Professional force

The era of test-and-punish looms large in recent NYSUT history. Its bipartisan perpetrators have included, at different times, anti-teacher extremists, millionaire ideologues, test-prep profiteers and a bullying governor run amok. The “test-and-punish” doctrine falsely promoted high-stakes standardized tests as reliable yardsticks for student learning and teacher effectiveness. It mischaracterized and attacked tenure. Across the state, the overuse and abuse of standardized testing galvanized union members and parents like nothing before. And while there were many successes, cleaning up the last vestiges of the wretched test-and-punish era remains high on the union’s agenda.

In a tremendous win for the union and its next generation of members, the Board of Regents in 2022 voted to get rid of the state’s controversial edTPA requirement for teacher certification. This victory, years in the making, eliminated one of the most troublesome albatrosses from the test-and-punish era.

Aspiring educators had testified at NYSUT’s Take a Look at Teaching summits that the mandated edTPA assessment — which cost $300 and required time-consuming documentation and classroom video — was discouraging prospective educators and ruining their student teaching experiences. Carrying forward their concerns with its higher ed affiliates, NYSUT’s successful campaign to end edTPA frees the next generation of teachers to concentrate on mentored classroom experiences.

This success story is one of many examples of NYSUT’s half century of leadership on educational policy. The union from its inception was committed to providing members a voice in the many arenas that impact their professions: from local school boards to the State Education Department, Board of Regents, governor, Legislature and the courts. With our national affiliates the AFT and NEA, union advocacy on educational policy extends to the federal level.

A front-burner issue for NYSUT today — to once and for all jettison the state’s broken system of teacher evaluations — had its roots in a $4.3 billion federal grant program in 2009. While the state imposed its Annual Professional Performance Review system to get federal funding, NYSUT fought relentlessly against the idea that there should be a statewide system — or that a teacher’s evaluation should be based on student scores from a single standardized test. At one time, policymakers proposed up to 40 percent of a teacher’s APPR rating could be tied to student test scores.

Educators around the state, including a group of New York State Teachers of the Year, joined the union in making the case that the state’s standardized tests were never meant to evaluate educators. They insisted the goal of evaluations should be to support — not punish. In 2011, Teachers of the Year dramatically stood on the steps of the State Education Department to voice their outrage over APPR plans.

Adding fuel to the fire, the state rushed out new grades 3–8 standardized tests based on equally new Common Core curriculum. Many students reacted with fear and tears to tests that were suddenly high stakes. The State Education Commissioner, who had threatened to block funds to districts if they didn’t fall in line on APPR, was blasted by educators and parents alike.

The union launched a “Tell It Like It Is” campaign with statewide forums and protests that evoked an outpouring of testimony on the devastation caused by rushed imposition of high-stakes tests. A parent from Allegheny County said: “My son is stressed to the point of crying himself to sleep the night before a test.” Reports from special education teachers, forced to test several grade levels above where students were learning, carried particular anguish. Massive turnout at a 2013 NYSUT-sponsored rally in Albany channeled the outrage of thousands of parents and teachers as folk singer and parent Tom Chapin sang of engaging learning opportunity lost because it was “Not on the Test.”

In an unprecedented move, NYSUT delegates at the 2014 RA passed a resolution of “no confidence” in Education Commissioner John King, calling for his ouster. At the same RA, Karen Magee was elected NYSUT president, the first woman to hold that office.

Later that year, a new threat emerged as anti-education groups, one headed by a media dilettante and funded by Wall Street billionaires, filed lawsuits challenging New York’s due process laws establishing tenure. NYSUT countered swiftly on both the legal and communications fronts.

By 2015, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo grew more hostile, angry at the union’s pushback and particularly irate that collective bargaining had countered the punitive intentions of APPR. In a vicious budget proposal that shortchanged public schools and colleges, he sought to gut tenure and collective bargaining. He also doubled down on high-stakes testing. It’s hard to overstate how tumultuous and exhausting this time was. While NYSUT had challenged SED on many issues and protested when needed, the union previously managed to maintain ongoing collaboration with SED. Now NYSUT was at war with the State Education Department, its commissioner, the Regents and the governor. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

The union ramped up one of the most sustained campaigns in its history dedicated to educational principles. NYSUT’s full court press against “test-and-punish” encompassed political action, multi-media campaigns and full mobilization of the Member Action Center, using its newly launched mobile app and Twitter to proclaim #Allkidsneed and #invitecuomo — because the governor had yet to visit a public school. In 2015, nearly 1,000 educators and supporters rallied at the New York State Fair’s Governor’s Day to highlight how Cuomo was being unfair to public education.

