The New York State of the State address yesterday got so much attention through Twitter that the hashtag #nysos trended. Those who tweet know that’s a huge accomplishment. The speech laid down some guidelines and some gauntlets, and got some criticism and now we wait for the details. And as NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi noted in [...]

Thanks to the Saranac Lake TA for pointing out this editorial in the Plattsburgh Press-Republican.

Well, hooray for the court ruling yesterday that teachers should not be evaluated so heavily on standardized tests. Here’s the link to NYSUT’s statement that also, if you look to the right, links to one union’s view about teacher evaluation done right, and also the story outlining why NYSUT sued the Regents and State Ed [...]

The excellent points made by eight New York Teachers of the Year, detailing the many flaws in the Regents’ vote to potentially double the weight of standardized tests in teacher evaluations, is garnering national attention.  First, renowned education researcher Diane Ravitch tweeted it, and now Washington Post education blogger Valerie Strauss is circulating the letter. Read it here: [...]

NYSUT got national recognition yesterday when our own Maria Neira was sworn in to the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. Here’s the link to NYSUT’s press release. Truly an impressive list of people were tapped. Still deeply concerned from last night’s rally in Oneonta. First, how fantastic is it that more than 300 [...]

Here’s a few links to the reports generated by the state’s top teachers speaking out against changes to the way teachers are evaluated. YNN carried this report. Here’s the WNYT report. The Times-Union has two different posts. Here’s a blog post from the Observation Deck and then here’s one with the headline Top teachers give [...]

That’s what a number of TOYs feel. Those are Teachers of the Year, selected by the state Board of Regents as top teachers. Here’s their letter to the state Board of Regents, expressing what they think about changes to teacher evaluation. And here’s 2008 Teacher of the Year Rich Ognibene offering an analogy to reporters [...]

A busy start to a busy week. At 11 a.m. today, eight of the teachers the state Board of Regents have chosen as the state’s best will meet with reporters at the State Education Building at 89 Washington Ave. to meet with reporters about why they disagree with the boards recent changes to the evaluation [...]

I’m new to Twitter. Still trying to figure out hashtags. It’s great for news hounds. You don’t need to have an account. Just go to twitter.com and then search what you want to read about. For example, say you want to know what noted education historian Diane Ravitch had to say about teacher evaluation proposals [...]

Does a rainy Monday bring you up? I hope so, because the union needs everybody today. Tomorrow are school budget votes for all but the Big 5. NYSUT has radio ads on the air reminding voters to support what kids need. Click here to hear it or copy the link to send to those in [...]