On June 3 over 100 volunteers sorted, labeled, and boxed more than 30,000 books from United Way of Rhode Island's 11th Children's Book Drive — a partnership with our Women United group and Books Are Wings. These books are already on the way to Rhode Island kids taking part in afterschool and summer learning programs.

Through this project, we have put more than 300,000 books in the hands of kids over 11 years. Thank you to our dedicated partners and volunteers! 

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is already pervasive in our lives. But the introduction of platforms like OpenAI/ChatGPT has the education world questioning how it should be used or if it should be used at all. In the AFT TEACH workshop “Use It or Block It? Using OpenAI in the Classroom,” presenters Peter Guyon and Kathleen Torregrossa addressed this question in front of a group of educators—some of whom were already using AI in the classroom, while others were curious about its potential.

Despite the science of reading being clear—and despite decades of the AFT sharing that science—for too long, many state and local policies on reading instruction have promoted less-effective practices.

During the workshop “Literacy for Leaders: What Locals Can Do to Support Student Literacy” at AFT TEACH, a state union leader and the Albert Shanker Institute presented research on teaching reading and a new Shanker Institute analysis of recent state laws on literacy.