Showing posts with label Change the stakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Change the stakes. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Fight Back Against Cuomo: This Friday! Brooklyn Meeting with Change the Stakes

I know to some this is far out but if parents didn't let their kids take the tests, that denies the deformers the data they need to create their mayhem. Thus helping the opt-out movement grow should be on every teacher's agenda. Change the Stakes is helping lead that movement here in the city.


We hope you will join us for this important meeting of Brooklyn based parents and teachers, concerned members of the community and anyone opposed to the over testing that is harming our children and our schools.


Please share this with your local community! Working together is what will change the current system that is failing our children.



BROOKLYN GENERAL MEETING
Governor Cuomo has promised to go after public school teachers, continue to emphasize test and punish policies and replace our community schools with privately run and operated charter schools.
 
SAVE THE DATE:  
Friday, January 9, 2015, 6-8 pm
Location: Panera Bread, upper level,
345 Adam Street, Downtown Brooklyn
Trains: 2,3,4,5 to Court Street/ A,C,F,R to Jay St-Brooklyn Tech
Buses: 25, 26, 38, 41, 52, 57, 61, 65, 67, 103

Join us to discuss strategies for
organizing in our schools and communities.
All are welcome!

Rally-April 8.jpg
for resources and other events.

Monday, January 5, 2015

Change the Stakes' Rosalie Friend Dismantles VAM

Rosalie Friend from our partner org Change the Stakes takes on VAM head on. These comments appear at the CTS site: CTS Comments on Proposed Federal Regs for Teacher Education Programs.

CTS will be leading the opt-out battle here in NYC this coming testing season. Teachers should realize that with the Cuomo anti-teacher pro-charter assault, one of their few methods of defense is by supporting the opt-out movement -- no data, no ineffective ratings. While opt-out might not work at the secondary school level, for elementary school teachers providing parents with opt-out info can have a long-term effect. See the video at CTS: NYC Parents Talk about Why They’re Refusing the Tests and download 12 Reasons to Opt Out (pdf) to share with parents.

Diane Ravitch featured Rosalie's comments.

This is an excellent letter to the U.S. Department of Education, which patiently explains the harm caused by value-added modeling (VAM). It was submitted by a Néw York group called "Change the Stakes," which opposes high-stakes testing. The letter was written by psychologist Dr. Rosalie Friend, a member of Change the Stakes. It is a good source for parents and educators who want to explain why testing is being overused and misused.

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Video: Change the Stakes Rally at Tweed Apr 24 14 - Parents and Students Speak

Here are 2 videos extracted from the Change the Stakes rally on April 24 at Tweed. First parents speak and the 2nd one is a group of amazing high school students from The Student Union, a grassroots true student first bunch of kids. We met Primi at a Change the Stakes meeting last year and she is so articulate it makes me feel like I have marbles in my mouth. One note is that one of her teachers has been Jeff Kaufman's wife, Beth. Primi is entering Columbia next fall - so thank goodness we are not losing her here in NYC. If I had a daughter - or granddaughter, Primi would be my ideal. I think I'll adopt her -


Parent video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9t_L7g6yhI




Student video
http://youtu.be/vMxFDhK3sR0



=====
The MarketPlace on NPR reported on the rally.

Get the audio report:

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/education/new-york-parents-opt-out-high-stakes-tests

New York parents opt out of high stakes tests


Last year, Amelia Costigan watched as her twin sons and their fourth-grade classmates prepared for the new state tests. It was the first year New York’s assessments were based on the Common Core, the nationally standardized curricula that many states have adopted in recent years. And, a lot was at stake in New York. The kids literally worried themselves sick. 
“My kids had trouble sleeping,” Costigan says. “Other kids had stomach aches. Kids were going to the doctors, and the doctors were saying it looked like it was stress from the test.”
The tests determined whether her sons advanced to the next grade, or got into a top middle school. Scores also played into teacher evaluations and school rankings. This year, Costigan and the parents of eight other kids at her school decided they didn’t want their kids to participate. 

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Refuse the Tests: Change the Stakes Releases Video

Amazing - Lisa Donlan, parent, CEC 1
Join the hundreds of NYC parents -- let's make it thousands -- who are refusing to let their children take the NYS tests, which begin April 1st! Watch our powerful new video where parents explain why they're opting out! Visit the Change the Stakes website to view the video and access information that tells you how to opt your child out of the tests. If you have questions, email us at changethestakes@gmail.com. http://changethestakes.wordpress.com/ 
We don't have $4 million for ads, but we have great people. The UFT should take this and run it as an ad for one even one day. 

Kudos to the wonderful crew at Change the Stakes and  who organized this little gem with filmmaker Michael Elliot. What a cooperative effort - draft after draft with the crew offering comments and the clip getting better and better. We don't need no stink'n hedge fund scum.




