Thousands ‘Party’ Down to Promote Public Schools

NEA-Sponsored Event Criticized as Partisan

Bryn Mawr, Pa.

If the nation’s schools are threatened by low expectations and too much of the status quo, the 20 people gathered in Jane and Thomas Dugdale’s family room in this leafiest of suburbs didn’t see those particular dangers.

Rather, the guests posited, menace lurks in the current testing mania or in unfunded mandates from Washington or in political leaders unwilling to shut down a war to open up more classrooms.

The teachers, parents, and community leaders didn’t quite agree on the exact causes of trouble. But like their counterparts at some 3,800 near-simultaneous “house parties” across the country last week, many were willing to call on their federal lawmakers to put...