Acknowledging the intense attention placed on education, NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi said teachers must be "at the table" to collaborate on strategies for ending the achievement gap and delivering on the state's historic investment in public education. True collaboration and more control over what happens in their classrooms are the keys to success, the union president said.

In a thoughtful, 25-minute opening-day address to more than 200 members of the Watervliet Teachers Association, administrators, school board members and support personnel, Iannuzzi did not hold back, warning that — fairly or unfairly — the stakes are high for the future of public education and the pressure is on to raise student achievement.

Iannuzzi said it's crucial for educators to demand their "rightful place at the table" in reform discussions at both the state and federal level.

"We must demand greater control over what goes on in our schools and classrooms," Iannuzzi said. "We must be at the table ... and we must be part of the solution."

Noting that public education has worked well for most children in New York state, Iannuzzi addressed the needs of at-risk children.

"If the achievement gap isn't narrowing, if our schools in urban centers are struggling, if poor rural districts cannot make the grade, then what is the answer?" Iannuzzi asked. "If what educators are hearing from critics are not viable solutions, then they must be convincing as to why, and offer viable alternatives to the options currently on the table."

Now that the state has delivered record school funding with the promise of even more, Iannuzzi said we must accept — even embrace — increased accountability and be open to change in longstanding policy. In order to fully achieve student gains, however, Iannuzzi said teachers will need a stronger voice in defining those policies — from those determined locally to the setting of state and federal education policy.

"Traditionally, our members have been left out, always been the last to know," Iannuzzi said. "But the movement toward real collaboration is happening. It has to happen and there is no more imporant time for it to happen than now; in Watervliet, in our state and in our country."

Iannuzzi held up Watervliet, a small city on the outskirts of Albany that is one of 56 districts receiving state Contract for Excellence funding, as an example of the positive outgrowth of labor-management collaboration. He praised WTA, led by co-presidents Peter Strand and Jill Gainor, for recently reaching agreement on a new contract and plotting a course for greater collaboration.

He updated union members on NYSUT's efforts to fix major flaws in the No Child Left Behind Act, which he said unfairly tests and measures students and schools against an ever-changing set of benchmarks.