Here's the new NEA president

...interviewed by Salon. Sounds like she's telling it as she sees it.
Now, this could be fun! 

AFT calls for Secretary Duncan to be put on a improvement plan

Adding to the calls for a different federal direction, the American Federation of Teachers passed a resolution calling for Secretary Duncan to be put on an improvement plan:

The “improvement plan” would include the requirement that Duncan enact the funding and equity recommendations of the Equity Commission’s “Each and Every Child” report; change the No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top “test-and-punish” accountability system to a “support-and-improve” model; and “promote rather than question” teachers and school staff...AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement sent to POLITICO that the amendment “is basically saying, ‘Enough is enough.’ Teachers are evaluated and their future livelihoods are linked to that. And when they fall short, they should have a chance to improve. And that’s what this special order represents.”

The plan was laid out in an amendment tacked onto a resolution codifying AFT’s “Commitment to Fighting Back and Fighting Forward” on labor and education issues.

 Last week the National Education Association called for his resignation. 

Speaking of declarations...

The National Education Association (the nation's largest teachers' union) is holding their annual convention in Denver this weekend. Two things from today:

NEA RA. The largest union in the United States has elected three women of color to lead it. http://t.co/eNT6qh8OMc #NEARA14
— fklonsky (@fklonsky) July 4, 2014

You can read more about the election here; for those from Massachusetts following this, outgoing MTA president Paul Toner did not win a seat on the NEA executive board.

While there were several resolutions passed, I suspect this one is going to get all the press:

speaking of declarations, the nation's largest teachers' union passed a resolution calling for the resignation of the Sec'ty of Education.
— Tracy Novick (@TracyNovick) July 4, 2014

Happy Independence Day!

Read Across America Day

NEA endorsement in context

Over the weekend, the National Education Association endorsed President Obama for re-election. A bit of context:

Let's provide some historical context for elections since 1988.
1988  Dukakis got 86%
1992 Clinton got 88%
1996 Clinton got 91%
2000 Gore got 86.5%
2004 Kerry got 86.5%
2008 Obama got 79.8%
2011, Obama got 72%.
Unlike Clinton, in his endorsement for reelection Obama dropped 7.8% (sic), while Clinton went up 3%.
And Obama's percentage in 2008 was already the lowest in the past 5 elections.
This is far from "overwhelming" support by historical standards.

The same source also has the strongly worded rebuke of Secretary Arne Duncan (now nicknamed on the web "13 Things We Hate About Arne Duncan.") The sad fact is, Teacher Ken is right: the endorsement is going to get the news, not the percentages, and not the rebuke. They should have made endorsement conditional on improving his educational policies.

It's Independence Day...

The National Education Association has voted "no confidence" in Race to the Top guidelines and in the federal DoE's use of competitive grants. This came after "protracted debate" at their national convention in New Orleans this weekend.
And yes, that went through on July 4.

And if you're interested, Teacher Beat is covering the convention, as well as the AFT convention which comes next.

Foley

Growth model
resources in schools
demographics of Chandler Elementary and Union Hill

irony of approval of charter school: founder was unsuccessful, but is being brought back to run another school
whereas the Chandler principal willingly took on that challenge that the charter founder has no interest in educating at all

challenges of urban education: wrong with formula they've been using
"shouldn't be surprised"
increased funding from state and federal side
"not going to go away"
"have to deal with these situations ...try to work within the frameworks right now"

says the national union is "ahead of where we are" in accepting these regulations
federal government in looking at individual schools "making irrelevant school committee, administration, and teachers' union"
successful collaboration
"struggles of those Level 4 schools...rests with all of us"

"make sure we're putting our teachers and building administrators" in a position to be successful
"interest based strategic planning"
"we aren't educating all children here now"
"moral imperative that we deal with that"

Motion: request breakdown on data used to provide assessment for Level 4 schools
Motion: request mayor, superintendent, president of EAW for "interest based strategic planning" (which I'm now going to abbreviate IBSP)

Boone says accountability system will link with IBSP
regarding what the state said the measures used were: 4 year trends in absolute achievement, 2 and 1 year of student growth (also MCAS), improvement trends in MCAS, composite performance of MCAS, annual student growth percentage MCAS, and change in MCAS; Boone acknowledges that it is basically based on MCAS

NEA on Race to the Top

With one week to go before the comment period expires, the National Education Association has weighed in on President Obama's Race to the Top program. According to Friday's Washington Post, they have some problems with it, to put it lightly:

"We find this top-down approach disturbing; we have been down that road before with the failures of No Child Left Behind,"the union wrote in its comments, "and we cannot support yet another layer of federal mandates that have little or no research base of success and that usurp state and local government's responsibilities for public education."

They also raise the issue of charter schools, citing their mixed results.

For all of Secretary Duncan's repeated profession of wishing to work with the teachers, most of his proposals so far have been very far from reflecting that. I'm glad the NEA got on this.

And have you weighed in on RTTT yet?