The chants of a thousand teachers could be heard on Wells Street.
Wednesday’s rally at the State Capitol supported education reform, but not in the version of it proposed by Governor Malloy. Speakers called for the inclusion of teachers’ expertise when seeking to make changes to the system.
Roch Girard, president of the Connecticut Federation of School Administrators asked the crowd, “Would you buy an automobile without test driving it?,” a metaphor for some of the changes called for in Senate Bill 24, which have not been tested.
Certain measures within the bill, like the push for charter schools, have not been determined to be more successful in every area of assessment. Charter schools’ average impacts on high school graduation rates, for instance, have not been statistically significant, according to a study released in January of this year.
CEA Executive Director Mary Loftus Levine said that teachers would need to keep the pressure on because “anything can happen” with “this General Assembly.”
About 1000 teachers also showed up to rally against SB 24 on Tuesday.
Steve
Someone please help me out regarding the meaning of that first sign.
Kerri Provost
Steve, if you click on that image it takes you to an article by the New York Times explaining it.
Tom
The sign refers to an infamously nonsensical question on a standardized reading test. Google sleeveless pineapple for more info.
Luis
Steve, I’m just coming around to this myself. Here’s a link to an explanation:
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/pineapple-idiots-knew-book-world-dumbest-test-question-article-1.1065566
Julia
Recent NY standardized tests included a series of bad and rather silly questions about a story regarding a pineapple; the pineapple has since been appropriated as a symbol for lousy testing.