0 BOSTON FAMILIES AND STUDENTS TO PROTEST MAYOR WALSH’S STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS

MEDIA ADVISORY FOR: January 19, 2016

BOSTON FAMILIES AND STUDENTS TO PROTEST MAYOR WALSH’S STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS

Boston, MA—On January 19, 2016, a broad-based coalition of public education stakeholders made up of families, students, educators, community members and groups representing public schools throughout Boston will come together at Mayor Walsh’s 2016 State of the City Address to protest budget shortfalls which negatively impact all of our Boston Public Schools. We are protesting the Walsh administration’s failure to aggressively advocate for adequate funding and to make the investments needed to create success for every single student in all of our Boston Public Schools.

DATE: Tuesday, January 19, 2016
TIME: 4:30pm
LOCATION:  Intersection of Westland Ave and Mass Ave Under BSO sign

We are demanding that Mayor Walsh, at a minimum, do the following:

1. Join in solidarity with Boston’s students, families and community members to aggressively advocate for our Boston Public Schools at state and federal levels;
2. Through strategic planning and ambitious revitalization, reduce the BPS budget shortfalls of $50 million this year and $140 million over the last three years;
3. Invest in fully-resourced community public  schools with wraparound services for Boston's children;
4. Work with the true stakeholders of Boston Public Schools: students, families, educators and community members to fully audit BPS’ budget in order to assess community needs and address inequalities; and,
5. Collaborating with the true stakeholders, demand democratically controlled public schools through an elected Boston School Committee.

In Boston, the stakeholders have come together to build a new vision for our public schools and our children—one that champions great public schools as the heart of our neighborhoods and ensures that every student, regardless of zip code, receives the highest quality education available. Our stakeholders have developed a community-driven movement for the benefit of all of our students  and we will hold all of our elected officials accountable to us as their constituents and voters.

To follow this action on social media search #SOTCProtest

Check our our Facebook event page.

Contact:
Karen Kast-McBride Mary Lewis-Pierce
(617) 877-2871 857-891-3271

Karen.Kastmcbride@gmail.com lewispierce@gmail.com

Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: @BPSNightmare. 

0 1st Quarter Massachusetts Education Recap 2015

Though quiet for awhile now, I have not been absent or ignorant of what has been happening in my beloved school district and the state. Unfortunately, having to search for and then get up to speed in a new job, and because it has been a hard year for my daughter and that, along with high school applications and auditions for my younger daughter, has led to my silence over the past few months. Whether you considered it a nice break (yes, I know some did), or missed my voice and insights - plus the knowledge gained over 22 years as a Boston Public School parent - I am here to say I am back to help keep folks informed and educated. We all need to be aware of what is going on, because if we aren't I daresay by the time my youngest graduates, Boston Public Schools will become the Boston Charter School District, standardized testing will be the only thing our students do in school and the Olympics will be on the way here.

Since I last posted a lot has happened, but the most important to me are as follows: our new Governor, Charlie Baker, took office, a new Education Secretary was appointed, James Peyser, who is a champion for charter schools - no conflict of interest there, right? and a new Superintendent for Boston Public Schools, Tommy Chang from LA, was selected. Each of these on their own is concerning to me, but put together with a Boston Mayor who has made it clear that the only campaign promises Mayor Walsh will keep are those to the Unions and big money donors, it is downright alarming. I'm still waiting to be called for that Charter School Accountability Task Force Mayor Walsh promised the Boston Student Advisory Council (BSAC) and Boston Educational Justice Alliance (BEJA) he would establish to happen. 

The trend toward further privatizing our public schools continues in our state legislature, where talk of charter schools and lifting the cap on them continues despite the clear voices of thousands of families across the state having already told elected officials that this conversation is premature until we fix the issues with our public education districts by investing more in them instead of draining funds out of them and into schools that: selectively enroll and push out many students who don't test well, schools which claim 100% of their graduates go on to college without clarifying that of the many 9th graders who start at their schools very few are left to graduate from their 12th grade classes (a traditional public school would be closed due to those results) - and most of the students who do are white, unlike the marketing done by charter schools claiming they are successful for students of color or from low-income families. And let's not forget, there is no transparency regarding the money charter schools take in - whether public or private - they tend to refuse to open their books to auditors of all levels. 

And of course, let's not forget the battle waging across our state and the nation: MCAS, Common Core and PARCC assessments being used to deem a student able to graduate and public schools failing by a "deeply broken system" (Mitchell Chester re: MCAS) and before most students have had more than a year or two of the Common Core curriculum taught in their schools. This testing battle has been heating up and gaining momentum not just across this rebellious state, but the entire nation, and it seems, much to ed reformers horror everywhere, that legislators from city to federal levels are starting to realize that families are fed up with their students being taught to take tests so are opting their students out of those tests and the legislators are now making moves to change the way tests are being used to assess students, educators and schools. 