Number of NYC Parents Refusing State Tests Expected to Triple in 2014

What began two years ago as a small pocket of resistance has burgeoned into a full-blown protest movement: public school parents are demanding an end to the excessive use of standardized tests and top-down, corporate-backed reforms.  Change the Stakes estimates that three times as many NYC school children as last year – perhaps exceeding 1,000 – will refuse to take the annual English Language Arts (ELA) and math exams that begin next week. FULL STORY HERE

12 Reasons to Opt Out (pdf)

How to Opt-Out

Sample Opt-Out Letters

English: .html | .doc
Spanish: .html | .doc

Will My School Lose Funding?

See NYSAPE: The 95% Participation Rate and How Schools Do NOT Lose Funding

From the NYC Department of Education

For the official take, see the NYCDOE’s Student Participation in Grades 3-8 New York State Tests Parent Guide (pdf)

Change the Stakes Press Release: Number of NYC Parents Refusing State Tests Expected to Triple in 2014


Change the Stakes

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                              
March 26, 2014

CONTACT: 
           
Number of NYC Parents Refusing State Tests Expected to Triple in 2014

New York City –What began two years ago as a small pocket of resistance has burgeoned into a full-blown protest movement: public school parents are demanding an end to the excessive use of standardized tests and top-down, corporate-backed reforms.  Change the Stakes estimates that three times as many NYC school children as last year – perhaps exceeding 1,000 – will refuse to take the annual English Language Arts (ELA) and math exams that begin next week.

At the Brooklyn New School, well over 200 students – nearly 80% of students in testing grades – will not take this year’s exams; last year only 4 BNS students opted out of the tests. The estimated test refusal rate at the Earth School in Manhattan is 50%, compared with 30% last year. At P.S. 446 in Brownsville, as many as 25 3rd grade parents have submitted refusal letters. At the Academy of Arts and Letters in Fort Greene, the number is 40, representing 75% of the 3rd grade. Principals say they expect the numbers to continue to rise until the exams begin April 1st.

Although children not taking the tests span the full range from 3rd to 8th grade, parents of younger children often refuse the tests because of changes in their child’s attitude toward school as a result of the testing.

Roseanne Cuffy-Scott, parent of a 3rd grader in the East Village said, “My son used to love going to school until his evenings were filled with homework assignments that confused him with complicated and poorly written math and reading questions. His assignments are stressful for both him and myself. I have to spend hours explaining concepts that he's not ready for developmentally.” As for the tests, she said her son is nervous and “is fearful he will have to attend summer school or repeat third grade.”

Many parents refusing to have their children tested encounter supportive principals and teachers, while others are not so fortunate. Samantha De Los Santos, parent of a 3rd grader with special needs in Queens’ District 25, wants to opt her son out but says administrators and staff are pressuring her to allow her son to be tested. “They’re telling me he’ll be scored as failing if he doesn’t take the test and that he might not be promoted. They’re really scaring me.”

The lack of direction from the NYC Department of Education has led to uncertainty among administrators about how to respond to families refusing the tests; parents are still seeking guidance from the DOE. Although the new Chancellor, Carmen Fariña, has made clear her intent to be more responsive to parents, her department’s efforts have been hampered by the transition falling in the middle of the school year and pressure to tackle a multitude of issues at once.

The information vacuum has fostered misinformation, with students being threatened with various punishments – being forced to attend summer school or denied promotion as well as being excluded from graduation ceremonies and other school celebrations – for opting out of the tests.

But many parents refuse to be dissuaded from protecting their children from a public education system gone wrong. Dawn Babbush, a 3rd grade parent in Brooklyn’s District 13, asks “What has happened to our schools? How did it get this bad? The voices of trusted educators and caring parents have been completely disregarded.  Our children are being subjected to a curriculum that lacks joy and life – it’s scripted and standardized and full of test prep. Test scores are used to sort students and rank teachers, creating a climate of competition and fear. It's no wonder teachers feel pressure to teach to the test.”

Ms. Babbush added, “This is not the education we want for our children and we will not stand for it any longer. Parents have a voice, and our elected officials need to recognize us. We'll be paying attention come November.”

###

Change the Stakes (changethestakes.org) is a group of New York City parents and educators promoting alternatives to high stakes-testing. 

 


Thursday, December 12, 2013

Rosalie Friend Reports on Ravitch and Farina at PS 15

Excellent report from Rosalie as a follow-up to the report I received yesterday (Carmen Farina Introduces Diane Ravitch at PS 15K Community Library Opening).
And by the way, for those who don't get what school-based organizing is all about, check out an expert like Julie Cavanagh.
From Rosalie Friend to Change the Stakes Listserve:
At the presentation at PS 15, Carmen Farina seemed to back Diane's assertion that we need to return to a district system in which district supervisors are responsible for neighborhood schools. Carmen spoke of the importance of providing a GOOD school for every child in every neighborhood.
Diane spoke about the influence of private money in politics and school decisions. She cited an upcoming conference on how to make money in public education. She mentioned the methods the corporate "reformers" are using to minimize the cost of teachers' salaries. She also said that as she travels to schools around the country she finds a lot of fraudulent financial dealings among the charters.
I asked about whether we should be tackling Common Core when we have such a big challenge in getting rid of high stakes tests and getting small classes, support services like social workers, psychologists, and nurses, and effective programs like reading recovery. She responded that common core was going to drain resources from everything else, because of the need to buy huge amounts of computer equipment and services. The tests for the Common Core are going to be administered on computers. She also criticized the idea of having computers grade essay questions (one of my pet peeves).
Diane said she is hoping that Bill de Blasio will be the leader who will challenge the free market approach and the corporate "reformers." Jim Devor, who knows de Blasio from the District 15 school board, was much much less hopeful, though he did not give any specifics.
The audience was a mix of teachers, parents, and community members. Many were local, but there were several from Manhattan and one lady from the Bronx who had traveled to see Diane Ravitch. We heard from one distressed parent whose daughter is struggling with deadening lessons and poor test scores despite good classwork. There was a full range of age among attendees. I gave out 80-90 Change the Stakes fliers, so maybe we will get some new members.
Three cheers for Julie, her PS 15 colleagues, and the student "ambassadors" who guided us through the school to the library.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Turn on, Tune in, Opt Out: Change the Stakes Featured in Article in The Nation

Diana Zavala says parents are taking the reins of school governance, but with one key difference from administrators: “You can’t fire us.”... The Nation
 
Wooo hooo. Our awesome parent activists make the big time. Now I'm definitely going to the CTS steering committee meeting this afternoon at the very least to congratulate the CTS/MORE crew: Jia Lee (teacher/parent activist, MORE steering committee member and all over the place), Diana Zavala (the cover gal in the current issue of the MORE newsletter), Dao Tran (Peter Lamphere's partner) and our upstate and PA pals: Chris Cerrone, Tim Slekar of United Opt-Out.

Parents opting out is the best way to defeat the data munching machine looking to fire teachers and degrade and deprivatize students. Our union here does not have the will or the guts or even the belief to support the opt-out movement whereas in Chicago Karen Lewis is openly supporting it.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/176994/turn-tune-opt-out#


Turn on, Tune in, Opt Out

Owen Davis and StudentNation on November 5, 2013 - 2:32 PM ET

A 2012 rally held by United Opt Out (Licensed through Creative Commons (Courtesy of Flickr user Chalkface, CC BY-SA 2.0)

