The Network for Public Education Newsletter

Jose Vilson in Austin Books for the Cause! The NPE conference in Austin two months ago was a great chance to meet some of the most powerful people speaking up for our children -- and some of them have new books out. Please support these authors, and inspire yourself! Here are our recommendations for your spring reading. From Jose Vilson: This is Not a Test, A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education With a foreword by Karen Lewis.   "In its telling, Jose Vilson's evocative collection of essays are ferociously honest and, as expected from someone whose creative impulses are informed by hip-hop, unapologetic and lyrical. A thoroughly engaging narrative about the intersection of race and culture, identity, economic disparity, and education, This is Not A Test is a must-read for parents and educators who want to understand, truly and deeply, the challenges inner-city students face. It was, after all, written by one of those children, a young man from a marginalized community, who grew up and bum-rushed the system he dedicated his life to changing from within." -- Raquel Cepeda, author of Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina From Mercedes Schneider: A Chronicle of Echoes: Who's Who in the Implosion of American Public Education   "Schneider has exposed the corruption, greed and entangling of self-interests that underlie the attempt of the mega-corporations to grab billions of tax-payer dollars that are appropriated for America's K-12 public schools. She puts the names and faces on the movement that Diane Ravitch documented in "Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools." There are no "must reads" anymore. There are just a handful of "should reads": "A Chronicle of Echoes" is at the head of that list."  -- Gene Glass, researcher at Arizona State University.  Jesse Hagopian: More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High Stakes Testing "Jesse Hagopian brought a rare moment of truth to the corporate-dominated Education Nation show when he spoke on behalf of his colleagues at Garfield High in Seattle. He instantly became the voice and face of the movement to stop pointless and punitive high-stakes testing." -- Diane Ravitch  In cities across the country, students are walking out, parents are opting their children out, and teachers are rallying against the abuses of high stakes standardized testing. These are the stories in their own words of some of those who are defying the corporate education reformers, often at great personal risk, and fueling a national movement to reclaim public education.  Alongside the voices of students, parents, teachers, and grassroots education activists, the book features renowned education researchers and advocates, including Diane Ravitch, Alfie Kohn, and Mark Naison.  You may purchase the book here.  John Kuhn: Fear and Learning in America - Bad Data, Good Teachers, and the Attack on Public Education  John Kuhn's book is packed with more wisdom than any 10 books that I have read about American education. It is the wisdom born of experience. -- Diane Ravitch   In this moving account, "America's Superintendent" John Kuhn lays bare the scare tactics at the root of the modern school "reform" movement. Kuhn conveys a deeply held passion for the mission and promise of public education through his own experience as a school administrator in Texas. When his "Alamo Letter" first appeared in the Washington Post, it galvanized the educational community in a call to action that was impossible to ignore. This powerful book requires us to question whether the current education crisis will be judged by history as a legitimate national emergency or an agenda-driven panic, spurred on by a media that is, for the most part, uninterested in anything but useless soundbites.   The book is available here.