Events

UPCOMING EVENTS

ATTENTION PARENTS: The Kingston City School District's DWPC (District Wide Parents Council) Hosts Forum on Public Education and the Impact of Testing and Mandates on October 22nd.

District Wide Parents’ Council of the Kingston City School District is hosting A Forum on Public Education and the Impact of Testing and Mandates in conjunction with Senator Cecilia Tkaczyk’s office on Tuesday October 22, 2013.  The purpose of this forum is to give voice to the strains that school districts in Ulster County are feeling due to increased testing and related state and federal mandates.  At the forum our state legislators will have the opportunity to hear from invited educators and parents about the Impact of State Mandates and Testing on K-12 Students.

Please mark your calendars to attend this forum and hear about the challenges our public school system in Ulster County is facing and to show your support as we work towards solutions to these challenges.

A Forum on Public Education and the Impact of Testing and Mandates
Hosted by DWPC in conjunction with Senator Cecilia Tkaczyk’s office
Date:  Tuesday October 22, 2013
Time:  5pm – 7pm
Place:  MJM Gym – Kingston High School  403 Broadway, Kingston New York 12401

Oral testimony at the forum is by invitation only.  All are welcomed to provide written testimony, which can be submitted at the forum, or sent to Tkaczyk@nysentate.gov before the forum.  Please use the subject line:  EDUCATION FORUM TESTIMONY.

Jolyn Safron, DWPC Co-Chairwoman/DWPC High-stakes Testing Committee chair

(845) 331-3130
www.kingstoncityschools.org/DWPC

Join the Conversation
Tuesday April 2nd, 7:00pm
Elting Memorial Library, 93 Main Street, New Paltz


Are you concerned about the effects of High Stakes Testing? Join Rethinking Testing on Tuesday April 2nd, 7:00 pm at the Elting Memorial Library in New Paltz. Talk to others who are working on spreading awareness about the negative impacts of high stakes testing, share your experiences and concerns, and learn more about taking action.

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Cheating Our Children: The Emotional and Educational Impact of High Stakes Testing

Thursday April 11, 7:00 pm

SUNY New Paltz, Coykendall Science Center Auditorium

This panel will offer the voices of a superintendent, principal, school counselor, teacher, parent and student who will each discuss the effects of high-stakes tests on the educational and emotional health of young people in our schools. A question and answer period will follow.

Panelists include: 

• Ken Mitchell, Superintendent of Schools, South Orangetown Central Schools 
• Katie Zahedi, Principal, Linden Ave Middle School, Red Hook Central Schools
• Andrea Cooper, School Social Worker
• Tracy Grant, Psychologist in private practice, New Paltz
• Nancy Keeney, Teacher, Linden Ave Middle School, Red Hook Central Schools 
• Matt Elkin, Teache, Duzine Elementary School, New Paltz Central Schools
• Stephanie Santagada Wells, Teacher, Highland High School, Highland Central School District
• Keri Smith, Parent, Pine Bush
• Bianca Tanis, Parent, New Paltz 
• Brennan McEntee Student, New Paltz Middle School 

RVSP on Facebook

Opt Out Day 2013
Tuesday, April 16, 2013, 11:00am
NY State Capital Building

Join ReThinking Testing’s grassroots resistance movement. As the testing season commences, help us send a strong message to representatives and policy makers in Albany that high stakes testing is hurting our schools and our students.  Join us for a one-day “Opt Out” to remind lawmakers that a child is not a number. On Tuesday, April 16^th, 2013, We invite students and their families to opt out of NYS State Exams and spend the day at the NYS capital building advocating for the preservation of a student centered public education that meets the diverse needs of our children. Let’s send our message by resisting the corporate education agenda and teach our children that in the words of Gandhi, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

We will let our children remind our representatives that a narrowing, high stakes test driven curriculum deprives them of an education rich in the arts and humanities. As our children present our representatives with their own works of art, poetry, and song, we will remind them of the creativity and freedom of expression that stands to be lost.  We will schedule lobby visits with representatives and ask that our children be recognized on the floor. Let’s make our voices heard and tell those in power that we are not OK with our hard-earned tax dollars going into the coffers of corporate test-makers. Instead, we demand that our resources go to support the hiring of teachers, smaller class sizes and after school programs.

