Working for Education - Working for Children
Thanks to all of the wonderful students, parents, educators and activists who joined us at the MEJA convening in Worcester Saturday, June 23.
Thanks especially to the amazing group who participated in CPS’s “More than a Score” breakout session.
We all know the system is unfair, ineffective and narrows the curriculum. It’s time to demand change! Students are more than a score! → Read More
Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I am Lisa Guisbond, executive director of Citizens for Public Schools. We have been working to strengthen public schools across the state for more than 30 years.
We joined with other organizations to sign a letter to you and to Mayor Walsh about community involvement in Build BPS and the major decisions about grade configuration, school start times, and perhaps school closures that are likely to be associated with Build BPS.
The letter is 750 words long. I can summarize it in six: Lay your cards on the table.
These decisions will affect the lives of thousands of children. If you genuinely want community involvement, you must spell out the alternatives you are considering. Don’t dribble out your plan, a small school closing here, a parcel of land there.
We urge you to learn the lesson of the start time fiasco. You had 10,000 responses from the school communities. → Read More
Join us for CPS’s annual meeting on Thursday, March 22 at the Church on the Hill, 140 Bowdoin Street, Boston, 5:30 pm refreshments, 6-8:30 pm program.
Our guest speaker is Daniel Koretz, author of The Testing Charade: Pretending to Make Schools Better.
Click HERE to register now.
All are welcome. Capacity is limited, so register now.
CPS non-members are welcome – Suggested donation of $15 (can be applied to membership). Click HERE to join, renew your membership, or donate. → Read More
What: Keynote speakers Jeanette Deutermann and Ricardo Rosa, along with Brookline educators, will puncture myths about MCAS testing. The forum will address questions such as these:
When: Tuesday, January 30, 2018, 7 – 8:30 pm (Light refreshments at 6:30pm)
Where: All Saints Parish, 1773 Beacon St., at Dean Road, Brookline
Who: The event is sponsored by the Alliance for Brookline Schools, a project of Brookline PAX, the Brookline Parents Organization, Brookline for Racial Justice and Equity, the Brookline Educators Union, and Citizens for Public Schools.
Jeanette Deutermann is a mother of two boys and one of the founders of Long Island Opt-Out, a movement for whole-child education in New York state public schools. → Read More
January 10, 2018
Dear Chairman Loconto and members of the Boston School Committee:
Citizens for Public Schools supports the thousands of Boston parents who refused to accept the top-down mandate of drastically changed school start times.
The changes were ordered with no student involvement and after parents had been asked only for their general opinions on desirable school schedules. The actual changes under consideration were never revealed to parents during 18 months of supposed community engagement.
After many hours of testimony at a School Committee meeting, 8,500 signatures on a petition, and a series of community meetings at which parents, teachers, and students from across the city spoke out against the plan, School Superintendent Tommy Chang finally agreed to a one-year moratorium.
Though there was support for making high school start times later, opposition to the plan for elementary students was massive. And there was an apparent consensus that the process itself was fatally flawed, resulting in a plan that did not meet the needs of families. → Read More
