U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan today commended New York state and its education leaders for agreeing on a teacher/principal evaluation process and said he was no longer concerned about the state’s eligibility for federal Race to the Top dollars. According to the Gotham Schools blog, Duncan “praised the state’s collaboration with NYSUT” and said: “What you [...]

New York State Labor Commissioner Colleen Gardner, a longtime friend of NYSUT, will deliver the keynote address and be honored for her work on behalf of working women at the “Women and Work: Taking the Lead Conference” next month. The conference, sponsored by the Workforce Development Institute, will be go from 4:30-9 p.m., March 9, [...]

Jeff Peneston, New York state’s 2011 teacher of the year and a member of the United Liverpool Faculty Association, will be recognized as one of the top educators in the nation at the NEA Foundation’s Salute to Excellence in Education Gala later this week in Washington, DC. Peneston, a ninth grade science teacher at Liverpool [...]

NYSUT has a proud tradition of being an active and contributing part of communities throughout New York state. The most recent example was this just-passed weekend when the union was the lead sponsor of a radiothon to raise money for the Albany-area Center for Disability Services. The effort, held in conjunction with a telethon, raised [...]

A third-generation teacher and a member of the National Education Association, one of NYSUT’s national affiliates, attended last night’s State of the Union address at the invitation of President Barack Obama. Sara Ferguson is an elementary math and literary teacher in Chester Upland School District, one of the poorest districts in Pennsylvania. Earlier this month, [...]

The NEA Public Relations Council of the States awarded NYSUT’s “It’s What We Do” campaign an award of merit at its annual awards banquet held last week. The National Education Association is one of NYSUT’s national affiliates.

Sabrina Stevens Shupe is a self-described teacher-turned-activist who has become one of the nation’s most articulate and thoughtful young voices in the conversation about so-called education reform. Shupe is a former elementary teacher in the Denver area and a member of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, an NEA affiliate. She was one of the organizers [...]

Think back to your high school days. Remember studying about the positive impact of the labor movement on American society? Neither do I. Nor do my kids. A study by the AFT’s Albert Shanker Institute and the American Labor Studies Center — “How Labor’s Story is Distorted in High School Textbooks” — found that texts [...]

The prestigious Schott Foundation for Public Education, a philanthropic organization that supports efforts to ensure that all students have access to a high-quality public education, will honor NYSUT Friday night for its education advocacy. In a letter to NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi, Schott Foundation CEO John Jackson said the union was selected for the award [...]

UPDATE: Capital Tonight: Assembly Told To Prepare For Three-Day Session The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that Gov. Cuomo and legislative leaders are discussing the possibility of a special session this month to “approve an economic package that may include new taxes on the wealthy.” Lawmakers are currently scheduled to return to Albany in [...]