My speech when I received the Parent Voice award in DC on Monday night

Me with the board members of Parents Across America

On Monday night in Washington DC, I received the Parent Voice award from Parents Across America for my work defeating inBloom, at a dinner co-hosted by the NEA.  I was very moved and overwhelmed to receive this award, especially from fellow parents for whom I have so much respect and have worked closely with on many occasions.  Here is what I said:

I'm tremendously honored to receive this award from Parents across America - a wonderful organization that provides great tools for parents to resist damaging policies and to strengthen our public schools - and to speak up for parents in the national stage.  I am also incredibly honored to be given this award by Helen Gym, who is one of the foremost parent activists in the entire country and deserves her own award every day of the week.  I also want to thank the generosity of the NEA for co-hosting this dinner; parents and teachers working together can stop the runaway train of corporate education reform.

The inBloom saga was a hard fought battle but there is no way we could have defeated it without the  parents from all the nine inBloom states who stood up in horror and refused to take the bland assurances of their state and local officials and the Gates Foundation that this was all for their kids' benefit and their own.   

As soon as parents found out that the plan was to gather all their kids most sensitive and confidential info including their names, addresses, phones, disabilities, grades, test scores, health conditions and disciplinary records, store it on an insecure data cloud, and offer it up to vendors without their knowledge or consent, they were rightly furious and just wouldn't allow this to happen. 

Parents of all political stripes fought back and many who had no political affiliation at all and simply wanted to protect their children's privacy and safety and didn't think the potential benefits of data collection, sharing and mining were worth the risks.

I want to acknowledge some of those here tonight who helped us win this battle, including Khem Irby of Guilford NC, who stood up before her school board to protest the handing over of her children data to Bill Gates, Joel Klein and Rupert Murdoch.

Robin Hiller of Voices for Education in Arizona, also Executive Director of Network for Public Education, who had me in her radio show several times to talk about the threats to privacy from inBloom and other schemes still in our future like the PARCC testing consortium.

 Rachael Stickland of Jefferson  Co Colorado who really did an amazing job organizing parents in her community against this violation of privacy.

Julie Woestehoff who scheduled briefings for me and others to speak to the editors of the Chicago Tribune and Sun Times, and co-hosted a forum for parents  that persuaded Illinois and Chicago to essentially cancel their involvement in inBloom in less than 24 hours from my arrival.

There are countless more parents and teachers who helped us fight this behemoth but couldn't be here today- activists in Louisiana, the first state to pull out, Georgia, and others. In NY, we had most of the district superintendents and school boards on our side as well, making it a lot harder for the inBloom apologists and flacks to argue that we were just naive and dumb parents who didn't understand how great this plan was and all the opportunities it would provide.

This is a template for the future that we will now use to try to strengthen the federal privacy law known as FERPA . Last week Rachael and I launched a new Parent Coalition for Student Privacy and we are visiting key congressional offices this week to get our point across that FERPA, which had been rewritten twice to essentially take out most of its privacy protections, must go back to what it was previously - a strong law that requires parental notification and consent before sharing the most intimate details of a child's life with any third party.

We will need all your help going forward, so please join us at www.studentprivacymatters.org

But more than anything else the story of inBloom provides proof that pissed off parents can achieve miracles - we can take down an $100 million project of the Gates Foundation when we work together, organize and have right on our side. 

Please endorse and ask your CEC to approve the National Resolution against High-stakes Testing

The following resolution is modeled on a resolution that as of April 25 had been approved by 405 Texas school boards , by Palm Beach and St. Lucie school boards in Florida, and Community Education Council in D 30 in Queens. UPDATE: It has now also been approved by CEC 14, 20 and 21 in Brooklyn, and CEC 3 in Manhattan. 
The resolution was written by Parents Across America, in collaboration with the Advancement Project; Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund; FairTest; Forum for Education and Democracy; NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.; National Education Association; ;  Race to Nowhere; Time Out From Testing;  United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries and other organizations.  Diane Ravitch has written about it here; and Valerie Straus of the Washington Post here. As of today, just one day after it was publicly released, the national resolution has already been endorsed by more than 100 organizations and more than 2000 individuals.

We encourage organizations and individuals to publicly endorse the resolution ; and especially, to urge your Community Education Council to approve it, as adapted below. We have added two clauses, including urging the state to give parents the  right to opt their children out of standardized testing, which exists in many other states, as well as the public’s right to examine these exams after they are given, which the state has now decided to disallow. If your CEC or other organization does pass it, please let us know by emailing leonie@classsizematters.org with resolution in the subject line; thanks!

