Re: Repeal NCLB, Letter to Hollister Teachers

["Kathy Emery" <mke4think@hotmail.com>]

The educatorroundtable petition is an excellent organizing tool.  organizing 
teachers in your school to sign it will lead to direct confrontation with 
the state's union leadership. Barbara Kerr has apparently told CTA union 
presidents to forbid their union members from signing the petition -- this 
is the kind of position you want to unmask when organizing.  such a 
ridiculous response reveals how the highest union leadership has been 
coopted -- making the powers that be and their tools respond in this way is 
the beginning of radicalizing teachers to rethink their positions.
kathy

----Original Message Follows----
From: Joe Navarro <jlnhca@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: ca-resisters@interversity.org
To: ca-resisters <ca-resisters@interversity.org>
Subject: [ca-resisters] Repeal NCLB, Letter to Hollister Teachers
Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2007 22:42:48 -0700 (PDT)

The following letter was distributed to all teachers by the Executive Board 
of the Hollister Elementary School Teachers Association in January.

  Time to Repeal the No Child Left Behind Act!

  It is time to repeal President Bush?s No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), an 
over-simplistic and politically motivated set of laws to supposedly address 
the inequalities in education.  As a result of NCLB schools are driven by 
unrealistic standards, endless tests and selective data to direct our 
teaching, while proven practices and sound education theory and data are 
ignored.  Higher order thinking skills are neglected.
  All students suffer in one way or another from NCLB, but people of color 
are routinely subjected to inferior education, phonics-limited instruction, 
rote memorization, drill-and-skill instruction and denied access to broader 
skills, such as art, music, science and social studies.  Non-English 
speakers are forced to perform at the same levels as native-English speakers 
without the academic language skills needed to be successful.
  NCLB forces many schools, including Hollister, to choose between teaching 
to the tests or teaching mastery of skills and a wide-range of subjects.  
High-stakes assessments are used as a criteria for a system of punishments 
of schools and children, while the rest of the school year is spent 
preparing for tests, including wasting money on expensive consultants and 
test preparation materials.  Assessments should be important tools to give 
teachers information throughout the year to help them meet the children?s 
academic needs.
  Renowned education scholar, author and activist, Susan Ohanian, is 
co-spearheading an effort to petition Congress to dismantle the NCLB, and is 
asking parents and teachers to join her effort and sign the petition on 
www.educatorroundtable.org.

  Sincerely,

  Joe Navarro


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