National Education Association
March 22: The N.E.A. launches its pilot “Mastery in Learning Project,” which Ms. Futrell said “is designed to teach teachers how to be more directly involved in the whole education and decision-making process.”
June 7: The N.E.A., as an organizational voting member of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, approves tougher standards for accrediting colleges of education.
July 3: The N.E.A., with the full support of Ms. Futrell, reverses its longstanding opposition to tests as “a condition of employment, evaluation, criterion for certification, or promotion of teachers” and adopts a resolution in favor of requiring prospective teachers to pass pedagogical and subject-matter tests.
Aug. 28: Mary Hatwood Futrell, president of the National Education Association, asks certified teachers across the nation to ''post their framed teaching certificates in their classrooms-like doctors and lawyers and other professionals.” (See story on page 1.)
American Federation of Teachers
Jan. 29: Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, stuns the education community by calling for the institution of a national teacher examination similar to those required by the medical and legal professions. He announces that the A.F.T. leadership is prepared to require its members to take the test.
April 28: Mr. Shanker tells A.F.T. members that they must “take a step beyond collective bargaining” and begin to support measures that will provide teachers with “status, dignity, and a voice in policymaking.”
July 11: In another surprising move, Mr. Shanker endorses implicitly if not explicitly a differential-pay system when he advocates a national board designed to recognize “crackerjack” teachers in various disciplines.
