Wednesday, June 10th, 7pm, by Zoom
For nearly 30 years, we have lived under an MCAS-driven education system that ignores child development, narrows the curriculum, is harmful to student health and wellness, and most reliably tells about students’ wealth and address. With the COVID-19 crisis, public education is at a crossroads, with privatizers and testing companies vying to capitalize on this crisis to reinvent public schools in their own image.
Meanwhile, students, teachers, school nurses, guidance counselors, parents, and school board members are uniting to reclaim our schools. We are working toward a just recovery in education that halts the damaging high-stakes standardized tests, emphasizes racial justice, and puts the health, happiness, and well-being of every child at the center of learning now and in the post-pandemic era.
Please join us on June 10th for a conversation about our collective vision for public education during and after the pandemic. We’ll hear from education leaders, teachers, students and school committee members fighting for education justice. They’ll share their thoughts on what we need during this time and how to realize our vision and goals. We’ll present the framework for a campaign to stop high-stakes testing and invite you to share your perspectives and feedback in breakout groups.
Moderator Drew King is a CPS board member, and a doctoral candidate in public policy at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He has conducted extensive community-based research on student organizing in Boston’s educational justice movement.
Panelists
Ricardo Rosa is a CPS board member, co-chair of New Bedford Coalition to Save Our Schools, and an associate professor of public policy at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. He’s the author of Capitalism’s Educational Catastrophe: And the Advancing Endgame Revolt! (2015). His research interests include, Curriculum and Instruction, Language Policies, Literacy and Social Studies Education.
Natalia Cuadra-Saez is an Organizer with the Boston Teachers Union. She was previously a history and social studies teacher in Boston Public Schools. As a teacher and an organizer Natalia is passionate about Ethnic Studies, valuing stakeholder voices, and rethinking how we measure school quality.
Ayesha Wilson is a member of the Cambridge School Committee, and is the product of the Cambridge Public Schools. With over 18 years of service in human services and youth work, she is an advocate for children and is passionate about empowering students and parents to use their voices. Ayesha currently develops youth programs with the Cambridge Housing Authority’s ‘The Work Force’ Program, and is Secretary of the Cambridge Branch of the NAACP.
Beth Kontos is President of the AFT Massachusetts Teachers Union, a member of the CPS board of directors, a steering committee member for the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance, a former history teacher, and a tireless advocate for students and justice.
