TELL THE MAYOR AND THE CHANCELLOR: NO BUDGET CUTS TO CLASSROOMS.

September 26, 2008
Dear Friends,

We hope you and your organization will join us in signing the statement below. The Mayor is announcing his plan next week for city-wide budget cuts, including in public education. The current financial crisis affords us an opportunity to look at the mismanagement of our tax dollars.

By signing this statement we will let the Mayor and the Chancellor know that we – as parents, educators, students, community members and organizations – are the ones who know best the needs of our students and schools.

Please email us back at info@timeoutfromtesting.org letting us know that we can add your name and organization.

Thank you,

Jane Hirschmann,
Time Out From Testing
917-679-8343

Donna Nevel and Perla Placencia,
Center for Immigrant Families
212-531-3011

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DEMAND THAT OUR CHILDREN'S EDUCATION BE PROTECTED

As Mayor Bloomberg responds to the current fiscal crisis and calls for cuts to all city agencies, we believe it is imperative that not one penny of any proposed cuts to public education come from classrooms or direct services to children. Cuts at the school level hurt our children and our schools.

HERE'S HOW WE CAN SAVE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS…

• PLACE A HIRING FREEZE ON THE DOE EMPLOYEES AT TWEED HEADQUARTERS.
  The number of DOE employees at Tweed Headquarters has increased by more than 500 in the last 5 years (from 1,832 in 2003 to 2,337 in 2008). That's a 28% increase! Currently, there are 14 job openings advertised on the DOE website, seven of which have salaries of $170,000 or more. We don't want additional CEOs from defunct Wall Street firms working for the DOE.

• CUT ARIS AN 80 MILLION IBM COMPUTER SYSTEM USED TO TRACK OUR CHILDREN'S TEST SCORES
  We do not need an expensive computer system that duplicates what New York State has put into place for all public school students. Additionally, ARIS is a fiasco – schools are required to spend a massive number of hours correcting data or simply waiting for information to be processed, often incorrectly.
  

• ELIMINATE THE $80 MILLION MCGRAW-HILL "ACUITY" CONTRACT.
  In 2007, McGraw-Hill was given a DOE contract to provide multiple practice tests annually to all NYC public school children grades 3 – 12 for five years. These periodic (every six weeks), assessments known as Acuity, have turned our schools into test prep factories and have distorted our schools' curricula.
  

• END THE SCHOOL PROGRESS REPORTS.
  Education and testing experts have criticized the school progress reports for lack of validity, claiming the reports' formula measures random error and not true progress. Yet, the DOE issues these reports each year, branding schools with a single letter grade, demoralizing school communities, and promoting even more test prep in an attempt to raise test scores that make up 85% of the school's letter grade.
  

• STOP THE K-2 STANDARDIZED TESTING PROGRAM.
  The DOE is currently spending $400,000 on a pilot program to expand standardized testing into kindergarten – grade 2, despite the near-universal agreement of early childhood experts and educators that the testing of young children is unreliable and developmentally inappropriate.
  

• END THE LEADERSHIP ACADEMY.
  The DOE just awarded the Leadership Academy a $50 million contract over five years. However, there is no evidence that this costly training prepares effective school leaders. Cut the Leadership Academy and save $10 million this year and $40 million in the future.

• CUT THE 2009 SCHOOL QUALITY REVIEW.
  The DOE will pay Cambridge Education Associates (CEA) approximately $6.5 million this year to conduct school quality reviews, plus travel and lodging expenses. Yet, CEA is a British company with little understanding of New York City schools.
  Cut the contract with CEA and save $6.5 million and more.

• CUT THE "THINK-LINK" COMPUTERIZED WAREHOUSE.
  The DOE plans to spend $1 million to develop a computerized warehouse, led by a "director of knowledge management," for schools to share ideas, when it would be much less costly and more informative for staff simply to engage in school visits. There are already thousands of education links alive and many schools have already set up means for sharing without any extra expense to the DOE.
  Cut the "think-link" and save $1 million.

Jane Hirschmann, Time Out From Testing (TOFT)
Donna Nevel and Perla Placencia, Center for Immigrant Families (CIF)