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1) The Business of the Association. The
appearance of presidential candidates at the National Education Association
Representative Assembly (RA) in Philadelphia meant even less attention than
usual was paid to the convention's ostensible purpose – setting policy and
practices for the union.
There is no question that today's delegate is much less
inclined to approve – or even debate at length – extreme positions or fringe
issues. Any attempt to
boycott orange juice these days would be shunted off to the Executive
Committee for (in)action. In addition, delegates are beginning to suggest
some common-sense principles to streamline proceedings, like "letting the
editors of NEA Today edit" instead of mandating stories from the
floor of the RA, and advising delegates if the union is already doing
something that an agenda item calls on the union to do.
NEA has also vastly improved its
own coverage of the convention, providing members and observers alike
with the text of new business items, legislative amendments, and resolution
amendments from the floor. You can read NEA President Reg Weaver's keynote
speech and view video of various other events.
This greatly alters EIA's coverage. My days of being
the sole source of this kind of information outside of NEA are over, and
that's all to the good. So let me just hit some highlights of action taken
on selected policies.
* Legislative Agenda amendments. Some additional
language was added to the union's agenda for the immigration issue,
including its rejection of "criminalization of undocumented immigrants." NEA
also deleted any reference to "national security" in its immigration policy.
Support for mandatory kindergarten was almost
unanimous. A voice vote from the 8,500 delegates had only three or so
dissenters. The addition of "performance appraisal" and "job assignment" to
the list of things for which student test scores cannot be used was added to
the legislative agenda without objection from a single delegate.
Finally, the union deleted its support for the
extension of Daylight Savings Time, since the last Congress adopted it.
* Policy Statements. An addition was made to
NEA's policy statement on charter schools. The new sentence reads: "School
boards must be authorized to deny applications that do financial harm to the
authorizing school districts."
* New Business Items. Delegates from the Oakland
Education Association in California submitted their usual boatload of items,
most of which (like the 48-hour national strike) were overwhelmingly
rejected.
Other controversial or fringe items, like the "parental
accountability model," the three-minute "Peace for the World" observance,
the request for treadmills for RA delegates, and the vote of no confidence
in President Bush, were reworded, withdrawn, referred, or not considered,
respectively.
The delegates also pulled their annual punch at
Eli Broad, referring to committee an item that directed NEA to
"aggressively work to expose the dangers of pursuing the 'Broad Prize' and
other veiled awards promoted by those who seek to destroy public education."
* Resolutions. No significant change was made to
the resolutions from the floor, but several amendments that had gone through
the committee process were adopted without debate by the delegates.
Resolution B-25 now states that the identification of
gifted, talented and creative students must be "culturally sensitive."
Resolution D-20 now includes an amended sentence that
reads, "The Association also believes that the use of student achievement
measures such as standardized test scores or grades to determine the
competency, quality, or effectiveness of any professional educator is
inappropriate and is not a valid measure."
Resolution E-9 now begins, "The National Education
Association believes that federal and state mandates regarding school
programs should be broad, general guidelines, must be fully funded, and must
not be based on student achievement."
Resolution F-10 added this sentence: "The compensation
system may recognize and reward the additional knowledge and skills that
education employees have acquired or may acquire over their careers." An
attempt from the floor to delete this was defeated.
Resolution F-58 on retirement was completely rewritten.
If you have an interest in that, let me know and I can fax the two page
resolution to you.
One new resolution states, "The National Education
Association believes that global warming causes significant measurable
damage to the earth and its inhabitants. The Association also believes that
humans must take steps to change activities that contribute to global
warming. The Association supports environmentally sound practices that abate
global warming and its effects."
A second new resolution states NEA's support for Native
Hawaiian claims of self-determination and sovereignty.
It was a long four days, but a sober judgment would be
that there will be no appreciable difference in NEA's policies and actions
in the coming school year. One can see a slight easing of its position on
alternative pay and hardening of its positions on charter schools and the
use of student performance measures for anything other than an evaluation of
the student.
I expect no significant change in NEA policy or
direction until 2009. Not only will America have a new President, which will
determine whether NEA submits its wish list, but the union itself will have
a new president, and you never can know for certain what he has in mind.
2) Running Second. In keeping with my inability
to smoothly transition from one endeavor to the next, writing about public
education and teachers' unions has inevitably led to… a weekly column on
running.
I invite all my runner/readers out there to head over
to
The Complete Running Network for tips, inspiration and general obsession
about the sport we know and love. (Add
this gadget to your iGoogle home page for easy links.) My column is
scheduled to appear each Friday, and you can take a look at the
first one here.
3) Last Week's Intercepts. EIA's blog,
Intercepts, covered these topics from July 9-16:
*
Line of Succession. Where's Richard III when you need him?
*
In Defense of Bubbles. What if we didn't have those despised "fill in
the bubble" tests?
*
The Dog Ate My NEAFT Partnership. The thrill is gone.
*
If a Paradigm Shifts in the Woods… NEA whites out 1/2, types in 1/3.
4)
Quote of the Week.
"This is whispering truth to power." – Washington Post columnist Ruth
Marcus on Sen. Barack Obama's speech to the NEA Representative Assembly.
(July 11
Washington Post) |
