Campus News

Public education advocate to speak Feb. 4 at Chapel

Public education Cody
Anthony Cody

A leading advocate and author for public education will visit UGA to talk about national educational policies and their effects on local schools.

Anthony Cody, co-founder of the Network for Public Education and the author of The Educator and The Oligarch: A Teacher Challenges the Gates Foundation, will speak Feb. 4 at 5:15 p.m. at the Chapel. Open free to the public, the lecture will be followed by a reception in Demosthenian Hall.

Cody’s talk, “Local Schools, National Policies: Who’s Listening?” is presented by the UGA College of Education and the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts. It is part of an ongoing public conversation about education.

Cody spent 24 years teaching in Oakland, California, and during that time the rise of the Common Core, test-based teacher evaluation systems, and other national educational policy initiatives sparked him into action.

His blog, “Living in Dialogue,” first appeared on Education Week in 2008 but became independent of the magazine this past August, just before the publication of his first book.

“Anthony Cody poses tough questions to everyone who is interested in public education,” said Jack Parish, the education college’s dean of outreach, who is involved with programs such as the college’s Professional Development School District and its Early Career Principal Residency program. “The visit is a chance to hear his perspective on education and an opportunity to question him and one’s own beliefs about national educational policies.”