June 2008

A National Workforce Agenda for Unions, Business, Educators, and Policy Makers
With support from the Albert Shanker Institute, the National Labor College (formerly the George Meany Center for Labor Studies) has launched a new institute that can take up key issues related to labor. The first meeting, “Promoting a National Workforce Agenda for Unions, Business, Educators, and Policy Makers,” was held on June 9 and included participants from a wide range of unions, business groups, labor and professional associations, universities, and think tanks. It began with a series of presentations on “big issues”: the changing nature of the workforce, skills demands in the old and new economy, and policy implications. Speakers for this session were Bob Lerman, professor of economics at American University, and Tony Carnevale, director of Georgetown University’s Global Institute on Education and the Workforce. In the second session, “Meaningful Workforce Preparation for All,” Andy Van Kleunen, executive director of Workforce Alliance, Rick Sloan, communications director of the International Association of Machinists, and Stephanie Powers with the Council on Foundations’ National Fund for Workforce Solutions, addressed the issues of how secondary education and all levels and types of college should be used to respond to the skills gap and make higher education accessible. Paul Nowak, a national organizer for the British Trades Union Congress described the U.K. labor movement’s experience in building political, employer, and member support for skills development.

Board Discusses Workforce Development, the Fatal Flaws of NCLB
The institute held its semi-annual meeting of the Board of Directors on June 2, 2008. In addition to hearing reports on recent institute activities and proposals for future work, the meeting featured two presentations. Board member Deborah Wince-Smith, president of the Council on Competitiveness, gave a presentation on “Workforce Development as Essential to the U.S. Competitive Edge,” with a response from Rick Sloan, director of communications at the International Association of Machinists. Wince-Smith reinforced several themes undergirding Shanker Institute projects over the last ten years—that U.S. competitiveness is increasingly dependent on the availability of a highly skilled workforce, that U.S.-based multinational corporations can’t be depended upon to develop these skills in their communities, and that globalization, technological change, and volatile financial markets require a focus on workforce skills that are not easily offshored. Rick Sloan agreed with this analysis, but also pointed out that the lack of attention to training younger workers in the technical trades has left the nation militarily vulnerable, not just economically vulnerable. Board member David Cohen, the John Dewey Professor of Education at the University of Michigan, led the second discussion. He described the findings of a new book he co-authored with Susan L. Moffitt, to be published later this year, on the history of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, now known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and its Title 1 provisions. Cohen argued that at the core of NCLB there is a strong disconnect between policy, practice, and achievability. Standards-based reforms on their own, he claimed, cannot increase student achievement or school standards without a focus on improving the things that quality depends on--curriculum, teacher development, and the overall capacity of the education system. Although he noted some positive effects of NCLB, he concluded that it is a badly designed law that asks for impossible performance by schools and teachers without providing them with the means to achieve it.

February 2008

Shanker, Labor, the Democrats and Foreign Policy
On Feb. 20, 2008, the Shanker Institute, Freedom House, and the Progressive Policy Institute co-sponsored a forum in Washington, D.C., titled “Should Labor and the Democrats Revive the Muscular Liberal Internationalism of Albert Shanker?” in which participants talked about Al Shanker’s stance on numerous international questions. Presenters recalled Shanker’s work with Lane Kirkland, former AFL-CIO president, Thomas R. Donahue, former AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer and president, Tom Kahn, special assistant to Kirkland and later AFL-CIO international affairs director, and Irving Brown, to help ensure the survival of the independent Polish union Solidarnosc, bring down apartheid in South Africa, restore political and trade union rights in Chile, build free trade unions in Eastern Europe after the demise of communism there, and promote academic freedom. At the AFT, Shanker built one of the strongest international affairs operations in the labor movement and launched a project called Education for Democracy/International, designed to help teacher unions in Eastern Europe, Nicaragua, South Africa, and other countries emerging from dictatorship to become leaders in the civic education of students. Panelists differed on the degree to which Shanker’s labor internationalism had declined within the labor movement, but most agreed much more could be done, both in terms of labor’s international role and also within the Democratic Party.

& Click here to read a story from a St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer.
& Read the remarks by ASI board member Herb Magidson, former vice president of AFT and chair of its Democracy Committee.

January 2008

Second “Good Schools” Seminar Focuses on Developing a Well-Prepared Teaching Corps
The institute brought together local and national AFT leaders, district superintendents, and top researchers and policy experts in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 29-30 for the second in its “good schools” seminar series. Participants’ frank, off-the-record conversations focused on what the research really says about various policy proposals that affect teaching quality. This seminar, titled “Developing the Teacher Corps We Need,” examined the research on effective new teacher support systems, peer assistance and review, and professional development. These topics are “at the heart of the labor-management agenda” and the crux of any serious effort at school improvement, said AFT and Shanker Institute President Ed McElroy. Participants also discussed two important conditions that make high-quality teaching more likely—high-quality student curriculum, along with student discipline and a positive learning environment. William Schmidt, a professor of education at Michigan State University and national research director for TIMSS and its follow-on studies (see below) was the keynote speaker at an opening dinner. According to Schmidt, the relative coherence, focus and rigor of student curriculum is the single most important factor in explaining why some nations performed much better than others on TIMSS. Rudy Crew, superintendent of schools in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, acted as the respondent to Schmidt. Participants also heard from Eric Hirsch, special projects director at the New Teacher Center, who is leading a full population survey of educators in several states in order to gather and compare school-level data on school environment factors. Hirsch reported that, of all the data gathered, teachers’ belief that their school was safe had the strongest correlation with overall student performance. On the seminar’s second day, Harvard professor Susan Moore Johnson led a discussion of her research on supports for new teachers. Responding to Johnson’s presentation, United Federation of Teachers president and Shanker Institute board member Randi Weingarten said improving teaching and learning will mean building a consensus around what teachers need in order to be effective in the classroom. Other sessions focused on peer assistance and review programs and union-district collaboration around professional development programs in places such as Hillsborough County, Fla., and New York City.

& Learn more about this series of seminars.
& See the agenda.

