Using a phone bank and other organizing tools, support staff at the Oregon School Employees Association's Centennial Chapter 113 spent months recruiting 2,000 classified employees, teachers and social service employees to sign up for First Book, a national nonprofit dedicated to putting books in the hands of children who need them most.
Following a new report detailing how Wall Street sold toxic deals to school districts and municipalities that are costing communities billions in fees, interest and other payments, educators, parents, community members and local officials have joined together for a Day of Action in cities across the country.
The AFT has awarded AFT Innovation Fund grants for teachers in New York and Connecticut to offer solutions to problems with their state's rollout of the Common Core State Standards.
A broad-based group of organizations has released "A New Social Compact for American Education"—a groundbreaking rethinking of accountability that replaces the current paradigm of "test and punish" with a focus on what is needed to support and improve teaching and learning.
One rotten apple at Time magazine—specifically, the cover of an upcoming issue about teacher tenure—is generating lots of anger and activism among AFT members and our friends and allies.
The AFT is challenging the assumptions of a new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute on school support staff, which suggests that the increase in the number of these employees is "adding more hands, but not necessarily more value."