From Janine Sopp:

Thanks to Norm Scott, we now can share the important information that was covered in our NYC Opt Out forum at PS261 last week! Please share this link widely, best viewed from the bottom up in the order the speakers presented. Use this at your PTA meetings, email your friends who have questions, your principal who needs support and anyone asking for this information.

Carol Burris, Anna Allanbrook, Rosa Perez-Rivera, Sam Coleman, Jeannette Deutermann — with Brian Jones moderating.

A separate video for each speaker plus the Q&A.

Note – the Carol Burris Q&A is included in her segment.

OptOut Forum PS 261KRPRivera from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.

OptOut Forum PS 261KJDeutermann from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.

OptOut Forum PS 261KSamColeman from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.

OptOut Forum PS 261KAnnaO from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.

OptOut Forum PS 261KCarolBurris from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.

OptOut Forum PS 261K QandA from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.

JOIN US! RALLY/MARCH TO HOLD CUOMO ACCOUNTABLE AND SAVE PUBLIC EDUCATION THIS THURSDAY, 4/10 AT 4PM

The CEC/Citywide Working Group is a coalition of elected District and Citywide Education Councils across New York City. We – along with numerous other public school parent and pro public education groups including the Alliance for Quality Education, New York Communities for Change, Change the Stakes, Parent Voices and many others – will be convening a rally on the steps of the New York Public Library on 5th Avenue and 41st Street at 4:00PM this Thursday, April 10th. We will then march to Governor Cuomo’s office, 633 Third Ave at 40th Street.

The rally and march have been called in the face of provisions in last week’s budget which promote the pitting of parents against parents and the willful destruction of public education in New York City by Governor Cuomo and the New York State Senate, all at the direction of the hedge fund-run charter school lobby.

Specifically, Governor Cuomo and the State Senate-led budget provide for the following:

– The de Blasio administration MUST offer space to EVERY charter school rubber-stamped in the final weeks of the Bloomberg administration. Mayor de Blasio previously approved 14 of 17 charters; now he MUST move forward with all 17 – regardless of the fact that autistic and severely emotionally disturbed children will be moved out of their own buildings, or public high schools must step aside to make room for elementary charters.
– EVERY charter now located in public school buildings MUST be allowed to EXPAND as much as the charter wishes. If public school class sizes and building enrollment increase to unsustainable levels, too bad. If it means giving control of entire buildings to charters by pushing out all public school students, so be it.
– ALL new charter schools requesting NYC public school space – and there will be dozens and potentially hundreds more – MUST be provided it or must pay for private space for the charters. No rent can be charged in public or private spaces. Public schools have no such rights.
– The Mayor, the City Council, the CEC’s and the Community are effectively removed from space decisions, giving the charter lobby more say over our public school buildings (and capital budget) than any of our elected officials.
– Per pupil funding will be increased to ALL charter schools despite the millions they receive from Wall Street and the fact that collocated charters already receive thousands of dollars more per pupil than our public schools. Meanwhile the State refused to fund the court ordered CFE decision whereby billions are owed to New York City schools. Instead the budget provides tax cuts to millionaires.

For the first time, parents across the City have united to make our collective voice heard. We seek to ensure that the 94% of New York City students in public schools are treated fairly and equally to the 6% in charters. We ask that you mobilize your parents, your students, your elected officials, your teachers and community members to attend this historic rally. Above is a flyer with information, and multiple ways of reaching rally organizers, as well as some points of interest about our cause. Please contact us with any questions or information as soon as possible.

Thank you in advance for your support of public education and all our children. We know you are bombarded with many invitations, but this rally will prove to our legislators that we stand as one.

Education historian and activist Diane Ravitch just called for congressional hearings on the misuse and abuse of standardized tests used for high-stakes purposes — and she got some unexpected support.

Read more:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/03/04/activist-calls-for-congressional-hearings-onstandardized-testing-gets-unexpected-support/

The Common Core State Standards were originally promoted as a way of raising academic standards for all children around the country. But is the initiative really about equitable outcomes? Here’s a post that takes on that question, by award-winning New York Principal Carol Burris and Alan A. Aja, assistant  professor and deputy chair in the Department.