education issued a letter on March 20 upholding the school's expansion.

The core of the school board’s legal argument was that HoLa’s admission policy has a segregative effect by drawing white students out of the district at large. The DOE said it took up the case in order to “more closely inspect the demographic statistics surrounding the relevant community in this matter and how HoLa’s admissions policy may involve that community.”

But on Friday, education commissioner David Hespe said the data showed no segregative effect caused by HoLa and Hoboken’s two additional charter schools. Though HoLa has a much lower percentage of black and Hispanic students than the traditional schools in the district, the percentage of black students in the district hasn’t changed since HoLa opened in 2010, and the percentage of Hispanic students has actually fallen.

“The data points towards an overall population shift in the last 10 years in the City of Hoboken,” wrote Hespe, in an apparent reference to the trend of gentrification and rising rents. (emphasis mine)

You know, up until the last few months, I had been giving David Hespe the benefit of the doubt. I'd heard he was a rational, reasonable guy. I'd understood that he knew how politics worked, and that while he would always have to represent the interests of his boss, Chris Christie, first and foremost, he wasn't an ideologue who would ignore the evidence - See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2015/03/njdoe-hespe-turn-blind-eye-to.html?spref=tw#sthash.m8Uwoopk.dpuf


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These are not the tests we took as children. | lacetothetop

These are not the tests we took as children. | lacetothetop:

These are not the tests we took as children.

 These are not the tests we took as children. These are tests designed to produce massive failure rates and propel a harmful agenda.  Take a look at the two 3rd grade samples currently posted on engageNY:

10447746_10206081101884499_2640489389700053967_n
On the left (pre- Common Core 2005) is A Winter Surprise.  The readability average through multiple measures is a very reasonable grade equivalent of3.8.
Readability FormulaGrade
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level1.8
Gunning-Fog Score4.4
Coleman-Liau Index7.9
SMOG Index4.4
Automated Readability Index0.5
Average Grade Level3.8

On the right (Common Core aligned) is The Grey Hare.  The readability average through multiple measures is a very unreasonable grade equivalent of These are not the tests we took as children. | lacetothetop:
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Award-winning principal urges legislators to say ‘no’ to Gov. Cuomo - The Washington Post

Award-winning principal urges legislators to say ‘no’ to Gov. Cuomo - The Washington Post:

Award-winning principal urges legislators to say ‘no’ to Gov. Cuomo



Here is a letter that an award-winning New York high school principal is sending to every member of her state’s legislature in regard to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposals to reform teacher evaluation (for the second time in three years). Among Cuomo’s proposals is requiring  that student standardized test scores account for a full 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation rather than the current 20 percent. Assessment experts warn against linking test scores to educators’ evaluation for a variety of reasons, but the practice has become a central feature of the school reform agenda of U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
The principal is  Carol Burris of South Side High School in New York. She was named New York’s 2013 High School Principal of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and, in 2010, she was tapped as the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State.
In this post, Burris refers to “value-added” methods (VAM) of measurement that purport to be able to determine the “value” a teacher brings to student learning by plopping test scores into complicated formulas that can supposedly strip out all other factors, including the conditions in which a student lives. Different districts use different formulas and numerous experts in the field have said that VAM is not a reliable or valid tool for teacher evaluation. You can read about why here. She also mentioned the PARCC test, a Common Core standardized test being used in a number of states this spring.
Here’s the Burris letter:
Dear members of the New York State Assembly and Senate:
In 2012, the legislature dramatically changed the way teachers and principals were evaluated by instituting a system called APPR. That legislation created categories of performance, scoring bands and consequences for teachers rated developing or ineffective.
I did not then, nor do I now, understand why you would want to be in the business of evaluating teachers. Teachers are employed not by the State of New York, but by their locally elected school boards. I do not believe that our legislature has created systems to evaluate police officers, school superintendents, firefighters, the custodians who work in government offices, SUNY professors, or the men and women who take tolls on our bridges and tunnels. I suspect that you would recoil at the thought of legislating how every public servant is rated. And so you should. The good people of New York did not elect you for that purpose.
I appreciate the position that the legislature was in several years ago. The New York State Education Department was attempting to secure Race to the Top funds at a time when our state revenues were low. Due to pressure from the governor, the 
Award-winning principal urges legislators to say ‘no’ to Gov. Cuomo - The Washington Post:
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Pearson and Spygate: The Story Continues (Who Done It?)

The War Report on Public Education with Dr James Avington Miller Jr | BBS Radio:

Pearson and Spygate: The Story Continues (Who Done It?)

The War Report on Public Education with Dr James Avington Miller Jr | BBS Radio


Bob Braun's Ledger
Bob Braun
Join host Dr. James Avington Miller Jr. as he continues to expose how Pearson is invading the privacy and taking away the first amendment rights of our students.

Bob Braun of the Bob Braun's Ledger will return to continue his great reporting on the nefarious union between the NJ Department of Ed and Pearson.



Also joining us for the hour will be Ken Previti - retired teacher and blogger for Reclaim Reform.
http://reclaimreform.com/

And a last minute update!


Also joining us on the show on Sunday will be Leonie Haimson - Executive Director of Class Size Matters and Co-chair of the Parent Coalition to protect student privacy.
http://www.classsizematters.org/

The more we learn, the scarier it gets...

Click on the website below to listen live and join the discussion:

http://bbsradio.com/thewarreport

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A direct listen-in line only
Station 1 - 716-748-0150

To call-in and interact live
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The War Report on Public Education with Dr James Avington Miller Jr

BustED Pencils

BustED Pencils Trending News: Pearson and Spygate.

Too much sugar? Too much TV? Too much testing? Live from Next Door Brewing

Literally join Jed and Tim at 5:00 pm CST  live from Next Door Brewing Company as we talk public school activism with parents, teachers, and citizens prior to Too much sugar? Too much TV? Too much testing?  We want YOU to come and talk to US.
Madison public school activists will hold a panel discussion at 5:30 CST
at Next Door Brewing Compnay on 2439 Atwood Ave, Madison, Wisconsin 53704.  



BustED Pencils Trending News: Pearson and Spygate.

Posted on  by Tim Slekar
What a week for the giant test publishing company—Pearson.  As was first reported on Bob Braun’s Ledger on Friday March 13th, it was confirmed that Pearson was spying on New Jersey students taking the common core aligned PARCC test. BustED Pencils talked to Bob on Sunday, March 15th for a detailed discussion of the “authorized” (by the… Read more »

BustED Pencils Trending News: Pearson and Spygate.

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