Badass Teachers Association

The Badass Teachers Association (BATs) is an education activist organization that challenges what it sees as "corporate-driven" education reform efforts.

History

The Badass Teachers Association (BATs) is an education activist organization founded on June 14, 2013 by Priscilla Sanstead and "Notorious PHD" Mark D. Naison.^[1][2] Mark Naison left the organization in April 2014. The mission of the Badass Teachers Association states that the organization was created to give voice to every teacher who refuses to be blamed for the failure of our society to erase poverty and inequality through education.^[3] Members of the Badass Teachers Association refuse to accept assessments, tests and evaluations created and imposed by corporate driven entities that have contempt for authentic teaching and learning. The goals of the Badass Teachers Association are aimed to reduce or eliminate the use of high-stakes testing, increase teacher autonomy in the classroom and work to include teacher and family voices in legislative decision-making processes that affect students. The Badass Teachers engage in organized group actions such as phone calls, emails, or letter writing. As co-founder Priscilla Sanstead claims, "vexed teachers raising their hands quietly was not working.^[4] "

The Badass Teachers Association has an extensive social media platform. It has a closed Facebook page with over 56,000 members, a Twitter feed with over 23,000 followers, a website, a blog, Facebook groups in every state, International Facebook groups for teachers overseas, and special interest Facebook groups where members can go and "chat" about their special areas of expertise in education.^[5]

The organization began as a Facebook group but now it helps to organize on the ground education activism around the nation. BATs present on panels at conferences, write op-eds that appear in local, national,and state news outlets, and organize protests/events on the ground.^[6]

The organization has held two summer events in which they have protested the policies of the USDOE and held a Teachers Congress in the summer of 2015.^[7]

The Badass Teachers Association is an organization that is considered "left leaning" in its political messaging.^[8][9]

Activity

• October 24, 2013 - BATs Executive Director Marla Kilfoyle testified before a New York State Assembly hearing in Long Island, New York about the harm of standardized testing on her son and about the Common Core Standards as a developmentally inappropriate method to teach children ^[10]
• November 2, 2013 - New Jersey Badass Teacher and Assistant Executive Director of the organization, Melissa Tomlinson, attends a campaign rally that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was appearing. Tomlinson was able to get close enough to Christie to ask "Why, do you continue to spread the myth that our schools and teachers are failing?" It is reported that Gov. Christie swung around, pointing his finger in Tomlinson’s face and said, "Because they are!" Christie also said: "I am tired of you people. What do you want?" This event landed Tomlinson on the national news.^[11]
• January 28, 2014 -Two members of the NEA BAT Caucus, Julianna Krueger Dauble and Becca Ritchie are among 4 teachers who stood before the Renton Board of Education in Washington State and read "statements of professional conscience" in which they stated they would refuse to administer standardized tests to their students.^[12]
• February 2014 -The Badass Teachers Association revive the Twitter hashtag #Evaluatethat which trended with stories of how teachers around the nation go above and beyond for their students.^[13]
• June 26, 2014- Over 300 teachers from the Washington State Badass Teachers Association staged a protest during rush hour to bring attention to the influence of The Gates Foundation on public education policy. The protest goal was to shine a light on the fact that the Gates Foundation funds organizations that blames teachers and their unions for struggling schools. The protest was aimed at shining a light on how childhood poverty influences children in school.^[14]
• July 28, 2014 - Over 500 teachers, parents and students from around the country staged a protest in front of the USDOE. The protest resulted in a 45-minute meeting with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.^[15][16]
• October 27, 2014 - The Badass Teachers Association respond to the cover of Time Magazine in which they referenced teachers as "Rotten Apples." Time printed the response.^[17]
• November 7, 2014 - The California Badass Teachers Association issued a statement in support of Ethnic Studies in California classrooms ^[18]
• November 9, 2014 - Members of the Tennessee Badass Teachers Association co-host an education forum featuring noted education historian Diane Ravitch. The forum titled "Educating Nashville" was directed to expose the hoax of education privatization.^[19]
• November 28, 2014 - Members of the Washington State Badass Teachers Association plan a Boycott of Microsoft on Black Friday.^[20]
• February 10, 2015 - Members of the Florida Badass Teachers Association protest an education summit held by Jeb Bush. FLBATS protest Bush's education policies that have been reported to be a massive failure in Florida.^[21]
• June 23, 2015 - The Oregon State Badass Teachers Association led a protest against testing giant Pearson at their national conference held at the Hilton in Portland, Oregon ^[22]
• August 20, 2015 - The Ohio Badass Teachers Association take to social media to fight against the privatization efforts of Gov. Kasich in Ohio. They are recognized in the media for the creation of their Twitter hashtag #NeverVote4Kasich.^[23]
• September 5, 2015 - Ohio Badass Teacher Dawn Neely-Randall makes strong national statement that she can no longer throw her students to the "testing wolves." ^[24]
• October 17, 2015 - Members of the New York Badass Teachers Association co-host and help to plan a conference for educational justice titled Call to Educational Justice!! Lean In.^[25]

