A week after the National Education Association's Representative Assembly called on Education Secretary Arne Duncan to resign, the American Federation of Teachers is beginning its annual convention, and it, too, is expected to shift to a more aggressive stance against Duncan and the high-stakes testing he pushes. AFT President Randi Weingarten is slated to open the convention with a speech saying "We need a secretary of Education who walks our walk and fights our fight for the tools and resources we need to help children. And we are deeply disappointed that this Department of Education has not lived up to that standard," and a resolution similar to the NEA's may ultimately be introduced. But, separate from the Duncan question, the AFT is significantly shifting its position on Common Core.

The union has in the past actively backed Common Core, then shifted to calling for a moratorium on using Common Core testing in high-stakes ways determining the fates of students and teachers. But:

... the union now plans to give its members grants to critique the academic standards — or to write replacement standards from scratch. [...]

The AFT will also consider a resolution — drafted by its executive council — asserting that the promise of the Common Core has been corrupted by political manipulation, administrative bungling, corporate profiteering and an invalid scoring system designed to ensure huge numbers of kids fail the new math and language arts exams that will be rolled out next spring. An even more pointed resolution flat out opposing the standards will also likely come up for a vote.

Standardized tests aren't the answer for any educational system. Standardized tests that are corporate profit centers and take over the school year really aren't the answer for any educational system. Yet that's what American schools increasingly look like, with even kindergarteners subjected to hours of testing, and companies like Pearson raking in billions of dollars. It's good to see the teachers unions shifting to fight this damage to education more vigorously rather than opting for accommodation in hopes of minimizing the attacks on themselves.