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From the non-partisan MassBudget and Policy Center: view the slideshow HERE

Schoolhouse Talks

I invite you to join me at Panera Bread (1684 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington Center) to discuss what's good and what we can improve upon in our schools, as well as any policy or legislative issue:

Thursday, September 20, 3:00-4:00 PM
Wednesday, October 24, 9:00-10:00 AM
Thursday, November 15, 9:00-10:00 AM

::Summer Mode

With our final School Committee meeting behind me, I begin to re-set for summer mode.  The unstructured time for family and friends promotes rest and relaxation - - and is so welcomed and necessary after a busy year!  

This being an election year, I have already agreed to be Precinct Captain for the Elizabeth Warren campaign in Lexington.  My friend and Emerge MA classmate, Mara Dolan, is running for State Senate in the third Middlesex District (which is not my district - I'm in 4th M'sex), and I am excited to be working to get her elected!

All that said, I will post only occasionally through July and August and plan to resume regular posting in September.

All best for a safe and happy summer.

::The Open Letter to Stand for Children

As parents, teachers, and community members, we are Massachusetts grassroots activists for education. We read bills, testify at hearings, write letters to the editor, pore over budgets, speak at town meetings, make phone calls, and hold fundraisers. Many of us have done so for years.

It was as part of this work and with great hope that we joined Stand for Children.  And—initially—Stand helped us do great work.  We cast a critical eye on education bills at the State House and testified as needed. We turned back ballot initiatives that would have gutted education funding. We closely watched local budgets to keep dollars close to classrooms. We put our voices, time, money, and reputations into building Stand for Children. Because we were united and we spoke from our experience, we were heard.

Along the way, we learned a great deal about the legislative process, education funding, and policy. We learned to research our positions, present them, and back them up.

But in 2009, while we struggled to give voice to the needs of our schools, Stand’s staff was turning away from our concerns, announcing that it expected its members to forgo community advocacy in favor of a new, special agenda. This agenda, emerging seemingly out of nowhere, touted more charter schools, more testing, and punishing teachers and schools for low student scores.

None of these initiatives arose from the needs of our communities.  Indeed, we understood well their dangers. Yet all of them became the positions of Stand for Children. Policy proposals no longer came from the local level. They were dictated from the top.

What accounted for this shift?  We were mystified at first. But we’ve since learned that Stand abandoned its own local members – us – to follow the lure of millions of dollars from Bain Capital, the Walton Foundation, Bill Gates, and others who had an agenda in conflict with our previous efforts.

The ballot initiative brought forward by Stand for Children is just the most recent example.

Stand was one group of many at the table when the new Massachusetts educator evaluation system was hammered out over several months last spring. Unions, principals, state officials, parents—all contributed. But when the new regulations were finally announced, one group walked away—Stand for Children.

Immediately, Stand filed for a ballot initiative and used some of their new corporate money to hire people to collect the signatures. It cost them $3 a signature, but they have plenty more. They are following the master plan revealed in Colorado by their national CEO, Jonah Edelman, a month before it was announced in Massachusetts.

The proposed ballot measure attempts to blow up the collaborative work that created the new regulations last spring. It does nothing to improve teaching in our schools. What it does is put the careers of our teachers at the mercy of an untested rating system, violating the recommendations of the people who designed that system.

We fear the result would be to drive some of our best teachers away from the schools that need them most.

This ballot measure fits the ideology of its corporate sponsors, but it is not what we want for those who teach our children. Most of all, it is not what we want for our children. 

Therefore we the undersigned, as former members and leaders of Stand for Children, urge Massachusetts voters to oppose this ballot measure.

Ted A. Adams, Medford
Alessandro Alessandrini, Lexington School Committee member
Bonnie Brodner, Lexington School Committee member
Dale Bryan, Medford
Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Somerville
Mary Cleary, Worcester
Margaret E. Coppe, Lexington School Committee member
Ann Marie Cugno, Medford School Committee member
Tom Diaz, Lexington, former School Committee chair
Jonathan Dreyer, Lexington
Michael Feldgarden, Boston
Lisa Fenichel, Arlington
Mary Finn, Medford
Mary Fusoni, Arlington
Ann Gallager, Medford
Roger Garberg, Gloucester School Committee member
Isabel Gonzalez, Worcester, Former Stand staff organizer
Barbara C. Goodman, Arlington, Former Stand State Strategy Member
Jason Grow, Gloucester
Sharon Guzik, Medford
Matt Haberstroh, Medford
Victoria Halal, Medford
Moe Henzel, Mendon
Geeta Jain, Medford
Josh Kratka, Arlington
John J. Krawczyk, Lexington
Mary-Beth Landy, Medford
Lynne Lupien, Lowell, MA
Meredith Martin, Saugus
Bonnie McFarlane, Medford
Michelle McGonagle, Medford
Beth Morris, Gloucester
Tracy Novick, Worcester School Committee member
Christopher Nye, Sheffield
Ann O’Halloran, Waltham, formerly of Newton Stand for Children
Natalie O’Hayre, Worcester
Simon Paddock, Gloucester
Rev. Aaron Payson, Worcester
Meryl Perlson, Medford
Sondra Peskoe, Brookline, formerly of Arlington Stand for Children
Karen Poole, Holliston
Joyce Shortt, Somerville, MA
Deb Steigman, Worcester
Mary Ann Stewart, Lexington School Committee member
Paulette Van der Kloot, Medford School Committee member
Deb Vuona, Worcester
David J. Weinstein, Jamaica Plain
Jennifer Whelan, Auburn
Adiya White-Hammond, Boston

