From National Save Our Schools
Equitable funding for all public school communities
- Equitable funding across all public schools and school systems
- Full public funding of family and community support services
- Full funding for 21st century school and neighborhood libraries
- An end to economically and racially re-segregated schools
An end to high stakes testing used for the purpose of student, teacher, and school evaluation
- The use of multiple and varied assessments to evaluate students, teachers, and schools
- An end to pay per test performance for teachers and administrators
- An end to public school closures based upon test performance
Teacher, family and community leadership in forming public education policies
- Educator and civic community leadership in drafting new ESEA legislation
- Federal support for local school programs free of punitive and competitive funding
- An end to political and corporate control of curriculum, instruction and assessment decisions for teachers and administrators
Curriculum developed for and by local school communities
- Support for teacher and student access to a wide-range of instructional programs and technologies
- Well-rounded education that develops every student’s intellectual, creative, and physical potential
- Opportunities for multicultural/multilingual curriculum for all students
- Small class sizes that foster caring, democratic learning communities
From Parents Across America
WHAT WORKS:
Proven Reforms: We support the expansion of sensible, research-based reforms, such as pre-K programs, full-day Kindergarten, small classes, parent involvement, strong, experienced teachers, a well-rounded curriculum and evaluation systems that go beyond test scores.
Sufficient and Equitable Funding: Resources do matter, especially when invested in programs that have been proven to work.
Diversity: We support creating diverse, inclusive schools and classrooms whenever possible.
Meaningful Parent Involvement: Parents must have a significant voice in policies at the school, district, state and national levels. We are not just “consumers” or “customers” but knowledgeable, necessary partners in any effective reform effort.
WHAT DOESN'T WORK
Privatization: A strong public education system is fundamental to our democracy. We oppose efforts to privatize public education through the expansion of charters, vouchers or other privately-run programs at the expense of regular public schools.
High-Stakes Testing: Excessive reliance on standardized exams narrows the curriculum, promotes teaching to the test and leads to unfair and unreliable evaluations of students, teachers and schools.
School Closings: Closing schools wreaks havoc on families and communities, and too often fails to deliver on promises to create better opportunities for children. We believe in improving the schools we have, rather than shutting them down.
Ignoring Poverty: The nation’s educational “crisis” is made worse by the widening gap between rich and poor. Along with investing in our schools, we should also be investing in families.
