Citizens for Public Schools

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. 

• Hear our guest speaker
• Learn about our advocacy campaigns
• Elect officers and board

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

Visit our Less Testing, More Learning Blog!

We are collecting stories from parents, teachers, students, and other education professionals to document the damage done by overuse and misuse of MCAS and other standardized tests to:

1. create a more public dialogue about these harms
2. use as evidence with school committees, and other decision-makers

Please share, and if you have a story, please send them to lesstestingmorelearning@gmail.com!

See our FAQ if you have questions or visit lesstestingmorelearning.tumblr.com   → 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:

• What is MCAS? Is it required? What is the opt-out movement?
• How has the MCAS changed public education in Brookline?
• What are the facts about MCAS and equity?
• Does my child really need to practice taking standardized tests?
• Does the MCAS enrich or impoverish our children’s experience in the schools?

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