BBQ Potluck and Outdoor Film Screening
When: Thursday, August 16th, 2012, 6-9PM
Where: Wakullah Street Yard, Roxbury, MA
Can We Talk?: Learning from Bostonʼs Busing/Desegregation Process
Can We Talk? is a film by media producer Scott Mercer. The film was commissioned by Union of Minority Neighborhoods (UMN) and offers powerful stories of the 1970ʼs busing/desegregation crisis that changed Boston forever. Most of those in the film have never publicly shared their stories. It documents how this crisis is still felt today. It aspires to prompt a long-overdue honest conversation about public education and racism, classism, and social injustices that have plagued not only the Boston public schools, but the city of Boston as a community.
Come for the food and the film and join the conversation with teachers, activists, and community members.
Sponsored by Teacher Activist Group Boston, Union of Minority Neighborhoods, and Boston Busing/Desegregation Project.
Download and distribute the flier.
New Issue of Voices in Urban Education
This issue of Voices in Urban Education was developed in collaboration with the Education for Liberation Network (EdLib, www.edliberation.org). Teacher Activist Group Boston is part of this national coalition of teachers, community activists, youth, researchers, and parents who believe a good education should teach people – particularly low-income youth and youth of color — to understand and challenge the injustices their communities face.
You can go to the Voices in Urban Education website here or download the pdf of this current issue here.
Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing
Sign this resolution against high stakes testing that was developed by many organizations including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, FairTest, Time Out From Testing, The National Education Association and many others.
One of my favorite quotes “The over-emphasis on standardized testing has caused considerable collateral damage in too many schools, including narrowing the curriculum, teaching to the test, reducing love of learning, pushing students out of school, driving excellent teachers out of the profession, and undermining school climate.”
What’s Up With the Privatization of Public Education?
Increasingly, venture capitalists and deep pocket corporate foundations are moving aggressively to remake our schools in their image. Join us for a discussion of the Stand for Children Ballot Initiative, charter schools, and ways to keep corporate influence out and keep community input – and quality – in our public schools.
Join us on Saturday June 9th 10am – 12pm for a community forum where we will discuss how proposals such as the Stand for Children ballot initiative and linking high stakes testing to evaluations are part of a larger strategic effort by corporations to make money from the last standing large public sector. These efforts are sweeping the nation and are oftentimes masked by appealing sounding non-profit organizations such as Stand for Children, Advance Illinois or the Foundation for Florida’s Future.
Download the flier HERE and distribute widely!
Location: Roxbury Community College, Academic Building Room 121
Light refreshments will be provided
Co-Sponsored by TAG Boston, Jobs With Justice, Union of Minority Neighborhoods, and Citizens for Public Schools
Go to our Against the Corporate Attack page for some actions and resources that came out of this event!
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)Â Â Consider volunteering at the conference and the days leading up to it
4)Â Â Email us your ideas or feedback about the event:Â 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:Â 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:Â 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.
