Education Perspectives: Opening Eyes Through Quality Information & Advocacy

Visit Education Perspectives for the Central Valley's website: http://edperspectivescv.org/default.aspx

This weekend I had the opportunity to be a guest speaker for a course titled: Public Management Issues in Education Policy, a graduate course on policy conflicts in education.

The instructor was Sandra Hammond, founder and executive director of Education Perspectives for the Central Valley, Inc. She holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration from California State University, Fresno. She also has a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Studies, a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential with Authorization to Teach Introductory English and a Concentration in Children and the Arts. She is an adjunct faculty member for the Dept. of Political Science/Public Administration at California State University, Fresno, lecturing on "Conflicts in Education Policy" and has been an Education Consultant and volunteer to families and organizations, pursuing the protection of informed decision making practices in education. 


She is a champion for anyone involved with preserving all that was and is best about the American public school system and advocating for those who are facing an ever encroaching monstrous system without a way to navigate.

The focus was on No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the Bush policy; and the subsequent Race to the Top (RTT), Obama creation. Grad students discussed the conflicts these policies present to practitioners (educators across the nation). They analyzed Zero Tolerance policies in the area of discipline. Dismal statistics that influenced President Bush’s decision to form a panel of "experts", which later affected his ed policy decisions were shared. This led to a brief discussion of the creation of “expert” panels.

An analysis of conflicts of interest in relationship to the unprecedented, mandated use of commercial reading programs in public schools and the contracting out of reading instruction decisions was made. An examination of the shift in power NCLB created in local education decisions and the effects of increased centralization was conducted. All of these issues led to discussions of the amount of time teachers and students spend preparing for high stakes testing and the relationship to "performance budgeting".

Warring Eel Productions will be filming a documentary on Ms. Hammond's quest  to:
 "encourage and empower concerned citizens to become more involved in decisions that affect K-12 students and to increase access to quality education programs and promote conflict resolution strategies in disputes".         ( Mission Statement: Education Perspectives for the Central Valley, Inc.)