Some great ideas from the Grassroots Education Movement

The Grassroots Education Movement is the group behind the film "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman" that defends public education and teachers, and work to defend public education.

There site has some great resources and links about public education and the education reform movement that is currently sweeping the nation. All teachers should visit the site and read the information.


Below is a quote from their web site detailing more about them (GEMNYC):

The Grassroots Education Movement (GEMNYC) educates, organizes, and mobilizes educators, parents, students and communities to defend public education. Too many current corporate and government policies seek to underfund, undermine and privatize our public school system. GEM advocates around issues dealing with the equality and quality of public educational services as well as the rights of teachers and school workers. These issues include the incessant push for charter schools, the attack on union rights, the focus on high-stakes standardized testing, school closures, and the failure to address the racism and inequality that exists within our schools. As the attacks on public education and teachers grow more vicious, the collective organization of those who directly face these attacks at the grassroots level becomes all the more essential, and in fact constitutes the most effective potential resistance. GEM advocates for a positive vision of education reform by building alliances with other activist groups and organizing and helping coordinate the struggle at the grassroots school and community level, with a focus on school-level organizing. 

Our vision of a fully funded, democratic, public education system that is accountable to the public it is intended to serve includes the following real reforms:
Reform #1: Smaller Class Sizes
Reform #2: Excellent Community Public Schools for ALL Children
Reform #3: More Teaching – Less Testing
Reform #4: Parent and Teacher Empowerment and Leadership
Reform #5: Equitable Funding for ALL Schools
Reform #6: Anti-Racist Education Policies
Reform #7: Culturally Relevant Curriculum
Real Reform #8: Expand Pre Kindergarten and Early Intervention Programs
Real Reform #9: Qualified and Experienced Educators and Educational Leaders
Real Reform #10: Democratic and Social Justice Unionism

I have to agree with their reforms listed above. Smaller class sizes, community based schools, less testing, more empowerment of teachers, equitable funding, and more intervention programs will definitely help our students learn and succeed better.