Parent: What I Saw, Learned and Enjoyed at #NPEChicago
Like most public school parents, I try to discern how to simultaneously support our schools and teachers while also figuring out ways to make sure that the educational experience our kids receive is constantly improving and moving in the right direction. That’s one reason I serve on the board of the Network for Public Education (NPE), the group that brings together like-minded public school advocates around the country since, really, it’s the same fight everywhere.
Budget cuts, disconnected from reality legislators disconnected from reality, lack of equity in financing of our schools, a pliable and passive media, easy-sounding false solutions, teachers frustrated to the point of leaving the profession . . . all of these things are at once local and national phenomena, and they aren’t accidental. This past weekend, once again the NPE annual conference in Chicago, like the inaugural meeting in Austin last spring, had the sensation of drinking water from a proverbial firehose, but in a good way. There was lots of stimulating, thought-provoking, assumption-shaking information and conversation, and the chance to engage in small groups and one-on-ones with real heroes of the movement fighting for real, effective and educator-based improvements that will strenghthen our nation’s public schools for all students. Featured conversations between Diane Ravitch and union leaders, a funny and
Yong Zhao keynote at #NPEChicago 2015
serious keynote by Yong Zhao, an opening conversation between high school junior Tanaisa Brown of the Newark Students Union and Journey for Justice veteran Jitu Brown, and a lunchtime conversation netween three notable bloggers Jennifer Berkshire of http://edushyster.com/, Peter Greene of http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/ and Jose Vilson of http://thejosevilson.com/— all of those plenary sessions were enlightening and entertaining.
I will break down some of the personal highlights for me— although by its nature with six or seven panels happening at the same time, no one person can take it all in, so this is not in any way meant to be comprehensive— it just reflects the people and sessions I was lucky enough to see and that I found especially compelling.
To me, the Debunking Myths panel, featuring skilled messaging craftsman Jeff Bryant of the Education Opportunity Network and Salon.com, as well as rising stars Hilary Tone ofMedia Matters and Diallo Brooks, from People for the American Way, was indeed a real highlight, as was the one on Effective Messaging Around Assessment (basically, Too Much Damned Testing, and it works with Ds and Rs!), led by Bob Shaeffer from FAIRTEST.org and some parent/teacher advocates form NJ and NY. I also loved the time I spent with the creators and directors of Go Public: A Day in the Life of an American School District, Dawn and Jim O’Keeffe, along with their colleague in film Shannon Puckett, whose new film Defies Measurement (See post Film Review: Defies Measurement weaves together problematic purposes of ed reform) about a middle school in California, is truly a tour de force. Other panels I attended at least parts of were one on Community Schools, led by former Tennessee legislator and Knoxville teacher Gloria Johnson and educators from Pennsylvania and Oklahoma and the Southern Education Foundation’s Katherine Dunn on the New Diverse Majority, featuring educators from South Carolina and Mississippi about some distinct ways of fighting for equity in education.
And finally, I was very happy that the College Access panel led by Nicole Hurd of the College Advising Corps went so well and was attended by so many key people learning about this brilliant program. The panel also featured others from her group and Claire Dennison of the peer organization and collaboratorParent: What I Saw, Learned and Enjoyed at #NPEChicago | Cloaking Inequity:
