PAA-Roanoke Valley leader Laura Bowman shared this excellent model letter prepared by her PAA chapter for parents to bring to school at the beginning of the school year:   Dear_____________, Parents are concerned with the number of standardized tests their children take each year. In addition, parents believe the time spent preparing for the tests is excessive and they see the emotional fallout from the pressure from standardized testing on their children and on their children’s teachers. The expense of … →

Kimberly Brooks, leader of PAA chapter PAA-Atlanta Public Schools, wrote the following article challenging the district’s school uniform policy. Atlanta Public Schools Uniform Policies: What Can We Infer From Them? A few weeks ago I spent over a hundred dollars in attire for my two children to attend school – a public school. The school has a mandatory uniform policy for all students. This is a good policy, correct? As a parent uniformity looks more eloquent and prestigious, right? Well, … →

BOSTON PARENT GROUP QUESTIONS RENEWING BOSTON COMPACT AND PURSUING A UNIFIED LOTTERY FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 17th, 2015   Contacts: Mary Battenfeld, mbattenfeld@wheelock.edu, (857)719-3670 Megan Wolf, mwolf47@hotmail.com, (617)435-5011   Quality Education for Every Student (QUEST), a grassroots organization of Boston Public School parents with children who have attended over 30 Boston Public Schools, voiced concern about the Mayor’s plan to expand the Boston Compact agreement between charter, parochial, and Boston Public schools. QUEST has particular concerns with a proposal to … →

Thanks to conversations with Dr. Gary Thompson, a noted Utah child psychologist who has spoken out against the Common Core, we have learned that new federal regulations go into effect on September 21, 2015, barring states from using alternative assessments for special education students, with the exception of a very restricted number of students they label “severely cognitively impaired.” Dr. Thompson has shared his concerns about this change, which he says is based on “fraudulent and unethical use of psychology … →

(You can download a pdf version of this fax here.) PAA just sent the following via fax to every member of Congress: Parents call for an ESEA with less focus on testing and charter schools – more focus on poverty and parents’ priorities for our children Thank you, Congress, for moving on needed ESEA reforms!  PAA is pleased that Congress has recognized and moved to address some of the damage done by the No Child Left Behind Act. We thank … →

Parents Across America stands in solidarity with Chicago’s Dyett High School hunger strikers, parents fighting for high quality community schools for their children. Today is the 11th day of this courageous protest against the district’s plan to close their high school. For years, Dyett parents and community have been calling on the district and the city to pay better attention to their high school and its students, but instead Dyett suffered increasing disinvestment and marginalization, with faculty and programs cut … →

PAA Week Day 6: Test Stress and our Children (7-24-15) PAA’s Laura Bowman and Julie Woestehoff talk about PAA’s extensive research into the negative effects of the misuse and overuse of standardized tests on our children, and how PAA thinks we should do instead. . PAA Week Day 5: Local Heroes, Walking the Walk (7-23-15) Campaign and public service stories from PAA founding members Natalie Beyer, Sue Peters, and Helen Gym. PAA Week Day 4: Lobbying Congress (7-22-15) PAA’s Pamela … →

 PAA Position Paper Parents Stand Up against Test Stress Updated January 2016 Across our nation, children of all ages are showing a jump in test anxiety. As high-stakes standardized tests have multiplied, growing percentages of students have begun to report test-related stress. More are seeking test-stress counseling. Media reports of psychological and physiological symptoms tied to testing have increased. Please see our fact sheet, Test Stress and our Children, and our documentation paper. Some students are able to manage the … →

PAA leaders Laura Bowman (PAA-Roanoke Valley) and Julie Woestehoff (PAA interim executive director) have been collecting research and other information about test stress and our children. They presented this material for the first time during PAA Week, on July 24, 2015, and you can access the recording of the webinar here. Laura and Julie prepared a one-page fact sheet on test stress and a background piece detailing the research we found. We included some recommendations for addressing the crisis in … →

The results are in and Khem Irby, Pamela Grundy and Julie Woestehoff have been elected to the PAA Board for 2-year terms. Pam and Julie are returning Board members but Khem is new to the Board, though not to parent advocacy. Khem Irby is a leading parent activist/advocate in her NYC hometown, and current residence of Greensboro, NC. Khem was a legal secretary working in NYC for many international corporate law firms. She is married with six children ranging in … →