Save Our Schools Conference and Clippings - 0 views
started by Bonnie Sutton on 01 Aug 11
started by Bonnie Sutton on 01 Aug 11
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started by Bonnie Sutton on 01 Aug 11
The Save Our Schools March
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local
By Valerie Strauss
"I don't know where I would be today if my teachers' job security was based on how I performed on some standardized test."
That was actor Matt Damon talking to thousands of teachers, parents, principals, school board members and other education activists who stood today for hours in 90-plus-degree temperatures near the White House to protest the standardized testing mania that is at the heart of the Obama administration's school reform policies.
He was one of dozens of speakers - including education historian Diane Ravitch; prominent educators Linda Darling-Hammond, Jonathan Kozol, Deb Meier; Jon Stewart (on video); and Florida activist Rita Solnet - who protested the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind, and the current administration's Race to the Top, which, to the disappointment of many Obama supporters, is as punitive and at least as test-centric as NCLB.
If their message has been heard before, this part was new: It was the first time that teachers from across the country have raised their voices publicly in protest of education policies at a Washington rally.
I don't know how members of the audience (the Park Service unofficially estimated as many as 8,000 attended, more than some had predicted and fewer than some had hoped) withstood the heat but they did, and then they marched to the White House, in hopes that someone would let President Obama know about their disappointment in his education policies.
[Note: Some have questioned whether I was an active participant in the Save Our Schools march. I was not. I was invited to be a speaker at a two-day conference that preceded the rally and I declined long ago. Readers of this blog know that I rather obviously have opinions about school reform but I don't participate in advocacy events.]
While U.S. legislators on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue were embroiled in negotiations to try to stop the country from defaulting on its debts, the rally and march, planned for many months, went on, noting that the health of the public education system is just as key to the country's future as anything else.
Critics of the march had claimed that it was union-inspired but, though some speakers were union members, this wasn't a union-organized or inspired march but actually a grass-roots production organized by teachers, parents and others. (The 15-member executive committee was testament to that.)
Critics also accused participants of supporting "the status quo," which is a phrase commonly used by modern school reform leaders to disparagingly suggest that they would rather keep bad teachers in classrooms than fire them. It's nonsense (the issue is how to give teachers due process). If any of these critics listened, they would have heard people literally desperate for some sense to be returned to education policy.
Ravitch, whose best-selling 2010 "The Life and Death of the Great American School System" helped galvanize teachers to publicly protesting their discontent with former president Bush's No Child Left Behind, and the current administration's Race to the Top, told the crowd that public schools are "not shoe stores" and shouldn't be managed as businesses.
"We are here to stand up for basic American values," she said. "The shame of our nation is that we lead the developed world in childhood poverty," she said, then noting that our best schools, those with the fewest children who live in poverty, rank on international tests at least as high as any other nation.
Her celebrity with people in the crowd was such that when she was done, they began to chant, "Thank you."
Speakers protested policies that evaluate teachers based on standardized tests, and that scapegoat teachers for things over which they have no control (such as whether a student comes to school hungry, tired, sick or entirely disinterested).
Damon, who has spoken before publicly about testing mania, was there because his mother, Carlsson Paige, asked him to come. She is a childhood development expert and a professor at Lesley University in Cambridge and was involved with the march.
It is one of the unfortunate aspects of American culture that celebrities get listened to more than everybody else - even, and maybe especially, in Washington, D.C.
If Washington's policymakers don't want to listen to teachers - and so far, they haven't - just maybe they will take a minute to read Damon's speech. It was smart and powerful. (I will post it separately.)
They could learn from it.
Matt Damon: Stop the War on Teachers (Video)
Zaid Jilani, ThinkProgress: "Actor and activist Matt Damon spoke at the Save Our Schools rally today... We asked him about how teachers unions are being demonized in much of the media and teachers are being blamed as the root of all problems in public education. Damon told us that the attacks on teachers unions are part of a larger 'war on unions over the last decade' and condemned 'punitive policies' that punish teachers without looking at the social factors that lead to student achievement."
