Hot off the presses is the Network for Public Education's excellent report, "Valuing Public Education: A 50-State Report Card." This is the report that shows how your state stacks up in terms of progressive policies and practices. It's very different from the anti-public school reports we're used to reading about -- this is one we can finally use! Read more below....
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Finally! A state school report card for public school allies!
We are so used to hearing about the education-related report cards the corporate reform world is always giving out. Achieve just released its state-by-state "honesty gap" report comparing state test scores with NAEP national test scores. ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, gives the best report card grades to states that privatize schools, test students often, and fire a lot of teachers. These reports are simply not helpful, serving only to promote the graders' anti-public education political agenda.
Fortunately, the Network for Public Education has brought a new and progressive perspective to this exercise in a report card founded on the values of us public school allies. The grades in "Valuing Public Education: a 50 State Report Card" reflect the values that they and we believe in -- stability in the teaching force, a rejection of high stakes testing, small class sizes, integrated schools, pre-school education, a recognition that poverty matters and a sound rejection of charters, vouchers and other forms of privatization.
While expressing a reluctance to give out a single overall letter grade, NPE does just that, inviting you to look more deeply into the report to see the various factors behind each state's result. We do the same:
Here's what NPE executive director Carol Burris asks us to do to get the word out about this great new resource:
- Bring the report card to the attention of your local media;
- Encourage local media to contact the Network for Public Education;
- Share it with friends and colleagues;
- Write an letter to your local media and talk about the report card;
- If you are a blogger-write a blog about its content (here's PAA's post);
- Give us feedback so we can make it even better next year;
- Support NPE and persuade at least five new members to join. Our strength is in our numbers, and your support helps make efforts like this happen.
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(Re) set your sights on Philly!
PAA annual meeting moved to Philadelphia, same time, different location
We recently learned that Congress will NOT be in session during the time we have blocked out for our annual meeting, July 18-20. The change in schedule showed up when Congress published its 2016 calendar last month and is, of course, due to the timing of the party conventions. So, it makes little sense to gather in DC, which was our original plan.
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That's Helen on the right, next to the new mayor...
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Hoping to make some Philly cream cheese out of possible spilled milk, we have decided to move our meeting to Philadelphia, same dates, and enjoy hanging out with new City Councilwoman Helen Gym.
We will be meeting during the same week that the Republicans are convening in Cleveland, and the week before the Democrats have their convention in Philadelphia itself, so our meeting will be "event adjacent" and help us keep our eyes on the very important issues at stake in the upcoming national elections.
Once we have secured a venue, we will begin our registration process, so stay tuned!
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If you share our overall goals of progressive, positive education reform and more parent input in education policy making, we invite you to affiliate with us if you are an existing group, or to form a new PAA chapter. The more of us there are, the stronger our voice will be at every level. Here's how!
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If you have questions, comments, suggestions or stories to share, please e-mail us at info@parentsacrossamerica.org or visit www.parentsacrossamerica.org.
Looking for regular updates on key education stories? Join the PAA News List by e-mailing PAAnews-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
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