Randi Weingarten was elected president of the American Federation of Teachers in Chicago on July 14, 2008. The following is an excerpt from her acceptance speech.

By Keith Devlin. --No Child Left Behind got it badly wrong for providing the society and workforce we need in the 21st century. It did so not only because it took a narrow, "fill the bucket and measure its contents" view of what education is about, it also focused on the needs of an America that will soon cease to exist. This is particularly true for mathematics, my subject.

By Ronald Thorpe. --Whatever educators try to do, it never seems to be enough. And since schools have so many paymasters -- it was hard enough when it was local, state and federal levels of government, but today the list includes an array of private foundations, corporations, and even individuals -- schools of all sorts are trying to make decisions while getting pulled in myriad directions.