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32 Fall 2015 | AEA Advocate More than 7,000 educators from all 50 states gathered in Orlando, Florida, from July 3-6 to attend the National Education Association's 94th Representative Assembly (RA). The RA is the top decision-making body for the nearly 3 million- member NEA, and sets Association policy for the coming year. Embracing the meeting's theme – "NEA: Unite. Inspire. Lead." – delegates tackled complex issues with far-reaching implications for the profession, from the future of testing to equity in education. Delegates passed two high-profi le New Business Items (NBIs) supporting the recommendations of the NEA Task Force on Accountability, which recently released its report, "A New Vision for student success." In the report, the 19-member Task Force addresses issues that the current narrow focus on testing overlooks, including equity and access, and explains how shared responsibility for our educational system will best serve students. "By passing this NBI, the delegates recognized that we can't do this important work alone," said NEA Vice President becky Pringle. "We must partner with other education, parent and community stakeholders; we must work shoulder to shoulder or we won't be successful in realizing our vision." RA delegates also approved an NBI that addresses issues of institutional racism. The measure also calls for a coalition of partners to work together to eradicate policies that perpetuate institutional racism in education and expand educator-led professional development in areas of cultural competence, diversity and social justice. The indispensable role educators play in forging progress on these fronts was a recurring theme in many of the speeches delivered at the RA. "Whatever journey brought you to this room, your hearts are wrapped around your students. From the very beginning, our mission has never changed: we wake up every day set on doing The 153 rd Annual Meeting Theme of the National Education Association for 4 color process art reproduction. The below art are examples only. For the actual reproducible art files please contact CreativeServices@nea.org COLOR REPRODUCTION ART NEA: Unite. Inspire. Lead. The theme may also appear in all caps as follows: NEA: UNITE. INSPIRE. LEAD. 2. The theme may also be stacked on two lines. When the theme is stacked it does not need the colon and should be centered as follows: NEA Unite. Inspire. Lead. For use with light backgrounds. For use with dark backgrounds. Annual Theme Logo at the minimum size to use with the NEA Logo. The theme may also be reproduced in 1 color art, use the grayscale version above. NEA RA wrap-Up By Tim Walker NATIONAL PERSPEcTIVE NATIONAL PERSPEcTIVE NATIONAL PERSPEcTIVE NATIONAL PERSPEcTIVE NEA President Lily Eskelsen GarcÌa delivers keynote address to 94th Representative Assembly during the 153rd Annual Meeting at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida on July 3,2015. © 2015 Photo by Scott Iskowitz/NEA.