Chinese Workers Reveal Reality Behind “Economic Miracle”
A new report, released in Jan. 2008 by the Albert Shanker Institute, reveals that China’s “economic miracle” relies on pressuring the Chinese labor force to its limits and brutally suppressing worker rights. Chinese workers face a different reality than that portrayed by the Chinese government: delayed or unpaid wages, work-related illnesses, harsh working conditions, and severe repression for attempting independent organization at the workplace. A Cry for Justice: the Voices of Chinese Workers tells the stories of workers demonstrating in open defiance – from the Oilfields of Daqing, the Ferroally workers of Liaoyang, the Heavenly King Textile workers of Xianyang, the Gold Peak Battery factory workers of Huizhou, coal miners from Wanbao, teachers from Suizhou and ex-soldiers who work in factories around the country run by the People’s Liberation Army. The accounts are based on extraordinary first-hand interviews conducted by Han Dongfang, China’s leading labor rights advocate, with workers across China.
Copies are available for $7 each; $5 each for orders of ten or more.

& Read the press release for this and a companion report.
& Download the full report.
& Read a related story from a New Republic blogger.

China Seminar on Worker Rights and Political Liberalization
More than 50 trade unionists, academics, worker rights activists, attorneys, and other China specialists gathered for an off-the-record Shanker Institute seminar in Washington, D.C., Jan. 15-16 to consider the implications for Chinese workers of a new “reform” labor law in China. The new “labor contract law,” which took effect Jan. 1, is aimed at private industry, especially the growing foreign-owned sector, and was designed to provide increased job security and legal protections for workers, especially for high-seniority employees. It also enhances the role of the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), the Communist Party’s labor organization, but leaves most of China’s labor relations framework essentially untouched. Independent unions and real freedom of association for workers remain banned. Despite these limitations, the law was ferociously opposed by multinational corporations, led by U.S. firms, which argued that it will raise costs and reduce competitiveness. Passage of this law and the Chinese government’s announced plans to improve other labor laws has refocused international attention on conditions for Chinese workers. Some speakers were skeptical that the law would be enforced and dubious about the government’s reform” strategy, arguing that the law does not make the political and institutional changes—such as providing space and protection for independent trade unions—which are essential to a healthy balance of power in the workplace. All the speakers at the seminar—trade unionists, attorneys, and academics—noted that the ACFTU is an arm of the Communist Party’s central propaganda department. It is not a union. Despite this, some participants argued for greater involvement with the ACFTU, noting that many U.S. industrial unions represent workers whose employers have substantial business interests and employees inside China. Accordingly, contact with the ACFTU can be seen as part of protecting their members’ self-interest. Other participants, citing media stories, noted that public visits with ACFTU leaders, especially in Beijing, are exploited for state propaganda purposes and undermine the principle of free and independent unions. There is also no evidence, they argued, that such visits help Chinese workers, especially as many, many worker activists languish in jail for trying to organize real unions. The seminar was the second on China and the fourth in a series that the institure has sponsored on labor and democracy.

December 2007

Board Discusses Curriculum, the Struggle for Middle East Democracy
The institute held its semi-annual meeting of the Board of Directors on Dec. 10, 2007. In addition to reports on recent Institute activities and reaction to Richard Kahlenberg’s biography, Tough Liberal (see below), the meeting was highlighted by two presentations. The first, by Saad Eddin Ibrahim, director of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies in Cairo, Egypt, addressed the ongoing struggle for democracy in the Middle East. Ibrahim (one of the most prominent democratic activists and thinkers in Egypt and the Middle East) ointed to the difficulties facing democrats like himself in the region and described the numerous efforts of the Egyptian authorities to imprison him and inhibit his work. At the same time, he pointed to Western misconceptions, among them by President George W. Bush (see a press report on a recent encounter between the two men). The second presentation, on the issue of curriculum and standards, was by William Schmidt, professor of education at Michigan State University, co-director of the Education Policy Center, and director of the research center that oversaw U.S. participation in TIMSS (the Third International Mathematics and Science Study). Through this experience, Schmidt has emerged as a leading proponent of national standards and a common curriculum. At the meeting, he urged a K-8 education program with three components: focused instruction in a few topics rather than scattered instruction in many topics (what he called the “mile wide, inch deep” approach); rigorous focus on high level topics; and coherence in the curriculum that did not vary widely from district to district. This variability, he argued, is a key source of antheenormous level of inequity in American education.

& Read an American Educator article inspired by Schmidt's remarks to the board.

November 2007

Lipset Lecture: Russia’s Transition to Autocracy
As it has in previous years, the institute co-sponsored the fourth annual Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy in the World, an event initiated by the National Endowment for Democracy in honor of the renowned sociologist and founding Shanker Institute board member. At the Nov. 15 event, Pierre Hassner, research director emeritus at CERI (the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales) in Paris and one of France’s most respected intellectuals, delivered a lecture on “Russia’s Transition to Autocracy: The Implications for World Politics.” Approximately 150 attended. Dr. Hassner, currently a visiting professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal, has focused his major writings on war and peace, totalitarianism, ethics and international relations, and international order. The lecture described Russia’s path towards autocracy under Vladimir Putin and the dangers this development poses for the West and democracy. In addition to the NED and the Shanker Institute, the event was also co-sponsored by the University of Toronto’s Munk Center for International Studies and the AFT.

& Learn more about the Lipset Lecture series.
& Click here to view the lecture.

October 2007

"Tough Liberal" Reception and Book Signing
On Oct. 4 in Washington D.C., the Albert Shanker Institute, in cooperation with the AFT, held a reception and book signing for Richard Kahlenberg's new biography, Albert Shanker: Tough Liberal, The Battle Over Schools, Unions, Race and Democray. The book, which was formally released on Labor Day, has already received a number of positive reviews. It describes the eventful life of Albert Shanker and his rise to the presidency of the AFT. It provides a new and valuable history of the building of the UFT in New York and the AFT and public employee unionism nationally and of the role of the UFT and AFT in the civil rights movement, conflicts within the Democratic Party that split liberalism, Shanker’s role in helping to launch the education standards movement, and the education and public debates in which Shanker and the union became leading voices. AFT and Shanker Institute President Ed McElroy writes that “Richard D. Kahlenberg has captured the political essence of Albert Shanker as a democracy advocate, unionist, and teacher. . . .This book brings to life his core values and underscores the enormous contribution he made.” The Shanker Institute has purchased advance copies of the book and has made it available at a special discount of $18 a copy, including shipping (regular price of $29.95) from the AFT Store.

& Purchase a copy of the Shanker biography at the $18 discounted rate.
& Read media reports about Tough Liberal.
& See book reviews.

