NEA Shifts Position on Teacher Evaluations

"Thank God for your unyielding belief that
in the toughest of circumstances

every child, every child, deserves a chance.

I just wish those folks who are attacking you now,

I wish those folks who are trying to ascribe the blame

for the worst recession America has had since the Great Depression

knew you a little better."

--- Vice President Joe Biden

This from the New York Times:

Catching up to the reality already faced by many of its members, the nation’s largest teachers’ union on Monday affirmed for the first time that evidence of student learning must be considered in the evaluations of school teachers around the country.

In passing the new policy at its assembly here, the 3.2 million-member union, the National Education Association, hopes to take a leadership role in the growing national movement to hold teachers accountable for what students learn — an effort from which it has so far conspicuously stood apart.


But blunting the policy’s potential impact, the union also made clear that it continued to oppose the use of existing standardized test scores to judge teachers, a core part of the federally backed teacher evaluation overhauls already under way in at least 15 states.

“N.E.A. is and always will be opposed to high-stakes, test-driven evaluations,” said Becky Pringle, the secretary-treasurer of the union, addressing the banner-strung convention hall filled with the 8,200-member assembly that votes on union policy.

The union’s desire both to join and to stand apart from a White House-led effort to improve teacher performance represents the delicate situation it finds itself in as it confronts what Dennis Van Roekel, the union president, called “the worst environment for teachers I’ve ever seen.” Amid deep budget cuts and layoffs, the union has lost more than 30,000 members this year, and is fighting back against legislative efforts to curtail its collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin, Tennessee, Arizona and other states.

In response, union leaders, who spent last year’s Fourth of July weekend challenging the Obama administration’s promotion of charter schools and high-stakes standardized testing, spent this year’s trying to close ranks and encouraging even those union members who are furious at those policies to embrace calls for change — if on their own terms.

On Monday, the assembly voted by secret ballot to give Mr. Obama an early endorsement for his 2012 presidential run, a move that will allow the union to begin channeling its considerable political resources to the campaign. The strong showing in favor — 72 percent — was foreshadowed by the standing ovations that greeted Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who gave an impassioned pro-union speech here Sunday.

“There is an organized effort to place the blame for the budget shortfall squarely on the shoulders of teachers and other public workers, and it is one of the biggest scams in modern American history,” Mr. Biden told the educators. In contrast to that threat, the differences between the White House and the union, he said, were like disputes within the same family...

NEA Spends $9.2 million to Kill NCLB

This from the Asia Times:

Washington lobbyists spend a record

WASHINGTON - The old jab about the United States having the best democracy money can buy still has merit, according to a report out this month.

For every day Congress was in session last year, lobbyists spent an average of US$17 million currying favor with legislators and federal officials, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) said in its report.

Corporations, labor unions, governments and other interests spent a record-setting $2.79 billion last year in hopes of influencing policy, the group said.

This marked a 7.7%, or $200 million, increase over 2006, also a bumper year for the influence industry. "At a time when our economy is contracting, Washington's lobbying industry has been expanding," said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the 25-year-old watchdog group. "

Lobbying seems to be a recession-proof industry.

In some respects, interests seek even more from our government when the economy slows." Their efforts get results. The National Education Association (NEA), the largest US teachers' union, succeeded in blocking reauthorization of President George W Bush's 2001 "No Child Left Behind" law governing the running and judging of schools nationwide...

...The NEA spent $9.2 million, a 464% increase. CRP said it presumed the teachers' union concentrated its lobbying efforts on "No Child Left Behind".

Hat tip to Alexander Russo.

National Teacher Salaries, 10-year Trend

The National Education Association reported recently that over the past 10 years, teachers' salaries have increased 1.3 percent in constant dollars and the average percentage change in teachers’ salaries from the 2004-05 to the 2005-06 fiscal year was 2.9 percent. This according to “Rankings and Estimates.”

Democrats: No Child Law Needs Overhaul

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- They all voted for it, but that was then. Democratic presidential candidates came out swinging Monday, not at each other but at the No Child Left Behind law. They spoke at the annual convention of the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union.

While the candidates received a warm response in the City of Brotherly Love, mere mention of President Bush's signature education law elicited loud hisses and boos from the thousands of teachers on hand.

The law, passed with broad Democratic support in 2001, requires public school students to be tested annually in reading and math in third- through eighth-grade and once in high school. It is up for renewal this year in Congress.

An NEA criticism of the law is that it forces teachers to spend too much time on test preparation instead of other forms of instruction, and many teachers wore buttons or stickers reading, "A child is more than a test score."

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., sported the sticker on his own lapel as he called for the law to be overhauled. "It's time that we get this law right," Dodd said, saying it needed higher funding levels, among other things.

..."These tests do not tell us what we need to know about our children," Edwards said.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said she has heard stories about teachers shaping their lesson plans to ensure their students do well on the reading and math tests at the expense of other subjects.

"The test is becoming the curriculum when it should be the other way around," Clinton said.
Clinton's call for universal preschool for 4-year-olds and smaller class sizes won cheers, as did Edwards' comments about improving low-income students' access to college.

Edwards said stemming poverty, a theme he often talks about on the campaign trail, would be a top priority if he were elected president.

This from News Channel 7 (AP).