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News Brief

Monday, April 02, 2012

USED Hosts Labor-Management Collaboration Conference May 23-24

Chief State School Officers are invited to attend this year's Labor-Management Collaboration Conference from May 23 to 24 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Last year's event in Denver was for districts only; this year's event will be open to State as well as district teams.

The conference will be sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education together with the National Education Association (NEA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Council of Chief State School Officers, the Council of the Great City Schools, the American Association of School Administrators, the National School Boards Association, and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. The event, titled Collaborating to Transform the Teaching Profession, is focused on highlighting innovative approaches - at both the State and district levels - to improving student achievement by dramatically increasing the stature of the teaching profession and the number of highly effective teachers in our nation's schools.

In order to attend, please note the following requirements:

  • The State Chief and the State's NEA and AFT (if applicable) teachers' union leader(s) must agree to attend the conference together. The State school boards association and the State administrators association leaders are encouraged to attend as well.
  • The State Chief and the State's NEA and AFT (if applicable) teachers' union leader(s) must come with a jointly prepared presentation of work, consistent with the principles outlined last year for structuring labor-management collaboration for student success (http://www.ed.gov/labor-management-collaboration/conference/principles-action), that your state has planned or implemented. This work will be presented at the "Transformers' Dialogue," a session at the conference that is designed to showcase the work being done by - and to build networks among - all State and district participants.
  • The State Chief must pledge to work together with the State school boards association and the State administrators association to support collaboratively developed and implemented policies statewide.

Please RSVP no later than 5:00 p.m. ET on March 30, 2012. RSVP by filling out and signing the attached form, then scanning and e-mailing it to collaboration2012@ed.gov or faxing it to (202) 205-0676 to "Attention: Collaboration." Please e-mail us at collaboration2012@ed.gov with questions.