Talking points created by teachers for parents

WHY SEATTLE TEACHERS AND PARENTS ARE STANDING UP

Under the Superintendent's plan called SERVE:

* More time testing = less time learning. Precious class time would be spent “teaching to the test,” eliminating art, music, PE, project-based learning, and other instruction needed to ensure success in college and in life.
 
* Students would be dismissed from school every other Friday afternoon while teachers attend meetings. This is a loss of more than 2 weeks of class time.
 
* Libraries & computer labs would be closed to classes during the 9 weeks required to test students during the year. Yet, this test does not replace, or even prepare students for, the state-required proficiency exams required for graduation.
 
* Relationships between students and teachers would be undermined by high-stakes testing - increased stress threatens the personalization that makes for good teaching.
 
* Taxpayers would be asked to spend millions more on the MAP test which, according to its creators, was never meant to be used as a summative student evaluation (like the SAT), nor as a teacher evaluation tool.
 
Concerned parents and teachers believe:
 
Students are more than test scores. They are human beings, not “products” to be measured and calibrated to “the norm.”
 
21st century education requires developing critical thinking skills, effective communication skills, practice in collaboration and intrapersonal interaction in addition to “the three R’s”.
 
Teachers cannot treat students as individuals when the district treats them as "products" that determine employment and compensation.
 
Cooperation and collaboration among teachers disintegrates as colleagues become "competitors" fighting for the “best students” and “merit” pay determined by a test score.
 
Teachers want to be accountable for factors they control: planning & preparation, classroom environment, instructional practice and professional responsibility.
 
For more information see:
Department of Education Error Rates in Measuring Teacher and School Performance Based on Student Test Score Gains http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20104004/pdf/20104004.pdf
Diane Ravitch Obama's Race to the Top Will Not Improve Education
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-ravitch/obamas-race-to-the-top-wi_b_666598.html
Dora Taylor The MAP test has a few teensy problems http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut4bK2Z0cvs
Meg Diaz takes the School Board to task http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19vOVdpOh6M
Carl Bialik Putting Teachers to the Test http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/putting-teachers-to-the-test-982/

Aug 26th - Bargaining Teams continue into the evening

The teams were still bargaining at 8:00 p.m. They will continue into the evening. The SEA Bargaining Team continues to negotiate based on the values and priorities members have identified. The teams will schedule more sessions if needed. Their goal is to get a tentative agreement by or before August 31. We will continue to provide regular updates.


This morning, staff and parents from Salmon Bay and Olympic View showed their solidarity by greeting the SEA Team with posters, flowers and breakfast treats as they arrived at negotiations. The Team clearly felt the support.


On Tuesday, August 24, 90 Site Coordinators met to prepare for activities to support our bargaining team. Below is the information they are circulating at trainings and schools this week.

We Are Ready for Change.

On Tuesday, Aug. 31, wear blue for our brighter future, and as a united symbol of what we can achieve for our schools and students through collaboration and innovation. SEA members are ready!


As educators, we dedicate our careers to doing the best we can for our students …. and we bristle when outsiders to our district suggest teachers should be blamed for every problem that interferes with a child’s education today. That’s why our union, the Seattle Education Association, is seeking a new path. It’s a path that recognizes the most important factor in a child’s schooling is a great teacher in every classroom, but also recognizes that great teachers are not the only factor that shapes a child’s education.


As educators, we know learning is more than simply teaching the answers to a standardized test. We know that education is facts, figures and formulas, but it is so much more: It’s attitude, curiosity and a student’s internal drive to do better. It’s instilling a desire for lifelong learning, not merely the ability to skate through next week’s test. As educators, we understand that children are not treated equally by the world. Some have access to travel, books, performances and information. Some don’t. Some families face a multitude of challenges. Some don’t.


As educators, we are not afraid to own our role in teaching our students. And as a profession, we must stand against being the sole source of blame for every factor that influences the upbringing of every child.


That’s why Seattle’s educators worked jointly with the district to develop the Professional Growth and Evaluation model. It creates a framework to identify great teachers based on clear standards, not simply guesswork or favoritism. It provides the support to help struggling teachers improve, so that every Seattle educator truly is proficient or innovative. It reflects and helps educators address the cultural differences of our students. And it deals head-on with an isolated but incendiary issue that has risked the credibility of our entire profession: teacher quality.


That’s the historic change we seek: fighting for the professionalism we – and our students – deserve, but finding meaningful solutions that still ensure fairness to our members. If we are successful, SEA could provide a beacon to other districts struggling with these same difficult issues. If no contract agreement is reached, SEA could find itself in a protracted battle with those who don’t recognize the educational damage created by their simplistic mandate for test-driven teaching.


For now, let’s remain upbeat and positive in our hope that our district is ready to move forward with historic change.


It’s our future. We’re ready for change: That’s why we need your voice.

More Progress, but still no Tentative Agreement

Much progress has been made at the negotiation table this week. As you know, Monday was added this week and the teams met for a half of a day. Both Tuesday and Wednesday, the teams met for full days and intense discussions.

The teams will again meet on Thursday for another full day that may even extend into the evening. There has even been talk of adding more days if tomorrow does not provide enough time.

Despite the continued progress, there is still significant tension on some key issues that have great importance to the members. The Seattle EA team continues to follow the guidance that members have shared through surveys, focus groups, building meetings and individual emails.

Another communication will be sent out Thursday evening with an update on bargaining and upcoming activities.

In the meantime, start spreading the word that Seattle EA members will be wearing blue on Tuesday, August 31 as a united symbol of what we can achieve for our schools and students through collaboration and innovation. SEA members are ready!

General Membership Meeting

Thursday, September 2

4:30 p.m.

SPU’s Royal Brougham Pavilion

3414 3rd Ave W (at W. Nickerson)

For more information about basis for the jointly recommended proposal that has been discussed, please follow this link: http://www.seattlewea.org/index.php/component/content/article/252-the-basis-for-the-joint-proposal

Does the Seattle School District truly want to move forward with historic change?

August 17, 2010

Reminder: Join us at a

SEA Rally
to support our bargaining team
5:30 p.m., August 18
JSCEE
prior to the School Board Meeting

Does the Seattle School District truly want to move forward with historic change, or is its strategy to block progress with an unyielding insistence on unproven, unacceptable testing schemes?

The SEA negotiating team extended a branch today that should make it clear whether the district’s true goal is to use test scores to improve student achievement and quality teaching, or whether it is merely a ruse for some other agenda.

Early in the day, the district’s negotiating team continued stonewalling on the issue of using test scores for teacher evaluations. Finally, when challenged by SEA to identify what parts of their SERVE proposal they were actually willing to negotiate over, their blocking strategy became clear.

The district was not willing to negotiate any proposal that didn’t base teacher evaluations on student test scores. It was their way or no way.

SEA supports moving forward with the historic progress already achieved through the jointly negotiated Professional Growth and Evaluation plan. So SEA’s bargaining team huddled privately to develop a creative solution that would meet the core values of SEA members and the interests of the district.

The result: A proposal from SEA that seeks to carve out middle ground by recognizing the district’s interest in using test data to help recognize teachers who may benefit from additional help, while not misusing test data to evaluate and fire teachers.

District negotiators said they would seriously consider the SEA proposal. We will know how seriously when we meet on Thursday morning for our next bargaining session.

Remember . . .

the Seattle Education Association

General Membership Meeting
Thursday, September 2, 2010, 4:30 p.m.
SPU's Royal Brougham Pavillion
3414 3rd Ave W (at W Nickerson)
Seattle

President Olga Addae speaking to the NEA Delegates -July 6, 2010

From the National Education Association Representative Assembly

New Business Item 90 (Adopted)

The NEA will create an action plan using existing committee structure that will designate long and short term goals for the purpose of developing policy recommendations to support broad-based organizing efforts of local & state affiliates with other labor, non-profit & faith-based organizations.

Seattle Education Association President, Olga Addae speaking on July 6, 2010, in support of NBI 90

Olga Addae speaking on behalf of the delegation, I move New Business Item 90.

Mr. President, Van Roekel, in your key note speech you spoke of the deep and long economic crisis and its devastating impact on our students, our members, and our schools.

I agree with you; the future of America is uncertain and intolerable consequences await not only our students and our members; but every American who is among the working middle class, the unemployed, and those living in poverty.

It is time for all of us unite; whether we live in a Right-to-Work state or a Fair-Share state; Whether we are NEA or AFT, whether we are Democrats, Republicans, or Independents; Whether we are upper middle class or lower middle class. We need to reach out through broad-based organizing efforts to build relations with other non-profits, faith based groups and most importantly other unions.

It is time to take back America from the strangle hold of the financial elite and for-profit corporations.

The real education reform we seek requires real resources that are sustainable.

We must learn from history; the last time so few held so much of the wealth in America was right before the Depression… from that crisis the opportunity to build a strong middle class, with strong unions, strong non-profits (such as the PTA) and strong faith based organizations. The zenith for all these civil sector organizations was in the mid 1950’s.

It only took 60 years for the financial elite to dismantle the civil sector that so many unsung heroes fought and died for. Let us not wait for another Depression.

We must reach out to our brethren and build better relations and “Act” for the common good. Broad-based organizing is not about forming another union, not about a temporary coalition. It is about a process of continuous efforts to build relations with other unions, non-profits and faith based groups to “Act” for the common good, which is determined locally. Please support NBI 90