Talk Priority Schools

A new report out today highlights how strong labor-management partnerships between teachers’ unions and administrators are transforming schools in communities from coast to coast. The report, from American Rights at Work Education Fund, presents nine case studies demonstrating how “collective bargaining has provided a path for teachers and administrators to work together to find solutions and create opportunities” for their students.

At a time when some governors are trying to strip educators and workers of their collective bargaining rights, unions like the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers have stood strong in their knowledge that collective bargaining can be an asset in helping achieve education reform. “Partnerships between schools, school districts and educators may be surprising to many people exposed to a steady diet of attacks on unions,” said NEA President Dennis Van Roekel. “But across the country, in community after community, collective bargaining and other forms of consensus and collaboration are transforming public education.”

NEA’s Priority Schools Campaign has featured several of the success stories included in the “Partnerships in Education: How Labor-Management Collaboration Is Transforming Public Schools” report:

• In Evansville Indiana, union members and management jointly redeveloped Delaware Elementary School into an equity school, where teachers and the administration maintain consistent communication with parents.
• At John Muir Elementary in Merced, California, the administration and the union refocused reform efforts based on a strategy of “meeting students where they’re at.” The school has created targeted professional development programs, reduced class sizes, and provided intervention assistance for kids who are struggling.
• In Columbus, Ohio, the discussion surrounding Linden McKinley STEM Academy’s ability to close the achievement gaps was community-wide, involving more than 300 parents, business leaders, teachers, administrators, and faith and political leaders in community meetings.
• At Putnam City West High School in Oklahoma, an energetic partnership between educators and community members has helped close achievement gaps.

Learn more about the report and download it at the American Rights at Work website.

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

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.”