Never fear my ed reform readers, for if the legislators fail you again here in Massachusetts, the education reform groups like Families for Excellent Schools, Stand for Children, Mass Charter Public School Association, Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) and the many others backed by the ed reform conglomerates like the Walton Foundation, Gates, Broad et al, are diligently working toward putting in place a Ballot question for 2016 (and funding the campaign work necessary to push it through of course) by selling you the same old lie: that our public education systems do not work and we must privatize our public schools. After all, if you don't buy what they are selling, how can they make the $500 Billion dollar profits they gain from their New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) they invest in in the name of helping our low-income, urban and students of color?

Isn't it interesting that despite the horrible conditions our public school students endure here in Massachusetts (you know, those rowdy demanding educated parents and students, teachers unions, groups like Citizens for Public Schools that fight to protect our public schools, schools built before WWII, allowing students from low-income families or with language and special needs to attend our schools), our public schools in Massachusetts still rank 1st in the nation on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for the 5th year in a row? Huh, imagine what we could do with more funds invested in them?

Does this mean we are perfect? No, we still have a lot of equity, opportunity and achievement gaps to overcome, especially in an urban district like Boston. But when has defunding something we are trying to fix ever been the right solution? Great example of this is our latest winter and what happened with the MBTA - for years multiple experts and groups told the legislature and voters that we needed to maintain, upgrade and invest in our public transit system, yet no one wanted to spend their money on a system that is integral to the future of our state's economy because "I don't use the T", and so, many had no way to get to work and lost wages. 

Similarly, we hear the same type of argument from folks: "I don't have children" or "My children go to private schools, why should I pay more money for public schools I do not use?" The simple answer: funding public education, like our transit system, is integral to every single voter in Massachusetts as it impacts our future, economically, socially and as a true democratic state and nation. 

And, no, the Olympics coming to Boston is NOT the answer to either our transit or our education needs - in fact, it will drain even more from our citizens and their families, so I hope you haven't bought into that lie!

All in all, it has been a busy few months for Governor Baker and Mayor Walsh, and those who assisted them into office. And it seems no matter what the constituents want, both of them will insist on continuing to ignore the voters of Massachusetts in favor of the corporations, lobbyists and education reform operators who pull their strings. 

Unfortunately for them, I am happy to report that unlike just two short years ago, more families are becoming aware of the differences between our traditional public schools and "charter public schools," more educators and families are saying that standardized testing is not the answer to what ails our public education systems, and more citizens are standing up to voice their objections to the privatization of our public education system. And the voices of these educated citizens are being heard by the legislators at the city, state and federal level. It really might be time for Governor Baker's and Mayor Walsh's advisers to clue them both in that they may very well be assuring that they each only have one term in their respective offices. 

The best evidence for why we all need to pay attention to what is happening with our public schools comes from the ultimate consumers of education services: our students, so please be sure to read EduShyster's article "Students say the darndest things."

Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: @BPSNightmare. 

2 Massachusetts Public Education: Are Students Really Winning?

Right now in Massachusetts the battle over public education, and the tax dollars (and tax credits!) associated with it, is coming to a head in the form of legislation, H4108: And Act Relative to Improving Student Achievement, at the state house which would raise the cap on charter schools. 

Terms like "school choice", "poor and under-privileged students", "failing schools" and more are thrown around to scare the general public into believing that our traditional public schools are failing our children and the only solution is to open more charter schools. Unfortunately, for some reason our local mainstream media outlets continue to perpetuate the misinformation campaigns through multiple articles which utilize data to prove their case, even after that same data and the reports they reference have been proven to utilize faulty data and analyses and show no significant difference in performance by charter school students over traditional public school students. 

If you are a parent, family member, friend, community member, student or concerned citizen here are some things you should be asking regarding the education that your favorite student(s) are receiving right now:

When there is no significant difference in the test scores for charter school students vs. public school students, then why are there so many corporations, political groups, politicians and individuals pushing for more charter schools instead of investing in our traditional public schools? Hint: the public education industry is approximated at $500Billion dollars.

Why are we allowing our tax dollars to become corporate profits for some of the richest companies in the world (who receive tax credits, breaks also) instead of investing them into our traditional public schools? Read: Sacrificing Our Children

When it has been proven that charter schools are not actually educating the students who have significant needs, those who live in poverty and/or with language and disability needs, how can we even compare the two drastically different populations and claim one is doing better than the other? Charter Schools and Students with Disabilities Report, Pgs 26-34

Why are we allowing one type of assessment system that utilizes high-stakes tests to determine our schools and students' success levels which feeds into education policies? For more info regarding high-stakes testing, check out Fairtest.

Why are we allowing politicians, corporations and billionaires with no education background to determine the best methods to educate our children without listening to the stakeholders' voices? Read: All Change is Not Growth

Why are so many sitting silently by and allowing our legislators, and those who finance their campaigns, to push agendas and make decisions that allow our children to be used as guinea pigs? Hint: Most of the educational policies being pushed as "education reform" have never been proven to increase educational outcomes for all students.

Why do we allow our politicians to make decisions that are better for corporations than for the constituents who voted for them, and why do we keep voting them back into office? See the interview with Diane Ravitch and then read her blog! 

Who really wins when we allow public education to become a profit tool and tax credit for the Walton Family Foundation (Walmart), which has specifically targeted Boston Public Schools as one of their "target districts" to start more charter schools, and others like it who won't even pay their own employees a living wage? It is not our students who win, and the winners laugh all the way to the bank.

