Majority of my peers spend their leisure time in school, participating in athletics, or establishing a social life; they are not plotting, executing, and contemplating the consequences of criminal activity. These are the primary reasons why adolescents should be given alternative trials and consequences; they do not share the same mental capabilities as adults, so they should be regarded as one.

The primary purpose of assessment in our public schools should be to improve teaching and learning. However, the high-stakes tests mandated in Massachusetts offer little benefit for students. High-stakes testing stifles innovation, narrows the curriculum, and hinders students from developing advanced thinking and problem-solving skills. Even US Education Secretary Arne Duncan admits that “testing issues today are sucking the oxygen out of the room in a lot of schools.”

Student loan debt has surpassed $1.2 trillion, and Americans are struggling to handle the burden of their education debt. That is why it is so important the Department of Education expands PAYE to help borrowers manage their student loans. Get more information on enrolling in these programs! -http://www.consumerfinance.gov/paying-for-college/repay-student-debt/#Question-1

This past June, due to increasing safety concerns, Jackson Street School had to make the very tough decision to remove the volunteer-built and beloved wooden structure, which had become an iconic play space for generations of Northampton families. As sad as the Jackson Street community was to bid farewell to the structure and gathering space, it views this moment as an opportunity to create a truly accessible, environmentally sound play and educational space, tied in greater measure to the best practices of outdoor play and learning which aid in building minds, bodies, and community. After a period of reflection and dialogue where students, faculty, staff, and families considered their options for moving forward, the Jackson Street community decided to expand a remaining play space (lovingly called the Ms. Agna Playground) and add an outdoor classroom, rather than build an entirely new playground. The community felt that this decision would yield the best stewardship of public and private resources and have the greatest positive impact. We must raise $246,771 and we need the CPA's help to do it!

I am writing this petition on behalf of my son, Ben. He is 12 years old, in 5th grade, and he is deaf. There is technology and assistance that would allow him to have equal access to education, and he is not receiving it from his school district. He struggles every day. Imagine wearing noise cancelling headphones in a classroom and then be expected to perform on the same level as your hearing classmates. This is what Ben has to do, as well as others like him. We went to the school during the 2012-13 school year and made a request for captioning equipment as well as other ideas to make the classroom accessible, and we were met with skepticism and ignorance on the subjects of his disability and accessibility. As time passes, my child sits in a classroom desperately trying to keep up with lectures and student interaction, which is so important to cognitive development and education, but also leaves him fatigued, frustrated and with headaches. Even those of you who may not be familiar with deafness or any other disability, you encounter accessibility for the disabled every day. Ramps, railings and special parking for those in wheel chairs, Braille on ATMs and “beeps” at crosswalks for the visually impaired and alarm systems that can be seen and heard are all examples of everyday accessibility that we take for granted. These are some of the ways that people with disabilities are able to be productive members of our society. My son needs access to technology that converts the words spoken in the classroom into text and displaying them on a computer screen so that he can follow the teacher’s lecture, other students’ questions, class discussion or other oral information presented in the classroom. Captioning captures all pertinent oral information presented in the classroom. This technology would allow Ben to use his voice in class to participate in discussions which are critical for his education and for improving voice quality so that others will more readily understand his speech. Captioning technology will allow Ben to develop oral vocabulary and hone the ability to “listen”. As Ben puts meaning to sounds with the help of this tool he will be learning to communicate independently. Ben does not use sign language. He is in a very small percentage of the Deaf community that chooses the spoken word. This is the mode of communication that he has chosen. If Ben did sign, he would have an interpreter. Would it not stand to reason that the school district would allow him interpretation in his mode of communication? Even students who use sign language often prefer speech to text in an educational setting. Please help Ben achieve his dreams by giving him a fair and appropriate education. He is a loving intelligent young person, who without this technology has very little chance of achieving his potential.

OUR SCHOOLS ARE ALREADY OVERCROWDED; MORE HIGH-DENSITY DEVELOPMENT WILL MAKE SCHOOL OVERCROWDING WORSE. Development at the proposed densities for Sub-units S1 and M2 would result in 72-96 additional houses or town homes to be served by Willow Springs ES and Eagle View ES. Willow Springs was built for 750 students, currently has 1000 students and is projected to increase by 15% by 2018-2019 without any new development. Eagle View is projected to be at 118% capacity by 2018-2019. Both schools feed into Fairfax HS, which is projected to be at 107% capacity by 2018-2019. (http://www.fcps.edu/fts/planning/maps/index.shtml) THERE IS NO PLAN FOR ADDRESSING SCHOOL OVERCROWDING; MORE HIGH-DENSITY DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT A PLAN IS IRRESPONSIBLE. The staff report calls for passing the buck to Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS): “To mitigate impacts of the proposed development … FCPS would look to the developer and support from the county at the time of rezoning.” Until citizens recently brought it to their attention, the School Board was unaware of the proposed change to the Comprehensive Plan, and has no plans to build new schools in this area. FIXED RESOURCES AT SCHOOLS MAKE MORE EXPANSION THROUGH TRAILERS IMPOSSIBLE. Both Willow Springs and Eagle View already have a semi-permanent network of trailers. Additional trailers are not an option because of fixed resources which cannot be expanded, such as gymnasiums, cafeterias, land, and parking. LEE HIGHWAY IS ALREADY GRIDLOCKED; MORE HIGH-DENSITY DEVELOPMENT WILL MAKE BAD TRAFFIC EVEN WORSE. This section of Lee Highway is already at a standstill during rush hour, and this impacts our quality of life negatively -- it makes it hard to get to our jobs, get home to our families, and drive our kids to school and extracurricular activities. Our school buses regularly have difficulty arriving on time due to traffic. For these reasons, we urge you to maintain the densities of the current Comprehensive Plan at this time. Thank you for your consideration of our petition.

