The mission of NCUEA is to promote and advance quality public education in urban schools by empowering and supporting local associations, leaders, and members. In carrying out this mission, NCUEA focuses on the following areas:
- United voice for urban education
- Promotion of and advocacy for local associations
- Partnership with NEA
- Partnerships with education-focused organizations
- Training for local urban leaders
- Human and civil rights for all
- Celebration of diversity
- Communication among local associations
- Staff/Leadership relationships
- Quality working conditions
Join NCUEA!
Apply: NEA - NCUEA Urban Grant
Funding can be used to support your local's efforts to increase membership and build its power by identifying issues, strengthening worksite leader systems and structures, and implementing organizing campaigns.
Register Now: NCUEA Fall Conference, November 30 - December 3, 2022, in Salt Lake City, UT!
Register now for NCUEA's fall conference!
CONFERENCE THEME: Many Voices, One Union
Through the National Council of Urban Education Associations (NCUEA), diverse peoples weave a rich tapestry made up of different viewpoints and perspectives representing many different places and histories.
The National Council of Urban Education Associations’ strength originates in the heterogeneity of its members: in their racial and ethnic diversity, in their multiplicity of local viewpoints and perspectives – and most importantly, in the voices that they lift through their local associations and through NCUEA. NCUEA creates a space for all its members’ voices to be heard and to resonate not only within NCUEA but across our national Association.
This year’s fall conference theme reflects NCUEA’s essential nature that out of many, we are one. Join us for NCUEA’s 2022 Fall Conference in Salt Lake City, UT, Many Voices, One Union. Interested in submitting a breakout session at NCUEA's Fall conference? Submit your RFP.
Register now for NCUEA's fall conference!
Submit an RFP for a breakout session
NCUEA is proud to announce that the following distinct and powerful voices will be joining us in Salt Lake City
Loretta Ross is an award-winning, nationally-recognized expert on racism and racial justice, women's rights, and human rights. Her work emphasizes the intersectionality of social justice issues and how intersectionality can fuel transformation.
Ross is a visiting associate professor at Smith College (Northampton, MA) in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender, teaching courses on white supremacy, race and culture in America, human rights, and calling in the calling out culture.
Ross appears regularly in major media outlets about the issues of our day. She was recently featured in a New York Times piece, "What if Instead of Calling People Out, We Called Them In?"
Samuel L. Perry is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma. He is among the nation's leading experts on the ways American religious nationalism is intensifying partisan polarization, fueling white supremacy, and ultimately threatening American democracy. Dr. Perry is the author or co-author of four books, including the award-winning Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States (with Andrew Whitehead) and most recently The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy (with Philip Gorski). He also regularly writes for popular news outlets including TIME Magazine, Religion News Service, NBC News, and The Washington Post, and in Spring 2022 he contributed expert testimony to the January 6th Committee on the role of White Christian Nationalism in the US Capitol Attacks on January 6, 2021.
Co-Authors of Dirt Road Revival, Chloe Maxmin and Canyon Woodward. Through 2 successful elections in rural red districts that few thought could be won by a Democrat, twentysomethings Maine state senator Chloe Maxmin (D-District 13) and campaign manager Canyon Woodward saw how the Democratic Party has focused for too long on the interests of elite leaders and big donors, forcing the party to abandon the concerns of rural America—jeopardizing climate justice, racial equity, economic justice, and more. Dirt Road Revival looks at how we got here and lays out a road map for progressive campaigns in rural America to build an inclusive, robust, grassroots politics that fights for equity and justice across our country.
Chloe Maxmin. Hailing from rural Maine, Chloe is the youngest woman ever to serve in the Maine State Senate, at 28 years old. She was elected in 2020 after unseating a two-term Republican incumbent and (former) Senate Minority Leader. In 2018, she served in the Maine House of Representatives after becoming the first Democrat to win a rural conservative district. She also received an honors degree from Harvard College, where she co-founded Divest Harvard. Chloe is the recipient of the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes and the Brower Youth Award. She was also named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone. She was named the 2020 Legislator of the Year by the Maine Council on Aging.
Canyon Woodward. Canyon was born, raised, and homeschooled in the Appalachian Mountains of rural North Carolina and the North Cascades of Washington. He was the campaign manager for Chloe Maxmin’s successful 2018 and 2020 campaigns. He was previously regional field director for Bernie Sanders 2016, field director for Jane Hipps for NC Senate, and vice chair of the NC District 11 Democrats. He earned an honors degree in social studies from Harvard College, where the bulk of his education took place outside of the classroom co- coordinating (with Chloe) Divest Harvard, a 70,000+person movement that succeeded in pressuring Harvard to divest its $53 billion endowment from fossil fuels. He is also an avid trail runner.
