I will be one of the candidates interviewing next Tuesday to complete a term on the South Bend Community School Corporation Board of Trustees. The gentleman holding the seat died recently, and the remaining members have to appoint a replacement very shortly. 

Parents are pleading with state and local leaders to stop the testing madness and to focus on increasing learning opportunities in school. Unfortunately, South Carolina leaders continue to propose "reforms" that tie teacher evaluation to student test scores, and CCSD leaders have adopted policies to use test scores even more aggressively in teacher evaluation and pay.....

What can you do to ensure that teachers are given the freedom to teach what is important and students are given the opportunity to learn?  What do you value in education?  Parents do have the power to bring about change.  Start with a conversation.

More from PAA's Charleston affiliate:

South Carolina actually has some good news on the legislative front. SC has lately been the target of the tax credit/tax credit for private and home schoolers (thanks to money from Howard Rich) as well as the place for Florida reruns. So here's what happened this week, with kudos to many groups, but especially to EdfirstSC.org, an actual grassroots organization we collaborate with.

This week our state senate had a bout of sanity. They defeated Amendment 54 to the state budget which provided for tax credits and tax deductions for parent "choice". The vote wasn't close or along party lines.

And earlier in the week, a senator put a hold (essentially killing it) on S516, the "Read to Succeed" Act, a cheap knockoff of the  Florida reading program, but even worse, would retain third graders not reading at grade level.

The Senate felt the pressure from a lot of people. The Choice people are not happy campers.

Peter Smyth
Charleston Area Community Voice for Education
www.cvedu2020.org

PAA President Dora Taylor

MAP scrapped in Seattle

PAA President Dora Taylor reports with much pleasure that the MAP test has been scrapped in Seattle's high schools.

This followed massive protests and a test boycott by high school teachers, students and parents, including much work by PAA-Seattle. Congratulations to all! 

Two Chicago LSCs sign National Resolution

PAA co-founder Julie Woesthoff is happy to report that two parent-run local school councils (LSCs) in Chicago have signed the National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing, following efforts by More Than a Score, a local coalition convened by PAA affiliate PURE to reach out to these school governance bodies with information and an LSC Testing Toolkit. They are hoping to encourage more LSCs to sign on in the coming months and to consider using their budgetary power to limit test prep and other expenses relating to standardized testing.



News from PAA-Indiana

Delana Ivey signs up to start a PAA chapter in Indiana

Greeting PAA FOLKS!
 
This Wednesday (yesterday) PAA- Indiana will present to the largest school district in the state. Indianapolis Public School has started having community engagement meetings. PAA-IN will present ourselves to the IPS school board. We will present the mission statement of what works and what doesn't. My goal is for the Board to take a stand on High stakes testing. I have gathered info from fairtest.org. Our second goal is to inform the public about PAA. We have a whole 20 mins to present. I hope to make it has interesting as a TED talk.
 
Indiana PAA contact:
Delana Ivey
paaindiana@gmail.com

Texas founding member reaches out to help Illinois

I'm delighted that the Illinois Senate has adopted HB 494 imposing a moratorium of one year on virtual schools in response to the k12, inc application for a virtual school in suburban Chicago, which was rejected by 18 school districts. In addition to providing info to NEA and AFT for their affiliates, I contacted a Tennessee state representative, Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, and shared additional information about other state's concerns with virtual schools as she was speaking to a group in Geneva, Illinois. A reporter then wrote me for more information, which resulted in a great article,

I provided more material to the House and State sponsors of HB 494 and this week the bill passed and has gone to the governor for his approval. If the governor signs the bill, as far as I know Illinois will be the first state to place a moratorium on virtual school expansion.

I have followed the virtual school issue since k12, inc started about a dozen years ago. There is an expansion of virtual schools proposed in the Texas legislature, and HB 1926 passed the Senate last night, but it is subject to modification in the conference committee and procedural rules concerning placement on the state calendar. It is premature to call any legislation alive or dead at this time with sine die Monday 5/27.

We are hopeful about some "anti-testing" bills as well as killing privatization / voucher bills, but it's not over til it's over!
 
Karen Miller