At a September 16 PTA meeting, Castle Bridge elementary school parents received some unwelcome news: the New York City Department of Education was dropping new standardized tests on their children in kindergarten through second grade. Kindergarteners would take a break from learning the alphabet to bubble A through D on multiple-choice exams. Images next to each problem—a tree, a mug, a hand—would serve as signposts for students still fuzzy on numbers.
The district purchased the tests to meet the state's new teacher evaluation laws. In elementary schools that don’t serve grades three through eight, No Child Left Behind testing dictates don’t apply, necessitating a supplemental test. Castle Bridge, a progressive K-2 public school in Washington Heights, is among 36 early elementary schools in the New York City targeted for the new assessments.
According to Castle Bridge mom Dao Tran, those at the PTA meeting were appalled. This was the first they’d heard of the tests. Talk of refusal arose among some parents, but they knew that “acting as individuals wouldn’t keep testing culture from invading our school.” They opted for collective action.
Starting in early October, a core group organized meetings, disseminated fact-sheets on standardized testing and galvanized a spirited conversation at the next PTA meeting. Parents shared their concerns, weighing the risks of refusal. At one meeting a parent whose first language was Spanish testified to the pain and anxiety brought on by taking standardized tests in his youth. 
Within three weeks, 80 percent of parents had submitted in writing their intention to opt out of the new tests. Principal Julie Zuckerman put her weight behind the families, agreeing, according to Tran, that “these tests would be the wrong thing to do.”
In a statement, parents wrote, “The K-2 high-stakes tests take excessive testing to its extreme: testing children as young as four serves no meaningful educative purpose and is developmentally destructive.”
By October 28, families of 93 of the 97 students subject to the tests had opted out. The near-unanimous boycott is unprecedented in the city.
It also signals the first stirrings of a growing test-resistance movement poised to reach new heights this academic year.
---
“Who do you like more: A, Mommy; B, Daddy; or C, Frederick Douglas?”
When eight year-old Jackson Zavala posed this multiple-choice query to his baby sister, his mother Diana Zavala knew something was amiss.
Jackson, a student with special needs in communications, had been a “curious, interested” student until third grade, the first year NCLB-mandated state tests take effect. It was then his mother noticed that he “became anxious and bored by school.” She saw that his homework had become rote and repetitive, his class time devoted more to test prep, and his speech inflected with the language of multiple choice testing.
In time Zavala decided that the influence of testing in class had led to “damage to his personal well-being and originality” and “a strangling of his curriculum.”
She poked around and found a New York City-based test resistance group called Change the Stakes. With the group’s support, opting-out was a less fraught decision. “We had a family, a connection with a community of people” also resisting the test.
For the last two years, Jackson has refused state exams.
But actions like Zavala’s have been sporadic in recent years. It wasn't until this past spring that the testing opt-out movement had its first bumper crop.
In January, high school teacher and activist Jesse Hagopian helped lead the dramatic test boycott at Seattle’s Garfield High School. Teachers refused to administer, and students refused to take the state test, which organizers argued wasn’t aligned to curriculum and provided statistically unreliable results. After a months-long standoff with the district which saw teachers threatened with suspension, the district relented and allowed the high school to forgo the test.
Since spring, Hagopian has been traveling the country speaking at events and advising schools “who want to replicate” the success of Garfield’s boycott. He even took part in a panel at NBC’sEducation Nation in early October to rail against “the inundation of our classrooms with standardized testing.”
But while Seattle attracted the lion’s share of national media attention, schools throughout the country saw increasing numbers of students refuse standardized tests. Denver, Chicago, Portland, Providence and elsewhere witnessed opt-outs large and small.
Parent groups in Texas succeeded in halving the number of standardized tests given there. Students donned fake gore for “zombie crawls” in two cities, highlighting the deadening effects of test-mania. Little ones participated in a “play-in” at district offices in Chicago, living the motto that tots “should be blowing bubbles, not filling them in.”
This activism comes as a reaction to the growth of a testing apparatus unmatched in US history. Bipartisan No Child Left Behind legislation in 2002 laid the groundwork, requiring states to develop assessments for all students in grades 3-8, and threatening schools that fall short of yearly benchmarks. The Obama Administration's Race to the Top heightened the stakes, encouraging states to develop test-based teacher evaluations and adopt Common Core standards.
Together they aim to capture all the complexities of a student’s learning in a few digits that sometimes add up to schools closed and teachers fired. Meanwhile three quarters of districts facing NCLB sanctions have reported cutting the time allotted to non-tested subjects like science and music. And since Race to the Top’s passage in 2009, about two thirds of states have ramped up their teacher evaluation systems, with 38 now explicitly requiring evaluations to include test scores.
As standardized testing has grown, so too has its shadow. In 2011, the United Opt Out movement was established to counter the pro-testing mania sweeping the country. Its website provides opt-out guides for 49 states and the District of Columbia, and connects a burgeoning community of grumbling and disaffected parents.
“I didn’t ask for high-stakes testing,” says Tim Slekar, United Opt Out’s founder. Slekar sees participating in a large-scale opt-out movement as a way for him and his children to “reclaim public education.”
United Opt Out currently claims six thousand members, but Slekar says its ranks are ballooning. “I’ve spoken to more parents in the last three weeks than in the past three years.”
In New York, dozens of grassroots organizations have emerged to address testing. Parent advocates recently formed New York State Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE) to serve as an umbrella group. The organization draws together parents from big cities and sleepy byways, united in “seeing the damage to the kids,” says NYSAPE co-founder Chris Cerrone.
In the tiny West New York district where Cerrone’s children go to school, the number of students opting out rose sixfold between 2012 and 2013. At Springville Middle School, enough students boycotted to trigger NCLB’s Adequate Yearly Progress alarms.
NYSAPE has scrutinized state opt-out procedures and found New York has no provision for addressing student test refusal. The knowledge that students can forgo tests without individual repercussions has emboldened parents across the state.
In schools from Long Island to Albany, from the Adirondacks to Lower Manhattan, students pushed their pencils aside and refused state tests this past spring. It was a high water mark for the opt-out movement in New York, but still totaled less than one percent of students.
The question remains as to whether boycotts that exceed 5 percent of a school’s population, and thus preclude schools from making Adequate Yearly Progress, can invite consequences. National testing advocacy group Fairtest treads cautiously here.
Chris Cerrone calls it “a myth,” however, pointing to the fact that despite increasing opt outs, no school in New York has lost funding due to student test refusal. But it's still unclear. 
---
On October 27, eight days after the Castle Bridge boycott went public, the Chief Academic Officer of New York City schools told a state Senate committee that the K-2 bubble tests the city had selected in August were “developmentally inappropriate.” He indicated that the city would move towards “performance assessments” in these grades, noting that the new state teacher evaluation law mandates some form of assessment in these grades.
It’s the latest in a series of conciliatory gestures by the Department of Education toward parents and educators who’ve been raising hackles for years.
Some of the most aggressive pushing on testing recently comes from grassroots anti-testing group Change the Stakes. Incited by the perceived onslaught of Common Core-aligned state tests, the group published sample opt-out letters and rallied parents at numerous schools in support of a boycott.
This knowledge is empowering. Parents at Castle Bridge delighted at the realization that they could yank their kids from tests. Don Lash, parent of a Castle Bridge first-grader, said “just being aware there was an alternative” was a revelation.
Similar resistance efforts are underway at Earth School, a K-5 elementary in the same progressive network as Castle Bridge, where 51 students opted out last year. Special education teacher and parent Jia Lee played a central role in organizing last spring’s boycott, which included her fifth-grade son. Though many teachers will only whisper their support with opt-out parents, Lee is unafraid to speak publicly.
As a teacher, Lee wearied of the third-party test-prep materials flowing into schools. “You don’t need packaged curriculum to have meaningful learning,” she says. As a parent and CTS member, she feels “the only way to stop this is to deny the data.”
And in her advocacy, Lee sees the movement in the city metastasizing. “Schools that weren’t talking about this last year are starting to talk,” she says.
Parents at Castle Bridge likely won’t be backing down. Says Castle Bridge parent Vera Moore, “I will oppose testing as long as I am able.”
Interestingly, Shael Polakow-Suranksy, New York’s Chief Academic Officer, isn’t drawing any red lines on test refusal. Regarding Castle Bridge, he said there would be “no consequences.” And children who opt out of state exams can still advance to the next grade, so long as they submit alternative portfolios, as per district policy. On the possibility of future boycotts, Polakow-Suransky won’t speculate. The recent boycott had little or no effect on his decision to renounce bubble tests for toddlers. “Preceding the news of the boycott we were exploring other options,” he says.
But it’s not just K-2 tests that parents are resisting. The opt-out movement reflects the inevitable response of citizens when dramatic changes are imposed unilaterally on democratic institutions. Unable to influence the content of curricula or nature of assessments through democratic means, direct resistance becomes perhaps the only option.
Diana Zavala says parents are taking the reins of school governance, but with one key difference from administrators: “You can’t fire us.”

