National Council of Teachers of English passes anti-ed deform resolution

[Hannah Bell]

On Nov. 19, 2010, a remarkable thing happened at the 99th annual convention of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) in Orlando. A motion was brought to the assembled house by Stephen Krashen, Carol Mikoda, Susan Ohanian, and Joanne Yatvin.

Sense of the House Motion

November 19, 2010

The NCTE expresses disapproval of the concept of national standards to be applied to all students and of the specifics of those written by the National Governor's Association.

NCTE will alert its members to the dangers of expending major efforts on standards and tests, which make meaningful teaching impossible.

NCTE members vote at such gathering by waving an orange card. So there’s no place to hide.

This motion provoked heated debate and passed by a considerable margin.

Now the NCTE Executive Committee needs to hear from a concerned membership.

Please note: For its 100th convention, NCTE will return to Chicago, where it was born in 1911 to fight for teacher autonomy and appropriate curricula. The date is November 17-20, 2011, and the convention theme is “Reading the Past, Writing the Future.

This convention provides a wonderful opportunity for the most vibrant teacher union in the country to be heard. NCTE vice-president Keith Gilyard is calling for program proposals. The deadline for online proposals in Jan. 19, 2011:


https://secure.ncte.org/proposals/annual/login.aspx

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=1811§ion=Article

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hannah Bell]

2. the common core standards, courtesy Gates & Co. Little Women as an exemplary

text for 8th graders.

case closed.

http://www.susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=830

The governors, the chief state school officers, and President Obama insist these are "high-quality education standards," drawing on "the most important international models as well as research and input from numerous sources, including scholars, assessment developers, professional organizations, and educators from kindergarten through college. In their design and content, the Standards represent a synthesis of the best elements of standards-related work to date and an important advance over that previous work."

I say they're parsnips and I say to hell with them.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-ohanian/politics-and-parsnips-oba_b_479119.html.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. I've read them and I disagree

First of all there are 50 states with 50 different sets of standards. So we just can't make a blanket statement comparing state and national standards.

Also, AFT is still researching and polling members. So it's also false to claim they support this.

Lastly it's insulting to call another DUer childish just because you disagree with them. I would argue the childish behavior is coming from the one using the insult.