Watch the Video
The White House Reacts
Save Our Schools March leaders answer White House invitation
By Valerie Strauss
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama was swept into office amid calls for change in the country on issues ranging from the economy to education. Almost three years after his election, those who enthusiastically supported his candidacy are calling for him to fulfill his campaign promises and bring United States public education into the 21st century.
On Saturday the Save Our Schools march took place in Washington, D.C., at the Ellipse just south of the White House. The purpose of the event was to get federal officials to listen to teachers, parents and students -- the people who are closest to the education process.
Speakers included former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, Academy Award-winning actor Matt Damon and Damon's mother, Nancy Carlson Paige, a former Massachusetts public school teacher.
"We need to give students a sense of hope," Ravitch told The Huffington Post. When asked for specific policy proposals Ravitch said, "We need to stop high-stakes testing and we need more funding for early childhood education."
About 4000 people were in attendance and came from all over the country to bring to the light the current state of United States public education.
Kelly Hiegl, a public school teacher from Milwaukee, came to protest the budget cuts in Wisconsin.
"We're losing specialists in classes, we're being laid off -- the detriment is going to be tremendous," Hiegl told The Huffington Post. "We need collective bargaining back, we need to be able negotiate and we need funding so urban and suburban students have equal opportunity
Organizers of Saturday's Save Our Schools March in Washington, D.C., have declined an invitation to meet today at the White House with education advisers to President Obama, saying they would instead be available after the march.http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/save-our-schools-march-leaders-answer-white-house-invitation/2011/07/29/gIQAaCYwgI_blog.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/30/save-our-schools-march-ca_n_914100.htmlWASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama was swept into office amid calls for change in the country on issues ranging from the economy to education. Almost three years after his election, those who enthusiastically supported his candidacy are calling for him to fulfill his campaign promises and bring United States public education into the 21st century.
On Saturday the Save Our Schools march took place in Washington, D.C., at the Ellipse just south of the White House. The purpose of the event was to get federal officials to listen to teachers, parents and students -- the people who are closest to the education process.
Speakers included former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, Academy Award-winning actor Matt Damon and Damon's mother, Nancy Carlson Paige, a former Massachusetts public school teacher.
"We need to give students a sense of hope," Ravitch told The Huffington Post. When asked for specific policy proposals Ravitch said, "We need to stop high-stakes testing and we need more funding for early childhood education."
About 4000 people were in attendance and came from all over the country to bring to the light the current state of United States public education.
Kelly Hiegl, a public school teacher from Milwaukee, came to protest the budget cuts in Wisconsin.
"We're losing specialists in classes, we're being laid off -- the detriment is going to be tremendous," Hiegl told The Huffington Post. "We need collective bargaining back, we need to be able negotiate and we need funding so urban and suburban students have equal opportunity
Blog from a Tired Teacher
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/31/1001217/-reflections-from-a-tired-teacher?via=siderecent
Paul Gorski shared this update from being there.
Hanging at the Save Our Schools conference in DC this week. Kozol was a keynote. Cool. But I'm torn about the other keynoter, Diane Ravitch. Yes, she's written some good stuff LATELY and she's got a big, fat platform. But what about all those activists and authors and teachers who spent years fighting to eliminate NCLB and had to fight against Ravitch and her big, fat platform in order to do so? Why not give the air time to somebody who knew from the beginning that NCLB was unjust and part of the corporatocracy? I know folks like the repentant story lines and all, but hell, why give so much air time to somebody who profited mightily for years by arguing on the side of injustice, who scoffed at multiculturalism and social justice for a decade or two, who used a national profile to battle against everything that those committed to social justice and equity were fighting for? I've been surprised that there doesn't seem to be much discussion about this. Perhaps I'm alone in this assessment...
I was thinking some of those thoughts too.
Bonnie