Tell it like it is!

• Stop the obsession with standardized testing!
• Invest in student learning, not testing!
• Devote time and resources to getting evaluations and common core right!

THE ISSUE:  “Tell It Like It Is” is an important campaign launched by the union providing all NYSUT members the opportunity to share their stories about how students have been negatively affected by SED’s obsession with standardized testing. It also allows members to detail the problems surrounding the implementation of the state’s Common Core and new evaluation law. All input provided by NYSUT members will go directly to the SED Commissioner and Board of Regents.

The impact of tens of thousands of e-mails going directly to the commissioner and Regents will be significant. What your NYSUT officers and you have been saying about the obsession with testing will be underscored significantly. It will no longer only be “the union” complaining or defending the status quo. It will be dedicated practitioners who toil each and every day on behalf of the children in their communities expressing how poorly these policies are being implemented and how this negatively impacts student learning.

Thus, it is critical that members respond en masse to this campaign. If our response measures only a few thousand, this campaign will surely be written off as: “The union is whining again while ‘regular’ teachers are going about their work as they always do.” SED will continue on its reckless timeline; our enemies will be emboldened, and they will push even harder for wrong-headed policies that undermine public education. Big rewards involve big risks. The union movement, in fact, was built on that principle. With your support, we will have the leverage needed not just to get things done, but to get them done right.

At every opportunity, NYSUT reiterates this message to education policymakers. Now you can add your individual voice about your students, school, district or campus.

Calling NYSUT members: Use this NYSUT-developed email form to speak up and speak out to the State Education Commissioner and Board of Regents. Tell them:

1. How      current teaching and learning conditions and obsession with testing      impacts your students’ success.
2. What      needs to be done to get student assessment and teacher evaluation right.