NEA on evaluation: Baby steps?

Photo by Dermot O'Halloran

This past Monday, as the nation celebrated its 235th birthday, the National Education Association tallied another milestone—well, mile-pebble: It inched toward accepting student achievement as a legitimate marker of teacher performance. Yet, in its newly crafted policy statement, convention delegates added the caveats that all tests must be “developmentally appropriate” and “scientifically valid”—and that no test in place today meets this threshold. Some union watchers—like the Kremlin-watchers of old—detect an important shift. But don’t go gaga: The organization’s secretary-treasurer proclaimed that “NEA is and always will be opposed to high-stakes, test-driven evaluations.” Nor is the new policy statement binding on the union’s state and local affiliates. Some of these, notably Michigan, have already made clear that they want nothing to do with it. Fellow gadfly Mike Antonucci put it best: “You can add this to the list of things that NEA supports, but doesn’t really believe exist—like good charter schools, Republicans who support public education, and workers who freely choose not to join a union.”