Further grassroots actions ignited. Community forums proliferated. Beginning with a trickle that crescendoed into a groundswell, parents in stunning numbers opted their kids out of the state’s high-stakes tests.

Later in 2015, just months after declaring war, Cuomo capitulated: it was time for a “reboot” of tests and evaluations.

When the dust had settled, New York had implemented moratoriums on APPR misuse, dramatically reduced testing, modified tests for students with disabilities and English language learners and empowered teachers to develop educational standards. Commissioner King moved on. Meanwhile, collective bargaining continued to defend against APPR misuse.

As the world emerged from a pandemic in 2022, the worst excesses of test-and-punish diminished, but the union is not done. NYSUT will not rest until teacher evaluations are restored to local control. Similarly, the union’s “Correct the Tests” campaign advocates for a new assessment system to better measure student progress and end standardized test prep condemned by parents and teachers alike. The union strongly supports U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s More Teaching, Less Testing Act to bring balance and flexibility to federally required standardized testing.

While testing has dominated the educational landscape for close to 15 years, NYSUT’s advocacy on professional issues dates back to its earliest days. Fifty years ago, administrators scoffed if a local union proposed student-centered reforms. They “told us that we weren’t there at the bargaining table to do anything for the students,” recalled Marcella Fugle, then president of the Hamburg TA. “They said that wasn’t our role.” Local unions persisted and succeeded in bargaining class size and a host of enrichments for students.

In the 1970s, in a forerunner to edTPA, locals were being pressured to adopt “competency-based teacher education,” a questionable checklist for student teachers that ranged “from the practical to the ridiculous,” said NYSUT’s Antonia Cortese.

That was one of NYSUT’s early experiences at using the union’s strength to weigh in on professional issues. At the statewide union’s urging, local union presidents declined to sign off on “competency-based” programs, making it clear teachers expected a voice in shaping their profession. Without support from the locals, the misbegotten checklists were abandoned.

In 1983, when A Nation at Risk highlighted problems with public education, AFT’s Al Shanker surprised pundits by being among the first to see a need for change. “Al urged us to acknowledge that standards had slipped and that our students could and should be challenged,” Cortese said. “We had a very vigorous debate within the union about what our decision should be.” That decision — to support raising standards — increased the union’s credibility and its influence in shaping reforms.

NYSUT has similarly taken a leading role by launching its Take a Look at Teaching initiative. As enrollment in teacher preparation programs dropped dramatically and the number of educator vacancies soared, the union sounded the alarm in 2017 with a front-page NYSUT United story calling for action to strengthen recruitment and retention efforts. The union also noted the great need to diversify the educator work force and elevate the profession.

“All students benefit from a diverse educator workforce,” said NYSUT Executive Vice President Jolene DiBrango.

After a series of Take a Look at Teaching summits around the state, NYSUT provided “Grow Your Own” grants to more than 40 local unions to start and expand programs to encourage interest in teaching, including clubs, P–12 partnerships with higher education, community engagement, college visits and opportunities for older students to work with youngsters. A Take a Look at Teaching website includes sample lesson plans, activities and career information to encourage interest in the profession. In addition, NYSUT experts help members with questions about certification and professional learning.

Other examples of NYSUT’s continued work on professional issues include: courses taught by practitioners through the union’s Education and Learning Trust; expansion of Teacher Centers; and the creation of state-funded Albert Shanker grants to offset the costs of pursuing National Board Certification.

NYSUT’s history vividly illustrates how powerful institutional forces shape — and sometimes warp — public education. It is only the union’s collective power that provides consistent counterbalance in defending what kids and teachers need — and improving public education as a whole.