• The Vital Importance of Academic Freedom in Education and Democracy

    Speech by Randi Weingarten, President AFT and ASI before the CAUT and Education International Academic Freedom Conference 2025: Knowledge and Power: The International Struggle for Academic Freedom, February 8, 2025, Calgary, Alberta

    Thank you for inviting me to speak to you about academic freedom and democracy at a moment when both are imperiled throughout much of the world. I have worn a few hats in my working life—lawyer, high school civics teacher and now, union president. But I am not steeped in the academic world the way you are. You are not going to get from me erudite ruminations about the academy. What you’ll get from me is my thinking on what we need to do to make sure that your academic work is protected. 

  • What Will 2025 Mean for Labor?

    Our guest author is  Joseph A. McCartin, a professor of history and executive director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He is also a member of the Albert Shanker Institute’s board of directors.   

    Only weeks into 2025 it appears as though this year will be one like no other in recent memory.  Not only has power changed hands in Washington, bringing to office an administration that seems more determined than any in U.S. history to upend the status quo, this transition is taking place in a world in which democratic governments in many countries are struggling to deal with powerful ethno-nationalist populist challenges, AI is emerging as a potentially disruptive force in many workplaces, and our post-pandemic economic recovery seems to be slowing.

    To predict how this year will unfold, though, seems impossible at this point – especially for a historian, for we are far better at explaining how we’ve reached this point than what is likely to come next. Nonetheless, there is one thing that anyone who has studied labor history can already say with confidence: 2025 is shaping to be one of the most consequential years that U.S. workers and their movement have ever faced.

  • What Makes High-Quality Afterschool Programming

    When I was in undergrad, I worked at an afterschool program (ASP) for elementary school students that was one blacktop playground away from another. Every year, we would have one or two parents switch their child from our program to theirs. While the switch almost always revolved around programming costs, it was hard to see students leave. As I am sure many educators and those close to them know, you become invested in your students’ lives. You hear about their families, support them through personal struggles, and help them develop new skills. 

    As if saying farewell to students was not hard enough, almost every time we saw our old students, they would talk about needing snacks, not having the support they needed, or other students being mean. Most of the time, our students would end up coming back due to parents being shocked by the difference in quality between the two programs when we advertised the same services. 

    Due to the plethora of academic, social, and behavioral benefits associated with ASPs (Beal, 2024), there is a false assumption that the quality of programs is uniform and sufficient (Hirsch et al., 2010). 

    It is important that we challenge the assumption that all ASPs are created and implemented equally, as the benefits of ASPs are only present when program quality is high (Durlak et al., 2019; Yohalem & Wilson-Ahlstrom, 2010).

    But what makes high-quality afterschool programming? That is the million-dollar question that researchers have yet to agree upon. 

    From my experiences working in and researching ASP, I believe that having a whole child-based design, prioritizing student engagement, having quality staff members, and strong administration are overarching tenets that make high-quality ASPs. 

  • Happy Holidays from the Albert Shanker Institute!

    Dear Shanker Institute community:

    Thank you for your participation and solidarity this year. In 2024 we hosted conversations ranging from ambitious conferences like, Passion Meets Purpose featuring AFT President Randi Weingarten, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, and ASI board member Stan Litow and more; to meaningful civic engagement like Defending Our Democracy: The Crucial Role of the Latino Vote in the 2024 Election. 

    We also deepened our partnership with ShareMyLesson, through professional development offerings like Teaching the Power of Local Democracy: Why voting matters in every election and, of course, our yearlong partnership together with the AFT Book Club. From the January book club kicking off with Amanda Gorman to a meaningful conversation with Jason Reynolds, the book club became a popular event attracting audiences each month. Watch for our 2025 AFT Book Club series coming soon!

  • Invest in Democracy: Promote Civic Education

    Our guest author is Stan Litow, a professor at Columbia University; author of Breaking Barriers: How P-TECH Schools Create a Pathway From High School to College to Career and The Challenge for Business and Society: From Risk to Reward; a columnist at Barron's; a Trustee at the State University of New York (SUNY); and a member of the the Shanker Institute Board.

    The 2024 Election results are behind us. The implications of the vote and its ability to cloud the future are looming larger and larger, and the results and impact on Americans are increasingly looking grim or uncertain. While a majority of Americans support women's rights and access to health care both policies are increasingly at risk. While most Americans believe Climate Change is a real threat, there is a strong likelihood that environmental policy and programs are  also at risk. Most Americans also trust scientists and doctors. As a result of their trust, Americans favor vaccination which are essential to deal with health care crises like measles,  mumps, or Covid, but that too is now at risk, along with the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid. And the same is true for gun violence. Most Americans believe that background checks are critically important but that, too, seems unlikely. 

     For those of us who care deeply about our nation’s schools, the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education’s support for students and schools, such as Title I funding and support for private school vouchers, could devastate our entire public education system and disadvantage millions of students, teachers and parents.

     While a majority of Americans voted for a presidential candidate who does not hold the same views as a majority of Americans on these issues, locally, where they had the opportunity on their ballots, Americans largely did vote to support abortion rights, to require paid sick leave, mitigating climate change, and to support our public schools.

  • Reading Policy, the Wind and the Sun

    There is a well-known tale about the Wind and the Sun who once debated who was stronger. They agreed that whoever could make a traveler remove his coat would win. The Wind went first, blowing with all his might, but the harder he blew, the tighter the man wrapped his coat. Exhausted, the Wind gave up. Then the Sun shone warmly on the traveler, and as the air around him grew warmer, the man loosened his coat and eventually removed it entirely.

    What does this story have to do with reading policy?

