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AFT Leader Outlines Vision to Build Better Public Education System
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Saying America’s teachers would “lead and propose, not wait and oppose,” AFT President Randi Weingarten outlined a vision to “build a system of public education as it ought to be.”
She said real changes could be made by focusing on good teaching, creating a curriculum that provides opportunity for students to learn and sharing responsibility and accountability with parents and administrators.
Weingarten spoke yesterday at AFT’s biennial convention in Seattle, which runs through Sunday. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will address the convention tomorrow.
She told the more than 3,000 delegates that the “blame the teacher crowd” would rather “affix blame than fix schools.” These critics, she continued, “would have Americans believe that there is only one choice when it comes to public education: either you’re for students, or you’re for teachers,” which Weingarten called a “bogus choice.”
It’s simply wrong to suggest that there is an epidemic of bad teachers and at the same time to ignore poverty, budget cuts, the absence of curriculum, the huge attrition of good teachers—all things we know truly hamper student success.
No teacher—myself included—wants a bad teacher in any classroom. The AFT and our locals are taking real steps to solve the problem and to strengthen teaching.
Weingarten outlined the steps to creating better public schools:
- Focus on good teaching, including better evaluation procedures. Teacher evaluations should include measures of student learning but, Weingarten said, there’s a huge difference between using multiple indicators of student learning as part of a teacher’s evaluation, and basing a teacher’s hiring, firing and promotion on standardized test scores.
- Create curriculums that provide opportunities for students to learn. Weingarten reaffirmed the union’s support for wraparound services—such as after-school, nutrition, health and early childhood programs—to be available in traditional public schools, not just charter schools.
- Share responsibility and accountability. Weingarten described a vision of accountability “that is meant to fix schools…and holds everyone responsible for doing their share.” She said that “shared responsibility should extend to the bargaining table” and described the growing number of AFT affiliates that have used “collective bargaining as a creative tool to codify collaborative approaches that improve teaching and learning.”
The complete text of Weingarten’s speech is available here.
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6 Comments
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It must be underlined, and then underlined again, the only real problem with schools, or police or fire or healthcare is the most draconian local government budget cuts since the great depression. Why concern yourself with outlining another “Vision ot build a better future” , etc.
Here’s a plan. Stop the congress and the administration from giving trillions, that’s right trillions of dollars to bankrupt financial institutions “too big to jail”
That would insure: more teachers, smaller class sizes, appropraite a safe transportation, new schools for inner cities; more sports, more music, more theatre, more art, more special trips, better nutrition, etc. Once that’s done, we can start fine tunning.
But it is just plane wrong to discuss improving education within an axiomatic frame work in which we accept cuts, and cuts, and cuts as the norm. Change that and we can improve education.
Pesident Weingarten, the attacks on teachers here in NJ have been non-stop from Governor Chris Christie. But more and more people are “pushing back” against these attacks. Christies plan is to destroy the teachers union (NJEA) Myself and other parents are quite supportive of our teachers because on the whole they are doing a wonderful job. I am also fighting to retain the teachers union because I firmly believe it is very important for our children to have a profession with a good future and benefits to ASCEND to, as a blue collar parent this is VERY IMPORTANT to me. We have to put an end to this cannibalism of our childrens future. In that regard I STRONGLY URGE the AFT to include LABOR EDUCATION in the CORE CURRICULUM of our public schools, to curtail the downward slide to the US becoming a third world country. Labor Education is quite important to our children in this fight. Because if you “don’t know your rights, than you have none.”
About he only thing I’ve EVER agreed with dennis miller on is that Teachers should get lawyer wages and lawyers should get teacher wages or less
I had the good fortune to have been at the AFT Convention in Seattle. Listening to Randi and others address the assembly it became abundantly clear that we are standing at the crossroad. It was obvious from teh comments and discussions among the delegates that we all agree that there is a “war” raging and the battle is being fought in our schools.
This is a matter of “life or death. As educators and unionists it behooves us to answer the call to arms that Randi Weingarten and Richard Trumka and the many other voices we heard have sounded.
I think a few words from a song Leonard Cohen recorded based on a poem by Frank Scott would be appropriate . “For bitter searching of the heart, Quickened with passion and with pain. We rise to play a greater part.”
Brothers and sisters it is time to rise, to meet the challenges of our time so that; ” This faith from which we start: Men shall know commonwealth again From bitter searching of (our) hearts.”
We cannot allow ourselves to be tricked so others shall gain. We need to reshape the debate with “keener hands and heart” . I know we can do it I know that we can.
what about bad administrators? In my 12 consecutive yrs teaching public school, I’ve seen plenty of bad administrators who worship bad teachers, who refuse to take prof. development to learn about the spec ed population, but just want them for the extra $ they bring. I’ve seen schools lose half their staff and enrollment because the school has such bad leadership, yet this raises no red flags at the administrative level. Clean house from the top down. And look at student growth, not how they measure up with everyone else
This discussion and the comments make me ill. We are at a crossroads, and it is a war – a war for the future of our country. Teachers deal with many problems, and believe that parents and administrators play a part, but all the whining and pointing fingers needs to stop. The good teachers step into the war and fight without rest; without tools or materials; without thought about the bell ringing or teacher prep days or summer vacation. The good teachers don’t point fingers at administrators and at parents and at the government – they jump in and teach, and make a difference and enlighten their students no matter what the obstacles. They are saviors of the world and our future.
So what what does Ms. Weingarten say? “real changes could be made by focusing on good teaching”? What have Ms. Weingarten and Mr. Trumka and their union colleagues been doing all these years? They have had ample opportunity for “good teaching” – what are they waiting for? How about joining the real world where one keeps a job if they perform and loses it if they don’t, and don’t have a union to cry “unfair” or “lack of funding” or “administration” when they don’t perform and get fired? How about working the 80 hour weeks – all year round – that I work? How about sacrificing family vacations, or even a “teacher prep day” to help a child? Why does a teacher need a prep day? Do what the rest of us do and prep at night or on weekends for meetings and conferences. Give up the 14 prep days and 3 months of summer vacation and 1 week at Fall break and 2 weeks at Christmas and 1 week at spring break and then talk about salary parity. Teachers don’t need tenure; professors need tenure. Tenure is to protect freedom of speech and academic experimentation, not first grade or PE teachers. What Ms. Weingarten and Mr. Trumka can’t admit, because they would lose their job security, is that the good teachers succeed no matter what and the union exists to protect those who never will.