By Anthony Cody.

The last weekend of April I joined about 600 other history-makers in the great city of Chicago for the second annual conference of the Network for Public Education. It has been said that American attitudes towards education are like a pendulum, swinging from one side to another. If so, this was a room full of pendulum pushers, decidedly unhappy with the status quo.

The biggest news out of the conference was made when, in response to a question from NPE’s president, Diane Ravitch, both Lily Eskelsen Garcia and Randi Weingarten categorically stated that the NEA and AFT would no longer accept grants from the Gates, Walton or Broad Foundations. (Video here.) Both unions have accepted multiple grants for millions of dollars from Gates and Broad. Several Gates-funded projects have taken on the task of promoting Common Core implementation. While other comments made indicate that both unions remain wed to the Common Core, this is an important step back from collaboration with foundations that are hostile to teacher unions and public education.

Another way this conference made history is by being the largest gathering of education activists in the nation. This activism in support of real change in public education is emerging as a real social movement, and the Network for Public Education has created events that bring this movement together. There was solidarity with other organizations who offered workshops, including leaders from United Opt Out, the BadAss Teachers Association, FairTest, and Save Our Schools. Many education bloggers and grassroots activists attended as well. The event trended on Twitter both days, and several thousand people tuned in to watch the live streamed sessions broadcast by our talented volunteer Vincent Precht through www.Schoolhouselive.org. We managed to broadcast all keynotes and 18 separate workshops, so even those not in attendance could access the conference. Many of the sessions referenced in this post can be viewed on archived video as well.

There were numerous sessions that focused us on how to communicate and organize. Members of the Newark Students Union shared hard won experiences from several years of organizing their peers. (Video here) I accompanied Tanaisa Brown to a meeting of Chicago’s CORE caucus after the conference ended on Sunday, where she told the crowd that the connections the students had made at the conference had them thinking about a national tour, so that NSU members could visit and encourage student activists around the country. This is how movements grow. (The Newark Students Union is raising money for their work and this possible trip here at their GoFundMe site.)

Members of the VIVA 360 writing collaborative shared their perspectives on their experiences in the process of writing a report on accountability in education. (see background here.) This gave those who attended their session a window on the “teacher voice” process that is managed by organizations – many with funding from Gates and similar corporate philanthropies. We worked together on some guidelines that might help others engaged in this sort of process understand and reclaim their authentic voices, which will be released soon.

Susan DuFresne and Jia Lee led a session discussing how and why they became “Teachers of Conscience,” refusing to administer high stakes tests to their students. (more here at this link).

NPE Board member Jitu Brown kicked off the conference with a spirited call to unite and organize to resist what he described as the colonization of communities of color by corporate reformers. (Video here.) Seattle teacher Jesse Hagopian built on this theme, and was joined by the Seattle NAACP education committee chair, Rita Green, for a gripping session focused on the connections between the movement against high stakes tests and the Black Lives Matter movement. (Video by film maker Michael Elliott here.)

Hagopian pointed out the ways standardized testing was born a century ago in the drive to rank and sort soldiers entering World War One, and how it was soon thereafter used to provide pseudo-scientific reinforcement to racial hierarchies that placed dark-skinned people on the bottom. He suggested that uprisings against police killings and brutality in communities of color are natural allies for the movement to reclaim public schools from those seeking to privatize them. A few days after the conference, NPE issued a strong statement in solidarity with those seeking justice in Baltimore.

And yesterday, Hagopian has shared a powerful statement written with NPE responding to a coalition of Civil Rights groups who came out in opposition to those choosing to opt out of high stakes tests.

Yong Zhao gave a delightful talk debunking all forms of authoritarian education reform. He spoke of the use of the term “readiness,” and observed that the most important form of “readiness” is the readiness to move out of one’s parents’ basement. (Video here, and transcript by Mercedes Schneider here.)

That means something actually fairly simple: Every individual be, develop the capacity to live independently, as a contributing member of a society. Financial independence, psychological independence, and social independence. That you are actually a member of a society. I don’t care what you do, to do something.

This highlights the nonsense inherent in using tests to prepare our youth for a future we cannot predict, and also points out the way that our economy ultimately determines the skills that will be rewarded. Zhao suggested that in focusing on test preparation, we are robbing our students of creative skills that are far more important. He described these as various forms of entrepreneurship. The sort of activism we are engaged in at the conference he called “social entrepreneurship.”

While I appreciate Zhao’s clear stand against authoritarianism, I am not sure that entrepreneurship is adequate as an alternative framework for the social and mental skills we need to prepare our students to act on. There is a dimension of collective social action embodied in solidarity with fellow citizens that does not seem to be captured by the idea of entrepreneurship.

There were a number of people who volunteered for months in advance to organize details. Nonetheless a number of things went haywire at the last minute. It is a testament to the character of conference participants that when they saw there were problems, a number of people responded by volunteering to help. We learned a great deal, and next time, our process will be smoother.

We hosted the first ever NPE Movie Night, featuring education documentaries that are offering compelling stories to counter the dominant narrative around education. We saw a clip from Brian Malone’s excellent film, Education Inc., which follows the money driving corporate reform. Malone is planning to offer screenings around the country in August. If you would be interested in hosting such a showing in your community, please visit the site.

Bill Baykan shared a portion of his film, The Public School Wars. This film portrays the many grassroots activists fighting to save the institution of public education from those seeking to privatize it. He has launched a crowd funding effort, and you can see more here.

Dawn and Jim O’Keefe showed a clip from their film, Go Public, which combines footage shot by fifty individuals to create a portrait of a day in the public schools of Pasadena, California. This film is also available for showings in your community.

Shannon Puckett shared a poignant film entitled Defies Measurement, which portrays the heart of a great school, which was destroyed a decade ago by high stakes testing. Her film can be watched free online. You can read Peter Greene’s review here.

Vincent Precht showed a film he created called Hop, which tells the story of education reform from the perspective of a father concerned about the future of his autistic son.

The conference closed with a conversation between Diane Ravitch and Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis. (video here). In Austin last year, Karen brought the crowd to life with a rousing speech. This year, she was a bit more reflective and subdued. When asked if it was time for a national teacher strike, she responded that a lot of organizing will need to happen before that happens.

The developing understanding of the intersection between racial discrimination, incarceration and police violence, and education “reform” was perhaps the most important outcome of the many conversations at the conference. In relation to Karen Lewis’ sobering reflection on the work ahead, I take heart in the many new activists I met from every corner of the country. I saw many people in attendance who have never attended such a conference before – and by that I mean a conference devoted not to someone’s definition of “professional development,” but rather a conference centered on our growth as a social movement with a new vision for what education ought to be.

Our first speaker, Tanaisa Brown, brought this home when she said this:

I don’t know each of you personally, but I do know that you all are empowered, and coming to this conference proves that you are striving to be the change that you want to be in society. You are that parent that won’t allow your daughter to be used as a guinea pig any longer. You are that student that won’t accept receiving any less resources and opportunities than you deserve. And you are that teacher who remains conscious and incorporates new innovative ideas in the classroom to allow student voice to flourish, fighting the suppression of creativity with common standards. Today, you will take this powerful energy and shine light on your respective communities. You are that lighthouse.

That is the spirit that these 600 shared for two days, and that is the spirit that will help us all stay united and focused on defending and improving our schools in the sometimes dark days to come.

Featured photo credit: Tim Fuller.

(Disclosure: I am a co-founder of the Network for Public Education, and serve as the organization’s treasurer.)