Call for progress to move past district leadership crisis
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PERTH AMBOY… Perth Amboy community members, parents and teachers, along with elected leaders, are joining in a call to focus attention in the city’s school system back on students’ educational progress and away from political battles. “Our members—the teachers, classroom aides, paraprofessionals, coaches, school secretaries, nurses and custodian—have called for a high-quality traditional public school system that identifies, addresses and meets the needs of every child in our community,“ said Perth Amboy Federation-American Federation of Teachers (PAF-AFT) President Donna M. Chiera at a rally today
Chiera’s local union has endorsed an American Federation of Teachers national campaign protesting an overreliance on testing to assess student progress. “As educators, we have seen that ‘teaching to the test’ deprives students of other necessary elements of education, including physical fitness and art, which cannot be easily quantified,” said Chiera who recently retired from a 30-plus year classroom career. “We need to prepare students to score well in the test called life, not just standardized tests.” The union has posted a petition on its web site www.paf-aft.org and is collecting signatures at events like today’s rally against testing-driving educational policy.
New Jersey 19th District legislators Sen. Joe F. Vitale, Assembly representatives John Wisniewski and Craig Coughlin along with Christine Rampolla from Save our Schools New Jersey are joining the rally.
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