Details to follow... RVSP on Facebook

A Talk by Alfie Kohn - Asking Questions About Common Core Standards: The Latest Version of Top-Down School Reform

Wednesday April 24, 4:30 pm

SUNY New Paltz, Coykendall Science Center Auditorium

For decades, “school reform” in America has meant prescriptive, one-size-fits-all state standards imposed on teachers and students by distant authorities and enforced by standardized testing. Now that movement has gone national with a uniform set of new “core” standards. In his talk, Alfie Kohn will raise troubling questions about this latest attempt to create a teacher-proof curriculum, asking who has pushed for its passage, whether there is any merit to the claim that such policies tend to improve schooling, why education groups have largely failed to challenge its premises, and what impact the standards are likely to have in classrooms.

Alfie Kohn is the author of twelve books, including No Contest: The Case Against Competition, Punished by Rewards, The Schools Our Children Deserve, Unconditional Parenting, and, most recently, Feel-Bad Education. He has been described by Time magazine as “perhaps the country’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades [and] test scores.”

RSVP on Facebook

PAST EVENTS

Join the Conversation

Thursday, March 7, 2013, 7:00pm

Elting Memorial Library, 93 Main Street, New Paltz

Are you concerned about the effects of High Stakes Testing? Join Rethinking Testing on Thursday, March 7th, 7:00 pm at the Elting Memorial Library in New Paltz. Talk to others who are working on spreading awareness about the negative impacts of high stakes testing, share your experiences and concerns, and learn more about taking action.

Some Big Myths that Guide School “Reform”: The Regents Reform Agenda
Wednesday, February 20, 2013, 4:30 
(Snow date, Thursday February 21)
SUNY New Paltz, Coykendall Science Center Auditorium
  
The purported reason for many of the school “reform” policies, such as expanded testing and state mandated teacher evaluation systems, is  to close the achievement gap and provide excellent learning experiences for all students. Are we certain, however, that the policies that have been put in place will actually achieve their stated goal?  Are they based on fact, or on myth?

High school principal and author, Carol Corbett Burris believes they will not make schools better. In fact, she believes that the Regents Reform Agenda may actually exacerbate the achievement gap and bring meaningful school reform to a halt. She also believes that many of the purported “reforms” are based on assumptions that are not grounded in research.

In this talk Carol Burris will provide an overview of what she calls the “Five Myths that are Driving School ‘Reform’”  and provide counter evidence to dispute them. From VAM to high stakes testing for college readiness, it is important that educators and citizens know the facts.

Carol Burris
    Dr. Burris is the co-author of the Principals’ Letter in Opposition to APPR. She is co-author of Detracking for Excellence and Equity and Opening the Common Core: How to Bring ALL Children to College and Career Readiness. She was named Outstanding Educator in 2010 by the School Administrators Association of New York State.
  For more information contact Nancy Schniedewind, Humanistic/Multicultural Education Program, SUNY New Paltz, 257-2827 or Catharine Whittaker, SUNY New Paltz Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa, 257-2843

CoSponsors: Humanistic/Multicultural Education Program, New Paltz Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa, College Auxiliary Services, Departments of Educational Studies, Elementary Education, Secondary Education, Sociology, Re-Thinking Testing: Mid-Hudson Chapter, Progressive Academic Network, New Paltz United Teachers

"Race to the Top: Costs and Consequences"
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
4:00 pm - 5:15 pm
Lecture Center 108
SUNY New Paltz

Presentation by Ken Mitchell, District Superintendent of the South Orangetown School District in Rockland County, author of the CRREO Discussion Brief, "Federal Mandates on Local Education: Costs and Consequences – Yes, it’s a Race, but is it in the Right Direction?"

"New York’s hard won inclusion in the federal Race to the Top (RTTT) initiative has already dramatically changed both how we educate our children and how we fund public K-12 education in our state."

Sponsored by the following SUNY New Paltz organizations:
Center for Research, Regional Education, and Outreach (CRREO)
The Dean's Office, School of Education
The Education Council of the School of Education