Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/417576
CTA & You The Instructional Leadership Corps As Council delegates left at the close of the meeting Sunday, some 200 teach- ers from across the state, some of whom were State Council delegates, came to be trained as part of the Instructional Leadership Corps (ILC). A new partnership with CTA, the National Board Resource Center and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education, the program cre- ates a corps of classroom educators to be instructional leaders who will provide training and assistance to their colleagues to help students meet the Common Core and Next Generation Science standards. Nearly 600 educators applied to be part of the program. "This is CTA helping educators lead and transform the profession, as well as, bringing these educators into the union," said CTA President Dean E. Vogel • Reviewed a 22-page report summarizing the work, completed earlier this year, of the CTA Teacher Evaluation Workgroup about teach- er preparation and early career support. The report is part of CTA's efforts to "engage a broad cross-section of the education community and all interested stakeholders in the conversation about the direction California should take in preparing its teachers, and what those teachers should be prepared to do." It includes research and 16 guiding principles for these areas and will soon be posted on the CTA website. • Voted to support efforts in making ethnic studies a graduation requirement in all California school districts, so that "all students have an opportuni- ty to learn about our cultural diversity and histo- ry." UTLA members are aggressively pushing Los Angeles Unified to make these studies a gradua- tion requirement. Council also added a sentence to CTA policy: "CTA believes that ethnic studies enhances student achievement and is an essen- tial component of a culturally diverse education." • Affirmed support for NEA's national "Degrees Not Debt" week of protest Nov. 10-14 over soar- ing college debt for students, and recommended that CTA chapters sponsor an event. Student CTA, CTA and CFA members are organizing activities for California's week of action Nov. 17-21. Learn more at cta.org/degreesnotdebt. • Received a letter from President Vogel urging educators to support the CTA boycott of Staples office supplies stores. At the start of the summer, the American Postal Workers Union asked the AFL-CIO to endorse their national boycott of Sta- ples. The boycott was also endorsed by the NEA Representative Assembly in July. • Voted to start the process for sponsoring legis- lation for 2015-16 related to protecting teachers from being victimized by companies offering 403(b) retirement products. The legislation, as recommended by the Retirement Committee, would add a provision to the insurance code that would create an employee-driven vendor process that is subject to collective bargaining. in his welcome. "This is a different way to serve, because at the core, we're about sustaining excellent learning envi- ronments for kids. Period. We're here because we have a professional responsibility to drive this agenda. That's who we are. That's what we signed up for." Read more about the ILC in the December Educator. Republican and Democrat, side by side for public schools and students. Republican Caucus rep LARRY FELLS from Redding, CTA-Retired, and Democratic Caucus rep OWEN JACKMAN, Sacramento City Teachers Association, share information at their State Council booths. They both encouraged everyone to vote for pro-public education candidates and issues. In other actions, State Council: DEBBIE RESNICK, Anaheim Elementary Education Association, urged CTA to write a letter to Time magazine to protest the "Rotten Apples" teacher-bash- ing cover for its Nov. 3 edition about the Vergara lawsuit and teacher tenure. CTA President Dean Vogel said the letter was already in the works. It will join protests from NEA, AFT and many other groups. 55 V O L U M E 1 9 I S S U E 4