Think corporations and those who run them care about your children or their education? Think again. Our students education has been co-opted and is now seen as another way for shareholders, companies and foundations to make a profit at the expense of our children's future, especially for those who live in poverty, with language or disability needs, and many of our children of color. 

"College and Career Readiness" is a term that sounds great, but is used primarily to push for more charter schools, high-stakes testing and - the new favorite: school autonomy by those who want families and politicians to buy what they are selling in order to acquire more public funding that will increase their profits. These savvy corporate players know that every parent dreams of their child's future which college and careers are a part of, so it is easy to take advantage of this by corporate education reform backers. 

But is that really all you want for the children you love? I bet you are saying "No, it isn't." As someone who loves that child, you want the world for them: maybe they will invent the newest "big thing," maybe they will become a teacher, lawyer, doctor, engineer, city planner, or do something in the public sector where they help our city and country become better - maybe even President. You most likely want your students to be able to make good decisions and choices, be happy, experience love, have a family of their own - whatever that may look like, be involved in their community and engaged as a citizen and live life successfully as a well rounded person. And yes, this includes being ready to access either higher education or careers once they finalize their K-12 experience, but how can students do that if most of what they are taught revolves around the importance of taking tests?  

Additionally, what are the odds that your child will actually attain the goal of "college readiness" by graduating high school at a charter school here in Massachusetts? Not as high as they would be at your good old traditional public schools because charter schools have higher attrition and suspension rates and lower graduation rates than our traditional public schools. Unfortunately, you won't read about or hear these facts through any of our major Boston news sources. 

Luckily, we have alternatives for news like Edushyster whose article "Charter Cap 'n Gown" highlights the issue of graduation rates in Boston charter schools. Facts to think about: here in Boston, Codman Academy Charter School had only 6 boys graduate out of the 19 students who graduated in 2013 (9th grade incoming class of 53 students); City On A Hill had only 4 boys graduate of the 31 students who graduated (9th grade incoming class of 130 students); and Match Charter School also had only 6 boys graduate out of the 23 students who graduated (9th grade incoming class of 72 students.) More data to come on this VERY soon!

Corporate education reform is brought to you by those who helped bring about our latest recession: the hedge fund managers, investment brokers, corporations and the big banks involved with them. What "readiness" seems to mean for the corporations is ensuring that they have someone ready in the future to work for them and increase their profits. While they are pouring money into education reform, political and media campaigns designed to make you believe their front-men are looking out for your children's best interest (Stand for Children is a good example of this), they refuse to pay their own employees a living wage, yet continue to reap the profits associated with loans, tax credits and helping to sell products needed for MCAS or PARCC, and by the way, very few of their own children are affected by any of it as they attend private schools. 

Education in the US has historically been about educating the citizenry and ensuring democracy along with giving every child the ability to live the "American Dream." Unfortunately, for those of us immersed in education policy, what we have seen, over the past 10 years especially, is that what backers of corporate education reform and bills like H4108 really want to ensure is their own bottom line by "educating" our children to conform, be complacent and make these foundations and shareholders richer.

All of the above was only further solidified a week ago, when despite my attempt to get away from the entire education debate by relaxing a bit, that hope was dashed while watching NECN Business on Sunday. Paul Guzzi, President of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, and Peter Howe, NECN Business Editor, insisted that the Massachusetts House of Representatives passage of H4091 which would allow the proliferation of charter schools to continue with no increase in true accountability and oversight is the best answer for students in "horrible situations" who attend "terrible school districts" - primarily meaning Boston. Both Mr. Guzzi and Mr. Howe urged the Senators, who now have the bill in their hands as H4108, to also vote to lift the cap on charter schools in Massachusetts. If you are like me, you are asking yourself: why are the business leaders of Boston pushing for more charter schools?  I bet you know the answer!

The education of our students is the biggest responsibility we as parents, family, community members, and citizens have, yet we are failing our students every day that we remain silent and allow their education to be co-opted by businesses, corporations, organizations and billionaires who only see the profit they can make using our children now and in the future. We are failing our students by continuing to allow politicians to make choices based on campaign dollars instead of the welfare and future of our students, families, cities, states and the nation. We cannot afford to fail our students any longer.

Students, parents, families, educators, city and school leaders, politicians and citizens across the state and the country are coming together to insist that all of our students receive the quality education they deserve by investing in all of our students and schools equitably and fairly. Many of us in Massachusetts are emailing, calling, meeting with and visiting our state legislators to ask that they vote NO on H4108 and work with us to ensure more equitable funding formulas for all of our public schools, better oversight of charter schools to address all areas of concern, and to stop the over-testing of our children. 

Each of us alone has power when we raise our voice, collectively we can be truly unstoppable and the time to raise your voice, as a parent, as a family member, as a student, community member, politician or educator to ensure the educational rights of all of our students is NOW. This is not something you can put off if you want to ensure that your children, and all of our students, do not pay the ultimate price while those pushing the corporate agenda of corporate education reform turn our tax dollars into private profits.