WHEREAS, our nation's future well-being relies on a high-quality public education system that prepares all students for college, careers, citizenship and lifelong learning, and strengthens the nation's social and economic well-being; and

WHEREAS, our nation's school systems have been spending growing amounts of time, money and energy on high-stakes standardized testing, in which student performance on standardized tests is used to make major decisions affecting individual students, educators and schools; and

WHEREAS, the over-reliance on high-stakes standardized testing in state and federal accountability systems is undermining educational quality and equity in U.S. public schools by hampering educators' efforts to focus on the broad range of learning experiences that promote the innovation, creativity, problem solving, collaboration, communication, critical thinking and deep subject-matter knowledge that will allow students to thrive in a democracy and an increasingly global society and economy; and

WHEREAS, it is widely recognized that standardized testing is an inadequate and often unreliable measure of both student learning and educator effectiveness; and

WHEREAS, the over-emphasis on standardized testing has caused considerable collateral damage in too many schools, including narrowing the curriculum, teaching to the test, reducing love of learning, pushing students out of school, driving excellent teachers out of the profession, and undermining school climate; and

WHEREAS, high-stakes standardized testing has negative effects for students from all backgrounds, and especially for low-income students, English language learners, children of color, and those with disabilities; and

WHEREAS, the culture and structure of the systems in which students learn must change in order to foster engaging school experiences that promote joy in learning, depth of thought and breadth of knowledge for students; therefore be it

RESOLVED, that [your organization name] calls on Governor Cuomo, the State legislature, Board of Regents, and the State Education Commissioner to reexamine public school accountability systems in this state, and to develop a system based on multiple forms of assessment which does not require extensive standardized testing, more accurately reflects the broad range of student learning, and is used to support students and improve schools; and

RESOLVED, that that [your organization name] urges the Governor and the State Legislature to approve legislation giving parents the right to opt their children out of standardized testing, a right that parents have  in many other states, including California;

RESOLVED, that the Governor and the State Legislature approve legislation giving the public the right to examine the state standardized exams after they are given, as existed in NY state before this year and is still required by the “Truth in Testing” law that pertains to other exams, such as the SATs; 

RESOLVED, that [your organization name] calls on the U.S. Congress and Administration to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as the "No Child Left Behind Act," reduce the testing mandates, promote multiple forms of evidence of student learning and school quality in accountability, and not mandate any fixed role for the use of student test scores in evaluating educators.

Parents give a thumbs down to NY-CAN and the "Parent Trigger"

For immediate release:
January 11, 2012

Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters, leonie@classsizematters.org, 917-435-9329
Caroline Grannan, Parents Across America, cgrannan@gmail.com, 415-412-5758

Today, a pro-charter school organization launched in New York called NY-CAN, and announced they will be advocating for a version of the so-called "Parent Trigger" legislation to be passed in New York State.  The organization is headed by Christina Grant, former deputy director of NYC Department of Education's Office of Charter Schools.

The Parent Trigger law was first passed in California in 2010, the creation of by an astroturf group based in Los Angeles called the Parent Revolution.  Since then, model legislation based on the Parent Trigger has been written and promoted by ALEC, the shadowy organization backed by the Koch brothers that has a radical right-wing agenda.

In California, the Parent Trigger law was first tried at a Compton CA elementary school  in 2010. The efforts of the Parent Revolution to turn the school into a charter failed, because some of the signatures on their petitions were not dated and many parents said that they had been misled about what the petitions called for. So far, the Parent Trigger has never been used in California or in any other state, which makes it unclear as to why the NY State Legislature would want to approve similar legislation here.

According to Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters and a public school parent in NYC, "The Parent Trigger was devised as an underhanded trick by the charter lobby to manipulate parents into letting them privatize more public schools.  The fact that it has aroused huge controversy and has so far failed to achieve any results in California is one more reason legislators should be wary of passing it here in New York State. Parents want to be involved from the ground up in devising positive reforms to improve their children's schools, like class size reduction or offering a more well-rounded curriculum.  They do not want their schools either closed, converted into charters or half their staff fired."

Caroline Grannan, one of the founders of Parents Across America, adds: "Here in California, the Parent Trigger has never been  used successfully in any school, and the organization behind it, Parent Revolution, has admitted that they "made mistakes"  and say that they are now organizing parents to advocate on whatever school improvement issues that concern them. The Parent Trigger is not real parent empowerment, but the attempt of wealthy edu-entrepreneurs to take advantage of parents for their own narrow ends."

For more on why Parents Across America opposes the Parent Trigger legislation, in New York and elsewhere, see our position paper.  Background on recent events in California involving the Parent Trigger is here.

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A Parent Guide to the Broad Foundation just released!

Check out the new Parent Guide to the Broad Foundation, its Training Programs and Education Policies, just released by Parents Across America.  (Here is the guide as a handy downloadable fact sheet.)

Jean-Claude Brizard is a Broad Academy graduate, formerly of DOE,  subsequently Superintendent of the Rochester schools.  Just yesterday he was appointed to be Chicago's CEO of schools.

So is Chris Cerf, John White, Shael Suransky and several of the top corporate-style educrats who worked at Tweed and across the country, many of whom have provoked controversy with their pro-privatization policies and autocratic leadership style.

What is Eli Broad trying to achieve by installing his brand of leadership in schools throughout the country? Parents, be forewarned!

Come join us watch Diane Ravitch on the Daily Show on Thursday!

