Sponsored by our newest affiliate, Charleston Area Community Voice for Education:

Beyond CCSD’s Vision 2016:
A Community Conversation about Testing and Accountability

Do Performance and Achievement = Learning?

Charleston Area Community Voice for Education presents

Ceresta Smith

-Free to the public-

Monday, March 12th  at 7:00 p.m.
Seacoast Church
750 Longpoint Road, Mt. Pleasant, SC

Charleston Area Community Voice for Education is an independent group of local parents and educators striving to give the community a voice in public education

for more information contact: CVedu20@gmail.com

Ceresta Smith is a veteran educator, teacher leader,and mentorin the Miami-Dade County school district in Florida.  She is thefounder of the Concerned Teacher Coalition,and a co-founder of
United Opt Out National.

Ceresta was one of the original Event Planning Committee members of Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action, and she continues to champion for equity and quality teaching in America’s public schools.

Students, teachers, parents, community members and the press are invited to join the John McDonogh Alumni Association, Parents Across America NOLA, the Downtown Neighborhood Improvement Association, and the Esplanade Ridge/Treme Civic Association in front of John McDonogh High School, 2426 Esplanade Avenue, at 5:30 PM on August 29, 2011,  to commemorate the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, to review the state of public education in New Orleans six years later, and to set a course to save our schools.

Where: John McDonogh High School, 2426 Esplanade Avenue
When: 5:30 PM on August 29, 2011

Taking the fate of John McDonogh Senior High as an example of the failed policies and broken promises of the Recovery School District, advocates for children, teachers and community schools will gather to pray and to demonstrate our investment in our children and our schools. We will be asking hard questions about the ways charter schools have negatively affected our children and about the scandals and failures of charter schools and RSD-run schools. Together we will assert our right to a democratic voice in how schools are rebuilt, what schools are rebuilt, and who runs the schools in our communities.

We will look at the betrayal of public trust in the past six years as the RSD has held community meetings, promised public engagement and then disregarded the wishes of parents and stake-holders again and again.

We will examine the false choices that the school district has offered parents and children and the way school choice has divided schools from their communities and from parental oversight and involvement. We will condemn the political influence, waste and lack of foresight that has characterized the rebuilding and renovations of schools thus far and demand a fair, equitable and transparent process going forward.

We will expose RSD’s deliberate and systematic neglect of certain schools to justify takeover and closure. We will stand up to save John McDonogh and all of our schools from autocratic decisions made by unelected, out-of-touch and out-of-town administrators.

Please join with us on Monday, August 29, 2011 at 5:30 PM in front of John McDonogh High School to advocate for the right of every New Orleans public school child to real recovery, real reform, real improvement and real choice in their schools.

For more information, please contact:

Karran Harper Royal, Parents Across America – New Orleans
karranroyal@yahoo.com
504-722-8174
Blog: www.edutalknola.com
Twitter: KHRoyal

Communitywide Education Summit
All summit events are free and open to the public.

Guest speakers include: Former Rochester Mayor William A. Johnson, Jr.
Vice Chancellor Emeritus, NYS Board of Regents Dr. Adelaide L. Sanford
+ FREE Performance by Musical Guest Grandsun

Friday, March 11th: Reception, including free food, begins at 4:30PM
The Program (featuring our honorable guest speakers) will begin at 6:00PM
East High School Forum room, 1801 E Main St. Rochester NY 14609.

Saturday, March 12th: 8:30AM – 5:00PM
Rochester Plaza Hotel, 70 State Street, Rochester, NY 14614

Morning registration will be accompanied by light breakfast, and lunch will
feature reflections from distinguished guests.

Saturday’s agenda will emphasize focused working sessions organized around eight Principles for Fundamental Educational Change, developed by the Community Education Task Force (CETF) as a starting point for the summit’s work.

Sponsored by: The Community Education Task Force (CETF), Coalition for Common Sense in Education (CCSE), Alliance for Quality Education (AQE), Green Party of Monroe County (GPOMC), and Metro Justice (MJ)—known collectively as Parent and Community Coalition for Educational Change—in conjunction with the Rochester Teachers Association, Rochester Association of Paraprofessionals, and the Board of Education Non-teaching Employees

“Agitate – Educate – Organize”
Join the Movement for Fundamental Educational Change

For more information: please call (585) 317-2367 or email: communityeducationtaskforce@gmail.com
Website: http://communityeducationtaskforce.rocus.org/

Famed historian  Diane Ravitch will critique the current direction of education reform, including privatization and high stakes testing, and will introduce a new national organization, Parents Across America, which is working for positive and progressive change in our schools.

The event is free but you must reserve a seat in advance.

Co-sponsored by Parents Across America, Class Size Matters, Community Board 1 and the PS/IS 89 PTA.