To get involved with the fight for our students and public education, please:

Call, email, write and visit your state Senator and Representative;
Join myself and others throughout Massachusetts by:
Contacting me via email or Twitter @bpsnightmare, Mary Lewis-Pierce via email or Twitter @Googiebaba, and/or Kristin Johnson via email or Twitter @KrissyCabbage!

Also, if you use social media, be sure to check out and "Like" the Facebook page for "Keep The Cap on Charter Schools Massachusetts" and follow @KeepTheCapMass on Twitter.

0 Calling all 6 - 9th Grade Students: Your Voice, Your Future

Are you a sixth, seventh, eighth or ninth grade Boston student, or have one in your life? Want to be able to share your vision for Boston's future and possibly help the new mayor make those visions a reality? Want to meet a surprise celebrity guest, have some fun, enjoy entertainment, refreshments and an ice cream social while sharing your thoughts with Mayor-Elect Walsh?

If the answer is yes, than what are you waiting for? Get signed up now for the first of its kind Inaugural Youth Summit hosted by Mayor-Elect Marty Walsh this Saturday afternoon, January 4th! The Youth Summit will be held at Roxbury Community College in the Media Center, 1234 Columbus Ave., Roxbury, from 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. If you need transportation or want more information, please call 617-357-5777 x215.  Click here to RSVP! 

The goal of the Summit is for Mayor-Elect Walsh to hear the hopes and dreams of Boston’s youth and inspire our youth to achieve those dreams and play a part in Boston’s future by becoming involved themselves. Mayor-Elect Walsh realizes that our youth are our future leaders and citizens, so he hopes to see many of our awesome Boston students on Saturday!

I have to admit, with a celebrity guest, all the socializing, entertainment and refreshments, it definitely sounds like a fun event for sixth through ninth grade students to be attending on Saturday after being out of school for a couple of weeks, and possibly cooped up due to the snowstorm! (I am kind of jealous - maybe this should be the format for all school committee meetings? Hint Mayor-Elect Walsh!)

I know this will be a fun event for Mayor-Elect Walsh also and kind of wonder if he requested that the committee have an ice cream social. What? I am pretty sure he hasn't had much time to enjoy ice cream since his campaign started, and let's face it, listening to our youth has got to be more relaxing than what he has been doing for the past year!

Whether you are a student who is just curious about the event and come for that reason, or are concerned about things like education, the environment, making sure your voice is heard, jobs, or you have ideas and suggestions that can help move Boston forward, make sure you come to the youth summit on Saturday. Only you can make sure that Mayor-Elect Walsh knows what the youth of Boston want to see happening in their city, now and in the future!

My own daughters, 12 and 15 years old, were very involved throughout the election process so will be at the youth summit Saturday. They have a lot of ideas to share with Mayor-Elect Walsh regarding Boston's future. Of course, I am 90% sure that the promise of food, meeting other students, fun and the ice cream social factored into their decision to go also!

Want to see if friends are going or connect with others who are attending? You can check out the youth summit event page on Facebook too!

And, if you are the parent or friend of one of the students who decides to attend and want to hang out and wait for your fabulous student, please consider volunteering to help out, that's what I will be doing! (Otherwise I am sure my girls will think I am "watching" them - which no teen ever wants their parent doing while they socialize!) 

Also, please mark your calendars now for the Walsh Transition Committee's Youth Public Hearing on Thursday, January 9, 2014, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at English High School, in the Auditorium, 144 McBride St. Jamaica Plain, MA 02130.

Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at bpsnightmare@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: @BPSNightmare. 

 

0 Email Response from John Connolly to BPS Students' Email

As you may recall, on Wednesday, October 23, 2013, one week after Rhianwen had sent John Connolly, mayoral candidate, an email with her concerns about his positions regarding education in Boston, I posted that email as part of an article on the Patch. I did so because Rhianwen had not received even a courtesy response to her email from the man who claims he will be the "education mayor" and that he "will bring students in so their voices can be heard" if he is elected.

Roughly 12 hours after posting the Patch article, Mr. Connolly did finally respond to Rhianwen, which she received when she got on the computer Thursday night. I did text Mr. Connolly on Friday to ask that I be allowed to post his response here, as I am a fair person. To date I have received no response to that request, but again, because I like to be fair, I am posting it now for all to read:

Dear Rhianwen,

Thank you so much for reaching out to me.  I apologize for the delay in getting back to you, but the campaign keeps me very busy plus I try to spend some time with my three kids, including my new baby Mary Kate, so sometimes I fall behind on emails.  Thanks for your understanding.

I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying your school year at the Irving and that you are doing well.  I am running for mayor because I believe that every student deserves a great education and I will work incredibly hard to ensure that students with an IEP, ELL students, all of your friends at the Irving, and children all across the city have access to a great school.  The ELT and other great programs at the Irving seem to be working well for you and your classmates and I want to make sure that every young person in Boston loves school as much as you do.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.

Best Regards,
John

I will leave it up to each of you to decide whether Mr. Connolly's response answered Rhianwen's concerns or not.

I can be reached via email at bpsnightmare@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter: @bpsnightmare.

