Mission Statement
- Teachers Unite is the only membership organization of public school educators building power to demand that our union stand for educational justice, and to win social justice demands for the low-income and working communities of New York City. Members participate in our programs that develop leadership and organizing skills, while establishing collaborative relationships with community organizations fighting for meaningful social change. We believe that a strong organization of activist teachers, working in coalition with parents and students, will transform our city, and its schools, to best serve all New Yorkers.
Mission Statement
PURPOSE
- To build a base of teachers with the leadership skills to effectively organize within their union in the interest of educators, students and parents
- To support the development of local educational justice campaigns with the insight of teachers committed to democracy and dignity for all NYC communities
- To strengthen relationships between teachers, community organizers, and the low-income communities most effected by inequity
RATIONALE
Schools will never educate all children equitably unless we live in a society that is dedicated to racial and economic justice. As teachers recognize the political, economic and social forces that marginalize and disenfranchise their students and students’ communities, they grow increasingly concerned with fighting those forces rather than finding contentment with quick-fixes to school issues. There is a natural link between teachers’ workplace conditions—the decline in professionalism, the scarcity of resources, and the dangerous and heavily policed facilities—and the living conditions of the communities they serve. This link is what Teachers Unite seeks to highlight as it contributes educator experience, power, and resources to the social justice movement. Teachers Unite provides central coordination, education about the forces that impact communities failed by our public education system, a community of like-minded educators in a notoriously isolating profession, and a range of leadership opportunities that build alliances with advocates and grassroots activists.
VISION
Teachers Unite seeks to redefine public education by rebuilding the relationship between teachers, students, families and communities as partners in the struggle for social and educational justice. Our vision is to transform the popular understanding of what it means to be an educator so that those who choose to teach are committed to pedagogical innovation, community organizing and strengthening public education. Together with families and communities, educators will design an exceptional education system that will reflect the character of every neighborhood, each of which will have the power to examine and articulate its needs and formulate responses to its particular schools’ context. Teachers Unite sets its sights on a democratic and just society, with an education system that embodies principles of equity and empowerment.
UFT PLATFORM: A collaboration between NYCoRE and Teachers Unite
New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE) is a group of public school educators committed to fighting for social justice in our school system and society at large, by organizing and mobilizing teachers, developing curriculum, and working with community, parent, and student organizations. We are educators who believe that education is an integral part of social change and that we must work both inside and outside the classroom because the struggle for justice does not end when the school bell rings.
Teachers Unite is a membership organization of public school educators building power to demand that our union stand for educational justice, and to win social justice demands for the low-income and working communities of New York City. Members participate in our programs that develop leadership and organizing skills, while establishing collaborative relationships with community organizations fighting for meaningful social change.
Our organizations represent an increasing number of teachers who feel our union has an obligation to fight for not only a better school system but for greater economic and social equality for New York City's public school students and their communities. We want the United Federation of Teachers to demand the best possible working conditions for its members, which means that it works in coalition with organizations that are fighting for affordable housing, universal health care and jobs that provide a livable wage; these issues are directly linked to the welfare of our students, communities and our schools. NYCoRE and Teachers Unite have come together to take an initial step toward identifying principles, along with concrete demands, that outline our vision for the UFT. This social justice model of unionism stands unfailingly for sound educational practices, strengthening public education, and equity and justice for all students, families, and communities. We have begun to craft the demands below with the help of our members and allies. While this platform is not yet complete, we want to see a wider base of UFT members bring about the transformation of our union through the promotion of these principles, plus more to be identified moving forward.
Sound Educational Practice
Our members believe that our union, the United Federation of Teachers, must fight
unequivocally for the following from city, state and federal education agencies:
• End the high stakes nature of tests so that teachers can teach without the pressure
of having tenure, merit pay, school grades, promotion and graduation standards
tied to test scores.
• Stop the expansion of standardized testing of students in PreK- 2nd grade
• Promote as a viable option, existing schools and networks like the New York
Performance Standards Consortium that create performance based assessment
systems that teach students to demonstrate their understandings in multiple ways.
• Flexibility for teachers to assess their students and make important decisions
about their educational needs. Teachers will make timely interventions and use
proactive strategies rather than waiting until the end of the year and holding
students back based on test scores.
• The DOE and its contractors including charter schools, immediately increase the
hiring of new teachers of color through both traditional and alternate certification
routes to the level of new hires reached prior to the enactment of mayoral control
in 2002.
• Implement recommendations by Class Size Matters for the state mandated class
size reduction plan (including: transparent reporting, stricter oversight, cease the
placement of new small schools and charter schools in existing school buildings)
• The DOE stop forcing out senior teachers, a disproportionarte share of whom are
senior teachers of color who are sent to reassignment centers or consigned to the
absent teacher reserve.
• An immediate closing of the "rubber rooms" which has a negative and
disproprotionate impact on both communities and educators of color
• An immediate halt to the closing and subdivision of schools by the DOE which
has a negative and disproprotionate impact on both communities and educators of
color.
• The UFT audit hiring, firing, excessing, and retention from 2002 up to the
present to draw attention to the changing demographic of new teachers in NYC.
