First it was the National Education Association (NEA) calling for Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's resignation at its recent national convention. Now it's the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) joining in, with a twist. The AFT isn't calling on Duncan to resign — yet. Its resolution calls for an improvement plan for Duncan.

RESOLVED, that the AFT today calls on the president to implement a secretary improvement plan that will be based upon standing up for public education, supporting teachers and all school workers, inspiring parents and the public to join us in creating the public schools we want and deserve, and leading with us in reclaiming the promise of public education.

The wording is a sly dig at Duncan for supporting anti-tenure measures which would allow school districts to fire teachers more easily than they can now. The "secretary improvement plan" called for in the AFT resolution is like the teacher improvement plans which need to be implemented under tenure protections before a teacher is fired.

Here are the recommendations in the improvement plan.

• Enact the funding and equity recommendations of the Each and Every Child report issued by the congressionally chartered, bipartisan Equity Commission;
• Work with us to change the NCLB/RTTT “test and punish” accountability system to a “support and improve” model; and
• Promote rather than question the teachers and school support staff of America.