NUT Report: SOS rally and march just the beginning

There is little reporting on the SOS March on D.C. held yesterday consistent with mainstream media's ignoring of current education reform initiatives. The public remains in the dark and uninformed. Bloggers are filling in the gaps. I have located some reporting:
National Park Service estimated 8,000 attended the SOS March on D.C. rally and march "to protest the standardized testing mania that is at the heart of the Obama administration’s school reform policies" according to Washington Post blogger Valerie Strauss.

Education Week reporter Nirvi Shah covered events here. Marchers reported that CNN was there too.

The Christian Science Monitor, the most recognizable media outlet, reported the event here. The article titled "Save Our Schools March: a teacher revolt against Obama education reform" describes the event as part of a "nationwide push" agains the President's policies.

"This is impassioned educators pushing back for good or bad," says Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, who is generally an advocate of standards-based reforms. "I think it's clear that this isn't union power tactics."

Hess goes on to say these efforts have the potential for positive effects:

"There is a simple-mindedness, an arrogance, and a reflexiveness with which the reformers are pushing their agenda, particularly from Washington, and I think they've wound up giving classroom educators serious and fair cause for concern about how things like value-added evaluations or merit pay are taking shape," says Mr. Hess of AEI. "This pushback both helps call attention to the need to do this smarter and offers an opportunity to slow down and pursue these things with the deliberation and thoughtfulness they require."

There is common unity across ideologies over the direction of current education reform initiatives. The public and taxpayers are not getting sufficient information on the rationale for expensive, increased standardized assessment regimes, starting at preschool ages with data collected in national student longitudinal databases. In these times of severe economic distress, how are such initiatives justified and what is their impact on students? During Senate education hearings last week, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan asked for more money, 13.3 percent budget increase over 2011, which would bring the department's spending one fifth higher than 2010 levels.

"As every family is doing more with less, so should we," Duncan said. "[But] you can't sacrifice the future to pay for the present." He said the increase in spending would allow the department to fund the increased demand for Pell grants as well as reform early learning initiatives and the Race to the Top program."

There are simply too many questions regarding the benefits and cost-effectiveness of increased federal intrusion into education. Will Congress look deeper and respond to growing concerns?

NUT Report: Photos from SOS March on D.C.

Rally at the Ellipse followed by a march to the White House. Speakers at the rally included Linda Darling-Hammond from Stanford, Diane Ravitch, Matt Damon, and Rita Solnet, one of the co-founders of Parents Across America (Florida) and others.

CNN reports on Matt Damon's participation here.

No news if the White House has accepted a rescheduling of their meeting request. More details on this event as they emerge.

SOS March Rally Today: Listen Live Today

Saturday, July 30th, you can listen to a live audio feed of the SOS Save Our Schools March in Washington, D.C. by clicking these steps.

Go to http://edtechtalk.com/studio, click on the UStream player on the right, and type your name in on the left (no password is needed) if you’d like to join a text chat.
Events will be following the Twitter stream with participants on the ground call in and share.

Coverage is announced to start around nine. Rally begins around noon at the Ellipse with a march to the White House.

Secretary Duncan on the defensive

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan found himself in the hot seat this week. At yesterday's Senate Education Appropriations Committee meeting, Senator Richard Shelby stated that the "Race to the Top" program extends the reach of the federal government too far into states' public schools. Senator Jack Reed also had some tough questions for Duncan on priorities and the loss of programs that worked in favor of experimentation. The video was posted in This Week in Education.

The hearing was covered in the Huffington Post and repeated in Scathing Purple Musings.

The Washington Post reports that Secretary Duncan met with some protesters associated with the SOS March on Washington D.C. Facebook postings report Duncan indicated there is common ground and agreement; however participants remain unconvinced. The meeting is the first acknowledgement by the administration of widespread national public concern over federal mandates and excessive testing initiatives. The March is scheduled for Saturday.
UPDATE: SOS March Executive Committee declines White House invitation to meet today and requests a Sunday meeting or a date after the March. The committee invited the White House to attend the Saturday rally and listen first hand to concerns.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2011/07/save_our_schools_leaders_decli.html#.TjKPEMfipQV.facebook
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/obama-administration-reaches-out-to-education-activists-before-march/2011/07/28/gIQAp39zeI_blog.html

SOS March in D.C.: Supported nationally by parents, community members, and taxpayers

I found the handful of posts on the SOS March on Washington found in Alexander Russo's blog interesting. Is it possible that journalists are completely misinformed about the reactions in communities across the nation to federal education reform initiatives? Or are these views part of a continuing pattern in the narrative by education reform advocates to trivialize and diminish the extent of public concerns over federal education reform initiatives. Instead of fact-based analysis, one journalist follows the "getting personal" track, commenting on Diane Ravitch and Whitney Tilson, two individuals I had never heard of until recently; whatever their "disagreement," it has no relevance to an examination of current reform initiatives. A few of the journalists/bloggers suggest the SOS March is a teacher event, and ignore the thousands of parents and community members who support it. Then, other commenters are clearly misinformed when they write that those who attend the event should have some solutions to offer. Solutions have been offered, supported by research and evidence and ignored.

Since there are many layers to the federal education reform initiatives, Grumpy Educators has focused on the following:

1) Increased federally imposed standardized testing is unnecessary. There are sufficient assessments in place to provide data on student achievement. The so-called formative assessment is a wasteful effort. Now there is an initiative to have standardized data for preschoolers. Schools are already centers for test preparation and test-centric instruction. Simply stated, testing should not be increased and testing should not be the purpose of the classroom.
2) Accountability matters, but it must be reasonable and rely on the plentiful research and evidence that exists. The last decade of high stakes assessment did not yield the promised results. What benefit is there to continue this mandate that has a track record of negative results?
3) The use of student data to build a national longitudinal database on students from preschool through college is another expensive initiative with insufficient rationale. FERPA was enacted by the U.S. Congress to protect student information. A recent regulatory proposal by the U.S. DOE removes parental consent from the sharing of with some agencies. Is it reasonable for the public to voice concerns over privacy, security, and potential use of data on the nation's children?

Tweet, fax, or call your federal legislator today and tell them these policies do not advance an educated population.