Executive Vice President Jaime Ciffone promised to continue to defend the teaching profession from the forces that seek to demean it.
During her address, Ciffone spoke passionately about the advances made to the education profession this year, including a wholesale rejection of a New York State Education Department proposal that would reduce education requirements for teachers, as well as the enthusiastic adoption of a new approach to literacy.
“We have successfully fought back to protect our profession, and because of our collective voice, when I sit in meetings and engage in conversations, everyone knows I’m bringing the voices of our 700,000 plus members with me,” Ciffone said.
Ciffone recounted how in November of 2023, the state education department outlined six potential changes to certification, including a proposal to eliminate the requirement that teachers obtain a master’s degree. Understanding that the proposal would deprofessionalize educators and cause harm to our higher education members by decimating education programs across the state, NYSUT members sprang into action, advocating strongly against the approach and convening a workgroup to offer alternative remedies to the stalls in the teacher pipeline. As a result of NYSUT’s concerted efforts, the proposal was abandoned, Ciffone said.
“When discussing why the proposal has been abandoned, SED representatives refer to there being ‘resistance in the field.’ That’s us! We are proudly the resistance in the field!” Ciffone told the crowd jubilantly.
This year, NYSUT educators also advanced literacy by releasing a new curriculum that promises to put an end once and for all to the so-called “Reading Wars,” Ciffone said. Thanks to NYSUT advocacy — and to the $10 million grant from Governor Kathy Hochul — NYSUT produced the “Science of Reading” professional training, the new “for educators-by-educators" course that will help literacy educators across the state use the latest research-based pedagogy for literacy instruction. The 30-hour blended course model, which was piloted successfully this year and introduced to representatives in a short feature video, will now be offered to all New York educators at no cost via NYSUT’s Education and Learning Trust.
“This is the time where we, as educators, get to raise our voices to take back the ability to make informed decisions about our students’ full literacy development,” Ciffone said.
Member voices are at the center of NYSUT’s advocacy, and Ciffone finished by thanking members for making themselves heard and actively investing in what matters most: teaching and learning.
“We are the leaders of our own learning. We are the experts. We are the professionals!” Ciffone said. “Together, we are the union.”