Spring Cleaning
A social justice movement is bringing sweeping change to teachers unions
When we last paid a call upon those nemeses of all things excellent, the teachers unions, we found them in a sad and sorry state. Exuding anodeur of mildew and mothballs,even their ability to stifle innovation and lower expectations seemed in doubt. But it turns out that whilst we were reading (every day and everywhere) about the unions’ demise, something rather unexpected, not to mention frankly exciting, has been happening within their ranks. In short: a social justice movement is bringing sweeping change to teacher unions. Will yours be next?
No deal
The first stop on our rank-and-file takeover tour: Massachusetts, where this weekend,Barbara Madeloni, an unabashed critic of over testing and privatization disguised as reform, was elected president of the state’s largest teacher union, the 110,000 member Massachusetts Teachers Association. Madeloni, who ran as part of a union reform caucus called Educators for a Democratic Union, is calling for a three-year moratorium on high-stakes testing (including field testing), a full-throated defense of public education, alliances with parents and students and a frank acknowledgement of the state’s deep racial and Spring Cleaning | EduShyster:
The first stop on our rank-and-file takeover tour: Massachusetts, where this weekend,Barbara Madeloni, an unabashed critic of over testing and privatization disguised as reform, was elected president of the state’s largest teacher union, the 110,000 member Massachusetts Teachers Association. Madeloni, who ran as part of a union reform caucus called Educators for a Democratic Union, is calling for a three-year moratorium on high-stakes testing (including field testing), a full-throated defense of public education, alliances with parents and students and a frank acknowledgement of the state’s deep racial and Spring Cleaning | EduShyster: