The Offical Website of the PJSTA

Posted on September 4, 2013 by thepjsta

Dr. Rella’s Opening Day Presentation

In case you want to share it with friends or other teachers who had to sit through analyzing test results today, here is Dr. Rella’s Opening Day Presentation in all it’s glory…

MORE Teaching, Less Testing!

Via our friends from the MORE Caucus of the UFT…

Labor Day Links

Some links (and a video) to enjoy on Labor Day…

Ravitch with Labor Day 2013

NYC Educator with Happy Labor Day to All

Vote early. Vote often. And don’t even think of voting for anyone who opposes union. This includes Democrats who pay us lip service but fail to stand up when we need them. For working people, there’s no alternative to union, and now’s the time to make union strong. They have the money, but we have the numbers.

If we stand up, there is no stopping us.

Ralph Nader with Labor Day is a Time to Mobilize

The reality is that big corporations have abandoned American workers by taking jobs and industries to communist and fascist regimes abroad — regimes that oppress their workers and enforce serf-level salaries and hideous working conditions. America’s working men and women have also largely been abandoned by the corporate dominated Republican and Democrat two-party duopoly, whatever their rhetorical differences may be.

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Posted on September 2, 2013 by thepjsta

As we get ready to embark on another school year, Labor Day offers me a moment to pause and express gratitude for the people who have made up my union and allowed me to enjoy the career that I have today…

Thank you Beth Dimino, PJSTA President, for tirelessly working on our behalf for more than four years now. For working to preserve and enhance a strong contract, and for largely keeping us whole through turbulent times.
Thank you Christine Pendergast, Fran DiPiazza, and Jim Roth. The three presidents who have represented me throughout my career and have shown me what strong union leadership can do.
Thank you to all of the presidents who came before them, including Bob Carr (thanks Jack Zamek!) and Bill Hippner, who I have had the pleasure of knowing through his role in rep council. These are the people who built a strong contract one battle at a time over the years.
Thank you to the many men and women who have served on our executive boards and rep councils through the years, who have given tremendous amounts of time to form the governing body of the PJSTA.
Thank you to Rich Davis, my union buddy during my first year of teaching, and my first senior building rep. He was the first person who made union work appealing to me.
Thank you to Donna Gardner and Gail Ports who have done an incredible job representing me as my senior building rep in the years since Rich Davis.
Thank you to the PJSTA members who voted to authorize strikes in the 1970’s, showing the willingness to make a tremendous sacrifice, if necessary, for the greater good of our local.
Finally, thank you to the rank and file membership of the PJSTA, throughout our history. We have had great leaders, but our strength is in numbers. It is a whole lot easier for our leadership to take a stand and guide us through difficult times when they know they have 300 PJSTA members at their back.

Through the past several years the PJSTA has taken a leadership role in our region, fighting against the privatization of public education. We have had a substantial presence at rallies and events throughout the state. Our members have taken whatever action necessary when called upon. We have an aggressive and ambitious campaign planned for this year. Our membership will be called upon to take sustained action throughout the year. I know we will rise to the occasion and let our collective voice be heard.

Happy Labor Day… and welcome back to school!

In solidarity,

Brian St. Pierre

Send the Scores Back!

Our friends at NYSAPE are running a “Send the Scores Back!” campaign. If you are a parent of a child who took the state tests this should be of interest to you.

Via NYSAPE’s Facebook page…

New York State believes in REAL students, not FAKE test scores. This year’s test scores are invalid and provide NO useful information about student learning. Parents across New York State will come together to mail these BOGUS test scores back to Commissioner King on Saturday, September 28th, 2013.

These test scores are invalid because….

1.Flawed test construction:

-Tests were too long; even high achieving students did not finish

-Vague questions and reading passages full of commercial logos and distracting product placements

-Passages from test maker Pearson’s text books used, thus giving some students an advantage

2.Formula used to determine “cut scores” is flawed and not supported by scientific research: (“cut scores” are the cut-off scores for determining proficiency)

-Cut scores for the assessments were not developed until AFTER the tests were administered and scored. THIS SUGGESTS THAT THE DATA IS HIGHLY VULNERABLE TO MANIPULATION.

-NYSED identified the top 8-20th % scores on the NAEP, SAT and PSAT and used these scores to work backwards and determine the scores a child must receive on state assessments in grades 3-8 to eventually meet these benchmarks. In other words, in order to be proficient on a NYS test, ALL students must achieve scores comparable to the top 8-20% of students in the country. This is too high and sets children up for failure.

-Research that shows that high scores on these tests are not effective indicators of performance in college. High school grades are in fact a better indicator of college performance.

-Tests like the NAEP and the SAT are not curriculum measures and therefore, are not appropriate for determining cut scores on the NYS ELA and Math tests.

3.No oversight or transparency in scoring or test construction:

-The tests were not and will not be made available in their entirety for public inspection, and were destroyed after being scored and sent back to the state.

-Teachers involved in scoring the tests and those hired to make recommendations to the Commissioner of Education regarding the formulation of cut scores were made to sign non-disclosure agreements.

4.Not designed to improve student learning

-Due to test secrecy and the fact that scores are received after the school year has ended, there is no opportunity for teachers to review the tests and provide students with extra support in areas of weakness.

5.Test scores vary too much to be considered valid:

-Over the past seven years, proficiency scores on the NY math and ELA have been characterized more than once by fluctuations of almost 30 points. When scores vary this widely, the reliability of the data is questionable.