The UFT offers many programs and services for teachers to help them hone their skills and meet certification and licensing requirements. The union also offers courses to help teachers prepare for state exams and workshops to fulfill requirements for...

Our contract includes a provision that allows teachers to challenge procedural flaws in their observations and/or other aspects of their evaluation. This “streamlined process to resolve APPR compliance issues” has come to be known as the APPR...

Miriam Krinick, who turned 100 in November, was honored on Nov. 1 at Brooklyn’s PS 108, where she taught for 18 years, at the unveiling of a Little Yellow Library, a charitable donation to the school from the Kendra Scott Foundation.

With New York City facing a chronic shortage of bilingual special education teachers, the UFT was able to negotiate a new incentive program to encourage tenured special education teachers with a bilingual extension to combine those two specialties.

In the four years since the introduction of A+ credits as part of the 2018 DOE-UFT contract, the course offerings have expanded for teachers working toward their MA+30 salary differential.

The start of the school year, when the previous year is still fresh in your mind, is a great time to make some “new year’s resolutions” to improve your teaching practice. UFT Teacher Center coach and 10 th-grade social studies teacher Shawn Fisch...

Sometimes, informal assessments can be more meaningful and less anxiety-provoking than traditional tests for students. Three informal assessments I use in my high school chemistry classes are 10-Point Bingo, a whiteboard activity and “I Can”...

Research shows a positive impact on students when teachers and families are able to work together effectively. Here are UFT Teacher Center tips and strategies to establish a solid relationship between home and school.

A child who threatens or engages in physical violence to himself, his/her fellow students, or a teacher may be directed by the teacher to report immediately to the principal or other designated supervisor under such escort as is prescribed by the...

Mary Vaccaro is the UFT vice president for education. She was elected by the union’s Executive Board in September 2020. Mary, a graduate of Adelphi University, received her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and her master’s degree in Early...

About 500 new UFT members had the chance to see “How to Dance in Ohio” at Teachers Night on Broadway on Feb. 1. “It was complete joy,” said UFT Vice President Karen Alford, who leads the union’s new member initiative. “The show spoke to all of us as...

UFT President Michael Mulgrew submitted testimony before the New York City Council Committee on Finance regarding the city's executive budget for fiscal year 2027.

Learn how much you are being charged in union dues and how they are calculated.

The current school-budget crisis is no surprise to many veteran city public school educators. Fiscal turmoil seems to assault our schools every 15 or 20 years. Typically, teachers are called upon to save the day and, for the sake of the children...

Officially known as the second differential (C6 + PD), most members achieve the salary differential with the highest pay scale by taking 30 course credits beyond their bachelor’s and master’s degrees. But a lesser-known path to the top differential...

By accumulating college credits, paraprofessionals can significantly increase their pay. Whether your career path as a paraprofessional leads you to earn a bachelor’s degree or to earn a master’s degree and become a certified teacher, several UFT...

Albert Shanker was born to immigrants from Czarist Russia, Morris, who delivered newspapers, and Mamie, a garment worker holding union cards in both the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union.

A salary step is an increase in salary based on previous experience. Learn about steps, longevities, and access the DOE’s online salary step application.

The UFT represents many employees other than teachers, both in the school system and beyond. Paraprofessionals, school counselors, secretaries and others participate in their local school-based chapters, but they are also part of union-wide...

As early as March 2020, headlines warned of the “learning loss” that students would experience as a result of disrupted and remote schooling. But that phrase misclassifies the real issue and obscures how teachers can best support their students.

The Progressive Redesign Opportunity Schools for Excellence (PROSE) program, which affords schools the freedom to experiment and innovate, is marking its 10th anniversary this school year. Nearly 300 teachers, chapter leaders and principals from the...

Since February 2022, the New York State Education Department has changed the requirements for a number of different state certifications. Read the following Q&A for the details.

Enhanced student achievement based upon high standards and expectations must be the driving force behind every activity of New York City public schools. To accomplish this, we must reinvent schools so that decision making is shared by those closest...

For DOE employees, dues are currently set to .85 of one percent of the maximum contractual salary of your title at Step 8B plus 20-year longevity, plus added amounts for the union’s state and national affiliates. So, all the members who are teachers...

More than 500 members and their guests turned out to celebrate educational excellence in the Bronx at the seventh annual District 11 Scholarship Dinner.

About 200 UFT members and guests attended the UFT Asian American Heritage Committee's celebration of AANHPI (Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander) Heritage Month.

Sound homework policy should meaningfully support learning with overwhelming students or teachers. Veteran educators share their strategies for creating homework that’s worthwhile and effective in the age of artificial intelligence



The UFT offers an array of programs to meet its members' needs.

Thousands of New York City public school educators will ramp up a statewide campaign on Tuesday, 1/6, to demand state pension reforms for educators hired after April 2012.

In the weeks leading up to the Nov. 4 election, the Retired Teachers Chapter held a dozen afternoon phone banks at UFT headquarters in Manhattan, where RTC members urged fellow retirees to vote for Zohran Mamdani and the union’s other endorsed...

The parties recognize the importance of providing day-to-day substitute teachers with the facilities, supplies and support they need in order to carry out their responsibilities in the most professional and effective manner. Teachers should have the...

Your school’s seniority list tells you how much seniority you have and where you stand in terms of excessing seniority compared to your colleagues who have the same license as you. Excessing seniority, otherwise known as citywide seniority, is the...

Born in 1866, Henry Richardson Linville grew up in St. Joseph, Mo., and earned his Ph.D at Harvard before moving to the city and becoming a biology teacher at Jamaica HS. That’s when the newly formed Teachers Union chose Linville as its head.