The Network For Public Education (NPE) formed in 2013 with a singular goal:to mobilize the allies of public education against the powerful forces supporting privatization and high-stakes testing. The leaders of NPE have faith in the power of democracy and the value of our greatest democratic institution-public education.   Read more

Address inequities that undermine learning: Every international indicator shows that the U.S. supports its children less well than do other developed countries, who offer universal health care and early childhood education, as well as income supports for families. Evidence is plentiful that when children are healthy and well-supported in learning in the early years and beyond, they achieve and graduate at higher rates. The latest PISA report also found that the most successful nations allocate proportionately more resources to the education of disadvantaged students, while the United States allocates less. Read more

The state's STAAR tests are no stranger to controversy, but one third-grader's refusal to be tested is raising questions about what kind of say students should have in their own education. Read more

Back in April 2014, third grader Diego Geisler stayed home from school for four days in a row.Instead of going to Helms Elementary in the Heights, Diego and his mom Claudia De Leon Geisler went on some field trips. She refused to let him take the third grade STAAR exams in reading and math. It’s called opting out and it’s a growing movement. Read more

CVPE's Alpa, Jason, Anne, and Saul challenge HISD's use of test scores to evaluate and pay teachers in this op-ed in the Houston Chronicle. Read more

In this guest editorial, teacher Eileen Riley-Hall, author of Parenting Girls on the Autism Spectrum, writes about how evaluating teachers based on students’ test scores hurts children. Read more

PISA data shows that poverty does matter and that the only way to improve learning for all of our children is to make decisions that reduce the negative consequences of poverty. Read more

CVPE member, Daniel Santos, is a teacher at Jackson Middle School. In this op ed for the Houston Chronicle, he writes about what schools could do with the money wasted on high stakes testing. Read more

Great infographic on alternatives to school closure Read more

40% of the teachers at Jefferson Elementary School were removed from the classroom in November 2013. Because approximately 38 third graders performed significantly better on the STAAR than the previous year's group of third graders, the district summarily removed 40 teachers across many grade levels from their classrooms. The result was that most of these students spent the year being taught by substitutes.   Read more