Re: URGENT

["joseph p. bottini" <jpbottini@adelphia.net>]

  Alan
  I don't have any of those resources.
  Just wanted to respond instead of ignoring you.
  Go get 'em!
  Joe Bo

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: <alanyoung@mchsi.com>
  To: <care@yahoogroups.com>; "Ed&Democracy"
<forumforeducationanddemocracy@yahoogroups.com>; "RScriticalteach"
<RScriticalteach@lists.execpc.com>; <ARN-state@yahoogroups.com>; "ARN-L"
<arn-l@interversity.org>; "arn2-strategy" <arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com>;
<ACTNOW2003@yahoogroups.com>
  Sent: Friday, March 12, 2004 9:59 AM
  Subject: Re: [arn-l] URGENT


  Hi all my wonderful activist friends. I really need your assistance. About
a year and a half ago, I led an effort to put down a huge anti-social
promotion/pro-retention push where I teach in the Des Moines Public Schools,
Iowa's largest school district with over 30,000 students. I did so with a
flood of email articles on the myth of social promotion and being on grade
level and standardized tests as accurate measures of a child's growth, the
facts the harms of retention and other research which showed the fallacy of
even posing the question the way these simpletons do when they get involved
in ed reform. Well, the over 25 articles that I sent via email (and did not
make hard copies of) have been lost due to a computer virus and the phantom
is rising again, except not in my district but in the state.

  Yesterday, while I was doing student-led portfolio conferences at my
school until 9:00 p.m., our republican dominated senate snuck a bill through
SF 2246 which will hold all 3rd graders back in Iowa if they are more than 1
year behind grade level (whatever that means) in reading. This was not on
the radar screen. It came out of nowhere. All our efforts here this year,
which have been extensive, have been on massive tax cuts leading to the
underfunding of our schools with major cuts for the 4th year in a row.
Didn't see this coming at all, so we are up against it and I lost all my
ammunition. I have begun this morning to marshal some research, but would
truly benefit from your help. The House has been voting on pure party lines
and I have to sway just a few people to make this not happen. They will come
out an talk with me and listen if past experience is an indicator. I have
been successful in the past, but must have stuff in hand so that can have
something to stand on.

  Do any of you have at your fingertips articles and research that could
help me? I not only have the ability to email these folks with the database
that I have set up, but am planning to go down to the capitol and lobby them
later. I need these as soon as possible. I know there were some great ones
from the Harvard Educational Letter, Phi Delta Kappan, etc, and I am
beginning to recreate my library on this, but not as quickly as needed to
address this particular problem today and Monday, Last time in Des Moines,
the barrage worked quite well and the focus switched from a reactive,
punitive, retention/test focus to a proactive, supportive, dropout
prevention/authentic assessment focus. It was not just the content, board
members said, but the sheer volume of research that I provided and how truly
one-sided it was that changed their minds. Members said it worked, because
they simply had not looked at the research. I truly think that I can do the
same with a few House members in our 53-47 Republican dominated House. Thank
god we have a decent governor, but I need to get things to him as well to
assure a veto my efforts fail in the house.

  So, Monty, Bob, Anne, Alfie, Susan, Jerry, Evans, George Sheridan, George
Schmidt, Deb, Sue, Carol, Juanita, Larry, Jackie, Mickey, Kristina and
whoever else in this fine resistance movement has a good article on the
problems of retention, please forward to me ASAP so that I can slay this
monster. I appreciate this, the schoolchildren of Iowa appreciate this. Many
thanks.

  Alan
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Monty Neill
    To: care@yahoogroups.com ; Ed&Democracy ; RScriticalteach ;
ARN-state@yahoogroups.com ; ARN-L ; arn2-strategy
    Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 1:23 PM
    Subject: [care] radio on NCLB


    The radio show Democracy Now will do a show tomorrow on NCLB. Looks like
I will be on it. I am being taped between 8 and 9 am EST. The show is aired
on Pacifica stations and others at various times. You can listen on the
Pacifica website http://www.pacifica.org/ - so sometime tomorrow it should
be available - today's show is already up.

    Monty
    Monty Neill, Ed.D.
    Executive Director
    FairTest
    342 Broadway
    Cambridge, MA 02139
    617-864-4810    fax 617-497-2224
    monty@fairtest.org
    http://www.fairtest.org


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