(From Education Week, October 9, 2009)
By STEPHEN SAWCHUK
Eight affiliates of the American Federation of Teachers plan to scale up new models for teacher bargaining, recruitment, evaluation, or compensation–including some that would incorporate student test scores–with their cut of $1.2 million from the first round of grants from the union’s Innovation Fund.
The reform initiative is the centerpiece of the AFT’s drive to encourage school improvement efforts that are developed collaboratively between teachers and administrators.
“This will be viewed in retrospect as one of the most important days in real education reform,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said last week at a press conference here at the union’s headquarters to announce the winners of the financing. “Our unions are not afraid to take risks and to share responsibility for student success. We are not adverse to change; we are leading it.”
The Innovation Fund, which totals $3.3 million, has received financial backing from five private foundations. They are the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
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