0 A Boston Public School Student's Email to John Connolly, Mayoral Candidate

During Tuesday night's mayoral debate on WGBH, John Connolly made the statement: "I will bring students in so their voices can be heard." This reminded me to ask my daughter Rhianwen if she had received a response to her email sent to Mr. Connolly a week ago. She has not.  

Background: Rhianwen is 12, an extremely smart, loving, giving and thoughtful child who has known Mr. Connolly through my volunteer work in Boston Public Schools, especially the Roslindale Pathway, since 2009. Rhianwen has also attended the majority of school SPC/SSC and pathway meetings as well as the school committee, school choice community and EAC meetings for the past two years. Hence, my 7th grader knows far more about education policies and issues than most adults do. Over the past 7 months, Rhianwen became very involved with the mayoral race, working on a mayoral campaign herself. Rhianwen is not shy and has always spoken up about issues that concern her or to defend something or someone when necessary as she is fiercely protective and loyal. 

All of the above said, Rhianwen is also a child with special needs, who struggled for years to pass from one grade to the next and constantly would tell us that she was "dumb" and "stupid" no matter what we tried to tell her and what other successes she experienced. Since 1st grade Rhianwen has been receiving at least 45 minutes per day of services, every single day of school. Toward the end of 4th grade things started to change and she was able to really start showing, via her work, how smart she is (which everyone knew, but it was not evident via tests or classwork consistently.) This came about because Rhianwen has always worked hard and tried to do her best, but also thanks to help from the fabulous teachers and specialists at both the Mozart and Irving public schools. Over the past year Rhianwen has finally begun to experience more consistent success in school with her academics, yet even now she struggles with organization and writing, so she does not really like writing all that much.

Given the above, you can imagine my surprise last Wednesday night when she stated that she had written an email to John Connolly. I asked her to share it with me, so I am now sharing it with all of you:

From: rhianwen

Date: Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 9:33 PM

Subject: MY VOICE HEARD

To: info@connollyforboston.com

Hello Im hopeing this goes straight to John Connolly him self. Im a 12 year old kid in Public schools and I want to be  heard Now Mr. Connolly please do not make my schools go into the dump for one I love my school how it is and I know you want to raise the charter cap thingy but please I want to tell you how important Public schools are to me. They are where I have my friends my help because I am on an IEP and I don’t want no charter schools to take away my love of my schools now. Please Don’t take away my education because I want a successful future and with no public schools no city year and stuff like that it will be harder for me to work. I got to the Washington Irving Middle School. Please don’t take the one thing I care about so much away from me.   To contact me email me at <removed to avoid spam>

I am very proud of Rhianwen, for many reasons, not the least of which includes showing more civic engagement than many voters in Boston have so far, for even thinking to send an email to Mr. Connolly, for taking the time out of fun endeavors like Webkinz, Minecraft and Skyping with her cousins to look up his website, get the email address and then putting herself out there: that she has an IEP, her thoughts and feelings about her school, her education, her future and charter schools and his stance regarding them and her understanding that more of them will impact her school and education. Sometimes my daughter literally takes my breathe away, this is one of those times. 

Now, given his schedule, maybe Mr. Connolly has yet to see this email himself. Maybe someone, whether it was Mr. Connolly or a staffer, saw the last name and dismissed the email thinking it was from me (as I have questioned Mr. Connolly quite frequently about his education policies.) Maybe Mr. Connolly did see it and thinks I put my daughter up to it, though clearly he should know better. However, given the "voices heard" similarity to Rhianwen's email subject line in Mr. Connolly's answers last night, I suspect he has in fact read her email. So, why no response?

No matter what the endless possibilities are that Mr. Connolly or one of his staff may have contemplated, I think that his lack of response to a BPS student who reached out to him about her concerns regarding his mayoral education goals and platform speaks volumes about the reality behind the campaign rhetoric Mr. Connolly has been stumping on. 

Semantically, he may have "heard" my daughters voice when she wrote the email to him, but what does it say that she has received absolutely no response from Mr. Connolly or even a courtesy email from the campaign? 

Does this seem like the action of a person who claims he "has fought to give parents and students a voice in the Boston Public Schools" as his website claims?

Actions speak louder than words, campaign ads or stump speeches Mr. Connolly. Shame on you for not responding to Rhianwen. 

0 Say No to Outside Influencing of Our Children's Education through Boston Political Races

Our elections in Boston right now have the potential to lead our city into the same fate as that of Chicago where 49 public schools are closing, if the wrong person is elected Mayor, or those elected as City-Councilor, Senator, etc for that matter. Big corporations, "education reform" organizations and individuals from OUTSIDE our city and state are trying to buy candidates by investing in their campaigns, indirectly funding workers for campaigns, ads, literature and events. Certain candidates are, and have for years, taken what they could from these groups and ignored their own constituents while assuring them they were actually going to work for their best interests. Yes, this happens often, I am far from naive, but it needs to stop.

My dear readers and friends - I am calling on ALL of you to help me help our great city (and our awesome state) by working with me to ensure that our children, ALL of them, do not end up with the same fate as the children of Chicago and other cities! I am asking YOU to take a stand and insist that if a candidate will not sign on to the "People's Pledge for Boston", introduced by Rob Consalvo, which would be a promise by the candidate to keep undisclosed outside special interest money out of the 2013 Boston mayoral (and city council et al) race, that you will not vote for them. 