I want to transfer schools but I can't due to overpopulation at vandeventer middle school. I'm having a hard time at my new school and I really want to go back since it's my last year of middle school.

Our son Hunter, has turned his life around and wants to continue going to school and the board of Elizabethtown area school district will not allow him to attend because of a past expulsion. They didn't take the time to see what he has accomplished since the incident and say they are not obligated to help due to his age. Anyone who knows the man that he has become can attest to the fact that he deserves the chance to continue his education...

We are a collective of nursing students attending New Community Workforce in Newark. We've attended this program for over two years and done well in all of our classes until now. But now that we're ready to graduate, a majority of us were given failing grades on our final exams. We were told that 100% of our class failed the obstetrics and psychiatry exams. We were also told that 60% of us failed our pediatrics exam - which is shocking because this was a take home exam. But what's worse, we've been denied access to our individual test results so we don't know which answers we got wrong or right. Our objective is to review our final exams before we take them again on October 20th. But this impossible because New Community refuses to give them back to us. We have all studied hard for these final exams - so how is it that the majority of us failed? We believe something is wrong! Please sign our petition and demand that CEO Richard Rohrman provide each of us with our original exams. We also want New Community to create a transparent process for current and future students so we are better prepared to achieve success in our chosen fields!

Adopting the APS staff proposal to create a 1,300 seat neighborhood middle school at the Wilson School will address increased middle school crowding projected over the next five years. It will provide urgently needed capacity as rapidly and cost-effectively as possible, while avoiding moving additional students and programs, subjecting students and staff to construction, and sacrificing much-needed recreational space.

Ongoing concern over reliability of the PARCC test due to insufficient time for field testing, in addition to inadequate technology to administer the test and lack of Common Core readiness in many schools across the state, support the view that this test is not yet ready for statewide, mandatory administration. Illinois is not alone in its opposition to this test in its current form. In fact, of the 23 states originally planning to use PARCC, only 8 states plus the District of Columbia are using both the elementary and high school versions of the PARCC. (Three additional states will use PARCC for some students.) ISBE needs to provide an appropriate education for all Illinois children; therefore, the PARCC test must be suspended for the 2014-2015 school year. We recommend the following modifications of the Illinois state 2014-2015 assessment schedule upon receipt of a waiver from the DOE: ---Delay the PARCC until the test is improved and validated through additional field testing ---Continue the use of other nationally-normed reading/math tests in 2014-15, such as NWEA MAP and ACT ---Move ACT high school testing back to its original date in April (currently early March) *************** Nosotros, los ciudadanos de Illinois, presentamos una petición a la Junta Educativa del Estado de Illinois (ISBE por sus siglas en inglés) para adquirir una exención del Departamento de Educación de EE.UU (USDOE por sus siglas en inglés) con el fin de aplazar la implementación de la prueba PARCC (por sus siglas en inglés) para el año escolar 2014-2015. Preocupación constante por fiabilidad de la prueba PARCC debido a la falta de tiempo en las pruebas de campo, además de una tecnología inadecuada para administrar la prueba y la falta de preparación de Common Core en muchas escuelas en todo el estado, apoyar el punto de vista que esta prueba todavía no está lista para por todo el estado, administración obligatoria. Illinois no está sola en su oposición a esta prueba en su forma actual. De hecho, de los 23 estados que originalmente planificaron el uso de la prueba PARCC, sólo 8 estados y el Distrito de Columbia han utilizado la prueba PARCC en las escuelas primarias y secundarias. (Otros tres estados utilizarán PARCC para algunos estudiantes.) ISBE debe proporcionar una educación apropiada para todos los niños de Illinois; por lo tanto, debe suspenderse la prueba PARCC para el año escolar 2014-2015. Recomendamos las siguientes modificaciones de la programación de evaluación de Illinois estado 2014-2015 a partir de recibir la exención del DOE: --- Retrasar la prueba PARCC hasta que se ha mejorado y validado a través de otras pruebas de campo. --- Continuar con el uso de otras pruebas de nivel nacional de lectura / matemáticas en 2014-15, como las pruebas NWEA, MAP y ACT (por sus siglas en inglés). --- Mover la prueba ACT de las escuelas secundarias a su fecha original para Abril (actualmente principios de Marzo)

The Connecticut River Academy has enforced a new rule called the 70% rule for home work. The 70% rule requires that you do 70% of your homework or you automatically fail the class regardless of your current grade. For example, if you do not do 4 home work assignments in a class you fail the class for the quarter even if my actual calculated grade is an -A. Many of our students are balancing school, sports, family, work etc. and every now and then things can get in the way of us doing our homework. Many of our upperclassmen are taking college classes at Goodwin, and the college to high school home work ratio can be too much to handle for many of them, causing them to put their high school homework on hold to complete college work and sustain the grades they need to pass those classes. The missed high school homework is counted against them and they are potentially failing their classes. It is unfair of the school to ask students to put sports, family, work and other activities on hold because they cannot miss between 3 to 4 homework assignments in a quarter. As a student body, many of us think this new rule is completely unjust and want this rule to be removed. If we can abolish this outrageous rule, homework will go back to being 10% of our grades and students can actually have the ability to pass their class even if homework becomes an issue. We need a total of 200 signatures to put up a fight against this policy. Please support the cause.