AFT affiliates in Alabama recently announced a multifaceted campaign to address the very serious issues facing the state's public school students and its communities. In the coming months, union members will be engaging elected officials and community members in a variety of initiatives designed to improve conditions and provide much-needed financial resources for Alabama's public schools.

A Los Angeles Times series that rated thousands of elementary school teachers based on their students' average test score gains rattled the education world -- including many who study teacher effectiveness for a living.

At the core of the provocative newspaper report is a new method of teacher evaluation with an esoteric name -- "value-added" -- and a complicated statistical formula. This measurement is designed to estimate the average progress a teacher's students made during a given school year, compared to other teachers, as captured by standardized tests.

At a time when officers of the Mendocino County Federation of School Employees, (AFT Local 4345) bargaining team conceded to furlough days, a freeze in pay, and increased health care premium costs for classified and certificated members at the bargaining table, management of the Mendocino County Office have had their calendar years increased. About 15 union members and staff came to Monday's board of trustees meeting looking for answers which they said were not available to the negotiations team and not disclosed until Sept. 2.

NYSUT website information

California recently signed into law the federal jobs bill that Congress passed in August.  The spirit and intent of the law is to retain, recall and hire classroom staff in light of our challenging economic times.  This money cannot be used to establish, restore or supplement a rainy day fund, supplant state funds to establish a rainy day fund, reduce or retire a state debt or supplant funds to rduce or retire a state debt. 

The GJUHSD will be receiving approximately $450,000.  It would be morally bankrupt and ethically wrong for the Distirct to fail to use this money this year.  If this money is set aside the families of employees will suffer, academic programs will suffer, and student learning will be negatively impacted (due to a possible rise in class size). 

LAFSE Officiers 2010-2012

Union leader makes several stops during Sept. 8th trip to Charleston

Standardized exams — the multiple-choice, bubble tests in math and reading that have played a growing role in American public education in recent years — are being overhauled.

Over the next four years, two groups of states, 44 in all, will get $330 million to work with hundreds of university professors and testing experts to design a series of new assessments that officials say will look very different from those in use today.

The new tests, which Secretary of Education Arne Duncan described in a speech in Virginia on Thursday, are to be ready for the 2014-15 school year.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Spending in California classrooms declined as a percentage of total education spending over a recent five-year period, even as total school funding increased, according to a Pepperdine University study released Wednesday.

Accountability has taken on an increased emphasis in schools across the country as a result of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which requires that schools show evidence of "adequate yearly progress," known as AYP, for all groups of students. Schools in years past considered to be high achieving may not make AYP if certain subgroups, such as English-language learners or minority groups, are not scoring at proficient levels. Schools that don't make the mark must provide transfer options for their students and provide supplemental services, including tutoring.

NCLB defines national standards for achievement, but it's important to remember that each state designates its own test for measuring achievement. Consequently, some states have higher standards than others. In addition, a number of states have successfully applied for waivers when large numbers of their schools have been considered "in need of improvement."