If you know me, are a friend on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, or drive by my house even, you know who I will be voting for in September! His call to keep outside interest money outside of the election is yet one more reason why I am in Rob's corner along with his promise to ensure all of our children a quality education no matter what their needs are along with the many accomplishments, not just for his district, but across the city. 

The quote below, from the Washington Post, "The Rev. John Thomas: No Act of God Caused Chicago Schools Closings", sums it up for me: 

"They are gone because of decades of very deliberate decisions by public officials, corporate interests and ordinary citizens that have eviscerated the neighborhoods of Chicago, displacing people with the demolition of public housing, gutting communities with foreclosures and the elimination of jobs. The schools are gone because they have been replaced by charter schools, the darlings of politically well-connected school reformers making a profit on tax money while public officials eliminate the inconvenience of teachers unions."

My fear, a valid one given the lurking special interest groups looking to invest big money into the campaign(s) of those who endorse raising the charter school cap, is that Boston IS the next Chicago. My question to YOU is: do you REALLY want to be one of those "ordinary citizens" who sat back and didn't even do something as simple as phone, email, social-media pressuring of candidates - or do you want to live up to your Boston roots (whether born or transplant) of resistance to outside influences dictating our children's future?

Want to know who got paid by whom and what the issue is regarding lifting the charter school cap here in Massachusetts? 

Resources:

Education "Reformers" and the issues:

EduShyster: The Liftin O' the Cap - a great resource on charter schools, reformers et al with a witty writing style, so check out "Ed"'s other articles!

ReThinking Schools: For or Against Children? 

WBUR: Charter School Advocates Eye Investment In Mayor's Race
Be sure to read the comments!

Who got paid:

Save Money. Live Better. Open a Charter and Break the Unions Part I

Save Money. Live Better. Open a Charter and Break the Unions Part 2

I can be contacted at bpsnightmare@gmail.com and please consider following me on Twitter: @bpsnightmare.

0 Boston "School Quality Working Group" Members Announced

On Wednesday, May 1, 2013, the Boston Public Schools' (BPS) School Quality Working Group (SQWG) held their first meeting. This meeting was primarily to announce and introduce the members of the group. The SQWG was created out of the recommendations approved by the Boston School Committee (BSC) as part of the new student assignment plan (Home-Based A) in March 2013. The entire list of recommendations are available here.

According to the BPS bostonschoolquality.org website: 

Boston School Committee member Meg Campbell and Boston University School of Education Dean Dr. Hardin Coleman will co-chair the new School Quality Working Group, which is modeled on the External Advisory Committee on School Choice, which Dr. Coleman also co-chaired. The Working Group includes BPS parents, academic experts, and business and community leaders. It will continue to engage the community in the conversation on school quality that took place during our process to improve school choice. Their tasks include:

• Helping to develop a better way to measure school quality for the Home-Based school choice model, which takes effect for the fall of 2014. Currently the Home-Based model uses MCAS Tiers, which are based on a combination of overall performance and growth as measured by MCAS.

• Analyzing the implementation of the Home-Based school choice model, including measures of equity and school quality improvements

The members of the committee are:

Ron Ancrum- Executive Director, The Learning Center at Bromley Heath

Meg Campbell (co-chair) - BSC member, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Codman Academy *Charter Public School

Kathleen Colby -  BPS Ambassador, former BPS parent & EAC member

Hardin Coleman (co-chair) - see above

Michael Curry - President, NAACP Boston Chapter

Rahn Dorsey - Evaluation Director, the Barr Foundation & EAC member

Betty Francisco - EVP and General Counsel of Millenium Sports Club Management, wife of Paul Francisco (EAC member)

Denise Gonsalves - Director of Youth Leadership Development at Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) 

Dr. William (Bill) Henderson - Former BPS teacher, principal of O'Hearn (now the Henderson) inclusion school, author of The Blind Advantage

Carolyn Kain - Current Chair, BPS SpedPAC & EAC member

Craig Lankhorst - former BPS principal & EAC member

Daniel Linsky - no confirmable information found

Meredith Liu - Chief Financial Officer of Match Charter School

Elaine Ng - Executive Director, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center & BPS Parent

Myriam Ortiz - Executive Director, Boston Parent Organizing Network (BPON) & BPS parent

Marchelle Raynor - former Boston School Committee member and Program Director, Gertrude E. Townsend Learning Program

Marinell Rousmaniere -  Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at EdVestors & BPS Parent

Mariah Smith - no confirmable information found

Anh Vu - no confirmable information found

Rev. David Wright - Executive Director of the Black Ministerial Alliance of greater Boston

Josh Weiss - BPS parent who submitted a school assignment proposal to the EAC, took part in many of the EAC meetings as a community member, as well as blogging throughout the school assignment process at bpsworkshop.com

The above information regarding the members are not the official "bios" which BPS has requested from each of the members, but information obtained via prior BPS, EAC, BSC bios, through personal knowledge and relationships and with the help of others who know some of the members and was verified prior to writing this article. Once the official bios are available I will add a link to this post! 

In addition to the above tasks outlined on the new website, the group will most likely have some say in how to address quality issues in our Boston schools. The SQWG group, along with the BSC, holds the future of our students, the individual schools and the district as a whole, in their hands as they are charged with monitoring and assessing the new plan and the recommendations which may become district policies. 

As the families and advocates for our students and schools, we have an even more important role in this process: to monitor and assess the work of both the BSC and SQWG to ensure that all of our schools become quality schools and that access to those schools is equitable. I urge everyone, whether a current or potential BPS family, to follow this group and the work they do. When possible, attend the meetings (still TBA), ask questions, make suggestions and if concerned, let them know that too. 

"Learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence." —Abigail Adams

I can be contacted at bpsnightmare@gmail.com and please consider following me on Twitter: @bpsnightmare.

0 Boston Public Schools New Assignment Plan

The problem with our education system is not that parents do not have a choice. The problem is that inequities continue to exist. -Patsy Mink

We live in the city where public education was created, a city which is considered to be one of the most advanced cities with some of the greatest minds available, and yet, inequities still exist in our public K-12 schools. These inequities harm not only our most vulnerable populations of children, those who are socio-economically challenged and students who may be English Language Learners (ELL) or have a disability (SWD), but all of our students because they all pay the price for these inequities. As the K-12 grades are the foundation for our students future success, it is important that we address the educational issues as quickly as possible. So how do we fix these disparities? 

According to Mayor Menino, Dr. Carol Johnson, and others, the first step to addressing the issues our schools face is by putting in place a new assignment policy which will allow students to go to school closer to home. This push for schools closer to home is what led to the Home-Based model as the proposed assignment model for Boston Public Schools (BPS). On Wednesday night, March 13, the Boston School Committee (BSC) held the last community hearing regarding the proposed assignment model followed by a regular BSC meeting which included a vote on the Home-Based model. 

While the hearing and school committee meeting were going on, a loud protest was taking place outside the building by members of several groups and unions. I only spent a few minutes outside listening to the speakers, but most of us in the Winter Chambers could hear the chants of "Say no to racism in education" and see the signs they pressed against the windows while circling the building!

As there were well over 20 people signed up to speak during the hearing, the BSC meeting rules dictated that the original 3 minutes per person be cut to 2 minutes per person. As you can imagine, the BSC Hearing went over the one-hour time allotted for it and into the regular BSC meeting, with a brief break from testimony to officially start the BSC meeting. BSC Chairman Michael O'Neill allowed the hearing testimony to be directly followed by the "public comment" period of the BSC meeting. 

There were 2 1/2 hours of intense testimony by parents, advocates, community members, and politicians. Many community members testified that the focus should be on the quality of our schools; walk-zone priority being kept or removed; capacity concerns under the new plan; the clear inequity of the new plan for our most at risk students; concerns about our SWD children; concerns about segregation; and, the validity and interpretation of the data used.

Dr. Muriel Leonard, former BPS speech pathologist, principal, deputy superintendent and chair of the task force to identify school quality indicators, testified that as in 2004, once again quality was the issue raised most during the school assignment process and that the recommendations then are primarily the same as those made by the task force in 2004 which were never fulfilled. Dr. Leonard went on to state that the BSC should ensure that all the recommendations of both the 2004 task force and the EAC should now be fulfilled and that she, like others, will not accept "quality later".

Councilor John Connolly was the only politician who testified that the walk-zone priority should be kept, whereas Councilors Tito Jackson and Charles Yancey testified that the walk-zone priority would enhance the inequality of the Home-Based plan and should be removed. All of the Councilors testified that the focus should be quality schools. 

Barbara Fields, former teacher and then Senior Equity Officer for BPS, as well as serving on the executive board of the Black Educators Alliance of Massachusetts (BEAM), testified regarding the work that must be done to address issues of resources and planning, that even with removal of the walk-zone priority the home-based plan still disadvantages students of color and socio-economically challenged students as many of those children live in areas of the city where the schools are designated as the lowest performing schools. Ms. Fields urged the BSC members to ensure that quality remain a focus even after a vote that she was sure would lead to the home-based plan being adopted.

As I had outlined the issues of the "BPS Tiers" vs. actual Massachusetts DESE MCAS level designations during previous testimony, I instead focused my own testimony on highlighting the following:

• "Access" does not equal actual assignment, it only gives families the choice of certain schools - there is no guarantee your student will get a seat at one of your top choices;
• Questions still remain regarding:
• the validity of the data used;
• the interpretation of said data;
• policy recommendations and clarifications still needed;
• issues pertaining to students with disabilities (many);
• what happened to the requirement to have "academic improvement strategies" for each school being created and publicized prior to implementation of the plan.
• That further capacity analysis needs to be done:
• the data used did not factor in students who registered for Kindergarten in Rounds 2, 3, etc or students in grades 1-8, which leaves out a lot of students and though Kindergarten may be where the majority of students enter BPS, it is not the only grade level entry point for new students for many reasons.
• What about grandfathering of students with disabilities in their current school if they are in a specialized programs that due to the new BPS SWD Overlay map causes their program to be moved to a different school (again)? Will BPS honor the grandfathering of those students at their current school and run concurrent programs in separate schools until the grandfathered students at a school are all out of 8th grade? (this could possibly apply to ELL students also!).
• The "Quality improvement" promises are based partially on Mayor Menino's legislative proposals. There is no guarantee those proposals will pass at the state level or a guarantee by our city and state politicians or BPS of alternative funds/resources if the proposed legislation fails. This could lead to serious ramifications for the promised "quality improvements". I personally will not accept "well, we didn't get the money, so we will need to delay those improvements" as our political leadership and the district A) should have thought of this anyway, and B) I have been bringing this issue up since October through testimony at BSC, EAC and through articles and conversations - and still there is no alternate plan in place that has been publicized, so none of us should let this go.

