2012 Boston-area Educators for Social Justice Conference May 19
REGISTER NOW CLICK HERE
Registration is now open for the Second Annual Boston-area Educators for Social Justice Conference on May 19th! The Conference is produced by Teacher Activist Group (TAG) Boston and will be held at the Curley School in Jamaica Plain. Over the next few weeks, we will be updating our website with details about the conference schedule and keynote speakers, but we promise you that we’ve got some fantastic workshops and panels planned.
Conference Aims:
- Facilitate dialogue, share resources and build strategy among those interested in education for liberation
- Develop youth leadership and support youth voice in education
- Build a movement for quality education that combines the visions of youth, communities, families and teachers
Please check out the conference website and register now – it’s free!
This year we are excited to bring two new additions to the conference. Open Sessions will provide attendees the chance to connect with one another and share knowledge, experiences, and strategies around their particular area of interest. Youth-identified Only Space is designed to promote youth-led education and organizing efforts.
Get involved! There’s still time to participate in planning this conference.
1) Register for the conference (it’s free!)
2) Pass this information on to others and encourage them to register. Download the flier!
3) Consider volunteering at the conference and the days leading up to it
4) Email us your ideas or feedback about the event: besjinfo@gmail.com
For more information, contact besjinfo@gmail.com or find us on the web to register: besj.weebly.com. And yes we will have childcare this year! We look forward to seeing you on May 19th
No History is Illegal
They say shut it down. We say spread it around.
From the network of Teacher Activist Groups:
As a network of Teacher Activist Groups (TAG), we believe that education is essential to the preservation of civil and human rights and is a tool for human liberation. In alignment with these beliefs, TAG is proud to coordinate No History is Illegal, a month of solidarity work in support of Tucson’s Mexican American Studies (MAS) Program. In January, 2011, state attorney general Tom Horne declared the Tucson Unified School District MAS program illegal. Over the past year, teachers, students and administrators have come together to challenge Horne’s ruling, but on January 10, 2012, the TUSD school board voted 4-1 to cease all MAS classes immediately for fear of losing state aid.
In the month of February we invite you to strike back against this attack on our history by teaching lessons from and about the banned MAS program. On this website you will find a guide that includes sample lesson plans from the MAS curriculum as well as creative ideas and resources for exploring this issue with students. Whatever happens in Arizona, we can keep the ideas and values of MAS alive by teaching about them in our classrooms, our community centers, our houses of worship, our homes.
February 1 is the first day on which TUSD must comply with this law. It is also the first day of African American History Month. And as Dr. King warned us, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” What is happening in Arizona is not only a threat to Mexican American Studies, it is a threat to our right to teach the experiences of all people of color, LGBT people, poor and working people, the undocumented, people with disabilities and all those who are least powerful in this country.
Our history is not illegal. Please join us by pledging to teach MAS.
What Would it Take to Close the Opportunity Gap?
TAGBoston is cosponsoring an event presented by the Latin American Law Students Association on the issue of closing the opportunity gap. The event will feature three prominent legal and educations scholars as well as prominent local respondents who will discuss the implications of the presentation for policy in Massachusetts and contemplate the possible challenges policymakers may face in implementing such reforms.
Date: January 25th, 2012
Event Name: What Would it Take to Close the Opportunity Gap?
Sponsor: TAGBoston and the Latin American Law Students Association at Suffolk University School of Law
Type of Event: Panel Discussion
Location: Modern Theatre, Suffolk University, 525 Washington St., Boston, MA 02111 (Click for Directions)
Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
RSVP Website: http://charleshamiltonhouston.org/Events/Event.aspx?id=100150
The discussion draws principally on the recent work of Edwin Darden (Director of Law and Policy, The Appleseed Network) and Derek Black (Professor, Howard University School of Law). Both of these civil rights scholars recently developed different, but complementary, frameworks for assessing access to what Darden’s organization terms “learning-related education resources.” Such resources profoundly affect the quality and effectiveness of education, are usually distributed by a school board’s approval, but are not “dollars” per se (i.e. curricula, qualified and motivated teachers, and building upgrades.) Appleseed’s research finds that school boards often make one-at-a-time decisions that, over years and decades, exacerbate resource disparities between schools in their districts. The Appleseed Network designed the Resource Equity Assessment Document (READ) as a tool in identifying and correcting disparities in learning-related education resources.Meanwhile, Professor Derek Black’s most recent scholarship “revealed a serious problem with racially unequal access to middle income peers within districts that stretches across all states.” Given the documented benefits associated with access to middle income peers, Black argues for a constitutional right to equal access to middle income peers. The third presenter, Myron Orfield (Professor, University of Minnesota School of Law) will discuss the READ tool and its implications on school board decision-making within the context of student assignment (an issue that is not explicitly addressed by the READ tool). He will explore the modern-day implications of the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Keyes v. School District No. 1, which was an important legal precedent in the Boston desegregation case (during which issues of “intent” were passionately debated).
