Averill Park Teachers Association President Michelle Smead published this list of the "Top Ten Reasons" to attend the rally in her local newsletter. Noted activist Diane Ravitch included it in her national blog.

TOP TEN reasons to March on Albany in the Rally for Public Education:

10. You have realized public education is being hi-jacked by for profit organizations.

9. You are tired of reading about how ineffective you are at your own profession by people who know nothing about education.

8. You believe high stakes testing is out of control in NY.

7. You believe you have not had enough time to learn the Common Core yourself, let alone have your students tested on it!

6. You believe your students’ personal information, including their state assessment results and their IEPs and other personal data should be kept confidential.

5. You believe your effectiveness rating should be kept confidential, and don’t want a link on the district web page to this information or directions given to get this information.

4. You believe that NYS should report to the public the amount of tax payer money spent on developing, administering, grading and reviewing state assessments.

3. The word PEARSON makes your skin crawl.

2. You work in Bronxville and are concerned about the impact that larger class sizes, budget cuts, and reduced programming will have on your students!

AND THE NUMBER ONE REASON….

1. You are a caring professional who wants the BEST public education for your own students, children, and grandchildren and you know this isn't it!

Michelle Smead
Averill Park Teachers' Association

(OK, I changed #2)

There are buses leaving from locations in Westchester, Rockland, Orange, and Putnam Counties for the June 8 Rally for Public Education in Albany.  

Last Thursday, Christina Reidel and Eileen Mann went together to the office of State Assemblyman Steve Otis to lobby on behalf of NYSUT and the teachers, students and communities we serve.  

Friday, I joined Christina at the office of State Senator George Latimer.  We talked about the impacts of the tax cap and the overemphasis on testing, among other things.  

Read this from Lindsey Blackhurst and check out the website:

You can read more with the link below, but the short of it is this:  I am producing and singing a chamber music recital with the fantastic mezzo soprano Catherine Hedberg and the wonderful pianist and conductor Lloyd Arriola to raise money for an organization called Pencils of Promise.  We're working in conjunction with Bronxville High School's efforts to do the same, in particular their building of a preschool in Laos.  POP is committed to building self-sustaining schools in communities that don't have the resources to do it by themselves.  They are truly excellent!  Also, William Healy, a wonderful pianist and young composer, has composed new songs for string quartet, Catherine, and me.
 
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/372205/a1c1/2501626

The concert is June 8th at 8:00 in the white box at 440 studios (440 Lafayette St #4  New York, NY 10003).   I do hope you're able to make it and/or can contribute to this great cause.  It's going to fantastic!
 
Please check it out and donate if you are able!  Let me know if you have any questions.


Thanks!

NYSUT has issued a clarion call to all union members, parents, students, grandparents and community members to be at a June 8 rally in Albany to fight for the future of public education.

We must "cry out with one voice" against those threatening to destroy public education, NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi declared in announcing plans for the rally.

The rally is "a fight about the truth - not the lies we suffer through every day." he said. "It's a fight about the future of public education and getting it right! It's about celebrating, not demonizing, educators ... it's a fight about supporting quality in higher education, not pathways that lead to nowhere ... it's a fight about informative assessments, not the tyranny of obsessive standardized testing!"

Members and locals across the state are already making plans to add their voice to the fight to take back public education. Regional offices are reporting that interest is already so high, it is becoming a challenge to reserve buses. So, don't wait!

The rally begins at noon and features speakers and music. Children are welcome. Contact your NYSUT regional office for details. Get updates here at www.nysut.org and www.twitter.com/nysut or use the Twitter hashtag #rallyJune8. You can also RSVP via Facebook.

Here's a sample of what delegates to the RA said about why they will be there June 8:

"We have no choice. We must stand up. The world has to know it's so important to preserve public education."

"We have to come together ... to be there for our kids."

"We as teachers have to stick together to fight for our profession and, more importantly, to fight for our kids!"

One educator in a video made by the Springville TA held a sign saying: "I'll be there because it's time the students came first."

The rally comes 10 years after the March for Public Education descended on Albany in May 2003.

Make history June 8!

April 30, 2013

NYSUT embraces pause on high-stakes testing proposed by AFT President Weingarten

Source: NYSUT Media Relations 

New York State United Teachers today endorsed a proposal by American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten to make the new Common Core standards and assessments work before making them count.

NYSUT President Richard C. Iannuzzi said Weingarten's call for a moratorium on attaching high-stakes decisions for students and teachers to the new Common Core assessments is in the best interests of students and the future of public education. 

"The insistence on using unproven tests - on material students haven't learned, from a curriculum that teachers don't have - is undermining the Common Core's potential to enhance teaching and learning,"  Iannuzzi said. "The fierce backlash over standardized testing continues because the state has ignored calls by superintendents, school boards, teachers and parents to slow down, provide more time and support, and do it right."

In a speech to the Association for a Better New York, Weingarten called for a moratorium in which students are tested and teachers are evaluated, but the data is used to respond to student and teacher needs instead of for high-stakes decisions. Weingarten said the Common Core standards being introduced now in New York and 44 other states establish high expectations for all students and raise the bar on teaching and learning. Yet, Weingarten, president of the 1.5 million-member AFT and native New Yorker, said the Common Core and all its potential good may "end up in the overflowing dust bin of abandoned reforms" because of the rush to test before all the pieces are in place.

• View the transcript of Weingarten's speech at AFT.org
• Follow an archive of the Twitter conversation at Storify.com

"Can you even imagine doctors being expected to perform a new medical procedure without being trained in it or provide the necessary instruments – simply told that there may be some material on a web site? Of course not, but that's what's happening right now with the Common Core," Weingarten told the audience of New York City leaders. "The fact that changes are being made without anything close to adequate preparation is a failure of leadership, a sign of a broken accountability system and, worse, an abdication of our moral responsibility to kids, particularly poor kids."

NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira praised the transition period Weingarten proposed.  She said a moratorium would give the State Education Department time to fully develop the Common Core lessons it has promised, providing school districts with the opportunity to offer teachers more professional development and training.  "A moratorium would give teachers the appropriate time, resources and supports they need to properly implement the new standards. It would be a time of intense activity, in which everyone focused on how best to introduce a promising curriculum , while making sure that assessments are aligned to the standards. Our students need us to get it right."

NYSUT, the state's largest union, represents more than 600,000 teachers, school-related professionals, academic and professional faculty in higher education, professionals in education and health care and retirees.  NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.