Keep up the pressure on Congress and ESEA! Yes, we’re sounding like a broken record, but the nation has been waiting for a new Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) for 8 years, and we’re likely to get one within the next month or so, which means that the next 2-3 weeks are our last and best opportunity to have any significant effect on federal K-12 education policy for a long time to come. It’s real now, folks. What’s happening … →

ACTION 2:  Listen to and share our great webinar! If you weren’t able to listen in on our webinar last Monday, you can catch up here, and share the link with your networks. If you were there, you might want to get a second look at the data and other resources we provided. We want to thank Dr. P.L. Thomas, who has become something of a mentor to PAA, for his significant role in the webinar. Also contributing were PAA … →

ACTION 1: Keep up the pressure from www.cagle.com on Congress and ESEA! Well, most folks thought the revisions to ESEA, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, formerly No Child Left Behind, would move quickly though the House and Senate and it would all be over by now. Didn’t happen. Apparently some House Republicans wanted stronger language favoring vouchers, getting rid of Common Core — and, if they really had their way, closing the Dept of Education itself. At the end … →

Continue to contact Congress about ESEA, testing, and more The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee held a  hearing on testing and accountability this past Tuesday as ESEA begins to move toward reauthorization. PAA submitted our position paper on testing to the committee, and individually to every member of the committee, and  all House education committee members. We called for grade span instead of annual testing (HELP Chair Sen. Lamar Alexander’s Option 1) and flexibility and support for … →

Here’s a four minute video from the Education Opportunity Network. “Another Reform Misfires” features a parent, Lori Yuan, who opposed the trigger at her children’s elementary school in Adelanto, CA and John Rogers a professor from UCLA who has described the parent trigger as “a misguided approach to improving educational improvement and enhancing parental engagement.” Parent triggers have been introduced in 14 states this year (see map below) and may be introduced in Pennsylvania this session as well.