Back from the first day of the RA. Signs of resignation, opposition and goofiness.

I’m back from the first day of the NEA RA. For me it just consisted of a two-hour Illinois Caucus meeting.

There was nothing of substance done in the meeting. Just rules and protocols.

But the hallway discussion was full of resignation, opposition and just plain goofiness.

About the controversial Obama endorsement:

There will be no floor debate at the RA. There will be debate in the state caucus meetings and then a secret ballot vote. I can’t recall, but I’ve been told this is not new procedure. And somebody may challenge it from the floor of the RA. But I doubt that will get far.

Secret ballots votes can be tricky for leadership. Ten years ago NEA President Bob Chase thought he had the votes for the proposal to merge the NEA and the AFT. He barely got 30% in support of the merger in a secret ballot vote.

I’ve been told DVR needs 58% to endorse. I’m a betting man, but I wouldn’t bet on the outcome of that vote.

The tone of the delegates is not enthusiastic about the endorsement. Even among those that plan to vote for the early no strings endorsement there is a sense of resignation. Nobody thinks Obama has done a damn thing in support of public school teachers, public schools, kids or unions. But they fear the Republicans.

With the national assault on collective bargaining, have you heard a word from Hilda Solis, Obama’s Labor Secretary? Me neither.

And inside some state caucuses the anger at Obama is palpable.

So, we shall see.

Word is that the leadership has changed the testing language in the policy statement on accountability and teacher evaluation.

The original draft said something about evaluating teachers using valid, reliable, high quality standardized tests that provide meaningful information regarding student learning and growth of students.

Now the statement adds a caveat. Unless such tests are shown to be scientifically valid and reliable for the purpose of measuring both student learning and a teacher’s performance, such tests may not be used to support any employment action against a teacher and may be used only to provide nonevaluative formative feedback.

That’s one hell of a qualification: The NEA supports the use of student standardized test scores to evaluate teachers as long as they have been proven to accurately measure both student learning and teacher performance. Ha! Good luck with that.

This clearly was added in anticipation of delegate pushback. Some members of the committee who drafted the original statement that I spoke with basically repudiated it.

I’m not sure that add-on language will save it.

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