Three respondents will discuss the implications of the presentation for policy in Massachusetts and contemplate the possible challenges policymakers may face in implementing such reforms. Respondents Donna Bivens (Director, Boston Busing and Desegregation Project at the Union of Minority Neighborhoods), and Mariana Arcaya (Public Health Manager at MAPC, providing public health expertise, statistical analysis, and program evaluation support) will discuss the implications of the presentation for policy in Massachusetts and contemplate the possible challenges policymakers may face in implementing such reforms.
Screening of the Film Precious Knowledge
Come out and join TAG Boston for this awesome event!
January 14, 2012
10am-12pm Coolidge Corner Theatre Tickets $10
3pm-7pm Boston Community Church Tickets $10-$200
Forty-Four years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. Lost his life in the battle for civil rights. Today in Arizona the fight for the same cause wages on.
Precious knowledge chronicles the modern day civil rights stuggles for ethnic studies in Tucson. Following students and teachers in the Mexican-American studies program at Tucson High School, this film is a rallying call to everyone who cares about social justice education.
Evening event includes special performances by local youth groups Zumix and Sociedad Latina and a post-screening discussion with Curtis Acosta, one of the film’s central teachers.
All proceeds support the Save Ethnic Studies Legal Fund.
Get caught up on the news here
Comment on the Stand Ballot Initiative Using Our Google Doc
We have started a google doc with the summary of the three page ballot initiative. You can open the document and make comments, reply to comments, and ask questions. This will be the basis for discussion at our next general meeting Friday, Jan 20 at English High from 6-8 pm.
You can access the document by joining our listserv (top right hand corner of this page) and then opening your google documents with the same email address. There are directions at the top of the document with more of an explanation! Please take a moment and share your thoughts–A couple of us have started it off! Please note, you will need a google account to access the document, e-mail info@tagboston.org with any questions or if you are having trouble access the document!
Next General Meeting at English High, Friday the 18th of November
Our next general meeting will be from 6pm-8pm at English High School in the second floor library, 144 McBride Street, Jamaica Plain. Jared Joiner from the Office of Teacher and Leadership Effectiveness and Dale Libkin the Director of Performance Management will lead the first 45 minute discussion on the new teacher evaluation regulations. Below is a blurb from Jared.
The plan for the conversation would include an overview of the new evaluation regulations, and the vision for how it is currently being implemented in the turnaround schools. The Office of Teacher and Leadership Effectiveness is extremely interested in your feedback on the process, so that it can inform next year’s roll out in the remaining schools in the district. Additionally, OTLE is interested in your input on multiple measures of impact on student learning, and how we might best implement the state regulations regarding student input on teacher evaluation and parent input on principal evaluation.
The second hour will be dedicated to digging deeper into the Stand For Children ballot question, which you can find here. We hope to break up the paragraphs and proposals, tackle each one separately, and then report back to the larger group about our findings and suggestions. Please join us for the meeting and then head to the BTU trivia night or across the street to Doyle’s to continue the conversation.
Next General Meeting to Launch ItAGs and Take Action
Welcome to the beginning of another school year. Unfortunately, the attacks on our profession have not ceased, we’ll treat that like we do every other chip stacked against our students and us; double down, deal with it and move forward. We place our bets on our students, notwithstanding the odds, because our faith is in them-not the pundits. Knowing that no matter what issues are debated, what modern-trend is presented, what brand-new model is acclaimed- we have to teach tomorrow, and TAGBoston is focused on THAT.
Our next meeting will be on October 21st, 2011 at the Young Achievers Pilot K-8 located at 20 Outlook Road, Mattapan, MA from 6:00 P.M.-8:00 P.M. We hope to see you there.
Moving forward TAG Boston meetings will do two things:
1. Provide Policy Education and
2. Facilitate Inquiry to Action Groups (ItAGs) The policy education piece will address issues that are having profound effects on our practice. The ItAGs are similar to a study group, but the goal is that after the group inquires into a particular topic, its members will together create action around their area of study, making it a true community of praxis. The goal is for teachers to emerge more informed about their profession and have, in-hand, resources to enhance their practice.
