An editorial in today's Washington Post Union officials are disturbingly inflexible toward charter schools sees Randi Weingarten's recent speech to the National Press Club, which has been described as a shift in the AFT's willingness to think more broadly about teacher evaluation, support and when necessary dismissal, as stuck at the upper echelon of the national union. The editorial uses this to comment on the union's continued resistance to change.


What's most discouraging is what the actions say about the willingness of teachers unions to embrace change. The recalcitrance in New York is not an isolated instance as evidenced, for example, by the refusal of union officials to sign on to the District's application for federal money. Washington Teachers' Union President George Parker objected to a new system of teacher evaluations that uses student test scores as a major factor. We have cheered Ms. Weingarten for her willingness to speak out in favor of reforms such as performance pay or better due process; she appears more forward-thinking than her counterparts in the National Education Association. But statesmanlike words mean little if not matched by action

I too had hoped Weingarten 's propsal was the start of something special.
Leadership Help January 17, 2010
Leadership Help January 24, 2010