STEM Teacher and WEA Member is the 2013 National Teacher of the Year

The Council of Chief State School Officers announced that Jeff Charbonneau, a 9-12th grade Chemistry, Physics and Engineering teacher in Washington state, is the 63rd National Teacher of the Year. Charbonneau, along with all 2013 State Teachers of the Year, was recognized by President Barack Obama in a ceremony at the White House. Charbonneau teaches [...]

Educators Key Players in Shaping New Teacher Evaluation Systems

By John Rosales A growing number of state teacher evaluation systems are focused exclusively on using tests to measure student growth or achievement. Even worse, administrators and education officials nationwide are employing evaluation systems with little input from educators or teacher organizations. “As more states and districts seek to improve teacher evaluation, the risk is [...]

How Should We Support New Teachers? Arne Duncan Hears From NEA-Student Members

By Mary Ellen Flannery How can this nation do a better job of attracting, supporting, and learning from great teachers? U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan really wants the answer to that question—the country really needs the answer to that question, he said—and he got it on Monday from a group of NEA-Student members. These [...]

Education Leaders Embrace Universal Principles to Transform Teaching Profession

By Amy Buffenbarger Leaders from eight national education organizations signed a shared vision for the future of the teaching profession at the 2012 Labor Management Conference in Cincinnati. The document outlines seven core elements of a transformed teaching profession: A culture of shared responsibility and leadership; Recruiting top talent into schools prepared for success; Continuous [...]

Education Department Launches “National Conversation” on Teacher Quality

By Michelle Hudgins and Tim Walker National Education Association leaders believe a new Department of Education proposal is a promising proposition toward improving the teaching profession. This week, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan launched RESPECT (Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence and Collaborative Teaching), a proposal that challenges states and districts to work with teachers [...]

Van Roekel Announces Plan to Strengthen Teaching Profession

By Tim Walker National Education Association (NEA) President Dennis Van Roekel today laid out a new action agenda for the nation’s largest organization of educators that will help transform the teaching profession and accelerate student learning. Speaking at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C., Van Roekel detailed three major strategies that will guide the NEA’s [...]

“Mitchell 20″ Spotlights Educator-Led Transformation

By Will Potter As educators are facing attacks across the country – from budget cuts to bargaining rights – a new documentary spotlights a group of teachers in a low-income, high-needs school who are taking a stand. “Mitchell 20: Teacher Quality is the Answer” is the story of 20 teachers who pledge to earn National [...]

Grading Teacher Effectiveness Strategies

By Tim Walker As more state legislatures across the nation pass laws requiring teacher evaluations, the debate over what to actually do with the data is heating up. Many districts are using these evaluations – many based on narrow, value-added data – to label teachers “ineffective” and subsequently remove them from the classroom. Scrutiny of [...]

Professional Learning Deserves Professional Pay

By Tim Walker The recently released 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a periodic review of test results among elementary and secondary students in the United States, contained an interesting nugget. It suggests that, contrary to most of the recent research, having a teacher with an advanced degree is associated with higher student achievement. [...]

Poll: Americans Give Public School Teachers High Marks

By Tim Walker The 2011 Phi Delta Kappa survey  has good news for the nation’s public school educators. More than 70 percent of Americans say they have “trust and confidence” in the men and women who are teaching. Furthermore, 69 percent give teachers in their specific community a letter grade of an A or B. [...]

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