RA’s final day includes business, Teacher of the Year’s call for change

From the NEA

NEA President Reg Weaver with 2008 National Teacher of the Year Michael Geisen.

Delegates completed an energetic, hopeful RA July 6 with action on New Business Items and Resolutions, tributes to outgoing President Reg Weaver, and speeches from President-Elect Dennis Van Roekel, the newly elected Executive Committee members, and 2008 Teacher of the Year Michael Geisen.

Introducing Geisen, President Weaver praised his courage for publicly calling out NCLB’s deficiencies while standing between U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and President George W. Bush.

Geisen a science teacher in Prineville, Oregon, told the Assembly that since he got the title two months ago, he has traveled so much that he sees everything in airplane metaphors.

At a recent event, Geisen told the RA, he heard Spellings say, “We can’t water down our accountability system with fancy words like ‘authentic assessment’ and ‘multiple measures.’” That, he said, is the view from 30,000 feet up. But, on the ground, he sees the girl who stays home half of the week taking care of her siblings but still tries to help her struggling Latino classmates when she does come to school. He sees the boy struggling with ADHD but determined to go to college and become a teacher, and the girl who’s been physically abused and now has panic attacks in school.

“These students may look like identical little ants from 30,000 feet up, but these are unique and beautiful human beings,” he said. “If our assessments are not ‘authentic,’ relevant, or offered in multiple formats, what are we really measuring?”

He said educators need to take the initiative and hold themselves accountable. “We should be the ones doing rigorous authentic assessment and defining success by multiple measures… and we ourselves need to publicize our results. It’s time to throw open the doors of our classrooms. 

“[N]o more waiting around,” he stressed. “Let’s do it ourselves.”  

With less of a time crunch than at most RAs, the delegates held extensive debates on several NBIs and resolutions.

As the meeting wound down, President Weaver introduced the NEA’s new leaders, who each briefly addressed the crowd.  Amid tributes, thank-you’s, introductions, grandchildren, and a pink stuffed sea horse, President NEA President-elect Dennis Van Roekel spoke to the delegates in praise of dissatisfaction. “If you’re satisfied, why would you ask for change?” he said.

Van Roekel said he was not satisfied with the high drop-out rates of African-American and Hispanic students, and the outrageously unequal access to education, which gives some students wonderful facilities while others learn in buildings that “scream that society doesn’t care about you.”

“I hope every one of you leaves the RA gloriously dissatisfied. I hope it gnaws deep inside of you until you say, ‘I can’t stand it another moment.’”

In other NEA RA news:

• Marie Knutson of Amery, Wisconsin, was one of 10 at-large members elected for three-year terms to serve on the NEA Board of Directors. Knutson is a kindergarten paraeducator in the Amery School District.  She is currently president and ESP program director of her local association.  "I … believe that our greatest priority is lobbying Congress to fix the health care crisis," she said.
• Laura Vernon, an MPS school safety employee and NEA Education Support Professional of the Year, addressed the NEA RA delegates. Read more

Posted July 7, 2008