Today is the eleventh day of a hunger strike by parents in Chicago protesting the closure and potential privatization of Dyett High School, the area's last open enrollment high school. Dyett parents and community supporters have spent months working with educators to develop a strong proposal for transitioning the school to a global leadership and green technology school, but their ideas are falling on deaf ears at City Hall and in district offices.

The hunger strikers include Cathy Dale (pictured top right corner), a Board member of PAA Chicago affiliate Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE), and Jitu Brown, national director of Journey 4 Justice (middle row, third from the left).

What can you do to support the Dyett hunger strikers?

Even if you're not in Chicago to help out, you can still like the Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology Facebook Page here, read their excellent school transformation proposal here, and donate to the hunger strike (via its sponsoring organization, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization) here.

Is the end of NCLB in sight?

Meanwhile, a Congressional conference committee has formed to hash out differences between the House and Senate revisions to the No Child Left Behind Act. Chances are that an agreement will be reached soon.

Will the new Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) be an improvement over NCLB? Yes, most definitely. The ridiculous and damaging Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) rules are out, and federal law will not require that teacher evaluations be tied to test scores or that districts impose a limited set of school intervention or privatization schemes.

But a federal requirement for annual assessments will most likely remain, and lots of taxpayer money will continue to flow to the  expansion of privatization - e.g. for more charter schools, groups like Teach for America, and online learning.

Congress is out until after Labor Day, so it's still a great time to reach out to your Senators and Congresspeople about ESEA reauthorization. Call, or better yet, make a personal visit to your federal legislators' home offices to talk to them about ESEA. Leave a copy of PAA's priority positions for ESEA and/or our general position paper on ESEA: What Parents Value and How Congress Should Act and, share a personal story about how ESEA affects your child, your school, or your community.