Our school district has an opportunity to make the fresh start that we need and our students deserve. The news broke recently that Superintendent Mike Miles is resigning his post. As the Trustees begin the search for a replacement, we need them to hear the voices of all stakeholders. We need a superintendent who is committed to working with all stakeholders—parents, teachers and school employees, and members of our community. We need collaboration—not confrontation--to ensure that Dallas has safe, welcoming neighborhood public schools where students are inspired and educators are well-supported. The process for identifying and hiring a new superintendent must include the voices of those stakeholders. I urge you to take a moment to let your voice be heard. Please contact the Trustees and urge them to consider the following three points in the search for a new superintendent to lead our school district forward: 1) The process must be inclusive and transparent. Schools work best when all stakeholders are involved. The Dallas ISD Board should take the time and create space to get input from parents, educators and members of our community. 2) An independent search firm should be engaged. Efforts to identify a new superintendent should be broad and deliberate. 3) A broad-based Stakeholder Advisory Committee should participate in the search and interview finalists with the Trustees. The new superintendent should be someone who can build relationships with the full Dallas community. One good way to lay that foundation is to include an array of stakeholders and constituents in the selection process. At a minimum, the committee should have a place for educators, parents, business leaders, faith leaders and representatives of civic organizations. One model for how this works is already familiar to Dallas ISD; whenever a new principal is hired, a campus-wide committee is involved in the selection and interviewing of candidates. A fresh start for Dallas ISD means giving community stakeholders a seat at the table where our new superintendent is selected.

This petition is started to save our school by gathering signatures of supporters as we prepare for a potential Federal review of the Jacob's Report, the basis used by the State legislature in the bill appropriating gambling revenue to support school construction in Baltimore City. The fiscal note used no basis other than summarily closing 26 Baltimore City Schools.

We should celebrate Cami’s departure cautiously (and briefly). The fact is that the movement of students, parents, teachers and concerned residents has never been about the narrow goal of Cami’s resignation. The movement in Newark to reclaim our public schools has been about local democratic control, increasing the resources and funding needed to strengthen Newark’s public schools, developing community schools and ensuring a strong future for our children. Unless her permanent replacement is selected by the Newark community, and until Newark’s schools are properly funded, the movement to reclaim our public schools will continue. As we ready ourselves for the next phase of the fight to restore local control and invest in community schools, let’s find inspiration in the amazing work that has taken place so far. For the last three years, NJ Communities United and the Newark Students Union have fought together in solidarity, organizing more than a half-dozen massive student walk-outs, countless rallies and a week-long sit-in at Cami Anderson’s office. Following recent student walk-outs, both East Side and Weequahic are no longer on the list of turn-around schools. This demonstrates that the constant escalation and mobilization have forced the superintendent’s arm. The voices of the Newark Students Union, bolstered by technical and strategic organizing support from NJ Communities United, elevated the fight to protect Newark’s schools to national and international levels. The Newark Students Union and NJ Communities United will continue this fight – and we hope you will continue to stand with us!

Week after week, headlines about charter schools describe stolen money and bankruptcies that leave families scrambling to find new schools in the middle of the year. News reports about corruption and self-dealing in charter schools make it clear that there is little accountability for the people ripping off taxpayers. In the last two years, government watchdog groups have found hundreds of millions of dollars missing from the charter school sector due to fraud, self-dealing and mismanagement. Meanwhile, the Walton Family Foundation is spending hundreds of millions to promote the rapid expansion of charter schools with weak public oversight. That rapid expansion has made charter schools, originally a concept designed to benefit children, a business model that often serves students poorly while delivering making millions of dollars of taxpayer funds to charter school companies, family members, and related companies. Join us to tell the Walton Family Foundation that it’s time to start advocating for a charter schools accountability agenda that includes parental input into how the schools are run, and that protects taxpayers and students from companies that are just looking to cash in on public schools. The agenda calls for increased accountability (through open board meetings, publicly available budgets and contracts, and rigorous audits); protecting neighborhood schools (through impact analyses and financial assessments of the effects of charter expansion on local schools); and protecting taxpayer funds (by ensuring the public retains control of public property, banning nepotism, prohibiting the use of taxpayer dollars on marketing and advertising, and blocking new charter schools where officials neglect to prevent fraud and mismanagement). This program for reform is the next step in protecting public education and preventing an increase in charter school corruption. Read The Charter School Accountability Agenda: http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/wp-content/uploads/0215-Charter-School-Flyer.final_.pdf Read How the Walton Family Foundation’s Ideological Pursuit is Damaging Charter Schooling: http://cashinginonkids.com/?page_id=1520

Because there is a constant need for educational funding here in Oregon. This would be a way to help the cause.

