American Federation of Teachers

National Labor Conference Focuses Seeks To Improve Teaching Profession

AP | DAN SEWELL | Posted 05.22.2012

CINCINNATI -- Educators including the U.S. secretary of education, teacher union leaders and school administrators will focus this week on ways to tra...

Joy Resmovits

Race To The Top Adds School Districts To U.S. Education Competition

HuffingtonPost.com | Joy Resmovits | Posted 05.22.2012

Race to the Top, the U.S. Education Department's $4.35 billion contest, is getting personal. The competition this year opens $400 million in grant ...

Teacher Appreciation -- More Than Just a Week?

Randi Weingarten | Posted 05.10.2012

Randi Weingarten

Teacher Appreciation Week soon will be over. Will America's teachers continue to be subjected to degradation and prevented from having a meaningful say in their profession? Or will their dedication and desire to help kids be respected?

The Global Search for Education: In Search of Professionals - Part 2

C. M. Rubin | Posted 05.10.2012

C. M. Rubin

Today we continue the conversation with someone who understands better than anyone why professional excellence is one of the most vital investments we can make in our children's future: Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers.

The Global Search for Education: In Search of Professionals - Part 1

C. M. Rubin | Posted 05.08.2012

C. M. Rubin

Here's a powerful challenge to the world of education: Improve the profession of teaching.

Paul Blumenthal

Sheldon Adelson Finally Tops George Soros

HuffingtonPost.com | Paul Blumenthal | Posted 04.30.2012

WASHINGTON -- Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino tycoon, and his family topped the all-time list of disclosed individual donors to independent sp...

To Innovate, Look to Those Who Educate

Randi Weingarten | Posted 04.13.2012

Randi Weingarten

When teachers and other school employees work collaboratively with administrators and others on school improvement, students do better.

John Celock

Union Leaders Target Bullying

HuffingtonPost.com | John Celock | Posted 04.11.2012

WASHINGTON - The heads of the nation's two largest teachers' unions stressed Tuesday night the need for government leaders to continue to focus on bul...

Joy Resmovits

Harkin, Ryan Spar Over Littlest Learners

HuffingtonPost.com | Joy Resmovits | Posted 03.29.2012

Even as a growing body of research attests to the importance of early childhood education as an antidote to poverty, the House is preparing to pass a ...

California School Board Blocks Parent Takeover Bid

Reuters | Posted 05.28.2012

By Troy Anderson ADELANTO, Calif., March 28 (Reuters) - A group of activist parents in this impoverished community were thwarted again...

Hostile Takeover: Parents Seek Control Of Failing School In High-Stakes U.S. Education Reform

Reuters | Posted 05.19.2012

(Corrects information about the founding of Parent Revolution, adds that union backed anti-trigger activist in Florida, clarifies proposed structure...

Doubling-Down on Dumb: The GOP War on Being Smart

Peter Smirniotopoulos | Posted 05.15.2012

Peter Smirniotopoulos

We're supposed to be exploring every conceivable alternative for turning the domestic economy around. So why are Republicans, at state and federal levels, waging a rhetorical, legislative, and administrative War on Education?

Joy Resmovits

Teachers Can't Get No Satisfaction, Says Survey

HuffingtonPost.com | Joy Resmovits | Posted 03.07.2012

After a year that brought budget cuts, booming class sizes, radical hiring changes and governors who curtailed collective-bargaining rights, teachers'...

Joy Resmovits

Race To The Top -- Coming To A City Near You

HuffingtonPost.com | Joy Resmovits | Posted 03.02.2012

Opening a new phase for the Obama administration's role in education reform, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sig...

Fixing the Fixation on Testing

Randi Weingarten | Posted 04.22.2012

Randi Weingarten

Nations that outperform the United States have gotten the right balance -- emphasizing teaching and learning versus testing and blaming.

Joy Resmovits

Broad Coalition Argues Bills Undercut Brown v. Board

HuffingtonPost.com | Joy Resmovits | Posted 01.25.2012

A broad coalition of 38 civil rights, education reform and business groups sent House education chairman John Kline a scathing letter Wednesday, descr...

Tenure Rights Weaken As States Look To Fire Teachers Who Aren't Performing

AP | KIMBERLY HEFLING | Posted 03.25.2012

WASHINGTON — America's public school teachers are seeing their generations-old tenure protections weakened as states seek flexibility to fire te...

Calling the Right Plays to Help Teachers Succeed

Randi Weingarten | Posted 03.18.2012

Randi Weingarten

We all have an interest in ensuring that our children's teachers are effective, but we must help them sharpen their game, not just keep score.

States Backtracked On Reform Commitments, Face Threats To Federal Funds

AP | By CHRISTINE ARMARIO | Posted 01.10.2012

MIAMI -- Several states that won a slice of the U.S. Department of Education's $4.3 billion Race to the Top competition have had to delay plans to imp...

Joy Resmovits

Group Encourages Ditching Standardized Tests

HuffingtonPost.com | Joy Resmovits | Posted 01.06.2012

Last year, stress about Pennsylvania's state standardized tests caused third grader John Michael Rosenblum to start scratching himself so hard in his ...

How Do We Move Mountains?

Sabrina Stevens | Posted 02.27.2012

Sabrina Stevens

Here's hoping that 2012 will be the year when we stop abandoning schools and people as "failures" and begin reconnecting communities to build long-term educational, social and economic success.

Restoring Hope to McDowell County

Randi Weingarten | Posted 02.15.2012

Randi Weingarten

In America, a great public education is our primary opportunity agent for a better future. Yet as our economic struggles have reminded us, educational opportunity and economic prospects are inextricably linked.

Huge Initiative Targets Some Of Nation's Lowest-Performing Schools

AP | By LAWRENCE MESSINA | Posted 01.17.2012

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A coalition that includes a Fortune 500 company, labor unions and nonprofit foundations outlined plans Thursday to spend the next...

Simone Landon

Detroit Area Charter School Teachers Form Union

HuffingtonPost.com | Simone Landon | Posted 12.15.2011

After a six-month organizing drive, teachers at a suburban Detroit charter school voted to unionize on Wednesday, simultaneously certifying a new unio...

Teacher Evaluations Key To Chances For No Child Left Behind Waivers

Education Week | Stephen Sawchuk | Posted 02.12.2012

Where their teacher-quality proposals are concerned, the fates of the 11 states that have bid for waivers of core principles of the No Child Left Behi...