As the school leaders responsible for ensuring the education of all our nation’s children, principals and administrators regularly find ourselves contending with ever-changing experiments imposed on us by local, state and federal policymakers, often without regard for the training necessary to implement these programs.

America was built and continues to run today on the sweat and sacrifice of millions of hard working people. Rightly so, we will pause this Labor Day to celebrate the invaluable contributions American workers have made over the course of our nation’s history.

On Wednesday, August 28th, AFSA attended an event held at the Center for American Progress (CAP), “Empty Seats, Lost Opportunities.” The event’s focus was on the critical Head Start program, and the damage sequestration is causing to the program, and more importantly, the children it serves. Head Start has provided comprehensive services for poor children since 1965. However, this national […]

This year as students, teachers and administrators head back to school, many will face the first official year of implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). With the standards already adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.), CCSS has become a topic of dispute for educators, parents and politicians, with some state legislatures across the country already proposing opt-out bills.

President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget proposes an increase of $3.1 billion for the Department of Education. The president’s request includes a major new investment in early learning, with $75 billion in mandatory funds for Preschool for All, and increases to Early Head Start, Head Start and IDEA grants for infants and families.

Ending 2012 on a productive note, AFSA President Diann Woodard and Government Affairs Director Nick Spina met with Eric Waldo and Tyra Mariani, both deputy chiefs of staff for Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. The meeting was both a follow-up to the October 2012 AFSA General Executive Board meeting, where Eric Waldo met with AFSA’s leadership, and an opportunity to […]

Closing schools should never be used as a quick fix solution to solve larger budget problems. Instead, we should be investing more resources into these schools to ensure that all children, across all backgrounds, ethnicities, and incomes, receive a high quality education.

AFSA has signed on to a National Coalition to Protect Education (NCPE) letter that was sent to the Senate Friday morning opposing any amendments in the Senate Budget Resolution that would create a voucher program. So far one of the proposed amendments has already been opposed 39-60.

In response to the May 1 report “The Ripple Effect” released by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) on principal effectiveness, AFSA President Diann Woodard released the following statement…