My Reflections on the Fifth Annual Conference of the Network for Public Education in Indianapolis
I have waited a few days to digest the exciting events of last weekend.
My first thought is: I wish you had been there.
You would have seen teachers, parents, school board members, superintendents, researchers, college students, and lots of others who want to save their schools from privatization and save their students from endless over-testing. They came not to defend the status quo, but to fight the status quo.
At every NPE conference–in Austin, Chicago, Raleigh, Oakland, and Indianapolis–the spirit and goodwill were infectious. The same was true in Indianapolis.
Many people saw friends that they met at last year’s conference, or met their favorite blogger or researcher.
Every year, I hear the same statement: “This was the best conference yet.” And I believe it.
I won’t report on all the keynotes but want to be sure that you watch Pasi Sahlberg.
Pasi Sahlberg was amazing. He talked about the “Global Education Reform Movement” (GERM) and accompanied his talk with slides and even a video (all of which were posted by him on Twitter @pasi_sahlberg. Pasi wrote the wonderful book Finnish Lessons and Finnish Lessons 2.0. His new book, with William Doyle, is Let the Children Play. Pasi talked about the birth of GERM as a reflection of the exuberant belief in the 1980s that markets and standardization solved all problems. Pasi showed the spread of GERM, especially in English-speaking countries. He is now based in Australia, and he told us that the government of New Zealand has dropped national standards and will soon eliminate national testing. Continue reading: My Reflections on the Fifth Annual Conference of the Network for Public Education in Indianapolis | Diane Ravitch's blog
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