Talk Priority Schools

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

By Christy Levings, NEA Executive Committee

How do you define leadership?  Is it being brave enough to try all new things when the comfortable that you know might be okay?  Is it taking a stand and giving it your all? Is it demanding excellence from yourself in order to support excellence in your colleagues?

I saw leadership at its best this week at Lincoln Elementary in Richmond, CA.  I saw talented professionals who are by anyone’s definition leaders.  Every employee in the school is demonstrating leadership – standing up and pushing themselves in order to move their children forward to be more successful in life.

Do not be mistaken, I am not talking only about the highly experienced and highly professional principal.  She is doing fabulous work and more importantly, she understands how to work with a staff of talented professionals.  As one teacher said, “She just gets it.”  She understands that respecting her staff and making decisions together allows them to feel respected as professionals. She also works to create a working environment that pushes and prods the entire staff to use their talents and unleash their creativity. read more »

By Paula Monroe, NEA Executive Committee

A very emotional four days in Denver-area schools showed opportunities and challenges ahead for priority schools.

Lake Middle School

The visits started at Lake Middle School, the school saved from closure last year by member and community organizing by the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. This is the school NEA President Dennis Van Roekel visited in September with the superintendent.  I went with DCTA Executive Director, Carolyn Crowder and national and state association staff and met in the school library with approximately 10 staff for various lengths of time.  The site rep, Jim Goffred, was in attendance and provided a constant voice throughout the conversation.

Lake’s parents and teachers came up with a transformation plan and submitted it to the school board, but they were not allowed to do the transformation model.  The district identified it as a restart/turnaround model.  However, the turnaround model wasn’t actually implemented in the defined method.

Today they have divided the current student population into three different schools on one site.  read more »

By Joyce Powell, NEA Executive Committee

By Greg Johnson, NEA Executive Committee

On Tuesday, November 23^rd, I visited 2 schools in the Winston-Salem Schools.  My Association contact was Forsythe County Association of Educators President Tripp Jeffers.  Tripp prepared a full day of school visits combined with some discussions with Administrators from WS/FCS.  Accompanying us were Rodney Ellis, Vice-President of the North Carolina Association of Educators and Steve Snider and Denise Alston of the NEA Priority Schools Campaign.

Our day began bright and early entering the halls of Petree Elementary.  Petree is a turnaround model school that has close to 70% new staff, 2 new principals, 16 first year teachers and a huge challenge ahead of them.  From the beginning of our visit we were met with friendly, smiling faces welcoming us to their school.  From the secretary in the office, to the Assistant Principal, to the teachers who came to meet with us in the media center, you could just feel a good vibe at the school.  With Priority Schools Campaign materials in their hands, we talked about the road ahead and how they would tackle the task at hand.  Although reluctant to verbalize any concerns, the staff took the time to write comments about what was working and what needed some help.

Promptly at 8:30, a video announcement started the day.  Students from different grades gave out lunch menus, thoughts for the day, and ended with a cheery message to all the students to make it a great day.  It’s all part of the new vibe at Petree.  Staff and students coming together and working positively towards making Petree a great public school.  So far test scores are up, the community is supporting the changes, and best of all, the students are learning in a positive, encouraging environment.  The Home/School Coordinator (a full time person devoted to creating partnerships with the school and the community) talked to us about how the neighborhood has embraced the change, and is even looking forward to sending their kids to Petree, something that hasn’t always been the case in the past. read more »

Dr. Tyna Davis

One and a half years ago, Alabama Education Association (AEA) formulated a cadre of approximately 30 educators to review the four recommended models for the School Improvement Grants (SIG). After study, the cadre recommended the transformation model.  This came after an intensive process of discussing and focusing on the pros and cons of each model.  The group unanimously agreed that the transformation model was the model that we wanted to use in our state.  Through conferences, AEA’s Alabama School Journal, editorials and news articles, we recommended to the locals the Transformation Model.  This was important because it helped shape the approaches used by our school systems.  Of 14 Alabama awardees, 13 are transformation and one is closure.  The one local that is recommending closure has had this issue on the local board agenda for several years. read more »

By Len Paolillo, NEA Executive Committee

After several informative visits to priority schools in Dayton and Lima, Ohio, I was really looking forward to learning about the transformation process at Mount Pleasant High School in Wilmington, Delaware.  With the help of my knowledgeable guide, Marlene Lacy, a visual arts teacher and building rep for Mount Pleasant, I got to interact with many of the school’s educators.

My day began with a great conversation with Mount Pleasant Principal James Simmons III and Dr. Mark Holodick, the Superintendent of Brandywine School District. Through RTTT and SIG, Dr. Holodick says professional learning communities will have the greatest impact. The professional learning communities are currently working on common planning, common assessments and tracking student data to create quality and collaborative learning that is focused.

Len Paolillo, NEA Executive Committee member, enjoys lunch with Principal Simmons and staff in Mount Pleasant High School's student-run cafe.

Principal Simmons told me about how SIG enabled him to hire an additional guidance counselor to focus specifically on struggling students and a family engagement coordinator. The new family engagement coordinator has a large office with meeting space and they plan to add several computers to the office for family to visit and access the Internet. He also shared some of the business partnerships he’s formed to benefit students. AstraZeneca, a global biopharmaceutical company, is going to provide bicycles and clothing for the school to start a cycling club, in addition to providing mentoring. read more »

By Paula Monroe

Does it take every one to help students succeed?  Do students need a healthy breakfast in order to learn?  Is it important to provide a safe ride to and from school for our students that live to far to walk?  Is a clean and healthy teaching and learning environment important to all of us who work at a school site?  Is a school nurse who knows the students and community a valuable partner to the teachers and school staff?  What about the librarian or media tech, is their contribution to student learning important?  Does the extra help that paraprofessionals provide improve student learning?

You’re probably thinking, “Absolutely, of course!”  Why do I even need to ask those questions?  Well, one thing that was abundantly clear to me during my visits to Cleveland High School and Hawthorne Elementary School – our Priority Schools – was the invisibility of these dedicated and valuable members of the education family, the education team.  read more »