In the first part of our October 21st meeting we will discuss recent legislative bills that effect education in the Commonwealth. The second portion will be a work session for the current ItAGs teachers are pursuing. Some examples and blurbs of current ItAGs are listed below.
Teacher’s Union ItAG
Our goal is to advocate for a social justice program in our union. We see our work as reinvigorating and empowering our membership, creating proactive opportunities for educators to engage with others in schools and communities who are working to create democratic schools that meet the needs of people.
Curriculum ItAG
Our ITAG will be working on creating social justice curriculum across all disciplines. We will work on gathering and creating curricular resources that we can use in our own classrooms, and we will publish these resources so that other teachers can use them. We may also explore various forms of social justice pedagogy, including critical pedagogy, Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR), and critical exploration. Finally, we will support each other in our attempts to implement social justice curriculum and practice, perhaps through school visits, videos, blogs, etc. Again, all disciplines (incl. the arts, phys ed, music, etc.) and level of experience are encouraged to join.
MCAS ItAG
As the high stakes testing that is the MCAS continues, we must continue to work to expose the use of high stakes testing that destroys authentic learning and thinking in our schools. As we all know, every child deserves an opportunity to think creatively, talk about ideas, and have time in their day devoted to art, music and other enriching electives. Increasingly, in the state of MA and across the nation, high stakes testing disproportionately affects students whose first language is not English.
In addition, we are outraged that these tests are then used to shut down schools and dismantle pillars of the community, with the goal of privatizing education in mind. This is a practice that is without question impacting communities of color more than others. This ItAG seeks to expose these practices, equip educators with the tools to quell the “teach to the test” craze in their own schools and empower communities to take action against the high stakes environment.
MA Teacher Grade In
Calling all teachers, students, activists and anyone who cares about the public education of the children of America. TAG Boston will be holding a Flash Mob Grade-In at the food court in South Station on Sunday, October 16th from 11am-1pm. The focus is to show the public how dedicated we are to our students and our profession as well as build alliances with teachers from all over Massachusetts.
Wear RED to show your support and solidarity.
This event is inspired by similar grade-in events being held by teachers nationwide recently to call attention to all the hard work teachers do. Check out these links to similar events in: LA, New York, Ann Arbor, Milwaukee
How It Works:
Show up anytime between 11am and 12:45pm at the South Station food court for an opportunity to grade, do homework, plan lessons and collaborate with teachers and students.
At 12:45pm we will begin to convene in preparation for an optional march from South Station to Dewey Sq. to support the Occupy Boston Movement.
Wear RED to show your support and solidarity.
Screening of “The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman”
On July 19th, 2011 almost 100 teachers, parents, students and stakeholders attended a community viewing of “The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman” – a response to the film “Waiting for Superman.” We held the screening backyard-theater-BBQ style on Wakullah Street in Roxbury, MA and everybody pitched in to bring food, blankets, a projector, speakers, and good vibes. Bree Picower from NYCoRE made the trip up from New York in order to give a talk before the movie and moderate a discussion afterwards.
If you would like to help us organize another screening in your neighborhood please email us at info@tagboston.org
Notes from Radical PD at Free Minds Free People
The following is by no means a complete representation of the days goals or agenda, but are solely some impressions that I took away from the radical professional development at the Free Minds Free People conference today. FMFP also has an official blog.
- Teachers and schools are under attack and this is the logic of the attackers: Public schools are failing because we have too many bad teachers and this is because the unions have too much power; funding, class size, and poverty don’t matter. Teachers (and no one else, not anyone else, period!) are responsible for student achievement. Get rid of the unions, fire the teachers, and privatize.
- What is neoliberalism? The neoliberal model of education is a human capital model – preparing workers (differentially) for the new economy. This is education in the private interest. (Pauline Lipman, 2005). “Your path is a GED, Your path is medical school, and your path is prison. You are now human capital so don’t stray from your path!”
- Curtis Acosta updated us on the situation in Tucson, Arizona: Teaching ethnic studies is now illegal in Arizona (WHAT?!) A law requires teachers to treat students as individuals and forbids the teaching of ethnic solidarity. If we sit back and accept this as teachers it will come to our districts next.
-Teachers from Milwaukee, Wisconsin updated us on the struggle there. I was so engaged in their stories that I forgot to take notes. It was truly inspiring.
- There were also breakout sessions on ways to fight back and fight forward with our curriculum, mixed media, our unions and with our youth.
Again, these are some of my take aways from the days events and are by no means a full representation. Hopefully, these take aways will spark further discussion so please add a comment below. FMFP also has an official blog.
