Randi Weingarten

The person recently selected as one of the nation's top teachers has used her bully pulpit to give the nation a window on the realities confronting students and teachers -- and to ask for help.

"In any school system in any state, you have families in crisis right now,"...

When it comes to financial literacy, most Americans are alarmingly uninformed. According to a 2009 study, adults earned only a C grade when their financial acumen was assessed, little better than high school students, who mainly received failing grades. Lack of awareness is an economic millstone for...

There have been countless wonderful tributes to teachers over the course of this Teacher Appreciation Week. Like many others who have given shout outs to teachers this week -- I've thought of Mr. Swift and Ms. Gaffney -- teachers who made a huge difference in my life. Teachers deserve these...

In the debate over school improvement, individuals and groups advancing agendas with little or no evidence to back them up have somehow claimed the mantle of education "reformers," while teachers, their unions and others with actual education expertise often are portrayed as obstacles to reform--despite their desire to be involved...

Since some people think that everything in education can be reduced to a number, let's follow their lead.

President Obama got high marks from teachers and parents when he said in his recent State of the Union address that schools should stop teaching to the test and instead give teachers latitude to teach with creativity and passion.

I immediately recalled times as a teacher when...

My beloved New York Giants seem like a different team than they were just a month ago, when they were coming off a humbling string of losses. If the Giants' owners had simply demanded a new lineup, or the coaching staff had told the players to figure it out on...

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, and in McDowell County, W.Va., as in many rural communities, the opportunities are exceedingly limited.

McDowell County, located...

"As Ohio goes, so goes the nation" has taken on new meaning after this week's election. The people of Ohio used their citizen veto decisively to repeal legislation that would have stripped police officers, teachers, firefighters and other public workers of their right to bargain collectively.

It...

Here's what you'll find in too many public schools in America today: "Classrooms" fashioned out of storage rooms, school cafeterias and stages because of school overcrowding. Extreme temperatures in classrooms that require students and staff to wear coats indoors in the winter and to swelter in dangerous heat in warmer...

America was founded, and has flourished, as a land of opportunity -- a place where, by working hard and seizing opportunities, each generation can do better than the last. But this very American notion seems frayed, as the effects of economic recession have taken a terrible toll on our kids...

As we have just marked the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, much has been written and spoken about the day and its effects, short- and long-term.

I've spoken with many people about how the terror of that day played out in our public schools. New...

In this day and age, attacking educators seems to be the norm, but I took notice last week when a blogger attacked me for a badly worded presentation concerning a Connecticut law designed to empower parents to improve their children's schools. He had a point. The presentation, given at an...

This post was co-written by Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

"The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers and principals, since student learning is ultimately...

One week before we celebrated Fourth of July to commemorate our freedom and independence, I traveled to Cairo, Egypt, to meet with teachers union leaders from Arab Spring countries, who are struggling to win their own revolutions for freedom and independence. As I listened to the stories of these brave...

For all the efforts to improve education that are made in classrooms, school board meetings, research institutions, congressional chambers and elsewhere, one factor has in many ways eclipsed them all: an intense focus on standardized testing. High-stakes tests -- flaws and all -- seem to be driving everything from what...

It was Franklin D. Roosevelt who said taxes are the dues we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society. Although nobody likes paying taxes, my hunch is the vast majority of Americans agree. Every April, they file their returns and then go about their business. They may...

I was encouraged to see Joel Klein's recent opinion piece ("What the School Reform Debate Misses About Teachers," Sunday, March 13, 2011) in the Washington Post.

While he ignored the proposals the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has advanced in the last 14 months (A Continuous...

Over the last three weeks, Gov. Scott Walker and his allies in the Wisconsin Legislature made a mockery of representative government. Rather than listen to the citizens of Wisconsin, who are strongly opposed to stripping teachers, nurses and other workers of their rights, Walker rammed through a bill that was...

I recently had the terrifying experience of being a guest on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." I put stage fright aside because Stephen Colbert, one of the sharpest wits in comedy, was dealing with a serious issue -- attempts in Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere to strip public workers...