Must Watch Video: Support the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers in a historic contract battle against standardized testing and in defense of the public schools

Mary Cathryn Ricker, President of the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers
Mary Cathryn Ricker, President of the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers

Must watch video about the Saint Paul Teacher’s struggle to defend public Education–Please send out far and wide!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrAXRdoDsCI

Petition in support of Saint Paul Teachers: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/st-paul-public-schools

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The Saint Paul Federation of Teachers is in one of the most important struggles to defend public education and have taken one of the boldest stances against standardized testing in the country.  While the state mandates that students take the MCA standardized test, the SPFT—with the support of their many parent and community allies—know that it is a waste of time and resources and are attempting to bargain it out of their contract.

Beyond reducing standardized testing, SPFT’s contract proposal advocates for attracting and retaining teachers of color, education for the whole child, family teacher partnerships, smaller class sizes, culturally relevant education, high quality professional development, and preschool for all.  SPFTlogo

Yet on September 19, management at the St. Paul Public Schools walked out of negotiations and asked the state mediator to close negotiations to the public so parents and other members of the community couldn’t hear what we were talking about.

The Saint Paul Federation of Teachers, have worked hard over the last year to partner with parents, students and community members to identify the top priorities to deliver the schools St. Paul children deserve. Combined with research, they turned these priorities into an amazing report, “The Schools Saint Paul Students deserve”, which should serve as a model for educators around the nation.  That proposals can be seen at: http://www.spft.org/

Over the last few weeks, SPFT members have been having conversations and collecting signatures from over a thousand community members on this petition. Please join those that have already pledged their support by signing today!

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/st-paul-public-schools

Their struggle is ours!

4 thoughts on “Must Watch Video: Support the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers in a historic contract battle against standardized testing and in defense of the public schools

  1. Thanks Jesse. Petition was quick and easy. From one education renegade to another, I appreciate your work tremendously. At the end of the vid, they mention elimination of standardized testing and instead use of AUTHENTIC performance assessment that TEACHERS create according to WHAT IT IS THEY ARE TEACHING. Great alternative, so what’s the problem? Well, this means treating professionals as professionals, loss of profits to big business testing companies, it means that politicians who are not teachers have less to do with defining teacher and student success, etc. This is GOOD

    Like

  2. Pingback: Must Watch Video: Support the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers in a historic contract battle against standardized testing and in defense of the public schools | | Die Silent |

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