Notes from Day 2 of the Network Of Public Education Conference
Day 2 of the Network for Public Education Conference in Austin, TX began with people lining up in the aisles of the Lady Bird Johnson Auditorium to get Diane Ravitch to sign their copy of Reign of Error. Poor Anthony Cody struggled to get people into their seats to begin the first session. Teachers on a mission can be a non-compliant group. Finally the session, a panel discussion on the Common Core, began aboout 20 minutes late. It probably couldn't end soon enough for Randi Weingarten, the AFT President and Common Core supporter, who was given the lead position in the discussion and then had to sit uncomfortably as articulate and passionate opponents of the Core, Paul Horton, Geralyn McLaughlin, Mercedes Schneider and Jose Luis Vilson, took apart every positive point about the Core that Weingarten had presented.
Weingarten said the Common Core standards were not the problem, over-testing was the problem. The key points made by Common Core opponents included how the Common Core was a top down process that did not include teachers in the development in a meaningful way, that the Common Core is developmentally inappropriate for early childhood education, that the Common Core prescribes instruction that takes away teacher professional judgement and that the Common Core was a part of the effort to undermine teacher unions. To her credit, Weingarten received the criticism with 