My two sons attend Willard Schools and since the adoption of the Mastery Connect report cards, we have had extreme difficulty discerning if our kids are doing well or if they are failing. The report card and the subsequent clarifications offer us no understanding of what has been presented, what the class average is, or what level of success is possible. Our attempts to discuss this with the Assistant Superintendent did not resolve the problem. Through many conversations with fellow parents I have realized I am not alone and hope the School Board will listen to the voices of many concerned and frustrated parents in the great Willard R-2 School District. All of our experiences with teachers and administrators within our district remain extremely positive.

In English We, Russian -speaking residents of Hallandale Beach, would like the city to consider building an A-rated, academically intense, K-12 Russian-immersion school. Such a school will allow our Russian speaking children to stay connected to their roots, and help native English speakers learn about Russian culture, thereby promote collaboration and enforce unity within our diverse community. Over the past 5 years the Russian community of Hallandale Beach has tripled its size. Each year there are more young families moving into the neighborhood. Hallandale Beach offers affordable housing, excellent infrastructure, beautiful new parks, beaches, and much more. Hallandale Beach is known to Russian-speaking communities around the world as not only the vacation-destination but also as a potential relocation destination. However, there is a great need for an A-rated school. There are only 3 A-rated Broward public/charter K-8 schools in proximity of Hallandale Beach: Beachside Montessori Village, HAAS, and Ben Gamla. Each of those schools have large waitlists and are very hard to get into. There are no A-rated High schools in the vicinity. Families with older children entering middle school and with the prospect of high school in the future three years, choose to move to better school districts such as Aventura, Boca Raton, Weston, or Davie. If such a school existed in Hallandale Beach, it would encourage many hard working families that want the best for their kids to stay in Hallandale Beach and encourage other families to move to Hallandale Beach. In Russian Мы, русско-говорящие жители Халландейл Бич, очень заинтересованы в открытии академически сильной школы с русским уклоном. Школа такого типа позволит нашим русско-говорящим детям не забывать их корни, а также, у англо-говорящих детей появится возможность познакомиться и изучить русскую культуру, что укрепит дружеские отношения в нашей разноязычной общине. За последние пять лет, русско-говорящие население в Халландейл Бич удвоилось, а может быть и утроилось. Каждый год все больше и больше молодых семей переезжает в наш район. Халландейл Бич имеет дома и квартиры за приемлемые цены, отличную инфраструктуру, великолепные новые парки, пляжи, и многое другое. Халландейл Бич известен русско-говорящему населению мира, не только как место для отпусков, но также как реальный вариант переселения в данный район. Тем не менее, в Халландей Бич есть огромная необходимость в открытии сильной школы, которая сможет получить высший бал 'А'. В Броварде существуют только три школы, от детского сада до 8 класса, с высшим белом 'А', которые находятся недалеко от города Халландейл Бич: Beachside Montessori Village, HAAS, и Ben Gamla. В эти школы нашим детям трудно попасть из-за длинной очереди ожидания. Семьям, у которых дети должны перейти из начальной школы в среднюю, а затем и в старшие классы, приходится переезжать в такие районы, как Авентура, Бока Раtон, Вестон или Дейви, поскольку в тех районах есть отличные школы. Конечно, существуют и частные школы, но большинство семей не имеют финансовой возможности дать детям частное обучение.

I support a proposal for the Snoqualmie Valley School District to adopt an Informed Self-Select Math Policy, so families determine their child's 6th - 12th grade Math Pathway. Students must have passed their prior Math SBA test to be eligible. Please consider signing this petition if you want a voice in your child's choice.

Students are being forced to take tests that don't accurately represent their abilities, and they aren't able to show their abilities in real life situations. I have been made and am being made to take these tests that don't show how capable I am to learn and apply my abilities to real life situations.

As a former Special Education teacher, I believe the children of Flint,Michigan are going to need specially trained teachers to educate them. I am not sure if teaching colleges and universities are prepared. Now is the time to prepare those schools to train teachers. Those teachers need to be in the pipeline now.

Unfortunately, the Council Board has denied Social Pioneering Monthly from being chartered for Spring 2016 semester because of lack of "membership.” For those who don’t know, Social Pioneering Monthly is a monthly printed zine that is completely composed of student creative and original submissions regarding the relevant social problems of today. There is total freedom of expression and speech and opens up dialogue amongst the students. Its mission is to empower the students and spread awareness about social issues in order to encourage positive social change. We have been chartered for almost two years and have received a lot of positive feedback. Along with several other consequences, the biggest problem is not being able to receive any funding from the school to print the issues. Membership is a vague concept, but with 212 people who signed up for email notifications, 339 Facebook group members, and 121 total submissions in the 10 issues, "lack of membership" does not seem like a fair reason to deny the club's access to funding. The fundamental requirement to be a member of Social Pioneering Monthly is only to agree and support the mission of this club. By signing, you are saving Social Pioneering Monthly, and by doing so you are saving opportunities for people to promote positive social change.