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Reposted With Great Graphic: Change the Stakes General Meeting, Friday, October 25




I'm reposting with the great graphic above from Diana Zavala (Feedblitz subscribers who are inundated with Ed Notes posts will NOT be happy). 

Members of CTS (mostly parents) played a significant role in this week's opt-out story out of Castle Hill School in Washington Hts (Parents Lead Massive Opt-Out of Kindergarten Tests in Washington Hts (District 6) and have been active on a number of fronts (Change the Stakes: New York City Public School Parents Deserve to be Heard by Education Commissioner John King)

There will also be a report on plans for the Oct. 30 PEP which will include a funeral for the schools closed and co-located by Bloomberg. 

PLEASE JOIN US AT OUR MONTHLY OPEN MEETING 


Change the Stakes General Meeting
Friday, October 25
5:30 - 7.30 pm
When:  Fri, October 25, 5:30pm – 7:30pm
Where:  CUNY Graduate Center located on 365 5th Avenue Room 5489. Bring Photo ID for building entry

Agenda for Oct 25:

1. Introductions
2. Discussion:  How are students experiencing assessment this year? Begin with a

report from Dao from Castle Bridge, K-2 testing boycott,
 
                       
after which
,
 teachers will discuss the teacher evaluation and
present relevant literature. 
3. Report back:

  • Governance,  Promotions, CEC initiative: Discuss talking points and do role play for crafting effective communications.
  • Open up to group for additional issues that others feel are relevant at this time.
4. Committee working:

  • Review committee descriptions and invite members to join committees.
  • Committee report backs on current and upcoming initiatives.  
  • Committee break out groups.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Change the Stakes to Discuss DOE's Bankrupt Student Promotion Policies, MORE Study Group on HST

Our meetings are always open and all are welcome.  I can guarantee a lively discussion!  Promotion policies will be the focus on the agenda as well as ways we will move forward to plan for next year.  School may be out for summer, but our work will continue... Janine Sopp
With NYC's bankrupt student promotion policies placing even higher levels of stress on the families of the City's elementary, middle, and high school students, we invite you to join us next Friday.

What - Change the Stakes monthly meeting
When - Friday, June 28th, 5:30-7:30 PM
Where - Room 4202, CUNY Grad Center (5th Avenue between 34th and 35th Streets)

Open to all. Please bring a photo ID to enter the building.

The stuff flying back and forth on the CTS listserve over the reactions of DOE slugs to the opt-out movement has been more than intense -- with threats to force some parents to send their kids to summer school. The epicenter seems to be in District 6 in Washington Hts.

For those not aware, GEM developed 2 branches: CTS and MORE, both independent now (GEM is currently not functioning as an organization). The MORE July 11 summer series event on high stakes testing will bring elements of both groups together.

In the meantime, MORE is running a study group on high stakes testing and is meeting Saturday at 1PM


We're starting off our next working group meeting with a discussion of the first chapter in Unequal By Design by Wayne Au, followed by developing some common understandings to frame the debate around HST, and planning for the summer series event! 

Interested in the history of high stakes testing?
What do you think about the fact the HD testing came out of the
eugenics movement?

Join the MORE anti-testing committee
for a study group on Chapter 1 of the book


Unequal by Design by Wayne Au
Available on Amazon.com OR Half.com 
(We can also scan the pgs of Chapter 1 and have it available in drop box. Let us know!)

Saturday, June 22, 1-3 pm
Teachers College library at 
120th and Broadway (525 W. 120th St)
 2nd floor  (talking, eating and drinking are permitted)  
The library is open to the public with a show of ID. 

Hope to see you there! 

