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Teachers sue over rule right to speak freely about tests

 
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johnslat



Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 13859
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2016 12:11 pm    Post subject: Teachers sue over rule right to speak freely about tests Reply with quote

" Posted: Wednesday, March 30, 2016 11:05 pm | Updated: 12:42 am, Thu Mar 31, 2016.

By Robert Nott
The New Mexican

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico sued the state Public Education Department on Wednesday, alleging that a regulation prohibiting teachers from “disparaging” standardized testing is a violation of their free speech rights.

The ACLU wants the state District Court in Santa Fe to rule that the regulation is unconstitutional and to force the education department to stop using it.

“Teachers are afraid of saying anything about the tests, including telling parents that they have the right to opt their children out,” said María Martínez Sánchez, the ACLU attorney who filed the complaint on behalf of four Albuquerque teachers, one teacher in Santa Fe and a parent who has a child in the public school system. “The state, via the [Public Education Department], has really muzzled teachers, silenced them to the point that they are fearful of losing their licenses over speaking critically about standardized testing.”

But a spokesman for the education department said that is not true and the regulation, put in place in 2009 under former Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson, has never been enforced. The spokesman said the state has never punished or even threatened a teacher with punitive action for speaking about standardized tests.

Sánchez disagreed. She said teachers are afraid to talk openly with parents about the effects of testing, even in private parent-teacher conferences. They are also hesitant to voice their opinions about testing to the media, she said.

The education department spokesman said that, although the agency assumes teachers won't bash the test in front of a classroom of students, they still have the right to share their feelings about testing with parents.

Anna Soeiro, a special-education teacher at Kearny Elementary School in Santa Fe, is one of the plaintiffs in the case. She said Wednesday that she understands teachers should not disparage testing, but she said it’s unclear whether she can have an “open and honest conversation with parents about each student’s IEP [Individual Education Plan] and talk about what is good for their children, including the impact of testing.”

She said that last autumn she emailed Michelle Osowski, who works in the educational assessment division of the Public Education Department, to find out whether the regulation served as a gag order on school employees.

Osowski replied in an email that Soeiro provided to The New Mexican. It said: “Requirements of Rule, for the most part and with some exceptions, are limited to time on contract and within district or PED-authorized activities and contractual expectations. Therefore, your liberties are not being disregarded in terms of the rights to assemble, protest or speak out against testing; you just may not do so during the contract day or in participating in district-sanctioned activities.”

In a follow-up email, Osowski asked Soeiro what she could do to “help reduce the fear, calm the anger, and clear up the confusion.”

Soeiro said she understands she can openly join anti-test protests on her own time. But, she said, it’s unclear under the regulation whether she can tell a parent that testing is not good for a child. “Not being able to speak freely to parents makes me feel like I am lying by omission,” she said.

Another plaintiff, Mary Mackie, a technology teacher at Montezuma Elementary School in Albuquerque, echoed Soeiro’s comments.

“The gag order is vague,” Mackie said.

But, in her view, it also is intimidating. “Teachers want the right to be able to speak freely, whether it is to parents or to newspaper reporters, so I should be able to say, ‘I think this test is horrible,’ or ‘I think this test is good for some students and not right for others.’ The [Public Education Department] is only giving us the right to say it’s great, and that’s not fair,” Mackie said.

But the education department spokesman said, “We fundamentally believe that teachers should be allowed to express their opinions. That is not something that is in dispute.”

He said there has been no recorded instance in which the department has punished a teacher for speaking out during the past five years, and that such a case would have surely made the news.

The department’s stand that there is nothing to fear doesn’t sway Grace Mayer, president of the National Education Association-Santa Fe teachers union.

“The current protocol, which requires teachers to sign legal documents that assert they will not disparage the test for fear of retribution, silences professional academic discourse and undermines student achievement,” Mayer said in an email."

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/education/teachers-sue-over-rule-right-to-speak-freely-about-tests/article_5c72344b-a5ae-5903-a1e4-64285772713e.html
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gregory999



Joined: 29 Jul 2015
Posts: 372
Location: 999

PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2016 8:19 pm    Post subject: Re: Teachers sue over rule right to speak freely about tests Reply with quote

johnslat wrote:
" Posted: Wednesday, March 30, 2016 11:05 pm | Updated: 12:42 am, Thu Mar 31, 2016.

By Robert Nott
The New Mexican

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico sued the state Public Education Department on Wednesday, alleging that a regulation prohibiting teachers from “disparaging” standardized testing is a violation of their free speech rights.

Is this a violation of their First Amendment right of freedom of speech?
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