Two cheers for the AFT!

The head of the second-largest teachers' union, American Federation of Teachers, has agreed to discuss using standardized tests to evaluate teachers. Of course, the devil is in the details. We'll see what the evaluation that comes from this looks like before we declare victory. But this strikes me as a major concession and a significant step in the right direction, where "right" is defined as the direction opposite the interest of the NEA.

The question is Why would the union do this? The teachers' unions have been monolithic in their rejection of virtually any meaningful evaluation of teacher performance. Perhaps it is key that this concession came from the second-largest union. Is this an example of the benefit of competition? In other words, maybe the AFT figured that one way to become the largest teachers' union might be to collaborate with management. Since there is no management in public education, the next best strategy is to collaborate with the standardized testing crowd.

How will this benefit the teachers' union? I don't know, specifically; maybe somebody who knows more about how AFT might expand its membership could comment. It seems clear, however, that being the union favored by the pro-testing crowd, which includes many teachers, by the way, could be an advantage.