The Second Annual NPE Conference is your chance to hear directly from some of the thought leaders in the movement to reclaim the promise of public education. #NPEChicago is where the authors of some of the most celebrated books in recent years will deliver keynote addresses and participate in panel discussions.
If you’re coming to the event (you can still register here), don’t forget to leave room in your suitcase for a few autographed copies! If you can’t join us in Chicago you can follow the excitement on Twitter and interact with participants by using the hashtag #NPEChicago. Our media partner School House Live will also be live streaming the keynote addresses and select panels with a live chat feature where you can be a part of the conversation. Stay tuned for more details and which panels will be available.
Diane Ravitch Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools
NPE President Diane Ravitch’s most recent book spent four weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Reign of Error not only lays bare what is wrong with the policies favored by the privatization movement, it clearly delineates a positive agenda to reclaim teaching and learning. At #NPEChicago Diane will participate in a keynote conversation with NEA’s Lily Eskelsen Garcia and AFT’s Randi Weingarten which is sure to be a highlight of the conference.
Anthony Cody The Educator And The Oligarch: A Teacher Challenges The Gates Foundation
Noted educator and author Jonathan Kozol said The Educator and the Oligarch is “A powerful and important book by one of the most courageous advocates for sanity and simple justice in our public schools.” NPE co-founder and Board Member Anthony Cody will participate in three panel discussions, including a panel titled Getting Your Book Published. If you’ve ever thought you have a book inside you just waiting to be written, don’t miss this panel.
Carol Burris On the Same Track: How Schools Can Join the Twenty-First-Century Struggle against Resegregation
Carol Burris, NPE Board Member and 2013 NYS High School Principal of the Year, just announced that she is retiring early stating, “I will retire early and dedicate all of my energies to fighting the assault on our public schools and our teachers.” Burris will be at #NPEChicago participating in a panel titled Schools of Opportunity. Her latest book, On the Same Track, was called “An important book that should be required reading for educators, parents and school boards.”
Yong Zhao Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon?: Why China Has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World
In a review for the New York Review of Books, Diane Ravitch called Yong Zhao’s Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon “the book that Barack Obama, Arne Duncan, members of Congress, and the nation’s governors and legislators need to read”. Don’t miss Zhoa’s inteview with Edushyster’s Jennifer Berkshire, where Zhoa makes it very clear that while the test scores of students in China are touted as the standard to meet, the Chinese system is not one we want to copy. Zhoa will deliver a keynote address titled, Fatal Attraction: America’s Suicidal Quest for Educational Excellence.
Jesse Hagopian More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing
More Than a Score is a collection of essays, poems, speeches, and interviews—accounts of personal courage and trenchant insights—from frontline fighters who are defying the corporate education reformers, often at great personal and professional risk, and fueling a national movement to reclaim and transform public education. Hagopian, an inspiring leader of the 2013 MAP testing boycott at Garfield High School in Seattle, will be at #NPEChicago where he will present a panel titled More Than a Score; Black Student Lives Matter.
Jose Vilson This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education
José Vilson writes about race, class, and education through stories from the classroom and researched essays. His rise from rookie math teacher to prominent teacher leader takes a twist when he takes on education reform through his now-blocked eponymous blog, TheJoseVilson.com. He calls for the reclaiming of the education profession while seeking social justice. Vilson will join Anthony Cody on the Getting Your Book Published panel.
Mercedes Schneider A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who in the Implosion of American Public Education and the upcoming Common Core Dilema – Who Owns Our Schools?
The ever prolific teacher, researcher, blogger, and author Mercedes Schneider will hold a panel at #NPEChicago about writing and publishing her first book, A Chronicle of Echoes. In a review for EdWeek, Anthony Cody said Schneider’s first book “is a sort of handbook for understanding all the players in the corporate reform “movement.” She takes them on one by one, and leaves none unscathed.” Schneider’s second book, Common Core Dilema, is due for publication June 12, 2015.
John Kuhn Fear and Learning in America – Bad Data, Good Teachers, and the Attack on Public Education
Superintendent John Kuhn of the Perrin-Whitt Independent School District in Texas delivered a stirring keynote speech at last year’s NPE Conference. In that speech Kuhn reminded attendees that we have the power to determine the future of public education in the United States. Diane Ravitch said his book “is packed with more wisdom than any 10 books that I have read about American education. It is the wisdom born of experience.” John Kuhn will also participate in the not to be missed panel Getting Your Book Published with Anthony Cody.
