PAA sent the following message to US House and Senate education committee members: Parents concerned that proposed new ESSA regulations push failed NCLB practices, try to retake top-down control The US Department of Education has published draft regulations for implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA. Parents Across America has reviewed these draft rules and we are very concerned that the administration is trying to use them to reestablish policies and practices from NCLB?ESEA that were rejected by Congress … →

PAA plans to spend some time during our conference reviewing and preparing comments to submit to the US Dept. of Education in response to their draft regulations for implementing the new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). From what we hear from FairTest, we will need to scrutinize all aspects of these regulations. Here’s a letter they are circulating with details of their concerns:   Dear Friends, The U.S. Department of Education (DoE) has drafted regulations for implementing the accountability provisions … →

Meet us in Philly this summer! Parents Across America leaders will be meeting in Philadelphia from July 18-20 for our annual leadership conference. The conference is designed for PAA affiliate and chapter leaders and those considering starting or joining a chapter or affiliate. We’re going to Philadelphia this year instead of our usual Washington DC trip to better honor our founding member, Helen Gym, who is a newly-elected Philly city councilwoman. We’ll gather at the boutique Penns’ View Hotel, just … →

A teacher exposes the unfair levels of difficulty of the PARCC test Copied in below is the original blog post from the Outrage on the Page blog written by an anonymous teacher who offers a detailed and critical analysis of three specific questions on the recent PARCC 4th grade language arts test. Several advocates, including Diane Ravitch and PAA co-founder Leonie Haimson, linked to this post on social media. Diane’s post was hacked and removed; Leonie’s tweets were removed by … →

Another way to show appreciation for teachers is to participate in Screen Free Week, an event sponsored by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) that starts today. PAA supports this event for many reasons, but first and foremost because we hope to help raise awareness of the misuse and overuse of computer-based programs and testing and the excessive screen time our children are being exposed to in our schools. How do we support teachers when we challenge the take-over … →

…when the flowers bloom, the workers march, and the president tries to make everyone happy by proclaiming this week both National Teacher Appreciation Week and National Charter School Week. A Parents Across America appreciation of teachers comes in two forms. The first is below, the second is in the next blog post. PAA Teacher Appreciation Week Contribution #1 (a well-deserved slap at charter schools…): A reminder of a recent charter school scandal uncovered in March by the Chicago Sun-Times, which … →

Just how scared is the Big Testing cartel? Scared enough, apparently, to think it makes sense to make “examples” out of parents who speak out against the misuse and overuse of standardized tests. We told you last month about how Heather Hicks, the leader of PAA-Ocean County NJ, became the target of an entire cautionary presentation by the COO of iNACOL (the International Association of K-12 Online Learning) at a Pearson conference. The gist of the presentation was that “these … →