When the last community member finished testifying, there was a presentation by the External Advisory Committee on School Assignment (EAC), represented by members Dean Hardin Coleman, EAC Co-Chair, and John Nucci. In addition to the EAC presentation, John McDonough, BPS CFO, acting as Interim Superintendent during Dr. Johnson's bereavement leave, read Dr. Johnson's memo which outlined her recommendation of the Home-Based model without the walk-zone priority. Dr. Johnson's recommendation leaves walk-zone access in place because that access is built-in to the Home-Based model. 

During and after the EAC presentation, the BSC members were able to ask questions about the Home-Based model, and the recommendations by the EAC and Dr. Johnson. I credit the BSC members for asking some great questions. 

John Barros asked that the district come up with a way to create the choice baskets for each family based on actual capacity of open seats at a school, factoring in the number of seats that are already guaranteed to siblings, instead of just based on proximity of the school and Tier designation. Mr. Barros example was of a school which he is given as a choice, but in reality, due to sibling grandfathering, there are actually only 5 open seats available, which ties in directly to scenarios and questions I laid out during my examination of the Quality Choice Plan (QCP) in October and which can now be asked regarding the home-based model. Mr. Barros suggested using the available seat information to then potentially add additional schools to families baskets to allow families a greater chance of obtaining a seat they want for their child.

Caludio Martinez, adding on to a recommendation of amendment to the "recommendation memo" made by Mr. Barros, illustrated the issue of the difference between the BPS "Tier" system and the MADESE "Level" designations. Mr. Martinez stated that while registering his child for school he was given the choice of the JFK school, according to BPS it is a Tier 2 (top 50% of schools), whereas MADESE Level has it listed as a Level 4 (turnaround status) school, which shows that clearly he was not given a true "high quality" school as part of his list.

While responding to Mr. Martinez's observation about BPS Tier vs. MADESE Levels, Dr. Kamalkant Chavda, Asst. Supt for Data & Accountability, stated that because the MADESE way of comparing schools statewide "were not appropriate and significantly different" which significantly penalizes BPS, that BPS decided to come up with a BPS specific metric for assessing the schools. One of the "nuts and bolts" ways of assessing the BPS schools (more favorably obviously) was "that our students with very high needs, students with disabilities and ELL students, Level 1, 2 and 3 were removed from that analysis, because again, by default, we are ranking schools, tier-ing schools and we want to make sure when we do that we remove some students with very high needs who are served in very specialized strands."* For the entire statement by Dr. Chavda on this, please see the video of the meeting and go to the fourth hour (04:26m). * MUCH more on this later as you can imagine! 

However, due to a correction by Alissa Ocasio, BPS Legal Advisor, the "friendly amendment" could not go forward attached to the EAC recommendations or without the Superintendent making her own recommendations first according to state law. Chairman O'Neill did note that Mr. Barros could bring the suggestions up under new businesses which would allow the BSC to ask for the Superintendent and BPS' input and recommendations on same, which is what ultimately ended up happening.

After all the testimony, questions and answers on Wednesday night, March 13, the Boston School Committee (BSC), by a vote of 6-1, approved the Home-Based school assignment plan without the walk-zone priority for Boston Public School (BPS) students. They also approved all of the recommended overlays and recommendations, inclusive of grandfathering of current students and their siblings. 

I fully support a new, less convoluted system for assigning our students to school. I also like close to home for children, especially younger students, and in fact have been lucky that except for my son in high school, my girls have been able to attend schools close to us. 

That said, I am extremely concerned that with this vote done, we will not see the same level of community pressure to ensure that good policies are put in place regarding this new plan and our schools quality levels. We need the community that came out, spoke up and pushed for the focus to be on quality first, even when they get busy with other things, to continue the fight for all of our students and their right to quality schools no matter where they live. Otherwise, I fear we will be back to just a few of us, like Peggy Weisenberg, Barbara Fields, John Mudd, Kim Janey, myself (who I am sure the BSC gets tired of hearing from) and a few new faces like Kenny Jervis, Meghan Doran of Boston Busing and Desegregation Project (BBDP) and a few Quest members continuing the pressure. 

What remains to be seen is whether we move Boston schools in a better direction, or will we now, as in 2004 when some of these same recommendations regarding quality were originally made, fail to follow-through?

I will keep updating you regarding the process and other BPS related issues, so I hope you will keep reading!

You can contact me at bpsnightmare@gmail.com and follow me on twitter @bpsnightmare.