Please register online for the State of the Union Conference: http://stateoftheunionconference.eventbrite.com

Date: Thursday, October 27th  @ 7 PM
Location: New York University Silver Center, Room 520
100 Washington Square East (b/w Washington Pl and Waverly)

It has been ONE YEAR since the premiere of Davis Guggenheim’s documentary, WAITING FOR SUPERMAN was released in NYC.

A slick, emotionally-charged advertisement for charter schools, SUPERMAN was promoted relentlessly by the corporate media… and flopped at the box-office.

But did you know that a group of NYC public school teachers and parents produced their OWN film in response?

This new documentary, created with NO BUDGET AT ALL, tells another side to the story — the side of public school parents, teachers and students who are fighting for REAL reform.

It has been ONE YEAR since the premiere of Davis Guggenheim’s documentary, WAITING FOR SUPERMAN was released in NYC

THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH BEHIND WAITING FOR SUPERMAN was released last spring and has already been screened in all 50 United States and on 6 continents — without a SINGLE MENTION in the mainstream media!

Please join us for a SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY SCREENING IN NYC:

ON Friday, October 14th
AT 6 pm
The Community Church of New York
40 East 35th Street
New York, NY 10016

THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH BEHIND WAITING FOR SUPERMAN

with Guest Speaker:
Jamie Fidler, Brooklyn educator featured in the new film, American Teacher*

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
SUGGESTED DONATION: $5-$20

For more information about the film, visit: www.waitingforsupermantruth.org

Sponsored by the Grassroots Education Movement
www.gemnyc.org

We are grateful to those of you that have already ordered a free copy of THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH BEHIND WAITING FOR SUPERMAN, and followed up with a donation to help us defray duplication and shipping costs.

We hope that you continue to share the film with others that face the very same concerns and issues addressed in the movie by holding local screenings and teach-ins in your school community or locale.

*American Teacher is listed for identification purposes only

Join us for an evening with Yong Zhao…

“American education is at a crossroads.  Two paths lie in front of us:  one in which we destroy our strengths in order to catch up with others on test scores and one in which we build on our strengths so we can keep the lead in innovation and creativity.  The current push for more standardization, centralization, high-stakes testing, and test-based accountability is rushing us down the first path, while what will truly keep America strong and Americans prosperous should be the latter, the one that cherishes individual talents, cultivates creativity, celebrates diversity, and inspires curiosity.”  –Yong Zhao

Yong Zhao is one of the most eloquent critics of the high cost of high-stakes testing and an expert on the Chinese educational system, which is attempting to move away from the ridgid accountability system that Arne Duncan and other corporate reformers are pushing our country towards.

He is the Presidential Chair and Associate Dean for Global Education at the University of Oregon, where he also serves as the director of the Center for Advanced Technology in Education (CATE)..  For more information visit:  http://zhaolearning.com

October 12, 2011

Location:  I.S. 89 201 Warren Street   New York, NY  10282

Time:  6:30-8:30 PM

Sponsored by:  Class Size Matters, Grassroots Education Movement, I.S. 89 PTA, Parents Across America, and Time-Out From Testing

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Printable PDF flyer here:  Join Us on October 12th for an Evening with Yong Zhao

Enter the Grassroots Education Movement Production, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman. Aiming to transform public education, school governance, and teacher unions, this DVD brings to the table ten major reforms: small class sizes; excellent community schools for all children; more teaching-less testing; parent and teacher empowerment and leadership; equitable funding for all schools; anti-racist education policies; culturally relevant curriculum; expanding pre-kindergarten and early intervention programs; qualifies and experiences educators and educational leaders; and democratic and social justice unionism. Questions the Movement, Will the Real Reformers Please Stand Up?Meeting that challenge on Wednesday, October 5th is a new panel that explores the history, problems, politics, and trajectory of America’s public schools. Following the screening of both films, Ansley Erickson, TC Assistant Professor of History & Education; Christina Collins, Lead Researcher & Policy Analyst for the UFT; and Dino Sossi, filmmaker and TC doctoral student; and Ellen Livingston, doctoral candidate and former Instructor in Social Studies Education at Teachers College, stand up to address key questions and concerns regarding the state of our nation’s schools. The Inconvenient Truth behind Waiting for Superman (65 minutes), will be shown on Wednesday, October 5th, followed by the panel discussion. This event is preceded by the screening of Waiting for Superman (111 minutes) on Tuesday, October 4th, with Q&A led by Kappa Delta Phi.Ansley Erickson is Assistant Professor of History and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She studies the history of educational inequality, focusing particularly on desegregation and schools in metropolitan contexts. She has been awarded an NAE/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship. Prior to coming to Teachers College, Erickson taught in the New York City public schools and worked in independent documentary film.Dino Daniel George Sossi is an award-winning researcher; teacher; filmmaker, producer, video journalist; writer/editor; radio host; photographer; stand-up comedian; and spoken word performer. He has been interviewed, along with Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim regarding his documentary film Waiting for Superman, by Emmy Award-winning CBS News Anchor Katie Couric. Dino has worked at AOL, CBS and CNN, as well as on the staff of the Department of External Affairs at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is currently a graduate student in Instructional Technology and Media at Teachers College.

