Advisory Board Kenneth Bernstein has a B.A. in Music from Haverford, a M.A. in Religious Studies rom St. Charles, an MAT in Secondary Social Studies from Johns Hopkins, and is ABD in Educational Administration and Policy Studies at Catholic University. He is a national board certified socials studies teacher who blogs extensively on education and other subjects, co-author of a monograph on the Bush education proposal that became NCLB, organized the panel on education at Yearlykos2006, and is organizing the education panel for the forthcoming Yearlykos2007. He has advised Democratic candidates on educational policy and has presented to a local panel on problems with Maryland's High School Assessments. Tony Carusi is a teacher educator and Ph.D. candidate in Educational Policy Studies at Georgia State University focusing on philosophy of education. His main research includes critiquing positivistic notions of education that provide economistic justifications for schooling. A second part of his project is studying Giambattista Vico as a philosopher who outlined a philosophy of education that criticizes rationalism in favor of memory, imagination, and rhetoric. Priscilla Shannon Gutierrez is currently an outreach specialist at the New Mexico School for the Deaf, as well as an instructor at New Mexico Highlands University. Previously she has worked as a principal of a bilingual deaf program, as a literacy coach, as a bilingual/ESL mentor teacher, and as adjunct faculty at several universities. She has long been an advocate for the language and educational rights of diverse needs students. Dr. Kenneth Goodman is professor Emeritus at the University of Arizona. He is a practical theorist, researcher and teacher educator whose work has changed our understanding of literacy processes, how they are learned, and how best to teach them. His sociotransactional theory of the reading process is the most widely cited in the world. Responding to the negative effects that standardization has had on our children’s education, Goodman's most recent works include The Truth About DIBELS: What It Is - What It Does, and Saving Our Schools: The Case For Public Education Saying No to "No Child Left Behind." Peter Henry has a B.A., Magna Cum Laude, with Distinction in Comparative Literature from Carleton, College in Northfield, MN and a Masters of Arts in Teaching from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. He is a veteran educator from Minnesota and the author of Becoming Mr. Henry (2005). He has worked in public and private high schools, tutored expelled students, taught French, Spanish and English, designed numerous elective courses, and currently works with Native Americans in a community college setting. He has strong interests in cooperative learning, building critical thinking skills and teacher mentoring. Dr. Jim Horn holds a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee and has taught history and philosophy of education at LSU, the University of Alabama, and Monmouth University. Before coming to higher ed, he was a teacher and librarian in the public schools for the better part of 20 years. His areas of research include the effects of high-stakes testing on children, teachers, and schools, particularly in economically-depressed communities, and he is an outspoken advocate for public education's neglected Dr. Russell Hunt is a Professor of English at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He's been involved in exploring and writing about how people learn for over three decades, ranging from the formation of an alternative school in 1969 to currently publishing articles on learning and teaching in higher education. He learned most of what he thinks he knows about these issues from early childhood educators. He's participating in this attempt to get rid of NCLB because he's afraid that it, like other things (such as himself), might migrate to Canada. Dr. M. L. Johnson, an Emeritus professor from Colorado State University, earned a bachelor’s degree from Abilene Christian University, a master’s degree from Baylor University, a master’s degree from Colorado State University, a doctorate from The University of Texas and a doctorate from Colorado State University. He taught science at Blocker Junior High School in the Texas City, TX Public School District and teacher education at both Southeastern Louisiana University and Colorado State University. While employed in Louisiana, he was twice elected to the parish public school board, a must-do experience for all those aspiring to also swim wide and deep bodies of water and climb cloud-shrouded peaks. Presently, he is completing his first term as an elected board of education member in Fort Collins, CO. He has written 17 books and numerous research articles and monographs, with topics ranging from stages and transitions in cognitive development to biomechanics of athletic events. With an interest in early childhood interventions and a developed competency in digital video media production, he has received grants to create interactive digital video modules for training parents and service providers to deliver a mentoring program for parents of educational at-risk children and an intensive behavioral autism intervention. He has been listed in Who’s Who in Education, Who’s Who in American Education, Outstanding Young Men of America and has received a Videographer Award of Distinction, a Communicator Award of Distinction and a Silver CINDY Award for his digital video productions. Dr. Virginia W. Juettner has a Ph.D. in Educational Administration and Literacy. Dr. Juettner spent 36 years in public education working in Title I schools as a teacher, reading specialist, Title I supervisor, curriculum director and principal. Over the last 29 years, she has traveled widely in Alaska working in remote "bush" schools with students, teachers and parents, and she has participated in a number of school improvement and evaluation projects. Her interests include multicultural education, culturally responsive schooling, social justice, English language learners, critical literacy and authentic, integrated assssment. She currently works as assistant professor at Alaska Pacific University, a teacher preparation program that is based on an active learning model. Richard Moore is a conservative/libertarian/republican with long hair and a beard, a free market suburban hippie whose main influences are Wm. F. Buckley, Jr., John Cotton Dana, Karl Hess, and Philip Larkin. He spent 33 years as a high school librarian in the state with the worst level of school library staffing in the nation. When he's not bringing the groceries in from the car, he can be found answering email, writing about libraries for his professional associations, tending a PR booth for school librarians, or getting locked out of Turtles (Crossfires) revival concerts. Michael Pinkava has a B.S. in Human Development from Cornell University. He is a concerned citizen and advocate for children Debbie Potts was a teacher/administrator from 1965 until 1993 when she took early retirement. Her background is in career and technical education. During her career she experienced teaching in schools that ranged from less that 100 students to over 5,000. She taught in one of the poorest rural schools in Michigan and in two of the wealthiest districts in the Detroit and Chicago suburban areas. She twice traveled to China as part of an educational delegation to study CTE and special education and to interact with the Chinese educational authorities. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Association for Career and Technical Education and has held several offices for the Illinois Association for Career and Technical Education. Since 1993 she has been an Educational Specialist for the Illinois Office of Educational Services where she has worked on a wide variety of special projects that assist educators and administrators. One of her specialties is training for and facilitating the DACUM process. Using this process she has traveled and worked with educators and professional groups throughout the United States. She is currently project coordinator for gender equity and nontraditional careers services to Illinois educators. Dr. William Spady is an internationally recognized authority on Outcome-Based Education, organizational change, transformational leadership development, future-focused strategic design, and empowering models of learning and living. For over 35 years he has spearheaded major efforts throughout North America, South Africa and Australia on expanding the vision, deepening the philosophical grounding, and improving the performance of learners, educators, leaders, and educational systems. Dr. Spady has published and lectured extensively across the world on organizational leadership, systemic change, instructional management, Outcome-Based Education, school restructuring, strategic planning, curriculum design, and paradigm change. Over the years has been named "Distinguished Lecturer" at American Association of School Administrator's (AASA) national convention five times. He is the author of five books, including Beyond Counterfeit Reforms (2001), and dozens of major articles on educational change issues. Lee ‘Bud’ West is currently the principal of Herbert R. Kohl Open School, a small alternative school in Stockton, California. Formally he was an elementary school teacher, reading teacher specializing in using art and writing to teach reading, organizer and statewide vice-president for the California Federation of Teachers, and Head Teacher at Kohl School. His father and mother were teachers, his brother is a teacher, his children are both teachers, and unfortunately his wife just left teaching due to NCLB. Pat Witz has been a teacher at intermediate and primary levels, and a math coach working with kindergarten through sixth grade. Currently teaching first grade in California, she has been increasingly concerned about the impact on students whose talented and caring teachers are being forced to give up their best practices because of No Child Left Behind. Its enforcement is eliminating the focus on children as diverse human beings with great potential to be developed and is using children as political Governing Board Dr. Steve A. Davidson is a 30-year public school educator currently teaching middle school science in rural East Tennessee. Following 19 years serving as an elementary school principal, he has chosen to conclude his public school career in the classroom where he can carry out his passion for teaching. Based on his philosophy of education to "be relevant", he has taken up the cause for the dismantling of NCLB because of its irrelevancy and harm to true student learning. Dr. David Gabbard is Professor and Area Coordinator of Educational Foundations in the Dept of Curriculum & Instruction at East Carolina University. He also co-edits Public Resistance and has edited several books on educational policy. His most recent works include: Defending Public Schools Volume I: Education Under the Security State & Education As Enforcement: The Corporatization and Militarization of Schools. His forthcoming Knowledge & Power in the Global Economy: The Effects of School Reform in a Neoliberal / Neoconservative Age will be released in April of 2007. Anne E. Levin Garrison is a concerned and active advocate for meaningful change in public education. She is a contributing guest editor at susanohanian.org and a freelance writer on issues in education and modern culture. Anne has two daughters, lives near Annapolis, MD and has been studying the impact of evolving local and federal policy on public schools for over 14 years. Her areas of special interest include: The effects of the NCLB-endorsed AP (Advanced Placement) explosion on public school education; the destructive impact of NCLB policy on public school curriculum, teaching, and learning; and the results and impact of NCLB policy on the emotional health and academic welfare of public school teachers and their students. Annie’s experiences as an active parent of two gifted children in suburban public schools, and as a community activist for better educational policy, have anchored her impressions on the impact of education policy on the public school classroom. She has written hundreds of essays detailing the harmful effects of NCLB on our public schools. Dr. Philip Kovacs is a former high school English teacher with a Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies. He is an assistant professor in the Department of Education at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, where he teaches courses on educational foundations, curriculum theory, and methods. His primary research interests include the critique of neoliberal and neoconservative think tanks, institutes, and foundations; the exploration of education for democratic renewal and growth; teacher empowerment; and the use of fear to forward political ideas. Dr. Kovacs is the Chair of this organization. Susan Ohanian is a longtime teacher and prolific writer. Her more than 300 articles have appeared in publications ranging from The Atlantic, The Nation, USA Today, and Parents, to Phi Delta Kappan, School Board Journal, The School Administrator, Education Week, and English Journal. The latest of Susan's many books is Why Is Corporate America Bashing Our Public Schools? The National Council of Teachers of English gave susanohanian.org the George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language. Dr. Celia Oyler is an Associate Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University where she directs the Elementary Inclusive Preservice Program. She was a special education teacher for 15 years in Connecticut, Vermont, and Chicago before getting her doctorate in Curriculum Theory and Design from the University of Illinois, Chicago. Her activism and research address issues of social justice, teacher preparation, and schooling. Celia is the the author of Making Room for Students: Sharing Teacher Authority in Room 104 and Learning to Teach Inclusively: Student Teachers' Classroom Inquiries. Tauna Rogers is a special education teacher in New Mexico with nine years experience teaching students with special needs. Along with teaching she studies the assaults on public education extensively, with particular emphasis on the corporate-driven propaganda campaigns that have swept the country from the release of the 1983 A Nation At Risk report to the current destruction bearing down on our public schools under the misnamed No Child Left Behind Act. She believes the time is long overdue for policymakers to bend their ears toward the educators who actually work with our nation's children. She invites educators, parents, and other citizens to join the efforts of the Educator Roundtable, to sign our petition to dismantle NCLB, and to say no to private profiteering at the expense of our nation's children, educators, and schools. You are also a significant member of this group, but we need to hear from you. Do you have ideas for replacing NCLB with a type of education that is more responsive to the diversity that makes this country great? Share them.
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