Talk Priority Schools

By Amy Buffenbarger

“Ok, let’s count 91 to 100 all together.”

“I want to count one to 100 by myself!”

Alex, a first-grader and Edmunds Elementary School in Des Moines, Iowa, is a refugee from the African country of Burundi. Eager to show off his knowledge, he is a perfect example of the progress English Language Learners can make in supportive environments.

English Language Learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing group of students in American public schools, with one in four students projected to be an ELL by 2020. While the largest group of ELLs is Spanish speaking, there are 460 languages represented in U.S. classrooms. A challenge facing many priority schools.

Edmunds Elementary has a large and unique ELL population. Half of the students are ELLs, and 85 percent of those students are refugees from Africa. The trauma of war at home, in addition to language barriers between teachers, students and families, is just part of the challenge in educating these students. Many of the students don’t have education records and their parents have never attended school.

With students from Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Iraq, Vietnam, Mexico and more, the immense challenge doesn’t discourage Dustin Hockman, the ELL Instructor at Edmunds.

Hockman, who has been teaching at Edmunds for 2.5 years, puts in 12-hour days during the week and keeps teaching through the weekend. He has become a familiar face in Oakridge, a low-income community located next to the school where most of the students live. 
When he isn’t at school, Hockman can be found taking donated computers to his student’s homes, visiting families in the community, teaching adults about resources in Des Moines and lending a supportive ear to his students. His passion and dedication to the success of students at Edmunds is clear. read more »

Portland, OR teachers and the school board have agreed to a new contract, fresh evidence that educators and districts across the country are pushing forward on collaborative reforms, despite political attacks and a difficult economy. The work of the Portland Association of Teachers and legislation supported by the Arkansas Education Association just this week stands in contrast to the so-called nuclear option exercised by Republican pols in Madison, WI Wednesday night and today that appeared to advance Gov. Walker’s union-stripping plan close to law.

While political opponents continue attacks on the rights of working men and women in some states, elsewhere the story is one of success for agreement-based approaches to advance education reform and budget savings. In the Portland contract, teachers agreed to small pay increases, additional workloads and adoption of a new evaluation system next year. PAT President Rebecca Levison told Oregon Public Broadcasting the new system is being piloted this year at a Priority School in Portland – Roosevelt High School – as part of its federal School Improvement Grant, “led by the teachers with the help of the union and also the leaders in the building…so we’re utilizing what they’re working on this year to inform what we’re going to do next year.” read more »

At the same time educators in several states face legislation to strip their right to bargain with school districts on most issues, teachers and support professionals in those states and across the country have entered a new era of collaborative reform with their school districts.

Despite the deep-pocketed promotion of an anti-union narrative in media and government, in state after state, unions are showing the way, not only in education reform, but specifically in strategies to close the achievement gaps and raise student achievement in struggling schools, what NEA calls Priority Schools.