PETITION BACKGROUND The St. Paul Public School District is in crisis. Daily headlines reporting student-on-student and student-on-teacher violence resulting from Valeria Silva’s failed disciplinary policies are just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. We can no longer tolerate unsafe learning conditions in our schools. Our children have a right to safe and productive classrooms. Additionally, we can no longer tolerate the draconian methods of threat and intimidation of our dedicated teachers by the Silva administration. Teachers are afraid to speak out for fear of public reprisal, suspension and loss of their employment. Valeria Silva has lost the trust, faith and respect of too many education professionals in the district to be an effective leader. Furthermore, Silva’s continued incompetence is putting our teachers and children at great risk; as a result, families have begun to send their children out of the district in response to the downward spiral in the quality of St. Paul’s educational infrastructure. The children, parents, teachers, and community members of St. Paul deserve a Superintendent who leads with integrity and honor in Minnesota’s capital city. Silva is clearly not that leader. Her tenure as Superintendent has been nothing less than an embarrassment to the city of St. Paul, and a great travesty for our children, who deserve a high-quality education free from the threat of violence and harm. Our teachers and administrative staff deserve respect and the freedom to meet students’ needs with innovative, compassionate and supported instruction and assistance. We, the undersigned, demand Silva resign immediately. If she will not, we demand the School Board remove her and replace her with a competent leader with the skills, temperament, and personal integrity to provide effective leadership for the St. Paul Public School District.

This petition is created to send the citizens message to our school board of the vote of no confidence and lack of trust of the Valeria Silvia leadership team and the direction of her present reign. The massive exodus of families, her decisions on spending taxpayers monies, and the lack of direction with curriculum that focus our youth for college, school safety issues caused by her disrespect with cutting the support needed to manage or address these concerns that her leadership has caused. She has shown that she is inept and vengeful her approaches to address the above situations.

CEO Eric Gordon and the CMSD team walked away from negotiations with the Cleveland Teachers Union on February 17, 2016. With six weeks of previously agreed upon meeting dates remaining, the district chose to put the fate of the Cleveland schools in the hands of a third party Fact Finder. These negotiations are not about money. The Cleveland Metropolitan School District must acknowledge the real issues that members face every day and that these issues can be resolved. The teachers, paraprofessionals, and related service providers want the district to walk back to the table for serious discussions about real issues in our schools. The members of the Cleveland Teachers Union want their concerns heard, understood, and resolved. CEO Gordon and his team need to do their jobs and walk back to the table to negotiate.

NIFDI wants to know how various decisions regarding the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) were made. In July of 2013 ago we filed a Freedom of Information act (FOIA) request to the Department of Education, which oversees the WWC. Some, but not all of the requested information was received. The initial information revealed that the WWC suffers from a lack of transparency in their policies and guidelines, the conclusions they create in their reports can be misleading, and the reports are potentially damaging to program developers and ultimately the success of students. (See http://www.nifdi.org/research/reviews-of-di/what-works-clearinghouse for more information on the WWC as revealed through FOIA-released documents.) We have made 2 appeal requests to the Department of Education under the Freedom of Information Act to receive the information that was not sent to us initially, to no avail. According to their rules, the DOE needs to provide us the information requested within 20 days, and if not possible, then a timeline for responding to our appeal must be provided. We have been trying to resolve this for over 16 months. That's why I created a petition to Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR-4) to get the DOE to follow the law and send us the information per our FOIA request. DeFazio's office has been only semi-responsive on this issue and needs to know that our request is critical for kids, decision-makers and the field of education in general. Once we have at least 50 signatures from DeFazio constituents the petition will be forwarded. Please send this on to anyone who lives in the 4th district and ask that they join us.

Many kids struggle because the content that schools teach is either too hard or too easy. Students should be able to move at their own pace in school.

This petition has been started because the current incumbent Valeria Silva has constantly demonstrated her inability to drive improvements in local St Paul schools. Her inability to make changes to benefit the teachers and students include, but are not limited to, rapid increase in violence towards students and teachers; the lack of support for teachers; the removal of disciplinary actions for violent students, and the lack of transparency between her and protagonists such as Rashad Turner. The teachers and students of public schools in St. Paul, Minnesota require a new leader, someone that will uphold the need for discipline within schools. St. Paul needs a leader that can directly empower teachers to do what they are best at and to foster a safe environment within our schools. The position that Silva currently occupies requires someone that can stand up to those who want to disrupt schools by illegal protests, and fosters respect for the teaching institution.