Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

Standardized testing is at cross purposes with many of the most important purposes of public education. It doesn't measure big-picture learning, critical thinking, perseverance, problem solving, creativity or curiosity, yet those are the qualities great teaching brings out in a student.

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

Teaching is a profession in which capacity building should occur at every stage of the career - novices working with accomplished colleagues, skillful teachers sharing their craft, and opportunities for teacher leadership.

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

A rich, robust, well-resourced public education is one of the best routes out of poverty and a pathway to prosperity.

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

Merit pay has failed repeatedly, and it's no surprise. When you base teacher pay on standardized test scores, you won't improve education; you just promote the high-stakes testing craze that's led parents, students and educators to shout 'Enough!' all across the country.

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

Good tests can help teachers determine how their students are performing and identify the areas in which their students need assistance. Like an X-ray, however, tests can diagnose, but they cannot cure.

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

You can't be against bullying without actually doing something about it.

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

We know that reading to children is a crucial step. From the beginning, babies who are read to are exposed to the cadence of language, and school-age children who read at home for 15 minutes a day are exposed to millions of words.

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

Where educators are raising and combining their voices, the seeds of positive change have emerged. Collective voice, exercised through the union, is power - the power to drive real change for our kids, families and communities.

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

Mike Bloomberg may be a Republican these days. But he has been a Democrat for most of his adult life.

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

For working people and union members, Labor Day stands for something special and profound. It's a day to honor the deep commitment each of us has to serve the children we teach, the families we heal, and the communities we love.

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

I have repeatedly called for residency programs for teachers, like those you see in the medical profession, to ensure our educators have the training and knowledge to succeed in their classrooms and in their careers.

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

A high-quality public education can build much-needed skills and knowledge. It can help children reach their God-given potential. It can stabilize communities and democracies. It can strengthen economies. It can combat the kind of fear and despair that evolves into hatred.

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

All working parents should have paid family leave. That's one of many reasons I'm working to elect Hillary Clinton. She has a plan to guarantee workers - men and women - up to 12 weeks of paid family leave to care for a new child or a seriously ill family member.

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

If we want to recruit and retain high-quality teachers, it starts with a fair wage, adequate working conditions, and the resources and support to succeed. Remember: teachers' working conditions are students' learning conditions.

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

Public schooling fosters our common identity as Americans sharing a land of diversity. It promotes the American ideal of opportunity for all, not just some. It cultivates the civic values of respecting individuals as well as collective responsibility.

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

Rather than support workers at home or investments in public schools, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan support the Bush-era tax cuts for the very wealthy. They want to hand over our schools to private corporations.

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

I remember the first day of school my first year in the classroom. My stomach churned with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. Could I do the job? Could I connect with the kids? Will there be the chemistry to build relationships and get the job done, or will I totally flop?

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

When police or security personnel work in schools, they should follow the community policing model that integrates officers into school life, not just involve them when trouble arises.

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

We have guidance counselors that have caseloads of 500 to 600 children. We don't have enough to help the children.

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten

We all have a stake in ensuring that all students have the schools they deserve and that communities are leading this effort, not being left behind. To do that, we must challenge unchecked charter expansion and the forces driving it.