The RA received an overview of national educational trends from an expert who is an old friend, AFT Executive Vice President Toni Cortese.
"I was and still am proud to be a part of this mighty, mighty union," said Cortese. "And it just got mightier a few minutes ago," she added, noting the unification of NYSUT and NEA/New York.
Cortese is a scholar of educational policy, said NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira, and an articulate critic of the shortcomings of the No Child Left Behind Act. Under the act, Cortese said, many students are funneled into unaccountable private tutoring services.
"What right do we have as a society to take untested methods and use our kids as guinea pigs?" she said.
The government should use what works, Cortese said - smaller classes, modern textbooks and professional development oriented to the classroom.
The AFT is taking a close look at teachers' views of testing, with a report coming out later this year. With the federal emphasis on testing escalating, curriculum is narrowing." Many students in impoverished areas are basically only getting reading and math, she said. "That's not a liberal education."
Cortese paraphrased her colleague, the late Sandy Feldman, president of the AFT and formerly of the United Federation of Teachers, in saying that every school should be a school to which we want to send our own children.
"There's not the will out there," Cortese said sadly, to provide the sources to make that dream a reality. "What could be more important to our country and our democracy?"