• An end to high stakes city wide tests as the sole basis for admission to gifted and
talented programs from kindergarten through HS including the specialized science
high schools. Segregation has increased under the cover of high stakes testing
which have less to do with "merit" and more to do with access to test prep and the
educational and economic status of the student's families.
• Implement support mechanisms for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
(LGBT) educators who choose to be "out" in schools. Lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender and questioning youth are up to four times more likely to attempt
suicide than their heterosexual peers (Massachusetts 2006 Youth Risk Survey). It
is critical that LGBT educators are respected role models for our LGBT students.
• Demand the implementation of curricula that: affirm a child's home language and
culture, promote gender equity, and combat heterosexism and racism.
• Highlight alternatives to tracking and ability grouping.
• Support students with Individualized Education Plans with appropriate
instructional resources and additional staffing.
• Professional development workshops where all school staff reflect on their own
biases and prejudices with the goal of developing a deeper understanding of their
students.
• Restorative justice practices, adequate counseling resources and other proactive
measures that support positive student behavior in place of the current presence of
the New York Police Department.
• Enforcement of the National Resolution to End School Pushout which calls upon
federal, state, and local education agencies to challenge the present conditions that
lead to many thousands of students being pushed out of school, and to promote
positive learning environments and discipline policies to ensure that each student
completes his or her education.
• All students must have access to robust programs in the arts, technology, and
health and fitness.
Strengthening Public Education
Our members believe that our union, the United Federation of Teachers, must take an
active role in:
• Fighting against the proliferation of privately managed charter schools, in
general,with particular emphasis on challenging charter schools that take space
from existing public schools.
• The DOE cease the jamming of charter schools into predominantly Black and
Latino neighborhood public schools to the detriment of the latter.
• Supporting a school governance system which gives the real stakeholders in
education (teachers, parents, students and community members), a strong and
active role in the decison making process at school-, neighborhood- and city-wide
levels.
• Actively organizing teachers to partner with communities to promote community
governance of school.
• Reversing the trend of allowing wealthy private citizens and their foundations to
control public education policy through grants and multi-million dollar projects
which sidestep public oversight and acountability.
• Demanding equitable funding for all public schools even if it means significant
increase in taxes on the wealthiest individuals and corporations in conjunction
with a funding formula that seriously acknowledges the need for more funding in
schools in low-income areas.
• Demanding that all school and district data be made transparent, not solely the
data that Chancellor Klein and the Department of Education want to publicize.
• Claiming back the issue of “teacher quality” by demanding a fully funded multi-
year apprenticeship program for all teachers and an end to alternative routes to
certification that bypass real experiential learning and that put inexperienced
teachers in our poorest, most under-served and overcrowded schools.
• Showcasing, promoting and encouraging the most successful public schools as
innovators and models for how to transform our struggling schools.
• Demanding an end to the outsourcing of public education to private testing/test
preparation/data collection and database creation/food preparation companies and
all non-union labor that is being paid for with tax dollars.
• Demanding an end to mayoral control of New York City public schools.
Equity and Justice for all students
Our members demand that our union, the United Federation of Teachers, use its power to
advance campaigns calling for the implementation of the following:
• Re-enstatement of free student metro cards for all students.
• Chancellor's Regulation A-832 in accordance with Dignity Now: The Campaign
to Stop Bullying and Bias-Harassment in New York City Schools that calls for the
expansion of the regulation to include harassment perpetrated by school safety
agents, teacher and staff; clarification and expansion of student and staff training
requirements; implementation of a process of transparency, accountability and
public reporting.
• Opt-In forms (as opposed to current opt-out forms) for military recruiters to
obtain students’ personal information.
• Instruction and curricula that will promote racial and gender equity, combat
racism and prejudice, encourage critical thinking about our society's problems,
and nurture an active, reflective citizenry that is committed to real democracy and
social and economic justice.
• Equal access to financial aid for all graduates from the New York City school
system regardless of criminal background and citizenship status.
• The Student Safety Act which would require police and education officials to file
regular reports that show how suspensions and other sanctions affect children of
color, children with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. The Student Safety
Act would create an easily navigable system under which parents, students and
teachers could file complaints against school security officers who are overly
aggressive toward children.
• Comprehensive Sex Education for all students that is age appropriate and taught
in every grade and that is in alignment with the demands of the Sex Ed Alliance
Equity and Justice for Families and Communities
Our members believe that our union, the United Federation of Teachers, must take an
active role in:
• Promoting laws that support keeping families together and preventing family
separation through incarceration and deportation.
• Supporting and participate in alliances that address the many issues affecting our
students, such as job opportunities, immigration, housing, health care, recreation,
safety, and anti-violence and anti-racism initiatives.
• Recruiting and developing parents to be actively involved in the governance of
schools.
• Encouraging schools to make a strong effort to include all parents and guardians
by being aware of the diversity of its families' language, culture, and lifestyle.
• Creating structures that give true decision-making power to all its stakeholders
with the bulk of the power in the hands of parents, students, educators, and
community members.
