Restore Recess Party New York State- Education Program REVISED!

1. Restore Recess. No use of Recess or Physical Education time for Test prep
2. Cut the state testing budget in half and use the money to lower class size and fund arts programs, sports programs and school counselors.
3. No Data Sharing. No information about children can be shared with anyone outside of the school district without parental permission
4 Create a new Education Policy Committee to replace the Education Reform Commission, and require it to have a majority of currently active teachers and parents
5. End the use of student test scores in teacher evaluations.
6. Cancel all State Education Contracts with for profit companies
7. Stop all School Closings- Help Schools in Trouble, Don’t Close Them
8. End state support for the Common Core Standards- Leave that decision up to each individual school district. 
9. Multiply the number of portfolio schools which require no tests at all. Let teachers and parents form them within the public school system, not as charters
10. Bring back vocational and technical education into every school district if parents and teachers support it
11. Withdraw from Race to the Top and take no Federal Funds that require more testing, more school closings, or adoption of Common Core Standards
12. Make sure all schools, especially those in high poverty areas, have strong after school programs.
13, Make Community History welcome in the schools.
14. Encourage the creation of school farms and gardens.15. Exempt special needs students from all state tests and require that they get instruction appropriate to their developmental level and aptitudes
15. Exempt special needs students from all state tests and require that they get instruction appropriate to their developmental level and aptitudes.
16. Guarantee certified librarians in all schools to help students research, think critically, read widely and become informed citizens.

Standing Up for Children and for Freedom of Speech

As we approach the New Year, I am more and more grateful for the existence of BATS United Opt Out and Lace to the Top. Every day, I read, or am sent, stories of teachers being intimidated by administrators for speaking out against new curricula and evaluation methods, and micromanaged to the point that all joy departs from their jobs. Along with these come stories of children tested to the point of humiliation, and of families threatened for daring to opt their children out of excessive or developmentally inappropriate tests, or even asking questions about these tests.

Our public schools have never been perfect, and in some parts of the nation they have been troubled, but never has intimidation and the suppression of free speech become so epidemic in school districts throughout the nation, be they rural, suburban or urban, low, moderate or high performing. And the situation is even worse most of the charter schools which are presented as an alternative to public ones.

This poisonous culture of intimidation is not just a threat to public education, it is a threat to democracy itself. The imposition of Common Core Standards is a perfect example of this. They have been forced upon school districts throughout the nation without any field testing, without discussion, and above all without dissent. Those who raise questions are attacked, marginalized, sometimes threatened with loss of employment.

There is no polite way to fight this. It must be resisted fiercely, by people willing to speak out in and if necessary disrupt meetings, engage in marches, demonstrations and strikes, vote out candidates who support the testing and intimidation machine, and take actions to disrupt the flow of data that makes the system run.

It needs people who are bold, disruptive, and impolite- in a word BADASS.

There are tens of thousands of us now. There will be a lot more of us by the Summer.

There is no compromise with Abuse of Children and Violations of Freedom of Speech!

What BATS Do

Last night, somebody asked me what BATS do. Here is what I answered - with a few additions

1. Working to elect people to school boards, union offices, city councils and legislatures who stand strong for public education and rolling back testing.

2. Testifying at all of the institutions represented above when they hold public forums.

3.  Supporting ballot initiatives and petition drives which work toward rolling back testing and the implementation of Common Core, and protecting teachers pensions and collective bargaining rights.

4  Organizing marches, rallies, and when appropriate civil disobedience to defend teachers, students and public education.

5. Standing strong in behalf of Special Needs and ELL students and supporting communities fighting against schools closings and forced imposition of charter schools

6 Supporting the Opt out movement and protests against Common Core.

And Last but not least organizing a Teachers March on Washington which will also be a Festival and a Celebration of Teacher Creativity!!

Tough Questions to Ask About Charter Schools

The powers that be in the Democratic Party, including our President, have made Charter Schools their main vehicle for educational renewal in low income communities. And there are more than a few civil rights leaders, and elected officials in Black and Latino communities who view them as a chance to give families in their neighborhoods better educational opportunities. We have now had six years of strong support for Charters from the Obama Administration, backed up by Race to the Top Money.

It is time to ask some hard questions

In those years have we

1. Narrowed the gap in educational achievement by race and class, whether measured by test scores, high school graduation rates, college completion rates, or  more holistic measures?

2. Helped stabilize and improve inner city neighborhoods and protect them from gentrification, displacement and demographic inversion (moving the poor out of cities into the suburbs)?

