This hard work often goes unrecognized. But on the final day of the 2011 NEA Representative Assembly in Chicago, examples of these innovative approaches to education reform were highlighted before 8,000 NEA delegates.
Des Moines Education Association President Melissa Spencer discussed recent success at North High School, a NEA Priority School site. With help from a federal School Improvement Grant, and teachers’ voices in the discussion, Spencer said “we went from dead-last place in our state assessments to the number two position in just under a year."
The importance of collaboration was also echoed by national Teacher of the Year Michelle Shearer and NEA member, who recognized the difficulties that educators face every day, and the toll it takes on them personally. Though the attack on teachers and public schools have deflated morale, “We have to find ways to stand strong for our students,” she said. She asked the delegation: “How long will we continue to envy other countries and how they respect their teachers before we start to do it here?”
Eskelsen conveyed information about attacks on public education in other states and what she described as a “sophisticated, national, coordinated, secretive campaign” to discredit public education and its advocates, including teacher unions. She urged educators to become involved and passionate about fighting for the education profession and also for the needs of students and their families.
Each year, the UEA convenes a House of Delegates to conduct Association business. According to the 