According to a survey conducted by Hart Research Associates, 81 percent of AFT members have either received a COVID-19 vaccine or are scheduled to get one.
“Educators are rolling up their sleeves, not only to get vaccinated but to return to in-person schooling with the CDC’s safety guardrails in place,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten in a statement.…
Read more
The plan for the start of the 2021-22 school year is to have in-person learning for all students, no matter if they have received COVID-19 vaccines, according to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s director.
“We should anticipate, come September 2021, that schools should be full-fledged in person and all of our children back in the classroom,” Dr.…
Read more
Five Coalition of Rutgers Unions locals, among them Rutgers AAUP-AFT (Local 6323) and URA-AFT (Local 1766), recently ratified an agreement with Rutgers University that provides job security, a timetable for raises and other gains for the CRU.
“We finally got the administration to change direction and adopt our people-centered approach,” said Todd Wolfson, president of Rutgers AAUP-AFT.…
Read more
The Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) will present two workshops in May for AFTNJ adjunct professors who would like more information about pension benefits or are planning to retire.
“Understanding Your Pension Benefits,” scheduled for May 12 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. ET, will cover enrollment criteria, membership tiers, the Member Benefits Online System (MBOS), beneficiary designation, group life insurance coverage, pension loans and more.…
Read more
Registration is now open for this year’s Education Reform, Communities and Social Justice Research Conference, taking place via Zoom on June 2, 16 and 30.
Elisabeth H. Kim from Rutgers University in Newark has one of the talks set for June 2 under the collective heading Community Schools, School Safety & Restorative Justice.
As part of the Social Justice & Youth Voices programming on June 16, Marina Feldman, a full-time teaching assistant at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education, will discuss the struggle to save the Lincoln Annex School in New Brunswick.…
Read more
Health care literacy organization Quizzify will present webinars this month on vaccines and preventing premature births.
“Overcoming Vaccine Hesitancy” is set for April 7 at 1 p.m. ET. Dr. Christa-Marie Singleton, who holds multiple titles with the CDC, and Dr. Scott Conrad, a medical director for various corporations, will be taking questions. To register, click here.…
Read more
The American Jobs Plan, introduced March 31 by President Joe Biden, is “a down payment on our woefully underinvested infrastructure” that also “reimagines our schools and communities well into the 21st century,” said AFT Randi Weingarten in a press release.
“From $100 billion toward K-12 public school infrastructure to $12 billion for community colleges to upgrade their technology and infrastructure to $45 billion to replace all lead pipes and service lines in this country,” Weingarten added, “this plan makes a down payment on our woefully underinvested infrastructure.”…
Read more
As negotiations continue between William Paterson University administration and AFT Local 1796 over possible cutbacks, WPU’s workers and students are supporting the at-risk personnel and programs with video messages explaining why such reductions would result in long-term, widespread consequences.
The initial videos in the series, produced by the Council of New Jersey State College Locals and the AFTNJ, premiered April 1 and feature WPU assistant professor Dr.…
Read more
Rutgers University’s business schools in Newark and New Brunswick tied for 44th in that category on the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Grad Schools report for 2022, which was released this week.
In the education school category, New Jersey was well represented, with Rutgers (New Brunswick) ranking 47th, Montclair State University tied for 103rd and Rowan University tied for 175th.…
Read more
The expected learning loss in math for New Jersey’s black students in grades 3-8 during the first half of the 2020-21 school year is 50 percent, as high as students with individual education plans, according to a survey released March 30 by the Cranford-based advocacy group JerseyCAN.
Learning loss in English language arts is 43 percent for black students in those grades and 37 percent for Latinx students.…
Read more
AFT President Randi Weingarten was interviewed by CBSN’s Nikki Battiste on March 29, and when asked about the disparities in school reopenings, Weingarten cited facilities and trust as the primary factors.
“The places that were the hardest to reopen were the places that had the worst conditions, that had the worst facilities,” Weingarten said. “And those places tend to be places, unfortunately, where the majority of black and brown kids go to school.”…
Read more
Susan McLuckie, who teaches at the Toby Farms Intermediate School in Pennsylvania, describes comics as “a fantastic tool for inspiring student engagement,” she writes for eSchool News.
Comics also “level the playing field,” she adds, “because socioeconomic background has little to do with drawing ability — the rich kids and the poor kids are all starting at the same place.”…
Read more