Friday, June 14, 2013

IS YOUR CHILD’S PROMOTION IN DOUBT? Find out what you can do about it

Change the Stakes Provides NYC Parents With Resources on Convoluted DOE Promotion Policy.
SO AMAZING!!!! Thank you! Thank you! --- NYC parent (and teacher)
As letters of horror rolled in from parents about threats to hold their kids back if they don't go to summer school, the CTS crew took on the immense task of collating lots of invaluable info.

It takes a village and Change the Stakes is a VILLAGE.

I always say that given where CTS started less than two years ago, and the fact that the people running it today mostly came on board later on (I play almost no role other than cheer-leading) seeing their output and the spirit with which this now almost all parent group works is one of the most gratifying aspects of activism. It makes this old guy kvell.

Please share this info with your students' parents.

Here is the email from Janine Sopp (who claims she has become this amazing parent activist after being inspired by our film.)

The CtS Student Promotion committee (Andrea, Jane, Diana, Nancy, Deborah, Igor, Lisa Shaw, and Jia) did an amazing job of creating new materials and assembling links to answer many of the questions and concerns you may have about your child's promotion.  It is all posted on our website in two different ways.  The first is on the homepage and a featured post, the second is in a stationary position under opt out/portfolio assessment.

We hope you find this helpful and encourage you to share this information with other parents, teachers and administrators.  Thanks for your patience and for the hard work the committee did on this!

http://changethestakes.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/questions-about-student-promotion-decisions-this-year-change-the-stakes-resources-and-additional-links-right-here/

http://changethestakes.wordpress.com/national-opt-out-movement/opt-into-portfolios/promotion-in-doubt-what-parents-need-to-know/

June 14 Mayoral Forum, June 15-16 booth at Clearwater Festival

Additional news:
     June 14, 6-8 PM at Murray Bergtraum HS 7 candidates for mayor will respond to questions from 15 parents representing a range of education groups and unions.  See attached flier

June 15-16 Michael Shaw, David Greene, and Rosalie Friend will host a Save Our Schools booth in the activists area of the Clearwater Hudson River Revival at Croton Point Park on the Hudson River.  The Clearwater is a replica of the wooden sloops that carried freight up and down the Hudson River.  It was created by Pete Seeger and others to focus efforts to clean up the Hudson River and enhance the environmental health of the Hudson River Valley.  The festival is a huge gathering - 20,000 people, 7 stages of music, dance and story-telling, plus crafts, activists, and a children's area.  If you attend the festival, be sure to come to our booth.
The Save Our Schools booth will ask people to respond to the question of the Campaign for Artful Resistance, "What is it you love about school that you have lost because of high stakes testing, school closings, budget cuts, curriculum losses, teacher firings, and other educational catastrophes?" by creating a tweet of 140 characters or drawing a picture.  Tweets and pictures will be photographed and posted in the on line Gallery of the Campaign for Artful Resistance.  At noon Saturday, Terry Moore will play the guitar and sing original songs like "Testing Sells, Testing Smells"  and "There are teachers I'll remember  all my li--ife though schools has changed."   We will also have fliers to distribute about the missions of Save Our Schools and Change the Stakes, and we hope to engage others in our effort.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Friday: Change the Stakes Meeting Focuses on Coming Field Test Boycott

This in from parent activist Janine Sopp. I can't make this meeting as we have an ICE meeting tomorrow but these CTS meetings are becoming the epicenter of the opt-out movement with even people from around the state touching base to widen the impact of the movement beyond the city. There will also be some kind of demo/rally coming up in June. Teachers with parent contacts who might have an interest should be informed about these meeting.

By the way, the CTS group is holding a family picnic in Central Park on Saturday May 18 starting at 3PM, exact location to be announced.

Greetings!

As many of you know, the Pearson field tests are scheduled to hit our schools from June 3-7, less than a month away. Several people have been already been discussing their objection and desired actions against these tests again this year. We invite you to the next Change the Stakes meeting in which a boycott action will be on the agenda. We will have a preliminary discussion and spend some time outlining various strategies. We would like to collaborate with other groups and individuals on this and hope you will join this initial conversation. We are planning another meeting dedicated to this on the Monday following (location TBD) and would like to have as many groups come together. If you cannot make Friday's meeting but want to be involved please reply and we'll be sure to include you in the minutes and next steps. If you have someone who can represent your group, please let us know. We'll send details for the Monday meeting asap. For sure, it will take a group effort to pull off the kind of response we hope to create.

As always, our meetings are open to all but folks need photo ID to enter the building.

Change the Stakes Meeting
Friday, May 10th, 5:30-7:30 PM
CUNY Grad Center, Room 4202

Thanks so much and feel free to share this with others.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

500 Rally at Tweed to Protest Testing Policy Organized by Change the Stakes, Parent Voices and TOFT

A Young MORE
Friday many of us in MORE attended one of the best rallies we've been part of on the steps of Tweed which were packed with parents, teachers and children protesting high stakes tests with many MORE tee-shirts in the crowd. Change the Stakes has emerged out of a committee set up by GEM 2 years ago and has grown into a powerful parent advocacy group. The other teacher oriented arm of GEM inspired and helped organize MORE. Both CTS and MORE are more or less sister organizations but over the past year have not had the time to work as closely together as we should, though I and some other MOREs have been deeply involved in CTS. Below some pics with lots more later in a follow-up and maybe some video tonight.