• In Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Education Association Council developed a plan for pay differentials and evaluation aimed at ensuring effective teachers in every classroom. The state’s governor is now trying to break the union’s right to bargain despite WEAC’s open offer to do its fair share in compensation and benefits to meet the state’s budget shortfall.
• In Hamilton County, TN an initiative formed around five inner-city middle schools that tended to perform less well than the other middle schools. The district and union together formed networks to share and implement best practices throughout the district. Since the program was expanded to every one of Hamilton’s middle schools in 2005, the percentage of middle school students passing the state’s reading exam increased from 84% in 2005 to 90% in 2009.  The percentage of middle school students passing the state’s mathematics exam increased from 86% in 2005 to 89% in 2009.
• In Nevada, the Clark County Education Association initiated the Empowerment School Project. Under collaborative management teams, teachers were able to choose textbooks, they organized the day around a block of focused reading in ability-level groups, and initiated small-group tutoring after school. When Paul Culley Elementary joined the empowerment school project in 2005, fewer than a quarter of its students read on grade level. By 2008, 57 percent did.
• Just five years ago, John Muir Elementary in Merced, CA was the lowest-performing elementary school in California’s Merced City School District. Now, thanks to a new focus on professional development and collaboration – and a seven-year grant from a union-backed program – John Muir is now one of Merced’s top-performing elementary schools. The school uses California’s Quality Education Investment Act funds to focus on professional development, reducing class size, and a boot camp where kids who were falling behind could receive additional instruction.
• In Indiana, Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation and the Evansville Teachers Association jointly developed a plan called Equity Schools, targeting two elementary schools and a middle school where scores on the state test were low and falling. The plan includes increased professional development designed jointly by teachers and the district, and compensated longer school days and a longer year. The district and union bargained the changes, including a requirement that, beginning in the 2010 school year, teachers wanting to work in the three schools were required to first pass through a rigorous Equity Academy program designed by the district and the union. More teachers applied than there were positions available.
• In Illinois, three unions representing more than 230,000 education employees, the Illinois Education Association, the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Chicago Teachers Union jointly developed a proposal to streamline the process for removing underperforming teachers and resolve teacher dismissals in a much shorter time, helping to reduce costs associated with dismissals for both districts and employees. The unions also proposed that evaluations be clearly tied to a teacher obtaining due process rights, usually known as “teacher tenure.”

Steve Snider

Back in October, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel visited Hillsborough County Public Schools in Tampa, Florida with Education Secretary Arne Duncan to highlight the collaborative progress lead by the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association.

This week, Newsweek magazine picked up on that great work and reported what happens when union leaders and school reformers unite.

As Education Votes summarizes, Jean Clements, President of the Hillsborough CTA, says the collaboration has allowed both sides to have conversations about education topics that would normally be “taboo” in other locations.

From Columbus Education Association

National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel stopped in Columbus on Wednesday, Aug. 25, as part of his week-long, multi-city, back-to-school tour. The veteran high school math teacher arrived at West HS at 6:20 a.m. on the first day of the new school year to meet and greet the staff.

West HS is one of seven CCS Priority Schools designated by the Ohio Department of Education. The seven schools could receive a total of $20 million in additional federal funding over the next three years as recipients of School Improvement Grants (SIGs). President Van Roekel spoke with teachers and administrators of West’s Innovation Team tasked with using SIG monies to facilitate the transformation of teaching and learning at the school.

NEA President Dennis Van Roekel, OEA President Patricia Frost-Brooks and CEA President Rhonda Johnson traveled from West HS to join Gov. Ted Strickland, Supt. Gene Harris and other dignitaries at South Mifflin STEM Academy to announce the award of a $550,000 service learning grant from the federal government.

Awarded by the Corporation for National and Community Service, the “Bringing Learning to Life” grant partners include NEA, OEA, CEA, CCS and The Ohio State University College of Education and Human Ecology.

“Teachers will receive professional development to help them create more effective hands-on learning opportunities for students,” stated Van Roekel. “We look forward to seeing the work that comes out of this project; it is our hope that we will be able to replicate it in other places.”

“The grant is vital to the Columbus community,” agreed President Johnson. “It will allow the members of the Columbus Education Association to receive professional development that will help them continue to lead the way in restoring schools to their traditional roles as community hubs.”

After a tour of South Mifflin STEM Academy, Van Roekel, Frost-Brooks and Johnson traveled to Champion MS. The visit to Champion MS illustrated NEA’s Positive Agenda and Priority Schools principles. Teachers recruited to staff this high-needs school are paid an extra $4,000 a year.

From Columbus Education Association

Education Week reporter Stephen Sawchuk just posted a great article about the Priority Schools Campaign on his Teacher Beat blog. Sawchuk learned more about PSC while covering NEA’s Representative Assembly in New Orleans earlier this month. He reports that the  campaign “will focus on four core tenets for improving low-performing schools: increasing staff effectiveness; developing family and school partnerships; increasing district and local-union collaboration; and leveraging community assets. Those tenets aren’t groundbreaking in and of themselves, the directors noted. What’s new is that they are being put together in a comprehensive reform approach.”

