The Classroom Sooth

Breaking News: New Group to Oppose Corporate Reforms

classroomsooth — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 02:26:55 +0000

Its about time we sponsor our own.

Breaking News: New Group to Oppose Corporate Reforms.

WaPo Repost: #TooManyTests

classroomsooth — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 01:18:56 +0000

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2012/11/11/time-on-testing-738-minutes-in-3-weeks/?wprss=rss_answer-sheet

Time on testing: 738 minutes in 3 weeks

Posted by Valerie Strauss on November 11, 2012 at 11:30 am

How much time do teachers and students spend on standardized tests? That’s one of the big questions in public education today, which Adam Heenan, a Chicago school teacher and member of the Chicago Teachers Union addresses here.

By Adam Heenan

A few days ago, a colleague walked into our social studies department with a bubbled-in answer sheet from a test he had just administered. One student had turned the sheet on its side and bubbled in the colloquial acronym “YOLO” — You Only Live Once — on the exam. The teacher had created the test, but to the teenager, it was just one more exam in a seemingly endless series of bubble-sheet, auto-scored assessments.

(By Adam Heenan)

I laughed at what the student had created, mostly because the “YOLO” script was evenly distributed across the length of the bubble sheet, demonstrating the student’s skill in measurement and design. But of course it isn’t funny. In my school, in just three weeks’ time, I have calculated that we spent 738 minutes (12 hours and 18 minutes) on preparing for and administering standardized tests. Our students are experiencing testing fatigue, which makes the results from each successive exam they take more invalid and the data about student learning more inaccurate. I can’t blame this student for speaking out against the excessive use of testing throughout our schools.

Though many people are waking up to the teach-to-the-test craziness gripping our schools, there are still many people who don’t understand the problem. They remember taking a few bubble tests as kids and didn’t think it was such a big deal — and for the most part, it wasn’t. At no time before now was kindergarten ever synonymous with 14 different tests per year, as journalist Ben Joravsky of the Chicago Reader has pointed out.

But the one-day, once-every-few-years standardized testing experience they remember is a far cry from the pervasive, high-stakes phenomenon testing has become. In order to make better policy choices about how we spend our precious education resources, the public needs to know just how much time and money has been spent on high-stakes testing in the No Child Left Behind era. This is why I and others have pushed for a full audit of the time and money that has been spent on all of this testing and test-prep, a call now supported by both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers.

This year alone, my colleagues and I have devoted a significant chunk of the additional time we were supposed to have for teaching and collaborating to testing. By mid-October, our school had already sacrificed a week’s worth of teaching and learning time for Chicago’s standardized beginning-of-the-year exams for students in their regular classes, to be repeated for the middle-of-the-year and end-of-the-year exams as well. There have been two days of “testing schedules,” where teachers and students in grades 9, 10 and 11 have had to sacrifice instructional time for EPAS exams (the system of grade-aligned tests from ACT). We have devoted our own time to looking at the data, and common planning time to talking about looking at the data and learning the tests’ gibberish language of “RIT Bands,” “cut scores,” “BOYs, MOYs, and EOYs,” none of which translate to classroom practice. It seems like every single professional conversation we have is not talking about students, but rather about the tests others create.

And because the stakes of these tests are so high, even the allegedly “optional” tests and interventions become—culturally, if not officially— mandatory. Officials higher up on the school district chain of command constantly warn those of us down below that “we must get our test scores up,” that “our school has been on probation way too long,” and that test-driven sanctions like closure or turnaround are constant threats. Because test scores are being misused as evidence that schools and the people in them—including administrators, teachers, students and even the lunch lady—are failures in teaching and learning, administrators and teachers succumb to the pressure to focus ever more closely on testing.

My colleagues and I are tired of the obsessive testing culture in our school. We just want to teach. And judging by all the petitions, testimonials and even wristbands we’ve seen echoing that sentiment, this is a national problem, not just ours.

We need to know how much time and money test-driven policymakers have diverted from teaching and learning into testing, and to show what we could be doing with those resources instead. Because, let’s face it: You only live once, and we can’t afford to waste precious minutes of our children’s education.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: AFT, Chicago Teachers Union, high-stakes testing, Memorial 73, NEA

Charter School Forum in Chicago, Broy refused neutrality w. CTU

classroomsooth — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 00:52:25 +0000

I attended the Charter School Forum last night hosted by the Better Government Association (@BetterGov), and Catalyst News (@CatalystChicago), a education news source in Chicago. The forum comes at a time when 140 Chicago Public Schools are slated to be “turned around” and/or “charterized.” Broy of the Illinois Network of Charter School maintained that charters schools are “places of innovation” though Potter of the Chicago Teachers Union often pressed him on this he seemed to dodge the answers. Potter constantly asked Broy for a “neutrality” pact to stop the continuous proliferation, lets study what’s actually happening in these experimentation centers, and to actively allow charter school teachers to unionize. Currently, fourteen charters are unionized, though there is still much harassment when charter school teachers express interest in forming a union.