Support from outside Massachusetts

Susan Barrett, Portland, OR
Betsy Marshall, New Paltz, NY
Tom Olson, Canby, OR
Melissa Westbrook, Seattle, WA

::Revolution 2012

Back in 2011, I posted about the impact the shift was having on business and on American education policy. That shift is non-linear and not without challenges. The emphasis in business and in education is on collaboration, accountability, and teamwork requiring trust, support, experience, and time.

In education, the shift from teaching to learning requires the use of multiple strategies, sourcing media, creating original work developed in collaboration with others sharing the same goals for all students to learn, grow, and achieve. 

There is a lot to say about engaging students with the technology necessary for success, for example, the prevalence of iPads in kindergartens, or in the way Khan Academy is revolutionizing technology use, thereby flipping the way we may view homework, or through blended-learning strategies. In these scenarios, the teacher clarifies questions and students receive individual instruction; a teacher functions more as a coach and interactive content facilitator and less a "sage on stage".

And, what is tremendously exciting is there are simple structures in existence right now that can have a positive, widespread impact on schools and achievement. For example, with the dollars we have dedicated to LPS' professional development, it is exciting to partner and collaborate with educators (who are more responsible than ever) for meeting the needs of every child. Whole Professional Learning Communities are working to hone skills for individualizing instruction to successfully engage in a collective process that provides each child with targeted instruction, additional time, and support necessary to learn at high levels. 

I will have more to say about this - - it requires a bit more research on my part before I do so. 

Stay tuned.

::School Matters @Panera

Join me in a relaxed atmosphere at Panera, 1684 Mass Av in Lexington Center, to discuss your concerns, questions, and thoughts about what's good and what we can improve upon in our schools:

Thursday, April 26, 9:30-10:30 AM

Wednesday, May 2, 3:30-4:30 PM

Wednesday, May 16, 9:30-10:30 AM

Tuesday, May 29, 3:30-4:30 PM

Wednesday, June 13, 9:30-10:30 AM

For LPS business, email Mary Ann at mstewart@sch.ci.lexington.ma.us or email the School Committee: school-com@comet.ci.lexington.ma.us.  When writing or responding, please be aware that the Secretary of State has determined that most email is a public record and may not, therefore, be kept confidential.

::Public Testimony

Public Testimony of Mary Ann Stewart to The Joint Committee on Education

Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz, Co-Chair, Room 312D

Representative Alice Peisch, Co-Chair, Room 473G

Boston State House, Room B-1

April 10, 2012

Madam Co-Chairs, Honorable members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak before you today about a proposal that threatens to undo what a 40-member task force was only able to accomplish in many, many hours of meeting discussions from August 2010 to March 2011.

My name is Mary Ann Stewart, I’m a parent of three, and three weeks ago I became the Immediate Past President of the Massachusetts PTA. As President, I served as a member of the Educator Evaluation Task Force. The PTA is the oldest and largest child advocacy association in the country - in Massachusetts we are 112 years old. I think it's fair to say that PTA has been standing for children longer than anyone. I know I did not spend hundreds of hours working for improvements to the evaluation system only to have a national group - with no particular expertise in education - threaten to undo them. This proposal is way out of step with what is happening in Massachusetts schools today.

Parents and teachers do not disagree on the need for outstanding teachers and schools and we already have a rigorous evaluation system to do that. The Task Force recommended balanced changes to the evaluation system for all educators through a collaborative, deliberative process. I am very proud of the Task Force's work and pleased that the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education adopted new regulations for improvement in June of last year, following a public comment period. Districts across the Commonwealth are preparing now for full implementation for the 2013-2014 school year.

I agree with Secretary Reville that we must give these Ed Evaluations a chance to work. There is no need to implement another system before the new one is rolled out. We need to stay the course and not get distracted from the real issues.

Thank you.