Digital Networking for School Reform : The Online Grassroots Efforts of Parent and Teacher Activists

Presenting school reform grassroots activists - teachers, parents, and organizers alike - in their own words, the editors document the newly emerged role of digital networks of activists in school reform and analyze their efforts as acts of critical literacy. This book provides first-person accounts from parents and educators in the United States who have negotiated for a prominent role in current conversations about school reform. Heron Hruby and Landon-Hays argue that it is important to both theorize and document grassroots efforts at a time when digital networking in the United States allows a range of people - not just those in conventional positions of corporate or political power - to garner widespread support for education policy. In particular, the book focuses on the shifts in power that take place when teachers and parents are able to carve out successful wide-spread campaigns against high-profile policy movements, specifically the present movement towards charter school proliferation and value-added measures of teacher quality advocated by a growing number of political leaders, political action committees, and privately funded ad hoc advocacy groups Presenting school reform grassroots activists - teachers, parents, and organizers alike - in their own words, the editors document the newly emerged role of digital networks of activists in school reform and analyze their efforts as acts of critical literacy. This book provides first-person accounts from parents and educators in the United States who have negotiated for a prominent role in current conversations about school reform. Heron Hruby and Landon-Hays argue that it is important to both theorize and document grassroots efforts at a time when digital networking in the Untied States allows a range of people - not just those in conventional positions of corporate or political power - to garner widespread support for education policy. In particular, the book focuses on the shifts in power that take place when teachers and parents are able to carve out successful wide-spread campaigns against high-profile policy movements, specifically the present movement towards charter school proliferation and value-added measures of teacher quality advocated by a growing number of political leaders, political action committees, and privately funded ad hoc advocacy groups Front Matter....Pages i-xx Critical Digital Literacies and the Struggle over What’s Common....Pages 1-13 Getting the Attention of the White House: Using Facebook to Promote Teacher Knowledge about School Reform....Pages 14-22 United Opt Out National and the Resistance of High-Stakes Standardized Testing....Pages 23-35 Beginning at the Blog: Moving from Kitchen-Table Plans to National Political Activism Using Digital Narratives....Pages 36-47 Fighting Testing Madness in Charlotte, North Carolina....Pages 48-62 In Closing—The Potential of Current Grassroots Efforts for Effecting Sustainable Change: A Socio-historical Perspective on Making a Difference....Pages 63-74 Back Matter....Pages 75-77