A new study says the University of New Mexico pays female professors, on average, 13% less than men. Asked why, Provost Chaouki Abdallah says, "The most important reason for male professors [having higher average salaries] is that there are colleges and departments with higher salaries. For example, there are more male engineering professors. The lowest paid professors are where females are a majority such as education or the arts. The other reason is that females may delay careers or promotions because of family. Males will also negotiate for more money and females generally don’t." They can't be serious. UNM can - and should - do better. Tell them to honor the Fair Pay Act and pay female professors on par with men.

Contrary to the clear intent of Board of Education policy, the Superintendent has been discharging non-tenured teachers without following the Board's dismissal procedures. Rather, he has chosen not to renew their contracts (non-renewal). Dismissal of poorly-performing teachers is a necessity at times, but hiring and orienting new teachers is expensive and disruptive. To learn well, children need stability and predictability in their schools. Dismissing teachers without clear reason creates a climate of uncertainty for children, parents and teachers, and it disrupts the conditions needed for positive, productive school communities.

The Philadelphia School District needs to close its budget gap. The City of Philadelphia's solution is to raise real estate taxes again on working men and women. Property owners of new homes should pay their fair share for our public schools.

We need all of your signatures, we are trying to have 1500+ to take and present to the School Board. All in honor of a Good man and Great Coach. Where his legacy and name will always be remembered at each and every Starkville High Football game and Track Meet. Where generations will know and understand who Coach Hudson was and meant to the City Of Starkville, Thank You...! Believe me, every name matters.

In the past four years, Diné College has not made academic progress and enrollment has dropped from 2,150 in fall 2009 to 1,242 in spring 2015. Furthermore, only one (1) Bachelors degree has been added in four years while Navajo Technical University has seen a lot of growth. NTU has added six (6) Bachelors and one (1)) Master's degree during the past four years and enrollment went from 900 students to 2,100.

What are the District of Columbia Public Schools and some in the city government trying to hide?   On Tuesday, the Washington, D.C., City Council will vote on a stunning new rule that would make it impossible for educators, parents and the general public to judge whether some of DCPS core instructional strategies and policies are really helping District children succeed.   Here’s the background: Over a year ago, the Washington Teachers’ Union filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to see the data from the school district’s IMPACT evaluation system—a system that’s used for big choices, like the firing of 563 teachers in just the past four years, curriculum decisions, school closures and more. The FOIA request was filed because DCPS refused to provide the data.   The data is essential for the union to be able to represent our members and serve our students. It’s essential to understanding and addressing the DCPS policies and practices that impact our members’ daily work. We requested the data with all personal information removed to protect teachers’ privacy. Now, the district not only has rejected our request, it is also trying to override the FOIA laws through a radical new secrecy provision to hide the information that’s being used to make big decisions that impact our kids, our teachers and our schools.   And to top it all off, the language in the law is so poorly written, no one’s even sure what it says. The mayor’s office claims it would only apply to certain schools, but open-government advocates say that—as written—it would apply to all schools. This confusion alone is enough reason to reject this bad idea.   Without access to this data, there’s no way for the public or our union to tell whether the strategies DCPS uses—like mayoral control—are helping students or simply creating school closures and high teacher turnover. And just last week, the National Academy of Sciences released a report that raises a lot of questions about whether those strategies have really moved the needle of student achievement.   Transparency shines a light on whether the District’s policies are helping kids, supporting teachers and improving schools. Hiding this data takes us in the wrong direction.

A group of Chatham Public School parents are concerned that the K-5 math program is in need of improvement. We feel that the program is not working for many of our children. We are starting this petition because we feel this program is doing our children a disservice. These are our key areas of concern: 1) There is insufficient mastery of basic math facts due to the overemphasis on higher-level problem solving. 2) Language-based math presents difficulty for children that have not yet mastered reading. This can intimidate and discourage a student that might otherwise be a strong math performer. 3) The math homework is confusing and poorly worded. This forces children to ask for help and creates a sense of dependency. 4) Communication regarding curriculum is insufficient. 5) Supplementation of the curriculum is inconsistent between classes and grades. Some students are getting basic math fact reinforcement while others do not. 6) Too many parents are having to seek outside help via Mathnasium, private tutors, or trying to instruct their children themselves. If you share these concerns, we ask that you support our request for the School District to review and strengthen the program.