Ellen Livingston is a doctoral candidate in the Program in Social Studies at Teachers College who specializes in the use of documentary film in the social studies classroom. Ellen has worked on a variety of projects creating curricular materials for film, including Pray the Devil Back to Hell, Teaching the Levees: A Curriculum for Democratic Dialogue and Civic Engagement, and Let Freedom Swing: Conversations on Jazz and Democracy. Ellen holds an A.B. in history from Princeton and an M.A. in social studies education from Teachers College. She has worked as a journalist, editor, social studies teacher, and for the past three years was an Instructor in the Program in Social Studies at TC.

Christina Collins holds a joint Ph.D. in History and Education and a graduate certificate in Urban Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She has been a Spencer Fellow in Urban Education at Penn, the Dodge Fellow at the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience at Rutgers University-Newark, (where she worked on a documentary film about youth and the Newark riots), and a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. Her first book, “Ethnically Qualified”: Race, Merit, and the Selection of Urban Teachers, 1920-1980, was published by Teachers College Press in January 2011. She is currently serving as the lead researcher and policy analyst on charter schools for the United Federation of Teachers in New York City.

Persons wishing to attend one or both screenings, in addition to the panel talk, are encouraged to rsvp by Friday, September 30th.

This event is hosted by the Gottesman Libraries and Kappa Delta Phi, the Teachers College Honors Society.

Where: 306 Russell

http://library.tc.columbia.edu/news.php?id=739

And on October 12, we kick off our “Change the Stakes” campaign to reverse the impact of high stakes testing, which has affected – and infected- almost every child, parent and teacher in America – except for those involved with private schools. Yong Zhao is honoring us as the guest speaker.

Both events are co-sponsored by the Grassroots Education Movement.

Dear Parents, Teachers, Administrators and Friends,

If you are reading and listening to the media of late, you will find that issues around “Education” have been making the headlines.  In President Obama’s State of the Union Speech the other night, he spoke firmly about his vision of what our Education System should be.  This article speaks to his points and clarifies some of the facts behind the talk.  http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/it-makes-no-sense-a-dissection.html

Below are two very important and informative events that will help to shape your understanding of the path our current administration, from the Federal Government down to the State and City level are taking.  Should you find the laws and policies being implemented in your child’s school confusing at best and potentially destructive rather than instructive, please consider attending one or both of these events and engaging in the process of educating yourself on the current climate of Education. 

There are many policies in the works that will effect our students, our teachers and our schools, most of which will be put in place without our consent.  If you want to know what to expect beyond what has already happened, these panel discussions will help you gain some perspective.  If you feel this is not the path you would like to see for our children and our schools, now is the time to get informed and involved.

I hope to see some of you there……
Regards,
Janine Sopp

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FAIR New York City Event

September 27, 2011

NBC is staging its second annual “Education Nation” summit at the end of September–a series of events and broadcasts bankrolled by the corporate interests and foundations aligned with the so-called “education reform” movement.

Corporate media coverage of education policy tends to hew closely to the “reform” agenda: promoting charter schools and vouchers, embracing relentless testing and other “accountability” measures, and attacking teachers’ unions for standing in the way of progress.

What would a more reasonable conversation about public education look like?

On September 27, join FAIR and four of the most dynamic and thoughtful education experts and activists in the country for a FREE discussion about how the media mangle the debate over public schools.

The panelists:
-Diane Ravitch
Author, NYU Research Professor of Education
-Pedro Noguera
NYU Professor of Education
-Brian Jones
Teacher-Activist
-Leonie Haimson
Executive Director, Class Size Matters
Moderator: Laura Flanders
Author/Journalist

Free of charge.

CO-SPONSORS: Class Size Matters, WBAI 99.5 FM, Parents Across America, Grassroots Education Movement, Rethinking Schools, NYCoRE, Coalition for Public Education, Teachers Unite For More information:   http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=102

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“American education is at a crossroads.  Two paths lie in front of us:  one in which we destroy our strengths in order to catch up with others on test scores and one in which we build on our strengths so we can keep the lead in innovation and creativity.  The current push for more standardization, centralization, high-stakes testing, and test-based accountability is rushing us down the first path, while what will truly keep America strong and Americans prosperous should be the latter, the one that cherishes individual talents, cultivates creativity, celebrates diversity, and inspires curiosity.
–Yong Zhao

Yong Zhao is one of the most eloquent critics of the high cost of high-stakes testing and an expert on the Chineseeducational system, which is attempting to move away from the rigid accountability system that Arne Duncan and other corporate reformers are pushing our country towards.

He is the Presidential Chair and Associate Dean for Global Education at the University of Oregon, where he also serves as the director of the Center for Advanced Technology in Education (CATE)..  For more information visit:  http://zhaolearning.com

October 12, 2011
Location:  I.S. 89 201 Warren Street   New York, NY  10282
Time:  6:30-8:30 PM
Sponsored by:  Class Size Matters, Grassroots Education Movement, I.S. 89 PTA, Parents Across America, and Time-Out From Testing
See Attachment

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.