The March 2014 Issue of Substance
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We were forced to suspend subscriptions to our print edition a year ago, and after wishing we could get back into print have finally admitted that we can only continue as an online publication. Therefore, readers can no longer subscribe to Substance on paper, but those who wish to donate will be thanked.
MEDIA WATCH: MSNBC, New York Times, and others expose latest SAT frauds and mendacities with the help of teachers, professors, and common sense... '...A better way of revising the SAT... would be to do away with it once and for all...'
As most informed teachers know, the "SAT" remains a kind of fetish among Americans -- and not just corporate "school reform" types. This remains true despite the fact that the SAT (and its companion, the . . .
OPT OUT PROCTOLOGY REPORT: Chapter Two: About 'Chief Accountability Officer' John Barker, brought to Chicago from Memphis, a man who doesn't have an Illinois teaching certificate but who is prattling about taking away Illinois certificates from Opt Out teachers...
Late in the afternoon on March 6, 2014, WBEZ radio news reported that CPS may try to revoke the teaching certificates of teachers who have been boycotting the ISAT and others who have been encouraging . . .
LABOR BEAT VIDEO: 'Two day strike at UIC...'
A new Labor Beat video, "Two-Day Strike at UIC" is now available on YouTube at: http://youtu.be /fp50pyPHj-U. They had been working for 18 months without a contract, so they had no other choice . . .
Ames school continues fight with referendum on the March ballot
As readers of Substance know, parents, teacher and children at Ames Middle School in Chicago have continued their fight against the conversion of the school into a "Marine Military Academy," despite the fact that the . . .
OPT OUT PROCTOLOGY REPORT: Chapter One: About the principal who ruled that graham crackers were not an approved 'healthy snack' because a child Opted Out
With today's Substance, we begin our daily "Proctology Report". Everyone knows what a proctologist studies and treats, and so we are forced, again, to do that dirty noisome work by citing for national attention the . . .
Legislation in Illinois to abolish Charter School Commission passes House Education Committee, HB3754 goes to full House
On March 6, 2014, the Illinois House Education Committee approved legislation to abolish the state's so-called "Charter Schools Commission." The Commission, which was established six years ago based on legislation proposed by ALEC, was given . . .
SAT revised (again) but still claiming to measure something that it doesn't
"David Coleman, president of the College Board (and architect of Common Core), announced plans on March 5, 2014, to revise the SAT," reported Diane Ravitch.
Critics now . . .
OPT OUT NEWS: One picture a day to show what a thousand words can't do
Every day for the next three weeks, Substance will be publishing the one picture that seems to us to be telling the Chicago Opt Out story better than anyone's "thousand words." So here is the . . .
OPT OUT NEWS: March 4, 2014. The last ISAT as I experienced it while opting out
This year was the last year of the ISAT test. My parents opted me out of the ISAT because my family does not like standardized tests. We think the tests are unfair and they put . . .
Chicago Federation of Labor votes to support Opt Out boycott
The Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL) which represents more than 320 affiliated unions and more than 500,000 union members in Chicago and Cook County voted to support boycotting Chicago teachers. On March 4, 2014, at . . .
OPT OUT NEWS: More Than A Score launches Opt Out kit for parents and children facing the lurid assaults at many Chicago schools against children and families opting out... Opt Out HOTLINE Call (413)-3OPT-OUT
More Than A Score, the leading coalition in the Chicago Opt Out Movement, responded to the attacks by school principals and other Chicago Public Schools administrators against families opting out of the ISAT testing program, . . .
New national coalition demands Congressional hearings on high-stakes testing
The Network for Public Education met in Austin Texas over the weekend of March 1 - 3, 2014, while in Chicago the largest movement against high-stakes testing grew as the "Opt Out Movement." The meeting . . .
OPT OUT NEWS AND MEDIA WATCH: 'Even a very generous undercounting of the remaining tests using the method of counting used for their elimination method yields about 80 some tests...' CPS lies about the 'reduction' in tests is exposed by a More Than A Score study...
The editors of the Chicago Tribune, most of whom live in the wealthiest of Chicago's northern suburbs, rarely bother paying attention to the facts when their closely held beliefs are in play. The March 1, . . .
CPS backs off on some threats against teachers, parents, and children in ISAT boycott
In a February 28, 2014, 5 p.m. email communication, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools, backed off from the threats of retaliation to teachers boycotting the ISAT and the children whose . . .
MEDIA WATCH: Chicago Public Schools administration tries to suppress First Amendment in panic over Opt Out resistance... while corporate newspapers and other media ignore the corruption of the regime of Barbara Byrd Bennett and other out-of-town administrators
In a series of activities worthy of the satire stage at Second City Comedy Theater, the administration of Chicago's public schools have responded to the unprecedented organization of parents, students, teachers and other citizens against . . .
OPT OUT NEWS CHICAGO: Support for teacher boycotts of the ISAT is growing from Chicago, across the country, and around the world
As those who rule Chicago and think they own the souls of teachers and children thrash around in search of ways to stop the exploding Opt Out and boycott movements sweeping across the city on . . .
OPT OUT NEWS: Leading educators back Chicago Opt Out movement
As the Chicago Opt Out movement continues to explode across the city and resonate across the USA, a group of leading educators has issued a national statement in support of the Chicago resisters. In a . . .
Ames community fights on to save neighborhood school, as Board moves ahead with plans to change it to a military school
Ames Middle School is nearing the end of a battle between community activists and the Chicago Board of Education. The battle is part of a wider struggle over whether democracy has a place in the . . .
OPT OUT NEWS: Teachers to hold rally in support of Opt Out at Saucedo Monday March 10... 'CPS and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) have performed a most unusual feat — they have turned a detour into a disaster...' said CTU vice president Jesse Sharkey
The Chicago Teachers Union announced on March 7, 2024, that it would hold a rally at the "Network" office in support of the teachers at Saucedo elementary school who voted not to administer the ISAT . . .
OPT OUT DAY TWO: Principals ordered to turn in daily tally of teachers and children choosing to opt out of the ISAT while the bullying of teachers and children continues
As the controversies over the Chicago Opt Out movement become part of national news, most Chicago public schools have been handling the issues swirling around the ISAT (Illinois State Achievement Tests) testing and massive opt . . .
OPT OUT NEWS, DAY ONE: CTU slams CPS 'dishonesty and outright lies...' 'Teachers are teaching...' while boycotting ISAT
One group called it "testing chaos." The Chicago Teachers Union exposed the bullying and lies spread by officials of the third largest school system in the United States of America. But by the time Chicago's . . .
OPT OUT NEWS: Parents at more than 74 Chicago elementary schools have opted their children out of the ISAT tests by the evening before the testing program, which begins March 4, 2014
Parents at at least 74 Chicago elementary schools (out of roughly 500) have requested that their children be opted out of the ISAT (Illinois State Achievement Tests) testing program as of March 3, 2014. The . . .
OPT OUT NEWS: Explosion of resistance to ISAT testing program grows as Drummond Elementary teachers vote to boycott the testing program that begins Monday
Surrounded by parents, students, fellow teachers and reporters, teachers from Chicago's Drummond Elementary School proudly announced on the afternoon of February 28, 2014, that they were joining their fellow teachers at Saucedo Elementary School in . . .
BOARDWATCH: February 26, 2014 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education continues Vitale's policy of suppressing democratic speech against CPS policies with escalating viciousness...
At the regular monthly meeting of the Chicago Board of Education at 125 S. Clark Street on February 26, 2014, more parents of children at traditional neighborhood schools finally got a chance to speak during . . .
