PAA just faxed this letter to all 100 U.S. Senators: Parent Voices Education Fax May 7, 2015 Please co-sponsor S.1025 to return to sensible, limited use of standardized tests   Why are parents opting out of testing in record numbers? There is a growing movement of parents and students across the U.S. opting out of standardized tests. This phenomenon is taking place because parents, students, teachers, and other educators believe that the misuse and overuse of tests has reached a … →

Many thanks to Kyle Serrette and the Center for Popular Democracy for joining with PAA in last night’s webinar, Holding Charter Schools Accountable, which presented so much important information about charter school waste and mismanagement of millions of dollars every year. Lawmakers ignore this growing scandal as they continue to push for rapid charter school expansion. Parents need to learn the facts about charter school waste, confront our representatives, and push for common-sense reforms. If you missed the event last … →

May 4, 2015    For Immediate Release Contacts: Dora Taylor, President, Parents Across America, and founder, PAA-Seattle: 206-290-3400 Julie Woestehoff, PAA Interim Executive Director: 307-789-0485  Parents Across America opposes Common Core, PARCC and SBAC Parents call for an immediate moratorium on CCSS/PARCC/SBAC After extensive research and discussion with our membership, Parents Across America (PAA) has taken a position against the Common Core State Standards and the related tests, called the PARCC and SBAC. PAA calls for an immediate moratorium on implementation … →

Join PAA’s Dora Taylor and Steve Norton with Kyle Serrette of the Center for Popular Democracy in our May 5 webinar on charter school accountability Did you know that President Obama has asked for an extra $120 million for charter schools in his FY16 budget? The increase would bring the total amount of federal funds for charter schools to $375 million, a 48 percent increase over last year. Overall, Congress has spent $3,352,841,281 to create and expand charter schools. Yet … →

On Sunday, April 26, 2015, PAA presented a comprehensive workshop on “The Impact of Poverty, Race and Cultural Bias on Educational Opportunity” at the Network for Public Education conference. In addition to our power point presentation, we shared printed materials with many of the key points, charts and data from the presentation. These materials may be used freely – we just ask that you leave PAA’s name on them. We want to thank Dr. Paul Thomas for bringing most of … →

The Testing Resistance and Reform Spring Alliance, of which PAA is a member, is calling for a day of action for ESEA and testing next Wednesday, April 8. On that day we are asking you to call your Senators and, if you tweet, send out and retweet others’ Twitter messages using the hashtag #CutFedTests. Why should you speak up about ESEA? Reauthorization of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA- formerly No Child Left Behind or NCLB) is moving … →

Here are PAA’s ESEA legislative position papers, listed from most recent to oldest: PAA position on Senate ESEA proposal (Feb. 2015) PAA position on HR 5, the House ESEA bill (Feb. 2015) PAA position on a new ESEA: What parents value and how Congress should act (Feb. 2015) PAA endorses Michigan parents’ statement on ESEA and teacher preparation (Feb. 2015) PAA position paper on real parent choice (Jan. 2015) PAA statement on ESEA and testing (Jan. 2015) PAA on student … →

We encourage you to subscribe to our newsletter by entering your email in the fourth box on the right>>>>>>> but if you missed this week’s issue, here’s summary: Actions of the week Sounds like a broken record, but ESEA is still moving — though a bit slower then first thought (it was supposed to be done by now!) and we need to be a part of the debate. 1) Use this handy form from FairTest to contact your Senators on … →

We encourage you to subscribe to our newsletter by entering your email in the fourth box on the right>>>>>>> but if you missed this week’s issue, here’s summary: Actions of the week: 1) There’s still time to contact your Congresspeople on ESEA, and now is an especially good time to reach out to them on testing. Here are the details, and a handy form from FairTest to use to contact your Senator about grade-span testing. 2) Listen to and/or share … →

Last night’s webinar was informative, disturbing, and energizing! Here’s the link to listen in on the program for those who were not able to join us last night, or for anyone who wants 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 leaders Nate Harris, who moderated the webinar, … →