The leaders of NYSUT's two national affiliates are working to rally education professionals in New York and across the country with their visions for helping to close the achievement gap.

Addressing more than 2,000 teachers, paraprofessionals and other members of the American Federation of Teachers, AFT President Edward McElroy this summer proposed extending the school year into the summer to provide intensive instruction and enriching out-of-classroom activities for the nation's most vulnerable K-3 students.

"We are simply losing too many children during the long summer months, when they forget much of what they learned during the school year," McElroy said in his keynote address at QuEST, the AFT's biennial professional issues conference in Washington, D.C.

Bill of rights

One week earlier, his counterpart at the National Education Association, Reg Weaver, proposed a 10-point "education bill of rights for children" to include universal preschool, small class sizes, parent participation, better funding and help for English language learners and special-needs students.

As Congress tackles the reauthorization of the controversial No Child Left Behind Act, Weaver and McElroy were critical of the controversial federal program.

"Even if we meet all of the criteria of No Child Left Behind, it still won't prepare our children for the 21st century," Weaver said. "It won't give them the skills they need to think for themselves."