By Anthony Cody. A new report from Marc Tucker is gaining some support for its supposedly new approach to holding schools accountable. But I am afraid his plan makes many of the mistakes that previous such systems have made. Here is the core of his proposal: Instead of testing all of our students every year with …
By John Thompson I twice supported Barack Obama for president. Throughout President Obama’s first term, I asked what we teachers might have done to provoke him so. Were his anti-teacher policies the avoidable result of teachers and unions being too slow to address conditions in Chicago schools? By now, it is …
By Anthony Cody. The teachers of America have been learning some very deep lessons about the nature of 21st century capitalism. And these lessons may turn teachers into a political force to be reckoned with in the years to come. Those who have studied Marxist theory know that he predicted that the exploited …
By Paul Horton. Part three of three. Perhaps even more alarming than the Obama administration is the recent campaign headed up by former CNN and CNBC talk show host Campbell Brown and former Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs against teacher tenure. Energized by the apparent success of the Vergara decision, the …
By Paul Horton. Part two of three. In the twenty-five years after the last major Civil Rights Act of 1968, most whites abandoned the Democrats in the South as white flight and the Southern Baptist Convention sought public support for private schools that were created in suburban areas like Cobb and northern …
by Paul Horton. Part one of three. My son and I took our annual road trip last week. We listen to books on tape and blues as we travel. He is learning to drive so, for the first time, he was able to take the wheel for hours at a time while I bit my fingernails and chewed my gum. On the morning of our arrival to …
By Anthony Cody When critics such as myself point out the very bad effects the Common Core tests are having, as they label more than two thirds of our children unready for college and career, we are accused of “conflating tests with standards.” UFT president Michael Mulgrew was making this argument on the AFT …
Notes on building our movement and the AFT following the Los Angeles convention By Kipp Dawson (rank-and-file delegate to the AFT convention from Pittsburgh) This is a life-or-death time for the American Federation of Teachers. The July 12-14, 2014, convention reflected both positive movement, and continuing …
By Michelle Gunderson. What would our city look like if it were run by Chicago teachers alongside other labor and community groups? This was the thought that kept running through my head as we gathered to support the launch of the new United Working Families political organization in Chicago. I have strong hope …