July 2007

“Tough Liberal” Debuts at QuEST
The long-awaited new biography of Albert Shanker by Richard Kahlenberg, Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the Battles over Schools, Unions, Race, and Democracy (Columbia University Press), was formally released on Sept. 3, but made its debut on July 12 at a special event sponsored by the Albert Shanker Institute during the AFT’s national QuEST Conference, where Richard Kahlenberg was available to sign advance copies of the book. At the event, AFT Secretary-Treasurer Nat LaCour recalled Shanker’s early support for LaCour’s efforts at organizing New Orleans teachers—the first integrated local organized in the South — and described Shanker as “the greatest teacher leader that this country has ever seen.”

June 2007

Shanker Institute Launches “Good School” Seminar Series
The Albert Shanker Institute launched a series of seminars on the union’s role in shaping the “good school” with a June 4-5 session on “Unions, Teaching Quality, and Student Achievement.” This kick-off seminar featured a series of presentations and candid, off-the-record conversations between local and national AFT leaders, superintendents from some of those locals, members of the Albert Shanker Institute Board of Directors, and selected policy experts and researchers. The object of this initial meeting was to get a sense of what is really known about how the most-discussed teaching reforms and staffing policies affect educational performance. One key issue was the suspect charge that provisions of teacher union contracts are detrimental to teaching quality—and, thus, student achievement. Another issue was to explore what unions and union-superintendent partnerships can do differently to better promote teaching quality. The information discussed came in two forms — first, as reports from some of the best researchers in the country on studies they have either conducted or reviewed, and second, from the practical experience of local union leaders and superintendents already in the process of trying to implement effective practices.

& Read more about the Good Schools seminar.
& View the a genda of the June meeting.

May 2007

Middle East Leadership Study Trip
The Albert Shanker Institute, in partnership with the AFT International Affairs Department, organized an eight-person union leadership study trip to the Middle East in May 2007. The trip included an intensive schedule of meetings with teachers and other unionists from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Iraq, and Yemen, as well as with country and regional representatives of the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center, the Democratic Party’s National Democratic Institute, and U.S. Embassies. The group investigated the current situation in the region and the role of education unions and unions generally in promoting democracy and peace. The study group had a particular interest in the volatile situation in Israel and the West Bank, meeting with the Israel Teachers Union and teachers unions in the West Bank (representing both Muslim and Christian teachers). The group returned from the region in agreement about the vital importance of the AFT’s international work, especially in the Middle East, and, among other things, recommending that the AFT amplify its role in facilitating communication among conflicting parties. The group is also recommending continued support for the international affairs work of the union and a greater concentration on international issues in leadership meetings of the AFT. In addition to AFT Vice President and Shanker Institute Board Member Ted Kirsch, who led the study group, participants included Paul Babich (United Teachers of Wichita), Ken Brynien (York State Public Employees Federation), Louis Malfaro (Education Austin), Cathleen McCann (AFT Great Lakes Region), and Mary Cathryn Ricker (St. Paul Federation of Teachers).

What Works Forum Examines Research on Dropout and Graduation Rates
The Shanker Institute's “What Works” forum series concluded with a May 3, 2007 session on high school dropout and graduation rates and what can be done to improve them. The discussion featured presentations by Robert Balfanz, a research scientist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Social Organization of Schools, and Mark Dynarski, director of the education area at Mathematica Policy Research and project director of the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse. UFT President Randi Weingarten, an AFT vice-president and Shanker Institute board member, moderated the discussion. Both presenters noted that a lot of controversy remained over the exact magnitude of the dropout phenomenon and how best to measure it, explaining that there are strengths and weaknesses in all of the various methodologies that have been used to calculate both graduation and dropout rates. Balfanz also cited research which indicates that a relatively small number of troubled high schools are responsible for a large proportion of all dropouts. Indeed, he estimated that these “dropout factories” representing only 15 percent of the nation’s high schools produce close to half of all dropouts. Despite continued debate over the exact scope of the dropout problem, however, all sides tend to agree that improvement is needed, and that comparatively little is known about what school systems can and should be doing to help. “This is a very under-researched area,” stated Dynarski. “For 20 years, we’ve had a social problem that’s pretty big that has not moved one whit.” After scrutinizing the evidence, Dynarski said that the What Works Clearinghouse had identified only eight things that might possibly work, several of which would be very difficult and expensive to implement well.

& Read a transcript of the May forum on high school dropout rates.

April 2007

Workforce Development Study Trip to the U.K.
As part of its on-going effort to explore innovative union models, the Shanker Institute organized another study trip to the U.K. to review the nationwide “learning representatives” program administered by the British Trades Union Congress (TUC) and its affiliated unions. This program offers workers access to lifelong on-the-job learning services. The study group, led by AFT and Shanker Institute President Ed McElroy and AFT Executive Vice President Toni Cortese, also included Ken Brynien (New York State Public Employees Federation), John McDonald (Henry Ford Community College Federation of Teachers), Marcia Reback (Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals), and Randi Weingarten and Aminda Gentile (United Federation of Teachers). With this trip, representatives from all AFT constituency groups and all AFT officers have had a chance to learn about this successful program. The group found a labor movement deeply committed to a learning agenda that helps unions reach and attract members by giving them on-the-job educational supports and that holds a special appeal for younger members, ethnic minorities, and women—groups that have historically been under-represented among the ranks of union activists. British labor leaders report that workers are more likely to join and become more engaged with unions when they offer concrete assistance with further education, career development and job training. They also report that the focus on learning has given a "new face" to unionism, helping to improve the public’s perception of unions and attract new members.

February 2007

The Challenge for Democracy in the Middle East: The Art of the Possible

The challenges for democracy in the Middle East was the focus of a forum that the Albert Shanker Institute conducted on Feb. 6-7 for AFT national, state and local officers and staff as well as AFL-CIO international affairs staff and representatives from the Canadian Labor Congress. This seminar, held in Washington, D.C., was the third in a series organized by the Shanker Institute to examine U.S. unions’ support for democracy and for independent, democratic trade unions in the world. So far, the focus has been on the Middle East and China, two regions of special importance to Shanker Institute board members in developing initiatives to promote democracy. Participants heard from former Clinton and Bush I envoy to the Middle East Dennis Ross, who described the situation of the peace talks in relation to the conflicts in the region and the growing power of Hamas, the militant organization which won the Palestinian Authority elections in January 2006. One recommendation arising from the seminar was that the AFT and the Institute should become more involved in concrete actions promoting both peace and democracy in the region, especially given the negative connotations that democracy promotion has been given by the policies of the Bush Administration.

& Learn more about this conference.
& See the f ull agenda.

December 2006

In Memoriam
The institute is deeply saddened by the deaths of two thoughtful, committed members of the Albert Shanker Institute's board of directors. Their wise counsel, advice and support will be sorely missed. Our hearts and prayers go out to their families.

Seymour Martin Lipset, who died at the age of 84 on Dec. 31, 2006, was among America’s pre-eminent sociologists but with wide-ranging political, social, and labor interests. He is the only person ever to be president of both the American Political Science Association and the American Sociological Association. Best known for his books Political Man (for which he received the MacIver Prize) and The Politics of Unreason (for which he received the Gunnar Myrdal Prize), his earliest successes were Union Politics, a collaborative study of the typesetters’ union in New York and its distinct democratic characteristics, as well as several studies of “American exceptionalism” and the differences between American and Canadian democracy. An author of dozens of books and articles (including the autobiographical Steady Work: An Academic’s Life), Lipset taught at a wide range of institutions, including Columbia University, Harvard University, Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, and George Mason University, and was a fellow at both the Hoover Institution and the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars. Lipset was an early supporter of the National Endowment for Democracy and served on its board for nine years. A lifelong friend of the labor movement and of Albert Shanker, he was a founding board member of the Albert Shanker Institute. The Shanker Institute has supported the NED’s annual Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy and the World (see above).

Tom Mooney, president of AFT Ohio, died on Dec. 3, 2006 of a sudden heart attack. He was 52. Tom was a vibrant force on behalf of a quality public education system, free trade unions, democracy, and social justice. He was a tireless advocate for teachers, children and schools. As a young union officer, Tom was a student of Al Shanker’s in learning how to build teacher’s unions by linking unionism to the professional lives of teachers. Mooney grew up in Cincinnati, OH, earned his bachelor’s degree at Antioch College, and began his career as an educator teaching high school government in Cincinnati. He quickly became president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, a position he held for 21 years, and was elected an AFT vice president in 1990. Among other initiatives in Cincinnati, he helped establish the country’s second peer assistance and evaluation program and a four-tiered career ladder for teachers, the Career in Teaching Program, as well as a professional development partnership for new teachers. Tom was elected president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers in 2000, remaining one of the nation’s most innovative and outspoken union leaders in support of the education reform agenda. In addition to serving as a member of the Albert Shanker Institute Board of Directors, Mooney was member of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and a founding member of the Teacher Union Reform Network.

November 2006

Lipset Lecture: Toward Islamic Democracies
On Nov. 1, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Egyptian democracy activist and founder of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies in Cairo, delivered the third annual Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy in the World. Co-sponsored by the National Endowment for Democracy, the University of Toronto's Munk Center for International Studies, the AFT, and the Shanker Institute, the event was named to honor a founding member of the ASI board of directors. The Ibn Khaldun Center and the ASI have also been collaborating to produce a forthcoming reader on Islam and democracy.

& Learn more about the Lipset Lecture series.
& Click here to view the lecture.

July 2006

UnionLearn Briefing at the AFT Convention
In July, just prior to the AFT Convention, the institute hosted a meeting in Boston so that AFT vice presidents, staff and selected delegates could hear from participants in the May study trip to the United Kingdom (see below). Attendees also heard from representatives from two British teachers unions, Mary Howard, Senior Assistant Secretary of NAS-UWT, and Judy Moorhouse, President of NUT, about the effect of the un-ion learning agenda on union growth and activism in the U.K., as well as ideas on how this might apply to the U.S. situation.

June 2006

From Best Research to What Works Forum: Performance-Based Pay in Public Education
The Shanker Institute's forum series linking best evidence with classroom practice continued with a lively June 6 session on "Performance-Based Pay in Public Education." Across the country, policymakers are promoting or implementing plans to encourage excellent teaching by linking some portion of teachers’ pay to their performance or to the performance of their schools or students. While these proposals have generated a lot of heated discussion, most of the debate has centered around issues of theory or politics, not efficacy. The featured speakers – Edward Lawler, director of the Center for Effective Organizations and distinguished professor of business, University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, and Lewis Solomon, president of the Teacher Advancement Program Foundation and a member of the board of trustees of the Milken Family Foundation – provided an overview of the empirical evidence on the effects of performance-based pay plans, in general, as well as in the public sector and education, specifically. They also looked at what research and experience can tell us about the factors that make the implementation of some plans more or less successful. Milton Goldberg, Shanker Institute board member and distinguished senior fellow at the Education Commission of the States, moderated the discussion.

& Read a transcript of the June forum on performance-based pay in public education.

May 2006

UnionLearn: Innovations in Worker Training in the United Kingdom
In May, the institute organized a study tour to the United Kingdom for leaders of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) to learn about the growth and revitalization of the U.K. labor movement linked to the union learning representative program created by the British Trades Union Congress (TUC). Nat LaCour, secretary-treasurer of both the institute and the AFT, led the delegation. In addition to meeting with workers and visiting on-site training centers, participants attended the launch of UnionLearn, a labor-government joint venture, featuring speeches by Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber. Members of the delegation are being invited to make a report on their findings to the AFT Organizing Committee at its Dec. 2006 meeting.

Institute's Forum Series Continues, Highlighting Research on Background Knowledge
& Reading Proficiency
The Shanker Institute's forum series linking best evidence with classroom practice continued with a session on "Background Knowledge & Reading Proficiency." On May 19, the Shanker Institute brought two eminent presenters – Shanker board member E.D. Hirsch, Jr., founder of the Core Knowledge Foundation and author of The Knowledge Deficit, and Donald Deshler, professor of special education and director of the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning – to speak to a panel of education and policy leaders at the National Press Club. Research has demonstrated that students’ vocabulary and background knowledge are vital to reading comprehension, and that poor children and struggling readers are disproportionately disadvantaged by this fact. Forum participants discussed the implications of these findings for improving curriculum and instruction at the elementary and secondary levels, including ideas of how schools might impart this knowledge to students who don’t read well enough to acquire it from the written word. The event was moderated by AFT and ASI Secretary-Treasurer Nat LaCour.

& Read a transcript of the May forum on background knowledge and reading proficiency.

Press Roundtable on E.D. Hirsch's The Knowledge Deficit
On the day of the May lunch forum (see above), and also at the National Press Club, the institute hosted a roundtable discussion with ASI board member E.D. Hirsch to discuss his new book, The Knowledge Deficit. The conversation around reading instruction has focused primarily on basic skills, and rightly so given the number of children who aren’t learning to read proficiently by third grade. In The Knowledge Deficit, Hirsch also addresses content and comprehension. In addition to Hirsch, reporters heard from Secretary-Treasurer Nat LaCour, Susan Neuman, former U.S. assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education, Judy Lafante, a teacher and the Core Knowledge facilitator at Osmond Church School (PS124) in Queens, New York, and Denise Taylor, the Core Knowledge coordinator at Federal Hill Preparatory public school in Baltimore, Maryland.

& Read an excerpt from the book, "The Case for Bringing Content into the Language Arts Block and for a Knowledge-Rich Curriculum Core for All Children," as featured in the Spring 2006 issue of American Educator, the AFT's quarterly magazine.

April 2006

Democracy & Worker Rights: A Discussion on Labor’s Approach to China
In April, the Shanker Institute hosted a meeting of representatives from nine AFL-CIO and Change to Win unions to discuss the U.S. labor movement’s differing approaches to the increasing economic dominance of and ongoing repression of worker rights in mainland China. After opening remarks by ASI and AFT President Ed McElroy, participants heard from two prominent China experts, Andrew Nathan (Columbia University) and James Mann (School for Advanced International Studies). The day-long meeting also included presentations by Han Dongfang, a Chinese labor and democracy activist arrested during the Tiananmen Square protests and founder of the China Labour Bulletin, and Lee Cheuk Yan, General Secretary of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU). Shanker Institute Board member Herb Magidson also led a discussion about the nature of U.S. labor’s response to ongoing abuse of worker rights in China.

March 2006

Union Presidents Discuss Challenges Facing Unions in the 21st Century
In March, the Shanker Institute and the AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees (DPE) hosted a seminar for union presidents, senior staff, and organizing directors which focused on new models for organizations representing professionals. Representatives from 11 unions attended the seminar. Chaired by Shanker Institute and AFT president and DPE chairman Ed McElroy, the seminar featured presentations by Lynn Karoly (RAND Corporation), Richard Hurd (Cornell University), Tom Wilson (the British Trades Union Congress) and Pete diCicco (Kaiser Permanente Coalition). Four topics generated the most interest: (1) the British Trades Union Congress’s learning representative model; (2) union-provided professional development and career advancement opportunities, which are essential to professional and technical workers who function in the new economy; (3) professional associations as a source of ideas on delivering professional development, communicating with members, and providing a sense of professional identity; (4) labor’s industry coordinating committees (ICCs) as a possible forum for union collaboration and experimentation.

February 2006

Board of Directors Meeting Addresses "Value Added" Unionism, Teacher Education
The changing nature of the American workplace and its effect on trade unions was among the topics considered at a meeting of the Albert Shanker Institute board of directors in Washington, D.C., this month. The discussion was kicked off at a Feb. 15 dinner by Ralph Craviso, retired vice president for workforce effectiveness at Lucent Technologies and recent co-chair of the Labor Employment Research Association. He recommended that labor expand union training efforts as a "value added" strategy for serving members and improving their employing institutions. The board heard a similar message the next day from Paul Nowak, national organizer for the Trades Union Congress, the British equivalent of the AFL-CIO. Nowak described how the U.K.'s learning representative program—a program that places union-trained education counselors in the workplace—has helped attract new members to the labor movement, improve the skills of union members, make British industry more competitive, and enhance labor's image among workers and employers. The institute solidified plans to host a study trip for AFT leaders to study British approaches as a possible model for AFT organizing strategies. Also on Feb. 16 the board discussed a new institute project to identify sound strategies for improving teacher education, both preservice and inservice. One idea—to support the development of a model core curriculum for teachers, beginning with mathematics—was presented by Michael Cohen, president of Achieve Inc., and Deborah Ball, dean of the University of Michigan's school of education.

December 2005

What Matters Most in Early Childhood Education
On Dec. 8, executive director Eugenia Kemble moderated a workshop at the 2005 annual conference of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The well-attended workshop, “What Matters for Children and Teachers: Language, Literacy, Mathematics and Science Content is Imperative for Preschools,” was designed to promote an institute-sponsored project, which reviews the research on how young children learn in the different academic domains as a means of improving the content of preschool programs and curricula. The workshop featured Barbara Bowman, president emeritus of the Erikson Institute and Linda Bevilacqua, vice president of the Core Knowledge Foundation. The institute plans to publish the research review later this year.

November 2005

Identity, Immigration and Liberal Democracy
On Nov. 2, the Albert Shanker Institute served as a cosponsor of the second annual Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy in the World, named in honor of the eminent political scientist and member of the institute Board of Directors. Endowed by the National Endowment for Democracy and The University of Toronto Munk Center for International Studies, the event featured political scientist Francis Fukuyama speaking on “Identity, Immigration, and Liberal Democracy.

& For for information and to listen to the lecture, click here.

October 2005

Improving Teacher Education

In July, the Albert Shanker Institute Board of Directors approved the convening of a small group of experts to advise the board on sound strategies for improving teacher education, both pre-service and inservice, and on those areas where institute involvement would have the greatest impact. On Oct. 25, the institute gathered a stellar group of teacher leaders and experts on teaching to seek their advice in designing these strategies. The group included Deborah Loewenberg Ball, dean of the University of Michigan’s School of Education; Robert Floden, professor of teacher education, measurement and quantitative methods, and educational policy at Michigan State University, and director of the Institute for Research on Teaching and Learning; William Schmidt, university distinguished professor at Michigan State University and co-director of the Education Policy Center; and Suzanne Wilson, professor of teacher education at Michigan State University, and director of the Center for the Scholarship of Teaching, as well as several board members: David Cohen, Toni Cortese, E.D. Hirsch, Sol Hurwitz, Ed McElroy, and Diane Ravitch. The board's response to their recommendations will guide the institute's activities on this issue through the coming year.

August 2005

What Is Democracy?
Albert Shanker Institute Executive Director Eugenia Kemble was a guest on Talk To America, a Voice of America program which is the only international call-in radio show in the world. On August 18th, Kemble and Carl Gershman, president of the National Endowment for Democracy discussed the topic of “What
is Democracy?” with callers from around the globe.click here.

& To listen, click here.

July 2005

Promoting Partnerships for Workforce Development in a Global Economy
On July 11, the Albert Shanker Institute, in conjunction with the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB) and the New Economy Information Service (NEIS), sponsored “Partnerships for Sustaining High End Employment,” a luncheon discussion on the work and 2004 report of the Taskforce on Workforce Development (a joint project of the Shanker Institute and NEIS). Held in Philadelphia
just prior to the U.S. Department of Labor’s annual conference on workforce innovation, the event drew
over 50 participants from the fields of business, labor, academia, and education to discuss the pressures of global competition and skills erosion on the American workforce. Lynn Karoly, Senior Economist at RAND Corporation, presented research on the changing nature of the 21st century workforce. Several members of the taskforce, including institute board member Paul Almeida, Greg Junemann, Saul Rubinstein, and Stephanie Powers, discussed key findings of the 2004 report, Learning Partnerships: Strengthening American Jobs in the Global Economy, including the need for local stakeholders to facilitate partnerships in order to stay competitive.

& See the Labor page to download the taskforce report (in Adobe Acrobat).

June 2005

US History: Our Worst Subject?
Jim Parisi, a field representative for the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers, discussed his state’s
experience with civic education at the Albert Shanker Institute’s spring seminar on unionism and democracy. On June 30, Parisi again shared his experience and knowledge of education for democracy and civics when he testified on improving history education before the Senate Subcommittee on Education and Early Childhood Development. Citing the institute’s 2002 report, Educating Democracy,
written by the late Paul Gagnon, Parisi stressed the importance of a strong civic core in education
to mold students into good citizens. To read

& To read Jim Parisi’s prepared remarks, click here.

April 2005

Unionism and Democracy: The Experience, the Legacy, the Future
The AFT must continue to fulfill its historic role in supporting union democracy throughout the world and work to ensure that we all fully appreciate the depth of the union's commitment in this area, AFT president Edward J. McElroy told AFT leaders at an April 2005 seminar, "Unionism and Democracy: the Experience, the Legacy, the Future." The program outlined how a commitment to democratic values has shaped the history of the AFT and AFL-CIO, and how that legacy must shape our response to globalization and a significantly undemocratic world, a declining understanding of the role of unions in building democracy, and the inadequacy of civic and history education in the United States. The April 19-21 event, sponsored by the Albert Shanker Institute in cooperation with the AFT international affairs department, included AFT national officers, members of the AFT democracy committee, veteran and newly elected AFT vice presidents and other divisional leaders. Among the presenters was Thomas R. Donahue, a member of the Albert Shanker Institute board of directors and former secretary-treasurer and president of the AFL-CIO, who noted that independent unions could not exist without democracy and that democracy itself is strengthened by the civic involvement of trade unions. Other presenters included Diane Ravitch, another ASI board member and research professor of education at New York University; exiled Chinese trade union activist Han Dongfang; Walid Hamdan of the International Labor Organization in Beirut; Fred Van Leeuwen, general secretary of Education International (EI); and Thulas Nxesi, EI president and general secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers' Union.

Institute's Forum Series Continues, Highlighting Research on Reading Interventions that Work
The Shanker Institute's forum series linking best evidence with classroom practice (see below), continued with a session on "Reading Disabilities, Reading Difficulties, and School-based Interventions that Work." On April 27, the Shanker Institute brought two eminent researchers on reading difficulties to a panel of education and policy leaders at the National Press Club. The presenters – Sally Shaywitz, Professor of Pediatrics and Child Study, Yale University School of Medicine, and Co-director, Yale Center for the Study of Learning and Attention, and Joe Torgeson, Professor of Psychology, Florida State University, and Director, Center for the Study of Reading and Reading Disabilities – discussed recent research on reading interventions that work.

& Read a transcript of the April forum on reading disabilities, reading difficulties, and school-based interventions that work.

March 2005

Organizing Professionals in the 21st Century
On March 14-16, 2005, the AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees (DPE) and the Albert Shanker Institute collaborated to host a national conference on "Organizing Professionals in the 21st Century," held in Arlington, VA. The capacity crowd included more than 200 participants, speakers, panelists, moderators and facilitators from more than 20 national unions – organizers, decision-makers, and staff, national and local – plus university-based academics and representatives of diverse organizations including professional associations and contingent workers. The program included the release of provocative new research: trends and projections affecting work and the workforce; surveys of unorganized Registered Nurses, higher education faculty in state universities, and information technology professionals that reported their responses to unprecedented questions; the intersection of women and the organizing of professional and technical units; and lessons from the Kaiser Permanente Coalition of Unions, where inter-union cooperation and aggressive union action foster massively successful organizing, and from fast-growing professional associations. The event received extensive media coverage from Marketplace radio, Business Week, The Philadelphia Inquirer, BNA and other news outlets. As one participant characterized the event, it was "not overly optimistic; not all gloom and doom. Rather, a frank discussion on the immediate and near future for this segment of the labor movement.”

& Click here to see the conference agenda. See the Department for Professional Employees (DPE) Web page for more information and links to media accounts.

February 2005

Lane Kirkland: Champion of American Labor
The Albert Shanker Institute, Freedom House and the National Endowment for Democracy co-sponsored a Feb. 9 book launch for a new biography of former AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland. Lane Kirkland: Champion of American Labor was written by Arch Puddington, Freedom House’s director of research, with a grant from the Shanker Institute. Among those who spoke at the event were New York Times columnist William Safire, U.S. Representative and former House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt (D-MO), AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, former AFL-CIO President Thomas R. Donahue, who served as the organization’s secretary-treasurer under Kirkland, Jack Joyce, former president of the Bricklayers International Union, and Kirkland’s widow, Irena Kirkland. Lech Walesa, founder of Solidarity and former president of Poland, also sent a written tribute, both to Kirkland and Puddington: "This book tells the story of one of the true heroes of the struggle for freedom from totalitarianism. Through the skillful use of the power he exercised as the leader of American labor, and through his own unshakeable commitment, Lane Kirkland played a crucial role in our peaceful revolution in Poland. He did much more. Throughout the world, millions of free people owe him a debt of gratitude for his service to the democratic cause. I am gratified that the full account of his indispensable contribution to freedom has finally been written."

& Click here to order a copy of Lane Kirkland: Champion of American Labor (Arch Puddington; Wiley, January 2005; ISBN: 0471416940).

December 2004

Board of Directors Meeting Addresses Education and the Workforce
The changing nature of the American workplace and its potential effect on trade unions, and the spreading impact of the No Child Left Behind legislation on all facets of education were the main topics considered as future agenda items at a meeting of Albert Shanker Institute Board of Directors meeting, held in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 7. The Board met to explore future program directions for the Institute, now ending its sixth year of operations. The work and union discussion was kicked off by Lynn Karoly, senior economist at the RAND Corporation, who presented research on the economic, demographic, and global forces that are shaping a 21st Century workplace and that may necessitate new union forms and services. Board member and University of Michigan Professor David K. Cohen also spoke, providing a brief history of Title I, including some of the serious problems inherent in the recent No Child Left Behind (NCLB) version of the law, which stemmed in large measure from flawed accountability and assessment design and which have begun to affect teacher professional development, curriculum content, and the standards movement.

October 2004

National Press Club Forum Highlights Research on Preschool Assessment
The newly implemented National Reporting System on Head Start has created a stir among early childhood educators and experts. On Oct. 5, the institute hosted a forum on this topic, featuring experts identified through an informal peer consultations system.

& For more information on this and our other forum events, see the Education page.

August 2004

ILGWU Heritage Foundation Grants $25,000 to the Institute
This grant will be used to support the first activities of the Shanker Institute's Center for Education on Democracy. Planning is underway for a seminar for union leaders focusing on the role of unions in a democratic society and how they can support each other internationally in strengthening this role. The discussion could include such topics as the right to freedom of association, strategies for promoting union and worker rights, distinguishing legitimate unions from those controlled by employers, parties or governments, the impact of globalization on union structures and functions, and the historic role of trade unions in sustaining and promoting healthy democratic institutions.

& For more news, check out our ASI Update from August 2004

April 2004

New Report from the Task Force on Labor and Workforce Development Calls for
Bottom-up Reform, Increased Funding, and Attention to Incumbent Workers
On April 20, the Task Force on Workforce Development, co-sponsored by the Albert Shanker Institute and New Economy Information Service, issued a new report that calls for far-reaching changes in the way our country manages its workforce skills and training efforts. The group, composed of labor, business and policy experts, argues that, as technological change and global competition buffet our labor markets, the U.S. needs to do far more to help incumbent workers keep their jobs and prepare for new, high-skilled employment opportunities. While acknowledging several recent proposals to improve workforce skills, the report also says that "political leadership on all sides has yet to give adequate attention to this challenge, or what must be done to address it."

& Click here to read the press release. See the Labor page for more information or to download this report (in Adobe Acrobat).

February 2004

New Members Join the Board Of Directors
Two new faces have appeared on the Albert Shanker Institute Board of Directors. ASI is pleased to welcome Bob Edwards, founding host of National Public Radio’s show, Morning Edition, and the 1999 recipient of the George Foster Peabody Award, and Harold Schaitberger, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, which represents more than 240,000 professional firefighters and emergency medical personnel in the United States and Canada.

September 2003

Education for Democracy
Released in conjunction with the beginning of a new school year, the second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and the 40th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, this statement calls for improvements in the teaching of democracy. Endorsed by a wide range of prominent Americans—from former President Bill Clinton to President Reagan's UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume to actor Christopher Reeve—the document calls for an expanded course of study in history, civics, and the humanities, providing all students with a full, warts-and-all understanding of our own and other nations.

& Click here to read the press release. See the Education page for more information or to download a draft of this report (in Adobe Acrobat). Printed copies can be ordered from the institute office for $5 each ($2.50 each for orders of ten or more).

August 2003

Educating Democracy: State Standards To Ensure a Civic Core
Online access to Paul Gagnon's recent review of state standards in regard to the preparation of citizens has been expanded. In addition to the overview and Gagnon's curriculum reform suggestions, links to individual state reviews have also been added.

& Click here to read excerpts. Printed copies can be ordered from the institute office for $15 each ($10 each for orders of five or more).

June 2003

Task Force on Labor and Workforce Development
On June 3, the Albert Shanker Institute and the New Economy Information Service (NEIS) co-hosted the inaugural meeting of a task force on the problems and opportunities posed by recent demographic projections of an emerging shortage of high-skilled workers in the U.S. economy. The task force, comprised of leaders from the labor, business, and public policy arenas, discussed a range of possible employer responses – including those who may opt to shift jobs overseas, those who may push for increased immigration levels, and those who might focus on expanded training opportunities for U.S. workers. The task force agreed that unions have a special role to play in the resolution of this problem, which could result in benefits for employers as well as workers and lead to a stronger labor movement. The task force also discussed the historic role that unions in the U.S. and abroad have played in improving the education, training, and productivity of workers – efforts that have not been widely recognized in the U.S.

May 2003

Educating Democracy: State Standards To Ensure a Civic Core
The Institute recently released a nationwide study by historian Paul Gagnon, which reviews and rates state standards on the strength of their guidance for the teaching of civics. The report concludes that most states need to overhaul their academic standards if students are to gain the skills and knowledge they need to become committed, thoughtful citizens. Gagnon also proposes that states work with teachers and academics to develop a rich, common core of historical and political learning for all students, and provides a model of what such a core might look like. The study was highlighted at a May 1 “White House Forum on American History, Civics, and Service,” which featured presentations from First Lady Laura Bush, ASI Board Member E.D. Hirsch, AFT staff member Ruth Wattenberg, Lynne Cheney, and historians David McCullough and Peter Gibbon. It will also be a central document to be discussed at a bipartisan congressional conference to be held this fall.

& Click here to read excerpts. Printed copies can be ordered from the institute office for $15 each ($10 each for orders of five or more).

Seminar on Education To Build Democracy
On May 6, the institute hosted a forum on international civic education. An invited group of academics, program developers, and leaders from the AFT, the U.S. State Dept., USAID, the National Democratic Institute, the National Endowment for Democracy, the AFL-CIO, and private industry attended the Washington, DC, meeting, to discuss effective program design, content, and strategy for civic education and democracy promotion abroad. The meeting provided those who are involved – funders, researchers, and practitioners – with a chance to share their knowledge and experience. According to participants, the seminar was unprecedented in its promotion of open interaction among the many diverse elements of the civic education community.

Shanker Institute Board Meeting
The relationship between language development and student achievement was explored at the institute's May 20 board of directors meeting, held in Washington, D.C. University of Alaska psychology professor Todd Risley presented research (conducted with Betty Hart at the University of Kansas) demonstrating that the vocabularies of young children expand in relation to the amount that their parents talk with them. These findings help to explain and clarify the relationship between parents’ socioeconomic status and children’s language and literacy development, a long-recognized predictor of later academic achievement. Although the Hart-Risley data show that more highly educated families also tend to be more talkative, Dr. Risley emphasized that it was parents’ level of talkativeness, rather than their wealth or education levels, which had the strongest correlation with school success. Board Member and Core Knowledge founder E.D. Hirsch, who also addressed the meeting, agreed that SES is not destiny in regard to student achievement. He went on to argue that schools could do much more to help narrow the vocabulary and achievement gaps among students by working to infuse rich content and language development approaches into existing early reading courses.

