Penn GSE Historian: Oklahoma’s PragerU Teacher Loyalty Exam “An Entirely New Level of Power”

Expert: Oklahoma loyalty test for teachers based on PragerU exam is deeply problematic, says Penn GSE education historian

Jonathan Zimmerman is Available for Comment

 Media Inquiries:   Kat Stein          (215)-898-9642/[email protected]

“The first thing to know about “Prager University” is that it is *not* a university. It’s a right-wing activist operation, peddling a highly biased—and, often, inaccurate—version of American history to states and school districts. We don’t know how many teachers or schools have chosen to use Prager’s videos. But here’s what we do know: Oklahoma’s decision to administer a Prager-developed exam to screen teacher applicants represents an entirely new level of power for the organization. Up until now, every use of Prager materials has been optional. Now it’s required—not for students, but for the people who will instruct them.”

– Education historian Jonathan Zimmerman

Credentials:

• Zimmerman is one of the foremost education historians working today.
• His books include “The Case for Contention: Teaching Controversial Issues in American Schools” and “Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools.”
• His research tracks how political and social movements come to shape education, in such areas as sex education, alcohol, and free speech.
• Zimmerman has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Review of Books, and The Atlantic.