At the end of the forum, Catalyst expressed interest in continuing this discussion. I would hope that in the next panel discussion we could hear from teachers, parents and students.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Andrew Broy, Charles Payne, charter schools, Chicago Teachers Union, Illinois Network of Charter Schools

Reflection on Chicago’s Amplified School Segregation

classroomsooth — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 17:48:38 +0000

David is a teacher-organizer on the south side of Chicago. He is a member of the Caucus of Rank-and File Educators (CORE) and I met him in 2009 fighting against school actions that destabilize students’ teaching and learning conditions and ultimately lead to neighborhood gentrification.

Recently Steve Bogira (@stevebogira) wrote an article comparing the educational conditions of two students in Cook County, IL. Hayley is a student at New Trier HS on the North Shore, and Jasmeen was David’s former student at Hirsch Metro HS on the south side of Chicago.

The article is gripping, and David provides wonderful added context from an educator’s perspective. I encourage readers to comment below and on the original article site.

Adam

The latest issue of The Reader, Chicago’s free alternative weekly newspaper, has a cover story on racial segregation in local schools. The article features a white student from a rich northern suburb, and a black student (Jasmine Wellere) from poor South Side neighborhood. I was one of Jasmine’s teachers in her South Side high school, and she was one of my favorite students.

Below is link to the Reader’s article, plus a comment he posted in response.
-David R. Stone

Original article:
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/cook-county-schools-racial-diversity-and-segregation/Content?oid=7669705

My response:
As a former teacher at Hirsch Metro H.S., I know that neighborhood public schools can provide a way out of poverty for some students like Jasmeen, but we don’t have enough resources to help everyone. The Chicago Board of Education amplifies the city’s racial and economic disparities by taking resources away from schools such as Hirsch.

The Reader article correctly reports that at Hirsch, “enrollment has withered recently; at the beginning of the year there were only 390 students” – but doesn’t tell why.

One reason is that the mayor’s hand-picked Board kills successful programs that encourage students to attend neighborhood schools. At Hirsch, a Radio/TV program was eliminated, and the Board removed state-of-the-art broadcast equipment. The school’s TV studio was turned into an ordinary classroom, where I taught print journalism to Jasmeen and other students.

When students asked where all the TV cameras, mixing boards, etc. had gone, I joked that the school was so broke we needed to sell the stuff on E-Bay. Sadly, the students believed me, because the school really was broke. Unlike New Trier, we didn’t have money for new textbooks, and my journalism texts were nearly 10 years old.

About a year later, Westinghouse High School (which used to be a high enrollment school with many great vocational programs, open to everyone in its West Side neighborhood) was re-opened as a selective enrollment high school in a brand new building, with a state-of-the-art TV studio.

In Hirsch’s South Side neighborhood, similar shifting of resources led to the creation of charter schools such as Urban Prep and Gary Comer high schools. Their relentless recruiting at the neighborhood elementary schools led to Hirsch’s declining enrollment, as we got fewer entering freshmen.

Highly motivated students like Jasmeen can succeed anywhere, but others are kicked out or encouraged to drop out of the charter schools. When they come to Hirsch a year or two later, missing credits from the classes they failed, we don’t have enough resources to get them all back on track.

And our mayor’s “answer” is to open more charter schools and shut down neighborhood schools.
-David R. Stone
CPS teacher

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Brown vs Board of Education, Chicago, CORE, education, gentrification, Hirsch, New Trier, Obama, Race to the Top, segregation, turnarounds

Chicago Teacher Union fighting for Dignity in Public Education

classroomsooth — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 23:50:39 +0000

This should have been posted three weeks ago when I wrote it, and my readers are due for an update, and I promise to write more soon. However, my priorities lie with my members on the picket line until we see this through.

Adam

Friends and Family across the United States-

As most of you know Chicago Teachers Union has been in a fight to win a contract that requests not only fair compensation, but also great teaching and learning conditions in the face of mass privatization and charterization. Our mayor has promised 250 more charter schools in place of traditional public schools. Our mayor has promised more testing for our kids, and rating teachers based on those tests. Our mayor has promised merit pay, and a longer day. This is also a mayor who has seen a 70% increase in the murder rate in Chicago in only one years’ time, and an increase in public dollars to private corporations.

We are fighting for experienced teachers over expendable ones; fair pay for longer days; for the arts, P.E., foreign languages, and vocational studies. We are fighting for social services in our schools. We are fighting for dignity in the workplace and classroom, and the whole world is watching. A strike is looming, and the Board has yet to come to the table with respect for our members and the teaching and learning process.