& For related articles, see the Spring 2003 issue of American Educator.

January 2003

Head of British Trades Union Congress Speaks at Luncheon
On Jan. 3, 2003, the Albert Shanker Institute and the New Economy Information Service co-sponsored a luncheon discussion with John Monks, general secretary of Britain's Trades Union Congress (TUC), on the revitalization of the labor movement. An audience that included AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and a score of other union leaders and labor academics, listened as Monks described worker training initiatives by several TUC unions that have helped increase labor strength and membership in the UK. “In the long term,” said Monks, “skills and training are the future.” Morty Bahr, president of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and a member of the ASI board of directors, introduced Monks and related his remarks to the U.S. context.

Bayard Rustin Film Premiere
On January 8, 2003, the Institute jointly hosted the Washington premiere of "Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin" at the National Press Club, with the AFL-CIO, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, Freedom House, the Rustin Fund, the International Rescue Committee, Social Democrats, U.S.A., the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, AFT President Sandra Feldman, and U.S. Representatives John Lewis and Eleanor Holmes Norton. A longtime friend and ally of Al Shanker's, Rustin, a gay socialist, pacifist, civil rights leader, international democracy activist, and master strategist--best remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington--is the subject of this new documentary film, which was aired nationwide by PBS on January 20, Martin Luther King Day, and will be featured in the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.

& Read a Wall Street Journal editorial on the film.
& Read a film review from Africana.com.

December 2002

Where We Stand' Archives Online
The New York State United Teachers has posted a free, electronic archive of more than 1,300 "Where We Stand" columns by the late AFT president Albert Shanker. For 27 years Shanker's column in the New York Times offered 800 words of common sense, keen analysis and no-nonsense ideas about how to improve schools. The archive, which was produced with institute support, is comprehensive and completely searchable.

October 2002

Chinese Dissidents Urge Focus On Rights
Two leading Chinese dissidents urged President George Bush and President Jiang Zemin to make human and worker rights the centerpiece of their October summit and called for the release of political prisoners and freedom for Chinese workers to form free and independent trade unions. Han Dongfang, a labor leader who was jailed for his participation in the Tiananmen Square demonstrations and now continues his dissident activities from Hong Kong, and Harry Wu, a dissident who spent 19 years in Chinese prisons and is now a U.S. citizen, called on Bush and Jiang to address these issues.

Institute's Forum Series Continues, Highlighting Research on Student Behavior
The Shanker Institute's forum series linking best evidence with classroom practice (see below) continued with a session on student behavior and achievement. On Oct. 29, the Shanker Institute brought two eminent behavior specialists to a panel of education leaders at the National Press Club to discuss how research can address the problem of school discipline. Hill M. Walker, University of Oregon professor of special education, presented his findings on students’ aggressive behavior patterns in the classroom; Dr. Sheppard G. Kellam, professor emeritus, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Medicine, discussed the influence of the school environment on student behavior. Go to the link above to read an article on the forum in Education Week.

July 2002

Enhancing Democracy: Transatlantic Perspectives on the Role of Teachers and their Unions
The Shanker Institute and Britain's National Union of Teachers (NUT) brought together representatives of the American Federation of Teachers and the UK teachers’ union to explore current political and security threats to democracy, including terrorism and the absence of the rule of law. The group also considered strategies to promote education for democracy. This was the first of the institute’s leadership development efforts, a program focus adopted by the ASI board of directors at its Feb. 2002 meeting.

June 2002

Institute Launches New Forum Series Linking Best Evidence to Classroom Practice
The Shanker Institute has piloted a new forum series, designed to highlight best research on key educational issues, then to link these findings to the practical steps that schools can take to improve student achievement. Held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, these events bring together a select group of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to discuss crucial issues about which research and practice appear to diverge.

& Read a transcript of the May forum on language and literacy development.
& Read a transcript of the June forum on using professional development to raise student achievement.

May 2002

Hong Kong Democracy Leader Gives First Shanker Lecture
Szeto Wah, founder of Hong Kong's teachers' union, was the featured speaker at the institute's inaugural Albert Shanker Lecture on May 15. Szeto, labeled "democracy's foot soldier" by Time magazine, told the Washington, D.C., crowd that Shanker was a mentor from whom he learned how to combine professionalism and labor rights to build a union and how to employ trade unionism to build democracy. In addition to building Hong Kong's largest democratic union, Szeto helped to found Hong Kong's democratic party, leads the alliance that supports and commemorates China’s Tiananmen Square democracy movement, and is a popularly elected member of the Hong Kong legislature.

March 2002

Bridging the Gap Between State Standards and Classroom Achievement: Forum on the Challenge of Curriculum and Professional Development
Unless states step in to help turn standards into the tools that schools need, the promise of standards-based reform will be lost. That was the message of a March 20-21 forum for educators, policymakers, and business leaders, cosponsored by the Albert Shanker Institute and Achieve, Inc. "Very few states have developed even a basic curriculum," said Sandra Feldman, president of the American Federation of Teachers and Albert Shanker Institute. That's one reason that teachers' support for standards has been slipping, she said—from 73 percent in ASI's 1999 poll (see below) to just over 50 percent in a recent AFT poll. "It's much easier to put a new test into place than to implement the effective supports that kids really need," said Feldman. "Quality curricula and professional development—this is the next frontier for standards-based reform."

& Read about the conference in Education Week.
& See the conference agenda.

Bridging the Gap Between Standards and Achievement: Report on the Imperative for Professional Development in Education
In this publication, released by the Albert Shanker Institute in conjunction with a professional development forum cosponsored with Achieve, Inc. (see above), Harvard professor Richard Elmore argues that education reforms that are based on standards and accountability will fail unless policymakers also adopt a strategy to ensure that educators have the knowledge and skill they need to help students succeed. The bottom line, says Elmore, is not in issues of governance and process, but in how the quality of instructional practice affects student learning. (Requires free download of Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

January 2002

Shanker Resource Center on Academic Standards
The Albert Shanker Institute has launched a new Web-based resource center on academic standards, featuring links to research, news and editorials on improving school quality. It is designed to provide state and local educators, policymakers, politicians, district administrators and the general public with the ideas and information they need to work through the difficult questions raised by school improvement efforts.

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