Ebonee Rice. Ebonee Rice is the Senior Vice President of Educator Engagement at the News Literacy Project. A strategic coalition builder and community engagement expert, she has spent her career successfully scaling up campaigns and programs in the pursuit of equal access for all. The News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan education nonprofit, is building a national movement to advance the practice of news literacy throughout American society, creating better informed, more engaged and more empowered individuals — and ultimately a stronger democracy.
From 2015 to 2017, Rice led the national partner engagement program at Enroll America, a nonprofit created to ensure that members of often underserved communities were able to enroll for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Her work resulted in millions of people within minority, women and young adult communities gaining health coverage. After Enroll America closed its doors, she joined the District of Columbia’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education as a community outreach specialist, building compelling digital experiences for constituents that led to positive outcomes for children, educators and families.
Linda Villarosa. Linda is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, where she covers race, inequality and public health. A former executive editor of Essence Magazine, she is the author of the book Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation. Villarosa’s contribution to The New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning 1619 Project highlighted race-based physiological myths that have endured in medical practice since slavery. An expanded version of her essay was included in the book The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story.
NEW LOCAL PRESIDENTS TRAINING
The National Education Association’s (NEA) New Local Presidents Training equips incoming local presidents with a set of fundamental skills aligned with NEA’s Leadership Competencies, including organizing, advocacy, communication, governance, and strategy & fiscal health. These fundamental skills provide local leaders with the tools to address both internal local issues, such as membership growth and representative structures, as well as to tackle pressing issues in their school districts and communities, such as student success, as well as social, racial, and economic justice. Find more information on NEA’s Leadership Competencies here.
NEA’s Center for Organizing and the National Council of Urban Education Associations (NCUEA) partner to conduct the national Local Presidents Training. NCUEA is an autonomous political body within NEA that represents and advocates for urban education associations and the students that they serve. Click here for more information on NCUEA, its work, and on how you can join and become a NCUEA member.
This training is led by current or former local presidents – all of whom have successfully completed NEA’s Local Presidents Training. Most, but not all trainers, are from NCUEA member locals. NEA’s Center for Organizing provides all other staffing, resources, and support for this program. Click here for a complete list of the LPT/NEA Training Cadre and their bios.
If you have any questions, please contact Michael Schoettle, Field Manager at [email protected].
NATIONAL LOCAL PRESIDENTS TRAINING: PROGRAM STRUCTURE, COSTS, AND DETAILS
The Center for Organizing currently facilitates four (4) Local Presidents Training sessions per year. The program typically accepts 20-25 applicants per session. We have found that this is the optimal number to ensure robust participant discussion and enable understanding of training content.
The training lasts for 2-3 days.
Costs. NEA will cover your hotel cost, breakfast, and lunch on days the training is in session and session materials. Each participant is responsible for making flight reservations and travel arrangements. NEA is not responsible for the cost of any flight, taxi, baggage, or other travel expenses.
Trainers. All local president training trainers are alums of the program itself. Most are still local presidents, but we also maintain a roster of talented cadre trainers who may no longer be local presidents. All trainers, regardless of elected position, are members of their state affiliate and the National Education Association.
NATIONAL LOCAL PRESIDENTS TRAINING PROGRAM: APPLICATION NOTIFICATION & PROCESS
NCUEA member locals are given advance notification to apply and register for the Local Presidents Training. NCUEA’s president sends the email invitation directly to leadership at NCUEA’s member locals.
State presidents and state executive directors are also notified and invite to share the invitation with locals in their respective affiliates.
PARACHUTE LENDING LIBRARY
The parachute lending library at the NEA National Office in Washington D.C. is a new resource that lends banners to your local teachers’ union for upcoming marches, actions, or other activities planned by your local. The NEA has teamed up with national artists from the Art Build Workers to paint numerous different 24’ wide nylon parachute banners.
These parachutes are the "play parachutes" that one might recall from elementary school days. The blank versions of the play parachute are the perfect material for painting powerful graphics and slogans onto. They are light and have handles for upwards of twenty people to hold the image upwards towards the sky.
These banners are key visual elements for marches and actions. They are routinely photographed by the media allowing the messages of the movement to be easily communicated. Due to their large scale these circular banners are easily read by news helicopters when they are photographing the size of the march or by photojournalists situated on buildings as a march goes through a downtown area. The parachute banners also communicate to those in the march: they bring joy and celebration to the march when the parachutes are lifted upwards and people – especially kids – run under the parachutes.
The Parachute Lending Library is easy to use. Email Phillip Zanders and explain which parachute design you would like to feature in your action and the date needed for the parachute banner to arrive by mail. The parachute – if not already out on loan - will be mailed to your local. After the march or action, your local would be responsible to mail the parachute back to the NEA national office in D.C.
See examples of the parachute banners in action by UTLA in a Los Angeles march here!
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