Teachers

What Can Education Can Look Like Without High Stakes Testing?

December 22, 2024 Doug Selwyn, Greenfield Recorder Create! Education, Public schools, Teachers, Testing

Ballot Question 2 passed with more than 59% of the vote, ending the MCAS as a graduation requirement in Massachusetts. Students will still take the MCAS, beginning in grade 3 up through high school, and they will still be required to pass their high school classes that are aligned with the state standards, so public education will not devolve into chaos as the opponents warned in their scare ads. There will still be a focus on serving all children in all of our classrooms, children will still be assessed through multiple measures, and there is hope that freedom from the one-size-fits-all straight jacket that is a high-stakes testing regime will allow teachers to more fully respond to the diverse learners in their classrooms.

Teachers Union Staff Faced An Unexpected Labor Adversary

November 20, 2024 Mel Buer, In These Times. Resist! Lockout, NEA, Strikes, Teachers, Unions, Worker Rights

In July, the National Education Association Staff Organization (NEASO) was locked out of their jobs without pay by NEA management after an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike over compensation and working conditions. The NEA is the largest union in the country, representing over 3 million educators in the United States with a union staff of 350. The lockout lasted for six weeks, ending eventually in a contract agreement between NEASO and NEA management. In this episode, two NEASO members talk about the impacts of the lockout on NEASO staff and the larger consequences for the teachers’ unions the NEA represents across the country.

Chicago Teachers Are Fighting For A Historic Contract

October 26, 2024 Kari Lydersen, In These Times. Strategize! Chicago, Education, Illinois, Teachers, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

In 2012, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), along with thousands of supporters, took to the streets in a historic battle with then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel over his corporate education reform and austerity plans for the city’s public school system. That strike helped define the increasingly popular concept of “bargaining for the common good,” an approach “where unions make demands that would benefit not just members but the larger communities,” as CTU Vice President Jackson Potter explained two years ago on the tenth anniversary of the walk out. Today, the union is in the midst of another struggle over the future of the country’s third-largest public education system.

Los Angeles Teachers’ Road To Durable Power, Part 1: 2014–2016

September 3, 2024 Alex Caputo-Pearl, Portside. Strategize! Los Angeles, Teachers, Unions, Victory

From the 1990s to the mid-2010s, the dominant forces within the Democratic Party helped create, shape, and drive bipartisan neoliberalism in public education. Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, a variety of billionaires, and others promoted a model based on austerity, market-based carrots and sticks, attacks on teachers’ unions, and unregulated growth of charter schools that undermined traditional public schools. These policies reinforced historic racial and class-based inequities in schools and demonized educators themselves. Fast forward to 2019, when House Democrats proposed cuts to federal funding for charter schools, and the Party began constructing a 2020 platform that would, for the first time, call for guardrails, accountability, and transparency for charters.

Insurgent Slate Wins UFT Retiree Chapter Election

June 20, 2024 Crystal Lewis, Portside. Organize! Education, Health Care, Medicare, Retirees, Teachers, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

In a significant setback to the union’s leadership, former educators with the Retiree Advocate caucus of the United Federation of Teachers have ousted the incumbent Unity slate. In balloting for leadership of the union’s Retired Teachers chapter, the Retiree Advocate slate received 17,226 votes, or 63 percent of the total, while Unity, which is aligned with UFT President Michael Mulgrew, got 10,114 votes, according to unofficial results. Members of the Retiree Advocate had campaigned in opposition to the city’s efforts to switch retired city workers to a Medicare Advantage plan from their traditional Medicare. The plan is backed by the Municipal Labor Committee, of which Mulgrew is the executive vice-chair.

27,000 Virginia Education Workers Win Union Recognition

June 13, 2024 Tn Long, Portside. Organize! Education, Teachers, Unions, Victory, Virginia, Worker Rights and Jobs

Around 14,000 teachers and 13,000 support staff will now be represented by an alliance of the Fairfax County locals of the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). This win increases union density in Virginia by at least 15%, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The election victories were for the two bargaining units within the FEU: the Licensed Instructional Unit, covering all workers requiring a license, such as teachers, counselors, social workers, psychologists, librarians, and speech language pathologists; and the Operational Unit for workers such as various kinds of assistants, cafeteria workers, custodians, transportation workers, and front office staff.

Mayor Adams Keeps Pushing Medicare Advantage Despite Latest Court Defeat

May 24, 2024 Joe Maniscalco, Work Bites. Educate! Eric Adams, Legal System, Medicare, New York City (NYC), Retirees, Teachers

The City of New York’s decision to keep trying to push 250,000 municipal retirees into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance plan after yet another crushing court defeat on Tuesday has convinced many in the fight that Mayor Eric Adams and his privatization allies must be crazy. “Yesterday was a great day. Retirees won our case again,” retired public school teacher and Cross-Union Retirees Organizing Committee [CROC] member Sarah Shapiro told Work-Bites. “After spending two months deliberating, the court came down with a ruling in our favor. Yet, the city still vows to appeal again. Will the mayor and our union misleaders in the Municipal Labor Committee [MLC] ever learn? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome—these guys are insane! We vow to keep fighting!”