    At the Shanker Institute, we have been cataloging literacy laws enacted since 2019. Over the years, we have observed an increase in the prescriptiveness of these laws—for example, states are increasingly banning three cueing -- at least 14 states include such language in their laws. Simultaneously, and perhaps relatedly, opposition to the science of reading seems to be on the rise. I find myself thinking that perhaps these attempts to change instruction with the force of the law are akin to the Wind in the story, causing some educators to feel their professional autonomy is challenged, leading them to rely more heavily on familiar practices. Are there sun-like influences shaping the discourse in ways that might help teachers to lower their fences and become more receptive to new knowledge? I believe so. 

  • Digital Technology and the Reading Brain: What Reading Legislation Overlooks

    The Shanker Institute and Maryland READS recently facilitated a conversation between state and local education leaders in Maryland and literacy expert Dr. Maryanne Wolf to explore the impact of digital technology on students’ reading development. As Maryland joins other states in implementing policy reforms to improve reading instruction, it is essential to recognize and explore additional ecosystemic barriers that might prevent the state from achieving its reading proficiency goals.

    A growing number of studies (discussed below) are showing that choosing to read on screens versus using printed materials can be a significant obstacle to acquiring deep reading and thinking skills. This post explores whether and how reading policy – state legislation in particular – is responding to this emerging concern. 
     
    The Shanker Institute has been tracking and analyzing the content of reading bills enacted into law since 2019. Technology, broadly defined,[1] has been one domain whose presence or absence we identified in these laws. This post focuses on mentions of digital media related to students, including its use in instruction, progress monitoring and assessment, as well as in reading interventions. Our analysis reveals that laws in only nine states (out of 50 that enacted some reading bill between 2019 and 2023) discuss these uses of technology, as summarized in Table 1 below. 
      

  • Out of School But in a Book: Leveraging the Socio-Cultural Aspects of Reading

    So often, when we talk about reading, we focus on the technical or cognitive side of it – learning how students decode words and understand their meaning. While this makes sense because schools tend to prioritize the technical aspects of reading for beginning learners, the socio-cultural aspect of reading must not be forgotten. 

    The socio-cultural aspect of reading refers to how our community, environment, and cultural background influence reading. The way that people learn to read, what they decide to read, and how they interpret what they read is largely influenced by their larger socio-cultural environment (Cartin, 2023). 

    When you reflect on your experience learning to read, did just learning how to sound out words make you a strong reader? Or, did your environment play a role? Did learning how to sound out words in collaboration with your peers or the pride and joy from finishing your first book inspire you to keep reading? 

    Only recently have some states – such as Minnesota, Michigan, and Florida – begun to include initiatives incorporating the community and environmental dimension of reading into their legislation. For example, Minnesota’s HF 2497 bill established a grant to support eligible after-school organizations in providing culturally affirming and enriching​ after-school programming that promotes positive learning activities, specifically including community engagement and literacy. Similarly, Michigan’s HB 4411 bill established an innovative community library fund to aid in furthering reading skills and address early childhood literacy gaps through the engagement and connection of students. Another example is Florida’s SB 2524 bill, which established a partnership with Just Read, Florida! to help distribute books at no cost to families to help instill a love of reading in students. Such initiatives can play a significant role in promoting childhood literacy and encourage young readers to view reading as a leisure and social activity. However, we need more states to adopt similar efforts to truly meet the needs of all students.

  • The Tales Are Phantasms, But the Victims Are Real: The Trumpian Crucible in Springfield, Ohio

    Our guest author is Leo Casey, Special Assistant to the President of the AFT, and Executive Director Emeritus of the Albert Shanker Institute.

    In January 1952, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) subpoenaed the well-known American stage and film director Elia Kazan to testify behind closed doors. There he told the Committee about his own participation in the Communist Party, but declined to name others. In April, he was called back for public hearings. Caving in to threats from HUAC and pressure from the Hollywood studios, Kazan named eight individuals who, with him, had been part of a Communist Party cell in the Group Theatre during the1930s.

    Lives were shattered by Kazan’s testimony. The eight named individuals were themselves called before HUAC. The actor J. Edward Bromberg defiantly refused the committee’s demand to name names, but the stress of the ordeal took a terrible toll: he would die young of a heart attack in a matter of months. Others of the eight who resisted HUAC, such as Morris Carnovsky and Phoebe Brand, would never work in film again. Only those who would join Kazan in naming names, such as Clifford Odets and Lewis Leverett, would be able to avoid the Hollywood blacklist and save their film careers.

    Angered in equal measures by HUAC’s star chamber and by Kazan informing on one-time friends and comrades, the distinguished American playwright Arthur Miller decided that it was time to mount a forceful public critique of the McCarthyism that lay behind the HUAC hearings. But rather than comment directly on the events of his day, Miller would take the unusual approach of using the late 17th century witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts as his subject matter.

  • Valuing Teachers’ Voices on World Teachers’ Day—and Every Day

    Our guest author is Julie Vogtman, Senior Director of Job Quality, National Women’s Law Center.

    Did you know that Saturday, October 5th was World Teachers’ Day? According to Unesco, one of the day’s convenors, this year’s theme is “Valuing teacher voices: towards a new social contract for education,” which is meant to “underscor[e] the urgency of calling for and attending to teachers’ voices to address their challenges” and “most importantly, to acknowledge and benefit from the expert knowledge and input that they bring to education.”

    This is a vital mission—one that merits far more than a day to honor. And it’s particularly important in this moment, when teachers in many U.S. school districts feel that the “expert knowledge and input that they bring to education” is being disregarded more than ever. When at least 18 states have enacted laws restricting K-12 public school teachers' instruction on topics related to race, gender, sexuality, and other so-called “divisive concepts”—and PEN America has documented more than 10,000 instances of book bans in the 2023-24 school year alone—many teachers across the country lack the autonomy and respect for their profession that they want and deserve.