New Paltz to host panel discussion titled “Public Education Now: Reform, Resistance, and Solutions in New York State”

NEW PALTZ – The State University of New York at New Paltz will host “Public Education Now: Reform, Resistance, and Solutions in New York State,” on Wednesday, Feb. 19, at 6:30 p.m. in the Coykendall Science Auditorium on the New Paltz campus. A snow date is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 20.

This panel discussion will address current educational policies and their effects on students, educators, parents, and communities. Speakers will discuss the latest developments in resistance to these policies as well as actions to reclaim public education for the public good.

Topics of discussion include: excessive high stakes testing; Common Core Learning Standards; teacher evaluation by student test score; student privacy; the unprecedented influence of private corporations in public education; standardization of teacher education; and financial costs to school districts and taxpayers, among other topics.

The program is sponsored by SUNY’s Humanistic/Multicultural Education Program; Departments of Elementary Education, Educational Studies, Secondary Education, and Sociology; Campus Auxiliary Services; Re-Thinking Testing; and New York State Allies for Public Education.

Speakers include: Carol Burris, New York State Principals; Leonie Haimson & Karen Sprowal, Class Size Matters; Monty Neill, FairTest; Katie Zahedi, principal, Red Hook School District; Bianca Tanis, special education teacher; Ken Mitchell, Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendents; Julie Gorlewski, SUNY New Paltz; Barbara Madeloni, teacher educator; and Diana Zavala, Change the Stakes.

For additional information contact Professor Dr. Nancy Schniedewind at (845) 257-2827 or schniedn@newpaltz.edu.