BUFFALO, N.Y. April 30, 2015 - More than 2,000 union delegates from across the state will gather in Buffalo this week for New York State United Teachers' annual Representative Assembly, eager to continue the fight against an over-reliance on standardized testing and evaluations that do nothing to improve teaching and learning and have high-stakes consequences for students, schools and teachers.
NYSUT's Representative Assembly will kick off Friday with a general session at 2 p.m., following a labor rally at noon in Niagara Square. General sessions will continue Friday night and into Saturday afternoon. Several hundred union and retiree council presidents will begin work on Thursday at a special conference for local leaders. The complete schedule of events can be found online.
NYSUT President Karen E. Magee will deliver her State of the Union address on Friday evening.
Among those addressing the convention will be American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten; New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and New York State Teacher of the Year Charles Giglio.
Delegates are also expected to debate nearly 50 resolutions that direct the statewide union's policies.
New York State United Teachers is a statewide union with more than 600,000 members in education, human services and health care. NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.