I spent my summer traveling the US from east coat to west coast spreading the message of what we are trying to do, and listening to the similar concerns of educators everywhere. BOTH major teachers unions recognized that this is a fight in which everyone must throw in their hat, and passed support resolutions encouraging their locals to follow suit. I have attached a sample resolution, and ask that if you can, to pass one among your congregations, whether that body be composed of teachers, parents, faculty, nurses, school board members, principals, doctors, steel-workers, coal-miners, and anyone in between. Everyone has a civic stake in public education. We need your voice on this.

I ask you to watch and share this video detailing the what we are fighting for.

I implore you to send us letters of support.

I encourage you to donate to the CTU Solidarity Fund.

I entreat you to join the nationwide fight for better public schools.

Thank you,

Adam Heenan

High School Social Studies

Chicago

*Follow updates on Twitter; #FairContractNow

Filed under: Uncategorized

Student video from occupation of Social Justice High School in Chicago.

classroomsooth — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:13:33 +0000

Filed under: Uncategorized

CTU House of Delegates: Please Reject the Fact-finder’s Decision

classroomsooth — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 03:36:30 +0000

Unfortunately I will be missing the House of Delegates meeting tomorrow, but I want to encourage delegates to who will be there to vote to reject the offer. I applaud Arbitrator Benn and Vice-President Sharkey for all their hard work. Benn’s determination on compensation seems quite fair. However, I would still vote no because what we are fighting for at this moment in time is more than just fair compensation.

As you all know, Arbitrator Benn cannot rule on school conditions, and it is for this reason that we must reject the offer. We deserve fair compensation and great teaching and learning conditions for ourselves, our colleagues, and our students.

We must continue to negotaiate for a school day that is filled with the arts and PE, and fight against the testing-culture that has made our schools more like prisons. We must continue to stay at the table on behalf of our support staff: PSRPS, clinicians, nurses, psychologists, and social workers; all the people that help make our schools functional and healthy places to come to day-in and day-out. We must continue to negotiate because all those who have been fired illegaly deserve a recall.

We must continue to negotiate because the whole nation, yes, the whole world is hoping we don’t trade in our ethics for a pittance. It’s a pittance we will get if we stay negotiating, but educators and students deserve so much more.

Please reject the Fact-finder’s Decision.

You can watch the CTU Press Conference on the Fact finding here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2SW5qNaTfM

Filed under: Education Reform, Teaching and Learning Tagged: Chicago Teachers Union, Senate Bill 7

Spreading the word about United Opt-Out

classroomsooth — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 04:29:19 +0000

As I passed through Eaton, OH, I met Mary who runs a health foods store just outside of town. She let me fill my water from her tap, and I got to chatting with her over a luna bar and sweet tea. When she found out I was a teacher and headed to DC for NEA, she felt compelled to tell me how testing is just the worst thing in education right now.

I told her about the United Opt-Out campaign, and she was very excited to spread the word among her friends and family. So I gave her a CORE button for her teacher friends, and a Parents4Teachers button for herself.

That’s all it takes to organize people. See you in DC tomorrow. And if you’re headed to Eaton, OH, please support Mary’s business.

Filed under: Teaching and Learning Tagged: high-stakes testing, organizing, United Opt Out

UseYourTeacherVoice will be at NEA and AFT

classroomsooth — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 05:05:11 +0000

There’s no better time to make your UseYourTeacherVoice video clip than the month of July! As both major teachers unions set their agendas for the coming year, rank-and-file educators’ voices must be heard. Do you agree with the actions of your Union? What’ does it take to build a fighting union? Would you like to see something else? Do you want to voice your support for actions taking place around the country?

I will be on location at the NEA convention next week, and at AFT (Detroit) at the end of July. Follow my tweets from both @UseYrTcherVoice and@ClassroomSooth to find out where in the Convention Center I will be each day. You can always submit a video via email, or upload your own and link it to the UseYourTeacherVoice Project YouTube site.

Here is the latest video from Mark Friedman (Rochester, NY).

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, UseYourTeacherVoice

The Strength of our CTU Leaders comes from our Members, Parents, and Students of Chicago Public Schools

classroomsooth — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 18:24:20 +0000

Educators across the country are following what’s happening in Chicago to see how we are leading the way against corporate-style education reform that hurts and disempowers the students and teachers in the classroom, the curriculum of our neighborhood schools, and the local leadership of parents and taxpayers for a rich public education system.

We are Ground Zero for the national fight on a dignified public education system for the United States of America. I am proud to be a member of the Chicago Teachers Union, and am committed to doing whatever is necessary: bargaining, negotiating, door-knocking, and yes, striking, if it means we have better teaching conditions, and better learning conditions for the city of Chicago.

Filed under: Education Reform, Teaching and Learning Tagged: Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union, Karen Lewis, Randi Weingarten