Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has a group of people (also see here) whose job is to dig up dirt on Diane Ravitch (a friend of ours) and discredit her.

One of the best bloggers around, Reality-Based Educator, who we have linked to many times, gives us a shout out!

The Port Jefferson Patch’s article on Saturday’s rally.  Be sure to watch the accompanying video to see our beloved president!

NYSUT’s story here.  Their photographs here.

Another rally story, this one from longisland.com, including a quote from Dimino.

What many of the rally stories seem to miss (or ignore) is the fact that these assessments really were never meant to assess students.  Instead they are all part of the rigged game to destroy public education.  Just ask John Merrow, who can’t get the real story of Michelle Rhee published.

On a separate note, we have discussed the need to contact our elected officials who do not support us (particularly John Flanagan and Ken LaValle).  In addition to this you should be contacting politicians who have supported us to express your gratitude as well.  When calling Assemblyman Englebright and Assemblyman Graf today to express my gratitude for their support at Saturday’s rally I didn’t get the sense they had heard from many people.  They each had staff members who spent 10-15 minutes each on the phone with me, however.  They wanted to know my experience as an educator dealing with the destructive “reforms” that have entered our profession recently.  The idea that legislator’s would want an educator’s opinion on education issues shouldn’t have been surprising.  But it was.  It was refreshing too.  They should hear from all of us.  When they take our fight to Albany they need to know that they have an army of us behind them.