Come learn about threats to student privacy at NPE conference April 25-26 and much more!

The Network for Public Education is having our second annual national conference April 25-26 in Chicago.  Last year’s conference in Austin was a blast, and this year promises to be even better.  Check the NPE website , and the full schedule of events here.

You can see the keynote addresses will feature terrific speakers such as Karen Lewis, Yong Zhao, and Jitu Brown. Panels will include Nancy Carlsson-Paige Deborah Meier, Jesse Hagopian, Mercedes Schneider, Monty Neill, Dr. Kevin Welner, Carol Burris, Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig,  bloggers Jennifer Berkshire (Edushyster) and Peter Greene, and many more.

Diane Ravitch, NPE's President and co-founder, will moderate a conversation with NEA president Lily Eskelson and AFT President Randi Weingarten. I expect Diane will ask some probing questions in her inimitable fashion.

We will also discuss student privacy.  Last July, after inBloom was defeated, Rachael Stickland of Colorado and I formed a new national group called the Parent Coalition to Protect Student Privacy.  (You can join our mailing list by signing up here.) Rachael and I will be speaking on a panel about the continuing threats to student privacy and autonomy posed by the sharing of personal information with ed tech vendors, along with high school student Nathan Ringo of Minnesota, who challenged his school’s use of computers to monitor students,  and Cynthia Liu of K12 Network, who helped lead the battle against Los Angeles school’s billion dollar IPad purchase, which is still under investigation by the FBI and contributed to the departure of Dr. John Deasy, LAUSD superintendent. 

For hotel accommodations, rooms are still available at both the Drake (Hilton.com) where the conference will be held, and Residence Inn (Marriott.com) nearby.  There may be some group discounts still available.  Check the registration link here.  If that doesn't work, you can try the reservations desk at 866-596-7890, and request the Network for Public Education room block. But in any case, please come!

Video of our student privacy panel at the NPE conference in Austin last month

Check out the video below Network for Public Education panel presentation on student privacy, held in Austin on February 29, with a short slice of my powerpoint (the rest of it is here), along with some amazing parent advocates who beat back inBloom in their respective states and districts: Jason France of Louisiana (better known as Crazy Crawfish), Rachael Stickland of Colorado, and Julie Woestehoff of Parents United for Responsible Education in Chicago.

We wrap up with Barmak Nassirian of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, who explains why student privacy is so critical -- and so endangered -- with the weakening of FERPA by the federal government and because so many states, private organizations and vendors are eager to collect, share and data-mine your children's  information.

All of these activists still remain working on this issue, pro bono, including advocating for state legislation to protect privacy,  well aware of how defeating inBloom is only the beginning of a longer battle.
For more information about the 2014 NPE Conference, visit our website and Diane Ravitch's blog, with links to many accounts of the different panels; see also videos of  the terrific keynote speakers, including John Kuhn, Karen Lewis and Diane herself.

Many of the activists I met for the first time said it was the best conference they ever attended, as did and many with whom I was able to re-connect; and I agree.  Please become a member of NPE to support public education, be kept up to date on our activities and be invited to next year's conference.

Thanks to Schoolhouse Live and Vincent Precht for the video.