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2015 MTA Annual Meeting

More than 1100 delagates
attended the MTA Annual Meeting Friday and Saturday.  Ben Delorio, Leon Dyer, Bethany Fitzsimmons, Gabrielle
Garschina, Denise LaPolla, Erin McCarthy, Pat Partridge, Peter Tausek, Adam
Weldai, and I represented the BEA.  Jeff Shea addressed the delegates supporting global education and the for educators to part of dialogue.   The keynote address by Jesse Hagopian, a Seattle educator known as a contributor to and the editor of “More than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing.”
On Friday, the delegates passed a new business
item that requires MTA President Barbara Madeloni and Vice President Janet
Anderson to send a letter to Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester and state
legislators stating the following MTA positions:
  • That parents in Massachusetts deserve the choice to opt their
    public school students out of high-stakes standardized assessments.
  • That districts should be required to provide all parents with
    yearly written information explaining their right to opt students out of
    assessments. 
  • That students who opt out should not be included in data used by
    state or federal entities in “grading” schools. 
  • That no parent or student should be penalized because of a parental
    decision to opt out. 
  • That no educator should be disciplined for discussing with
    students, parents or community members the options for opting students out of
    high-stakes tests.
On Saturday, the delegates voted in support of the following new business
item:
  • Cancellation of the 2015 MTA
    Summer Conference  at UMass Amherst  and MTA shall not do no business with the University
    until  all salary increases are paid  retroactively
  • The MTA will begin making plans for an
    alternative site and a scaled-down version of the conference, Madeloni told the
    delegates.
  • Opposition to Teach
    Strategies Gold
  • Partnering with the community on “the assault on public
    education and research-validated alternatives” to
  • Promoting and supporting the “Schools Our Children Deserve”
    initiative in districts under the immediate threat of receivership. 
  • Focus training and development resources on an open-bargaining
    model for locals and bring community allies into the process.
  • Reaffirm a commitment “to eliminate discrimination in public
    education” and to “prevent any encroachment on basic civil and human rights”.
Delegates also approved MTA’s budget and voted not to increase dues.
More details can be found on the MTA Annual Meeting page.