Diane Ravitch, the country’s foremost defender of evidence-based rather than faith-based education reform, will be a guest on the Daily Show starring Jon Stewart, this Thursday. This is a great breakthrough and reverses a long media black-out of opposing points of view on education issues.

Please join Diane, other parent activists and me for a viewing party starting at 9:30 PM at the Benjamin Hotel to celebrate and watch the show together, in a fundraiser for Parents Across America, a new national group committed to putting the parent voice back in public education:

When: Thursday, March 3, at 9:30 PM -11:30 PM

Where: Club Room, Affinia Hotel, 155 E. 50 St. (off 3rd Ave.) NOTE: change of venue!

Tickets are $50; $25 for students/teachers; contributions are tax-deductible.

To order tickets, and for more info, please click here:

http://www.nycharities.org/events/EventLevels.aspx?ETID=3295

Also, check out Jon Stewart last night on the Daily Show – defending hard-working and underpaid teachers who are being called “greedy,” while too many of our elected officials and commentators seem to be defending the obscene bonuses of bankers instead. During the segment, Jon reveals his mother was a teacher.

He ends by satirically proposing that our kids be outsourced to China to be taught overseas. Actually this is no joke: Rick Hess and other edu-entrepreneurs are advocating that teaching be done online, and outsourced to places like Singapore. Come join us Thursday, and watch Diane eviscerate such hare-brained ideas to undermine our public schools.

The Daily Show - Crisis in Dairyland - Odor in the Capitol Building
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

media advisory for Parents Across America Feb. 7 education forum with Diane Ravitch

MEDIA ADVISORY

CONTACT:

Julie Woestehoff

pure@pureparents.org

773-715-3989

Leonie Haimson

classsizematters@gmail.com

917-435-9329

New national organization, Parents Across America,

launches with inaugural education forum in NYC

featuring Diane Ravitch

NEW YORK, Jan. 24, 2011 ­­– Diane Ravitch, a national authority on education policy, will be the keynote speaker at the kickoff event for Parents Across America (PAA), a new national public education advocacy organization, on Monday Feb. 7 in NYC. Ravitch will address the topic: “Are our schools going in the right direction? What parents should do.”

This public forum will be held at 6 p.m. at PS/IS 89 in Lower Manhattan, 201 Warren St. Sponsors include: Parents Across America, Class Size Matters, Community Board 1 and the PS/IS 89 PTA.

WHAT: Forum and discussion on public education featuring Diane Ravitch and a panel of parent activists from around the nation.

WHEN: Monday, Feb.7 at 6 p.m. Admission free. Reservations are required and can be made online at: http://bit.ly/h0Adv1

WHERE: PS/IS 89 – Liberty School, 201 Warren Street (Lower Manhattan), New York, N.Y. 10282. (Map here. Directions: take the A, C, E, 1, 2, 3 to Chambers; or the N, R, 4,5,6 to City Hall.).

WHY: This forum represents the first effort by a national grassroots parent organization to present their vision of positive progressive education reform –- a perspective PAA believes has been so far ignored in the national debate on education –- and what’s wrong with the current policies being imposed on our schools.

The evening will feature a talk by Dr. Ravitch, followed by comments from PAA panelists and a Q&A session with the audience. The PAA panelists will include: Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters, Karran Royal Harper of the Pyramid Community Parent Resource Center and an education advocate in New Orleans, Rita Solnet of Testing is not Teaching in Florida, and Sue Peters of Seattle Education 2010. Other parent leaders participating will include Julie Woestehoff of Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE) in Chicago, Dora Taylor of Seattle Education 2010, Caroline Grannan of San Francisco, Andrea Mérida, Denver school board member and a founding member of Democrats for Excellent Neighborhood School Education, Pamela Grundy, a parent activist from North Carolina, Sharon Higgins of Oakland, whose blogs include The Broad Report and Charter School Scandals, and Mark Mishler from Albany, N.Y.

Diane Ravitch is Research Professor of Education at New York University, an education historian and author of many books, including the bestselling "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education" (2010). She was recently awarded the Daniel Moynihan Prize by the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and the Charles Eliot Award from the New England Association of Schools & Colleges. From 1991-93, she was Assistant Secretary of Education and Counselor to Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander in the administration of President George H. W. Bush. From 1997- 2004, she was a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the federal testing program.

Parents Across America (PAA) is a new grassroots organization comprised of parent leaders throughout the nation who are advocating for positive and progressive educational reforms. Founding members hail from New York (Albany, NYC), California (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland), Florida (Boca Raton), Texas (Houston), North Carolina (Charlotte, Durham), Illinois (Chicago), Louisiana (New Orleans), and Washington State (Seattle).

PAA supports reforms that work, focused on strengthening public schools rather than closing them, providing smaller classes, increasing parent involvement, and a well-rounded curriculum, rather than the current policies of privatization and punitive test-based accountability. PAA believes that parent voices must be heard in the national dialogue on public education.

Visit: www.parentsacrossamerica.org

& the PAA Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=123352677681840&ref=ts

Our children, our schools, our voices.

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