AFT has traditionally been a bit more reform-minded than its rival – the NEA. But will its president succeed in convincing state and local affiliates to support teacher evaluations that incorporate student achievement? (The New York Times)
What does a new, pro-school-choice Secretary of Education mean for Virginia’s school systems? (WBDJ7.com)
See if you can guess this [...]
All Posts Tagged: 'American Federation of Teachers'
QUICK Hits
QUICK Hits
Is increasing civic involvement among participants a core mission of Teach For America? Should it be? (The New York Times)
Daniel Willingham asks: Why doesn’t reading more make us better readers? (The Answer Sheet)
Is your toddler struggling with speech? New research suggests that turning off the TV just might help. (EducationNews.org)
AFT vs. NEA: Which unions are [...]
Journalists and Charter Schools
Eduwonkette has some beef with the Washington Post’s recent coverage of charter schools, specifically the Post’s claim that public charter schools are outperforming district-run public schools (thanks Chad) on student achievement measures. Accompanying the test score results, the Post reported on the successful practices many schools engage in as reasons for their high scores – [...]
Perspective
Alan Odden says that Michelle Rhee’s proposal to give DC teachers the option to trade job security for a lot more money, if they want to, or not, if they don’t want to, “would raise eyebrows everywhere, because that would be a gargantuan change.”
The only real eyebrow-raising element of this is that it’s national news. [...]
Cutting it at the Front of the Classroom
The American Federation of Teachers has released a statement on a report we published yesterday. The report’s called “Rush to Judgment: Teacher Evaluation in Public Education.” As the title suggests, it looks at the ways school systems figure out who’s cutting it at the front of the classroom and who isn’t. It’s a pretty important [...]
Breaking the Greed / Virtue Dichotomy in Teacher Pay
Commenting on the new issue of Quality Counts, which compares states on teacher pay measures and suggests that teachers make less than comparable professions, AFTie Ed says:
It leaves open the question of why people go into teaching. As the song says “it’s not about a salary, it’s all about reality, teachers teach and do the [...]
Moral Education
From the AFTBlog: “Yes, deliberately falsifying documents is wrong, but….”
Rule of thumb in sentence construction: the word “but” does not belong after the words “falsifying documents is wrong.” Whatever you’re writing is sure to go downhill from there.
In this case, AFTie Beth is excusing a California school district that appears to have engaged in some [...]
Teacher Voice on Master’s Degrees
AFTie Ed responds to the posts below on Master’s degrees, just after I chided union blogs for non-responsiveness. My bad. His arguments, as near as I can tell, are as follows:
1) Unions like the AFT are supporting progams right now in places like New Mexico that expand the kinds of professional development for which teachers [...]
Foreign Policy and Five-Year-Olds
My friends in the pundit class tell me Bill Richardson is a super-accomplished guy with lots of foreign policy expertise. As AFTie Ed notes, he’s also racked up some domestic policy accomplishments in New Mexico, including on education. Kindergarten-plus, which gives at-risk kids a jump start on kindergarten during the summer, is a great program, [...]
Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed 
College and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success
03/05/10 | Andrew Rotherham's reaction to New York as a Race to the Top finalist is mentioned on National Journal.
03/04/10 | Andrew Rotherham defends the U.S. Senate's filibuster rule in a column for the New York Daily News.
03/04/10 | Kevin Carey is quoted on college tuition increases in a CNN article.
03/02/10 | Chad Aldeman's False Fronts report generated a news article in Inside Higher Ed.
03/02/10 | Kevin Carey guestblogs about college accreditation on Higher Ed Watch.
03/02/10 | Chad Aldeman's False Fronts report generated a news article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.