I hope xmca folks will be interested in this important gathering in
Washington.
Ken Goodman
--
Kenneth S. Goodman, Professor, Language, Reading & Culture
504 College of Education, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
fax 520 7456895 phone 520 6217868
These are mean times- and in the mean time
We need to Learn to Live Under Water
--------------7FD524EF4FA9A09F0F14FF31
Content-Type: message/rfc822
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline
Received: from serv1.ncte.org (serv1.ncte.org [208.223.98.5])
by odo.U.Arizona.EDU (8.8.6 (PHNE_14041)/8.8.6) with ESMTP id MAA02719
for <kgoodman who-is-at u.arizona.edu>; Wed, 26 Aug 1998 12:22:04 -0700 (MST)
Received: (from majordomo who-is-at localhost)
by serv1.ncte.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id OAA07471
for wlu-ec-outgoing; Wed, 26 Aug 1998 14:21:18 -0500
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 13:59:56 -0500 (CDT)
From: Eric Crump <eric who-is-at serv1.ncte.org>
To: NCTE-talk <ncte-talk who-is-at serv1.ncte.org>
Subject: [wlu-ec] Urgent-Participation in National Congress for Public Educati (fwd)
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980826134920.6663D-100000 who-is-at serv1.ncte.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-wlu-ec who-is-at ncte.org
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: wlu-ec who-is-at serv1.ncte.org
FYI. Forwarded to all NCTE lists on behalf of NCTE President Sheridan
Blau.
--Eric
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 13:20:37 -0400
From: Martharose Laffey <mlaffey who-is-at ncss.org>
Dear Colleagues:
We write to you on an urgent matter. This September 11-13, the
International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of
English, the National Council for the Social Studies, Phi Delta Kappa, and
other education organizations will cosponsor the National Congress for
Public Education, a significant event for education in the United States.
The Congress will be held at the Crystal City Hyatt and will bring
together diverse stakeholder groups in education to:
share information about key educational issues,
develop ways of working together, and
take action to celebrate and strengthen public education as
essential to the health of a democratic society.
We believe that your organization should be involved in our deliberations
and urge you to send one or more representatives to the Congress.
Why is this necessary and important? Simply stated, we are concerned that
public education is being discredited by superficial, incomplete and (in
many cases) incorrect information about its accomplishments and the
challenges it confronts. This effort to undermine public education seems
to be increasingly well organized and deliberate. It is characterized by
negative overemphasis on problems in our schools; attacks on curricular,
instructional, and assessment practices; calls for the diversion of
funding to alternative education ventures with limited public access and
accountability; and rhetoric that suggest that the professional education
community is either unable or unwilling (or both) to undertake meaningful
education reform to improve student achievement.
The education community has found itself reacting to, rather than
proactively challenging these critiques, which appear to reflect a
political agenda determined to undermine, if not completely eliminate, our
system of public education. We and the other education groups supporting
the Congress believe that such threats demand a strong response and a
reaffirmation of our national commitment to public education in a diverse
democracy.
The Congress will bring together organizations and individuals dedicated
to preserving and strengthening public education. It will provide a forum
for exchanging information and ideas and for engaging in critical and
reflective dialogue about the purposes and practices of public education.
Most importantly, NCPE will develop and communicate a set of principles
that articulate a broadly shared vision for public education in the 21st
century. We hope that those principles will become the basis for concerted
positive action by the public education community.
See http://www.ncpe.org to get more information and to register for the
conference. The deadline for making sleeping room reservations at the
Crystal City Hyatt has been extended, and the special meeting room rate of
$113 is still available.
We are confident that you will want the perspectives of your organization
and its constituency to be represented at this important event. Please
plan to participate in the National Congress for Public Education and have
your voice heard.
Sincerely yours,
Alan Farstrup
Executive Director, International Reading Association
Martharose F. Laffey
Executive Director, National Council for the Social Studies
Faith Schullstrom
Executive Director, National Council of Teacher of English
--------------7FD524EF4FA9A09F0F14FF31--