Tell Congress: I Choose Public Schools – Network For Public Education

This week is National School Choice Week, a multi-million dollar campaign funded by right-wing groups like the Koch Brothers, The American Federation for Children, ALEC and the Walton Foundation. The endgame is to replace public education with privatized systems of schooling. Read what I have to say about School Choice Week and its billionaire funders here in the Washington Post. Here are two easy things that you can do.

Follow this link:

https://networkforpubliceducation.org/tell-congress-i-choose-public-schools/

The NAEP proficiency myth

By Tom Loveless, Brookings Institute

On May 16 (2016), I got into a Twitter argument with Campbell Brown of The 74, an education website. She released a video on Slate giving advice to the next president. The video begins: “Without question, to me, the issue is education. Two out of three eighth graders in this country cannot read or do math at grade level.” I study student achievement and was curious. I know of no valid evidence to make the claim that two out of three eighth graders are below grade level in reading and math. No evidence was cited in the video. I asked Brown for the evidentiary basis of the assertion. She cited the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

NAEP does not report the percentage of students performing at grade level. NAEP reports the percentage of students reaching a “proficient” level of performance. Here’s the problem. That’s not grade level.

In this post, I hope to convince readers of two things:

Read the full essay here:

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2016/06/13/the-naep-proficiency-myth/

Tanzina Vega went from the NYT to CNN to public radio. She never gave up ‘the need to tell the stories that aren’t told.’ – Poynter

In 2008, Tanzina Vega was excited to get to be at The New York Times and excited to work in audio, video and text. In 2015, she joined CNN. In 2018, she became the host of “The Takeaway,” a co-production of WNYC and PRI.

During that decade, she’s glad she didn’t give up her integrity, she said, “and the need to tell the stories that aren’t told.”

Here’s what she told us about the past decade:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2019/tanzina-vega-went-from-the-nyt-to-cnn-to-wnyc-she-never-gave-up-the-need-to-tell-the-stories-that-arent-told/

Jan. 21, 1848: North Star Publishes Editorial on War with Mexico – Zinn Education Project

“We beseech our countrymen to leave off this horrid conflict, abandon their murderous plans, and forsake the way of blood. Peradventure our country may yet be saved. Let the press, the pulpit, the church, the people at large, unite at once; and let petitions flood the halls of Congress by the million, asking for the instant recall of our forces from Mexico.” — The North Star editorial #tdih 1848, against the U.S. war with Mexico.

On the link below, there is a Voices of a People’s History of the United Statesvideo clip of actor Benjamin Bratt reading an excerpt from the editorial. Also, find resources to teach about the Abolition Movement, the U.S. war against Mexico, and the media.

https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/north-star-the-war-with-mexico