The UFT had zero presence. When I was asked why I said, "Because the UFT supports high stakes testing." A really good time was had by all and afterwards over a dozen of us went to a local diner to chat about the UFT election results.

Here are some reactions and photos with video to follow in a few days.
Thank you fellow MORE comrades who showed up in numbers and in spirit today!
Police estimated that there were approximately 500 in attendance!
This was not just a parent movement, this is a parent/teacher movement!

I am prompted to write this because of a few questions that have come my way about how this all happened. It is my belief that no matter the conditions at our schools, if we build relationships, the very basic component of a community, we can build this movement across groups.

I have many ideas, but I'd love to have this discussion with anyone who's interested.
This has been a mantra that I've been posting- let's create our own stories and make
theirs obsolete.

"Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but lay siege to it.

To deprive it of oxygen. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature,

our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness- and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we're being brainwashed to believe." - Arundhati Roy

In solidarity,
Jia


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Great wonderful time on the steps of Tweed.
I heard police estimated about 500 people. And they were 500 charged up people, really a beautiful day.

I didn't think I'd touch this computer for a week, but I have a message from TV station News12 the Bronx asking me for footage--believe it or not they are not allowed to leave the Bronx. ( I think it's an insurance matter.)

If anyone has images, moving or still, but preferably moving on their cameras or phones, please send to me or directly to news12bx@news12.com so they can put them in the 10 or 11 pm slot.

I think they are looking for a modest amount of footage --A few minutes should do it.

Please call or email me and I will let them know it's coming.
They already interviewed some parents (in the Bronx) this afternoon.

A beautiful day--and this is only a start! Near the end, seeing the kids on the nearly emptied steps, racing around, was such a sight, bringing some life into that stony building.

cheers,
Jane
ps attached is the press release. many thanks to all who contributed.

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I want to send out huzzahs! to everyone. What a wonderful, warm, passionate crowd!

Janine was great both as organizer, speaker, and mop.
Jane H was great as organizer, of course, & on the scene about changing the chants (to good ones too) just as the current one lost steam.
Jane M - ditto about organizing, getting calls out to press (even if not enough showed up - but they'll start coming more & more, right?), & cheering people on, with & without the new press release.
Parents whose names I don't know (at least I don't remember 'em) were great for showing up, for standing up for what they believe - smiling yet - & some of them for telling their powerful powerful stories.
Teachers like Gia & Lauren who would rather put their jobs on the line than shoot down their own principles: kudos!
AND THOSE KIDS: hallelujah to them all!

You are all so strong! & even though it's a cliche, I'm gonna say it: so beautiful too.

I asked one boy how his test week had gone, & he said he hadn't taken the tests. And how was that? I asked. He shrugged & said, Well the whole blending in thing was a bit hard, but ... Was he the only one? I asked. Yes, he answered, that's what I meant about the blending in thing.

And now to tackle the rest of it, right? including perhaps stirring up a ruckus about the portfolios if they're not really portfolios? And the principals who need to be challenged for harassing the kids as well as their parents? And then, oh bliss: the field tests....

In awe,
Chris O
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Thank you everyone for this wonderful experience! We didn't know what was going to happen and look what our passion and love for our children has brought us. I posted this quote by Arundhati Roy on FB. It's one that I've been using as a mantra almost.

Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness- and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we're being brainwashed to believe. - Arundhati Roy

Looking forward to our work together!

Enjoy the weekend!
xo
Jia
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Lisa S.
Apr 26 (2 days ago)

to CTS
CTS & TOFT, et al, 

Congratulations on the fantastic Rally!   You created an exciting event that helped join many groups against the DOE. I look forward to more unique opportunities to show our solidarity.  It was wonderful to see so many familiar and new faces in the crowd.  The best part was the 'kid friendly' atmosphere.  Special thanks to the tireless rally leaders!


Apr 27 (1 day ago)

to cts-internal
The rally was great!!  Everyone was marvelous. It was well organized.  Lots of people, old & young.  Lots of energy; the band was a good touch.  A dramatic conclusion to weeks of intensive effort on dealing with the tests.  I was happy to be part of it.


Apr 27 (1 day ago)

to cts-internal
Thanks to all who worked to put the rally together.  I have been to many rally rallies in front of Tweed, but this one was one of the biggest and certainly the best with so many children.  The children are really who it is about after all and the kinds of lives and knowledge they will grow up to have (partly based on the learning they experience).  When I rounded the cornor of Chambers street and saw the steps of Tweed filling up, it was such a great feeling.  When is the next CTS meeting? 