3. Creating a stable force of talented committed teachers in inner city communities, many of whom live in the communities they teach in?

4. Helped reduce neighborhood and school violence or disrupt the school to prison pipeline?

If the answer to all or most of these questions is no, we-- meaning advocates for public education-- need to get in an honest conversation with the civil rights community about charters, understanding the basis of community support for these schools while respectfully pointing out how real estate interests, profiteers and ambitious politicians have taken what began as an experiment and turned it into a scorched earth policy that may well be doing more harm than good.

The Child Abuse Imposed by Testing: Reflections of Bronx Teacher Chris Whitney

I had a student leave my classroom in an ambulance last year during the middle of a practice test. He was having an asthma attack brought on by panic. He kept saying, "I can't do this." As his teacher, I knew him. I knew that "school" was hard for him and he was trying his best. We all were trying our best to support him: his mom, brother, teachers old and new, staff at school, and the class... his community. Yet, it was not enough that day. I encouraged him to take the test, to keep going, but to what end? To engage with something I knew that he, and many other students were and are not ready to do? Except, the "expectation" is that all students must take the state exam by third grade - just 8 years old - and the "rigor" and "standards" keep going up every few years. More is expected from an earlier and earlier age. So, it becomes "necessary" to begin practice testing in second grade to "get the kids ready." 

We do not need to be holding each other accountable, instead, we should be finding a way to support each other. Federal education policy right now is punitive, developmentally inappropriate, and in the case of my student above - downright abusive. 

Carl Jung said, "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." I do not want to be the kind of teacher that "gets kids ready" for "college and careers." I want kids to feel the joy of being alive, I want kids to sing out in the middle of class "just because," I want kids to laugh, cry, and hold each other when things get hard, I want kids to know that they are not alone, and I want kids to feel love. Most of all, I just want to teach the joy of living... and state testing does not have any place in that vision.

School is hard for the students, families, and those that work there. Mothers say goodbye to their own flesh and blood, trusting that they will be safe and that they will come home at night. Many mothers then go to work to try to provide for their child. Work, lack of sleep, lack of time... repeat. Mother and child. Work. Rigor. Evaluation. Teachers work 12, 13, 14 hour days with little time to do much else besides plan, grade, teach, observe, collect data, enter data, communicate, set expectations... repeat. Forget it if you are BOTH a parent and teacher. Then, you have no time for yourself. Does it have to be this hard? No. A different world is not only possible, but it is necessary.

Ras Baraka for Mayor of Newark

Another important Mayoral election in the struggle to protect public education- this time in Newark- where Cami Anderson is the Superintendent and former Mayor Corey Booker worked arm in glove with NJ Gov Chris Christie to privatize local schools. The lead Mayoral candidate, Ras Baraka, is a public school principal and the most outspoken opponent of the Christie/Anderson strategy to turn Newark into an all charter district on the model of Detroit and New Orleans. A Baraka victory, coming on top of the DeBlasio victory in New York, will be a powerful sign that that grass roots forces are brewing in the Democratic Party to resist Race to the Top, and challenge the Bi Partisan effort- as enthusiastically supported by Bill Clinton and Barack Obama as George Bush father and son- to privatize America's public schools. Keep your eye on the Newark race. This is another chance for teachers to change the course of history.

What Veteran Teachers Should Do to Protect Themselves From Being Driven out of the Profession

The more I talk to teachers around the country, the more I am convinced that School Reformers and Government Officials are making a systematic effort to drive the best veteran teachers out of the profession, both to save money and destroy the historic memory of a time when teachers had real autonomy and input into decisions about pedagogy and curriculum. The harassment and micromanagement such teachers experience is sometimes subtle, sometimes vicious, explicit and direct, but it is taking place in almost every school district in the country. If you are such a teacher, and the harassment has not yet reached intolerable proportions, I have two pieces of advice for you: 1. Start identifying lawyers in your area who handle employment issues, in case you need to retain one and 2. Start cultivating a political base among your former students ( if you teach in high school) and parents of former students ( if you teach in elementary school or middle school) who can get involved in putting pressure on the principal, the school district, and the press should you come under attack. The latter strategy is one I have followed in my University ever since I began teaching there in a field ( African American Studies) which administrators didn't respect and it has helped protect me, and my Department in very difficult moments. Of course universities are not directly comparable to public schools, but having a team of supporters ready to come to your defense is something that I think teachers have to do in this toxic political climate. Many great teachers already have these connections so I am not asking you to reinvent the wheel- just prepare to use your networks to prevent cynical administrators from driving you out of a job you love.