NEA Leaders Propose Teacher-Evaluation Shift

National Education Association officials announced last week that they would put a “ policy statement ” before the union’s governing body for approval that, among other changes, would open the door to the use of “valid, reliable, high-quality standardized tests” of student learning, in combination with multiple other measures, for evaluating teachers.

The statement, passed by the NEA’s board of directors this month won’t take effect unless the union's 9,000-delegate Representative Assembly signs on to it at its meeting over the Fourth of July weekend in Chicago. Those delegates could significantly modify the statement before approval, and it is likely to be a topic of lively debate.

Still, the announcement comes as a major entry by the 3.2 million-member union in discussions about teacher evaluation, tenure, and due process. To date, the NEA has remained silent on most of those issues, even while the president of the 1.5 million-member American Federation of Teachers, the other national teachers’ union, has put forth various proposals. ( "NEA, AFT Choose Divergent Paths on Obama Goals," ...