Public comment before the Board of Ed

Public comment
Educator survey results:
a Teach Plus fellow and teacher at Salem Academy Charter School, Carli Fleming
recommendation regarding PARCC assessment: that it be adopted
"support my students in their mastery of the challenging Common Core standards"
"I need a test I can use as a tool"
Teach Plus hosted an event to review PARCC sample items and completed surveys about their views
those who did felt it was a higher quality assessment
continuous review of questions
"we know that this will be a hard transition to a new test..."
Teach Plus is releasing the results of their survey today

Barbara Madeloni, MTA president, speaking on Holyoke
reviewed state report from DESE
"undercuts the foundation of public education...our schools represent and are governed" by democracy
"find it astonishing that it does not include a picture of lives of Holyoke students"
or wide disparities in resources between Holyoke and other schools
"a long way to go before our children's education are not determined by the color of their skin, their first language, or the size of their parents' bank accounts"
Holyoke teachers' union holding public forums with parents
any plan must take into account needs of community
early childhood education
reduce class sizes
stop endless paperwork, time to teacher
addressing children's social and emotional needs
urge Board meeting in April to be held in Holyoke
"educators and parents deserve no less"
to a round of applause at which Sagan says that he'd like comments to be make "without editorializing" at the end

Dorothy Albrecht: high school teacher from Holyoke
"askinng you allow us to retain some piece of our democracy in Holyoke"
parent as well as teacher
child was more than ready: "graduates with honors in May before heading off to medical school"
"would be a travesty to see our schools taken away"
students getting into top colleges
"the taking of public schools in cities that struggle with poverty is anti-American"
note that Lexington and Concord's schools will not be taken over
father became president of the school board without a college education

Linda Cahill: LBGTQ recommendations:
parent and nursing supervisor
whose transgendered son commited suicide as a college sophomore
"I consider myself a well-educated individual, but I did not see this coming"
vowed to myself that I would stand up for these children and suicidde prevention
urge you to pass these principles

statewide charter school collaborative: from Mass Charter School Association
has been awarded a $2.1M grant for a statewide charter school collaborative
"to serve all students better"
"our schools have particular challenges in serving special education students because they are small"

Odd that there's a discussion here about if others were denied time to speak due to the number of people who had signed up. This isn't many.