Victoria 
9:31 AM (22 hours ago)

to cts-internal
Let me add my gratitude and appreciation to ALL the CTS and others who organized and ran the rally.  It was super!  So many children and GREAT chants and the band - AWESOME!  Thank you all; I have some good shots on fbk and some footage, which I can send tonight to anyone who needs it.
Thanks again!
-Tory
Victoria

Pdobosz5@aol.com
9:45 AM (22 hours ago)

to cts-internal
Congratulations to all the organizers. I have been to more rallies than I can count and this was one of the best. The diversity of children, parents teachers, educators and others interested in education but not necessarily working in schools was amazing. This was democracy at work, speaking out freely and loudly. I will be sending out pictures of the large group, the signs and those wonderful mops.
 
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One parent commented that Gotham Schools
Estimated the crowd at 200 when police said 500 -- thanks for correcting them Fred!
http://gothamschools.org/2013/04/26/on-the-last-day-of-state-testing-a-sigh-of-relief-and-a-protest-rally/


On the last day of state testing, a sigh of relief and a protest rally

I know that some people will accuse Gotham Schools, in service of ed deform, of purposely underestimating the crowd at less than half of police estimates of 500 and for giving more coverage to ed deform supported astroturf organizations but.... well, let me mull this over. I left this comment:
This was one of the biggest outpouring of genuine grassroots parents I've seen and it will only grow. How much more coverage did Gotham give to that phony parent astroturf
"excellence for something" with their claims of 5000 people attending their events? Change the Stakes need to add some version of "excellence" to its name and get money from Walmart.


PRESS RELEASE

TODAY April 26, 2013
NYC PARENTS, STUDENTS and TEACHERS RALLY
IN FRONT OF TWEED COURTHOUSE

Media Contacts:     Jane Hirschmann, 917 679 8343            Jane Maisel, 917 678 1913

DETERMINED TO END HIGH STAKES TESTS

Parents, teachers and students gathered today to demand an end to the policy of high-stakes testing (HST), which they claim interferes with the teaching of subjects in depth and deprives the city’s children of a high-quality education, inflicting damage on them and their communities.

Parents and teachers, sharing the fears caused by threats of school closure and grade retention, said they are fed up and determined to put an end to HST. In fact, the closure and retention policies are what make the tests “high stakes.” Parent Jeff Nichols objects, “I find myself thinking, ‘Duh!’ Get the bureaucrats out of the picture! NO to the state tests because of the whole panoply of abuses they facilitate, but also NO to the whole concept that children are to be judged by paper-pushers who have never met them!” Loretta Prisco, a retired teacher states, “I am totally opposed to holding kids back. It doesn’t work. Think about the kid who is reading on level but has not mastered the math of his grade.”

Martha Foote, a parent of a 5th grader at PS 321 in Brooklyn, says: “High-stakes testing is corrupting and ruining our children’s education. It’s turning our schools into test-prep factories and turning our children away from learning. . . . Parents—from Buffalo to Rockville Centre—are saying enough of this insanity. It’s time to bring real learning back into the classroom.”

Researchers acknowledge an education crisis but say that it is not caused by the public schools. The real cause is our country’s increasing poverty and the growing gap between rich and poor—and the segregation that results. Children who are not living in poverty score as high or higher than students in Finland and other countries with strong school systems. However, a UNICEF study of the well-being of children in wealthy countries issued this month, the Innocenti Report Card, states that the US ranks near the bottom and in some categories second to last, just above Romania; in all large US cities public schools are so segregated that there is no evidence of the former impact of Brown v. Board of Education.

Teachers have been gagged by the DOE, warned that they must not speak out. Some have been threatened with loss of jobs and even of their licenses if they share their concerns about the pressure to do test prep rather than teach and the required use of the “Core Content State Standards,” which they find to be shoddy and age inappropriate.

Corruption of the purpose of education is paired with undue corporate influence on policy. One teacher said, “Boss Tweed’s legacy of corruption has rubbed off on the present occupant of the Tweed Courthouse, the NYC DOE, whose policies are most responsive to rich and powerful corporations that are rewarded with no-bid contracts for billions of dollars.”

Meanwhile, most public officials’ children are in private schools, getting the meaningful education that public school students are deprived of. An elementary teacher says, “The children deserve schools just as good as the private schools political leaders choose for their children. . . . It’s hypocritical for politicians like NY State Education Commissioner John King and President Obama to send their children to private schools where there are no high-stakes tests, and then impose them on our kids.”
A sixth grader recently wrote about her view of the limitations of HST: “The test doesn’t let you learn much about the students or their teachers. A project could show more because . . .  the students can express what they can do and have the time to show what they know. . . . If the DOE wants to know anything on how smart we are, this test is not the correct answer.”
The DOE claims it has no choice but to use HST. When DOE Deputy Chancellor Polakow-Suransky stated last December that “the federal government has a rule that you have to do this testing,” parent Patricia Padilla responded: “I don’t think that we have to wait for federal law to change for there to be a change in high-stakes testing—because if that were the case I would still be picking cotton or drinking from the colored water fountain."


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