by Pamela Powers Hannley
In this 7th video from the Drinking Liberally Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) candidate forum, candidates discuss how they would improve the district, including how they would increase graduation rates.
Watch this new video after the jump. To view all of the videos in this series, go to my YouTube channel or go here for all of my BfAZ stories.
by Pamela Powers Hannley
Standardized testing to evaluate students, teachers, and schools is a nationwide hot button issue. Educator and author Diane Ravitch— once a supporter of No Child Left Behind, testing, and charter schools– now tours the country speaking out against high-stakes testing (like the AIMS test). From her Wikipedia page…
High-stakes testing, "utopian" goals, "draconian" penalties, school closings, privatization, and charter schools didn't work, she concluded. "The best predictor of low academic performance is poverty—not bad teachers."[7]
Ravitch said that the charter school and testing reform movement was started by "right wing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation," for the purpose of destroying public education and teachers' unions.[8] … Of Education Secretary Arne Duncan's Race to the Top program, Ravitch said in a 2011 interview it "is an extension of No Child Left Behind …[,] all bad ideas." She concluded "We are destroying our education system, blowing it up by these stupid policies. And handing the schools in low-income neighborhoods over to private entrepreneurs does not, in itself, improve them. There's plenty of evidence by now that the kids in those schools do no better, and it's simply a way of avoiding their – the public responsibility to provide good education." [Emphasis added.]
How much testing is enough? How much is too much? Here the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) board candidates' opinions on standardized testing in the video after the jump. This is the sixth video from the Drinking Liberally
TUSD candidate forum on September 26. To view all of the videos in this series,
go to my YouTube channel.
by Pamela Powers Hannley
OK, I know. The elimination of recess and physical education from our schools didn't get as much media attention as removal of some other programs, but in a country of fatties, they're just as important.
As obesity rates among US children and adults climb, it's only common sense to find funding and time in the school day for recess breaks and physical education.
Hear the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) candidates' opinions after the jump. This is the fifth video from the Drinking Liberally TUSD candidate forum on September 26. To view all of the videos in this series, go to my YouTube channel.
by Pamela Powers Hannley
This is the fourth video in a series shot at the Tucson Unified School District candidate forum hosted by Drinking Liberally Tucson on September 26, 2012.
In this segment, candidates talk about budget cuts and the district's finances. Each candidate got 1.5 minutes to answer the question; three candidates were allowed 30 second rebuttals because they or their policies were specifically attacked by another candidate.
If you want to see the TUSD candidates live, the League of Women Voters, YWCA, and others are sponsoring a debate tonight, Monday, October 1.
Watch this video after the jump. Watch the whole collection here.
by Pamela Powers Hannley
Besides their views on Mexican American Studies, one of the most telling questions at Wednesday's Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) candidate forum was about labor unions. There were definitely differences of opinion about the role of teachers' unions and how the union issue relates to the shift toward charter schools (which are not unionized).
Seven of 12 candidates for TUSD governing board candidates participated in a candidate forum sponsored by Dinking Liberally Tucson.
After the jump, listen to the candidates' thoughts on working with labor unions. This is the third in a series of videos from the forum. Here is a link to my You Tube channel where this and other video clips reside.