Dr. John Sipple of the state Center for Rural Schools and a Cornell University professor was the keynote speaker at today’s Small City and Rural Schools Advocacy Day in Albany. He laid out, with charts and figures, the dire straits of the high-need districts across the state. You can find a lot of those charts and [...]

Long-time activist Judith E. Rudman passed away at her home on Long Island over the weekend. She was 89. She was born in Syracuse and raised in the Bronx. A Hunter College graduate, she earned her Master’s degree from the University of Cincinnati. Call me “Judy” she would say, although she did prefer “Judith” in [...]

We’ve filed two updates to our website on teacher evaluation in New York state to specifically address NYSUT’s recent settlement with the State Education Department. First up: an exhaustive listing of answers to your Frequently Asked Questions on the many components of the new evaluation process. NYSUT’s Research and Educational Services team produced the Q&A [...]

This is a television commercial created by the Schoharie Teachers Association as part of a grassroots campaign to spread the good word about New York’s public schools. It will air in the Capital Region shortly after winter break. Why did they produce it? Because they were sick of hearing that New York schools are 38th [...]

Above is the slideshow of just a few of the thousands of Valentine’s Day cards students across the state have created for Hershey One students wrote: “I write you this letter to tell you to have a heart. What I mean by that is to stop child labor. Your company is the only company that [...]

It’s not baseball season, but Michael Mulgrew threw his pitch to lawmakers today. Here’s some video so you can hear it for yourself, and pictures of the variety of UFT members and NYSUT officers who met with lawmakers to talk about what schools in New York City need. (Sorry about the lighting in a lot [...]

Here’s video of NYSUT’s Andy Pallotta remarks at today’s People’s State of the State, followed by a short video of an Occupy Albany protester and then photos from the event. Here’s the link to the Times-Union coverage of the event with video of PEF’s Ken Brynien’s comments. Even though the sun shone brightly, it was [...]

Brown and green were the colors everywhere I went over the holiday break. No white Christmas for cross-country skiing whether it was the Adirondacks or the Catskills. Even Buffalo and the Tug Hill plateau had little to no snow. Until today that is. Too many meetings and emails to catch up on today. And too [...]

Today I’m in Prattsville. Just because schools are out, doesn’t mean work stops. Members of the Windham-Ashland-Jewett Support Staff work this week to make sure schools are ready for students when they come back from break, just like schools all over the state. I’ve got another reason to go. The school serves an area ravaged by [...]

On Monday, groups caroled on Long Island and also in Buffalo. They sang mock holiday songs to protest corporate tax loopholes in the state’s tax structure. The issue is that even though this month’s tax reform was just a step on the path to make sure that all students are given the opportunity to learn. The [...]