How Portland Teachers Led The Longest K–12 Strike In Decades

May 4, 2024 Melissa Blount and Matt Reed, Rethinking Schools. Strategize! Oregon, Portland, Schools, Strike, Teachers, Unions

We’ll never forget the day when we knew that we would win. It was 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 21, more than three weeks into the first-ever Portland, Oregon, teachers strike. We were rally marshals, tasked with walking ahead of the march to troubleshoot potential issues. Accompanied by the dull hum of a nearby freeway and the caws of seagulls above the Willamette River, we stood on the sidewalk waiting — hoping that a parade of educators would soon join us. They had every reason not to. As frustration mounted with district leaders and their refusal to address our demands for safe, equitable, and sustainable schools, so did skepticism of our union’s strategy.

Massachusetts Illegal Teacher Strike Wave Rolls On

January 12, 2024 Barbara Madeloni, Labor Notes. Resist! Education, Massachusetts, Strikes, Teachers, Worker Rights and Jobs

A wildly successful, illegal three-day strike by the Andover Education Association in November has reverberated statewide for educators in Massachusetts. The lowest-paid instructional assistants got a 60 percent wage jump immediately. Classroom aides on the higher end of the scale got a 37 percent increase. Members won paid family medical leave, an extra personal day, fewer staff meetings, and the extension of lunch and recess times for elementary students. Andover is 20 miles north of Boston, and the strike involved 10 schools. For 10 months and 27 bargaining sessions, the Andover School Committee had insisted that none of these demands was possible.

Teachers Push For Ceasefire, With Education, Agitation, Resolutions

December 20, 2023 Barbara Madeloni, Labor Notes. Resist! Anti-War, Education, Israel, Palestine, Teachers, Unions

When Becky Pringle, president of the 3-million-member National Education Association (NEA), the largest union in the country, tweeted, “We join our partner organizations along with Jewish and Muslim leaders across the globe in an urgent call for an end to the violence,” it was one more step in the growing movement among union activists demanding a ceasefire in Palestine. Teachers unions including the Chicago Teachers Union, the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Professionals, and the Massachusetts Teachers Association were some of the first unions to sign on to a ceasefire resolution spearheaded by the United Electrical Workers and Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 3000.

50 Reasons Why Portland Teachers Are Striking

November 4, 2023 Mary Ellen Flannery, Portside. Resist! Oregon, Public Education, Strikes, Teachers, Unions

There are more than 4,500 educators and 45,000 students in Portland Public Schools (PPS) in Oregon —and that adds up to about 50,000 reasons why Portland Association of Teachers (PAT) members are going on strike tomorrow. These dedicated educators and students don’t have what they need—and deserve—to be successful. Here are 50 more reasons: REASON #1: Enormous Class Sizes: Portland teacher Tiffany Koyoma-Lane has had as many as 31 students in her third-grade class, competing for her attention. Frankly, not all of them get it. “The difference between 21 and 31? Every student and family gets less of me,” she says. Class size caps would improve learning, union members say.

First-Ever Strike For Portland Teachers Tackles Student Needs

November 2, 2023 Barbara Madeloni, Labor Notes. Resist! Education, Oregon, Strikes, Teachers, Worker Rights and Jobs

The Portland Association of Teachers (PAT) walked out on strike today, closing 81 schools. The 4,500-member union is demanding more counselors, more planning time for teachers, more support for special education students, smaller class sizes, and increased salaries and cost-of-living adjustments. The union’s demands “are a paradigm shift for the state of Oregon,” said ninth grade teacher Sarah Mykkanen. “We aren’t just reacting to something negative, we are demanding a whole new view of what schools do, of how schools give students what they need.” The union represents classroom teachers in the Portland Public Schools.

The Chicago Teachers Union Won Big; What Comes Next?

September 9, 2023 Jim Daley, In These Times. Organize! Chicago, Education, Schools, Teachers, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

On the last Friday of summer break, Stacy Davis Gates was in high spirits. At a back-to-school party in the parking lot of Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) headquarters, she bounced from one group to another, smiling as she posed for photos with alderpersons, union activists, parents and children. Davis Gates, who has been the president of the CTU for a little over a year, has good reason to be happy. In April, Brandon Johnson, a former middle school teacher and CTU organizer, was elected mayor. And Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Pedro Martinez, who often mentions that he’s a product of CPS, was also at the party, beaming and shaking hands.

Southern Washington Educators Are On Strike

September 9, 2023 Lyn Neeley, Workers World. Resist! Education, Strike, Teachers, Washington, Worker Rights and Jobs

A huge picket line stretched nearly a half mile around the Washington State Evergreen Public Schools headquarters on Sept. 1. It was the first day of school, and 1,500 educators from Evergreen County, on the third day of their strike, were joined by 450 Camas County educators who had been out since Aug 28. Evergreen School District No. 114 is a public school district in the state’s Clark County, and serves the city of Vancouver, Washington. Passing cars honked, and chants rose from a sea of red Tee-shirt-wearing teachers, all carrying strike signs reading “Evergreen Education Association: ON STRIKE!” Numerous local area businesses put up signs in their windows supporting the educators’ strike.

‘Big Bargaining’ In Oakland Led To Big Gains

August 30, 2023 Vilma Serrano and Tim Marshall, Labor Notes. Strategize! Oakland, Strikes, Teachers, Worker Rights

After a seven-month contract campaign and a seven-day strike, the Oakland Education Association won substantial raises and broad benefits, including “common good” demands. It was a hugely popular tentative agreement—ratified with a 90 percent yes vote, with nearly 80 percent of members voting—in large part because of our “big bargaining” approach, meaning an expanded bargaining team with robust communication back and forth with the members. Thanks to big bargaining, the union has 50 new leaders who have developed confidence and skills. Now they want to learn how to keep up the fight at their schools by enforcing the contract.

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