Abstract The American Federation of Teachers is a labor union representing primary and secondary school teachers, paraprofessionals, higher education faculty and professional staff, and nurses and other health care professionals. The AFT Educational Issues Department, originally the Task Force on Educational Issues, is the research and development arm of the union. The department tracks education policies from local, state and national bodies, conducts research and analysis on those policies, produces...

Abstract Bella Rosenberg served as the assistant to the president of the American Federation of Teachers from 1984-2005, under Albert Shanker and Sandra Feldman. Albert Shanker was president of the AFT from 1974 to 1997. He was one of the first educators to embrace the findings of the report A Nation at Risk which outlined extensive problems in America’s public schools. Shanker and Rosenberg worked closely on various initiatives, many of them in response to the report. This included a peer review...