Click here to read Sawchuk’s article and interview with Sheila Simmons and Steve Snider, the director and associate director, respectively, of the campaign.

By Kevin Hart

If politically popular education “reforms” are so effective, why are they only being implemented in lower-income communities – predominantly communities of color?

That was the question that ran through a framework for improving education released by leading civil rights groups this week. Titled Civil Rights Framework for Providing All Students an Opportunity to Learn through Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the framework was drafted and signed by seven leading civil rights groups, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Urban League and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

“For far too long, communities of color have been testing grounds for unproven methods of educational change,” the report says, arguing that reforms advocated by federal and state governments should have to meet an evidence threshold before being foisted upon schools.

read more »

From the Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, IN, comes this story about school improvement activity in one district struggling with layoffs.  Earlier in the year, the Fort Wayne Community School Board laid off 311 teachers. Monday, 149 of them were recalled. The rest should learn if they have a job when the board meets next week:

“…estimates suggested fewer than 91 teachers would lose their jobs. Also, the board voted to lay off eight secretaries, one cafeteria assistant, two groundskeepers and a custodian.

“As part of a $15 million budget cut and an effort to improve 11 of its struggling schools, the school board voted in the spring to eliminate 91 teaching positions and free up many educators for reassignment.

“The district recently finished several job fairs for regular teaching positions and those in LEAD schools – the moniker the district gave low-performing schools targeted for improvement…

“Teachers hired at the district’s 11 LEAD schools were required to meet a set of criteria, including showing a commitment to change and a willingness to receive additional professional training. Those who serve in LEAD schools will be evaluated in a different manner from other teachers and will receive a $3,000 lump sum after serving three years in a LEAD school.”

From The Record in Stockton, CA, some interesting detail in a report from Roosevelt Elementary about starting work on the Transformation model, beginning with the new school motto: “Collaborate! Empower! Succeed!”

“Collaboration has been ongoing since the transformation model was adopted. Last week outside the Roosevelt office, (the leadership team including teachers) wrote their goals for the first 30, 60 and 90 days of the new year on sticky notes and covered the wall with them. Among the items on the wish list:  ‘Info for parents on homework and minutes of home reading’ and ‘clear procedures for updating info for new or existing students’ and planning of a ‘family math night.’

“Empowerment will come through portfolios all 483 students are expected to receive on opening day. The students will maintain the portfolios through the year, chronicling their own progress and reminding them of the gains they have made.

There also will be student-led conferences where children will share their successes and challenges with parents and teachers, with whom they will work to develop academic and social goals. Increasing parent involvement through regular school events is another part of the package.

“…teachers unions universally have deep reservations about their members being evaluated based on test scores. The district and the Stockton Teachers Association have not reached an accord on this issue…Despite the challenges, (the ‘school leaders’) seem to be onboard with the transformation. This week, there was a clear common thread in comments from several of them: hopefulness.

“’I feel our administration is wonderful,’ fourth-grade teacher Sheryl Simmons said. ‘(The principal) wants input from everyone. It’s driven from everyone. I love everyone I work with. We’re different but the same. We want the best for the children. It’s not just a job. It’s life.’”

Eleven schools in the city will use SIG funding for the Transformation model and a new performance pay plan. In most cases, Transformation requires replacement of the principal. But a WNYC online report says the city is hoping the requirement has some flexibility.

“Though the city hasn’t decided yet whether the schools will keep their principals, the schools will hire some new “master” and “turnaround” teachers who will be paid up to 30 percent more in exchange for taking on extra leadership responsibilities and helping other teachers. The Department of Education considers this a major step toward a pay-for-performance system for teachers. The union and the city agreed to a pilot program in which these two new titles will be filled by teachers who have demonstrated an ability to improve student test scores. Sternberg says they’ll make a huge difference.” http://diigo.com/0bjmh