Policy Work

In 2014/2015 The Badass Teachers Association teamed up with the American Federation of Teachers to conduct a Quality of Work Life Survey in order to study teacher working conditions. The Survey which had over 80 questions was completed by 30,000 teachers. The results found that 1 in 5 educators feel respected by government officials or the media. 14% strongly agree with the statement that they trust their administrator or supervision. 75% say they do not have enough staff to get the work done. 78% say they are often physically and emotionally exhausted at the end of the day. 87% say the demands of their job are at least sometimes interfer with their family life.^[26] As a result of this survey Senator Corey Booker and Senator Michael Bennet created the Booker-Bennet Amendment which was added to the Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The Act called for a comprehensive study of teacher workplace stress and working conditions. It would require that Title II funds be used to conduct and publicly report on educator workplace conditions.^[27]

In the summer of 2015 The Badass Teachers Association conducted a "Lobby Day" in which over 60 appointments were made in Washington D.C. by BATs from over 25 states to speak with federal lawmakers about education policy and education decision making. At the event it was reported that BATs from New York, Washington State, Oregon, and Virginia occupied Senator Bernie Sanders office until his staff agreed to talk with organizers of the association about education policy. Sen. Sanders education liaison in Washington D.C. subsequently called BATs Executive Director Marla Kilfoyle to talk about education policy and procedures.^[28]

The Badass Teachers Association has a caucus in the National Education Association. The Caucus was created in 2014. In 2015 the membership of this caucus grew to over 200 members.^[29]

Ongoing Efforts

The Badass Teachers Association will submit an Amicus Brief in the case of Friedrichs vs. CTA in November 2015. BATs will also register a caucus in the American Federation of Teachers in 2015. BATs continue to appear frequently on radio stations and podcasts such as the Education Town Hall, Just Let Me Teach Radio, The Jeff Santos Show, and The Rick Smith Show.^{[30][31][32][33]}

Criticism

There have been many criticisms of the Badass Teachers Association, including concern about the use of the word "badass."

The group has been known to routinely remove people from its Facebook group for challenging its message. It has removed members who disagreed with its leadership on certain issues and deleted messages that it found "inappropriate." It also purged students from the group.^[34]

Some critics have questioned the allegiances that the group has made with the Tea Party and related groups,^[35] as part of their shared opposition to issues like the Common Core State Standards Initiative.^[36] The organization defines itself solely as a "left leaning" organization.^[37][9]

The BATs have been particularly hostile to messages about race and social justice on the organization's Facebook page, calling these distractions from its larger efforts. The group has claimed it is "colorblind," an assertion that educators of color have challenged,^[38] arguing that BATs' refusal to address equity issues in education reform minimizes the experiences of both students and teachers of color.^[39] This issue underscores the changing demographics of the US public school population which students of color are now the majority,^[40] and the demographics of the teacher population which remain overwhelmingly white.^[41]

At the 2014 National Education Association (NEA) Representative Assembly, several BAT members were angered by the social media updates, critical of BATs, by Melinda Anderson, an African-American NEA employee. Members of the BATs asked for Anderson to be fired. A Twitter campaign with the hashtag #ISupportMDA (@mdawriter is Anderson's Twitter handle) was started, with several women of color relating their experiences of harassment by those claiming to be BATs.^[42]

In January 2015, the BAT Twitter account tweeted a link to an article claiming that schools needed to retain their ability to discipline and expel students, blaming behavior problems on "culture" and on poor and single moms.^[43] After an outcry about racism and the article's reliance on The Heritage Foundation data, the tweet was deleted, and the group issued an apology.

References