Advancing the Teaching Profession

Governor Walker Does a 180 on Unions

I couldn't help but smile when I read this morning about the support that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is giving to union workers. Governor Walker, through his politics and policies, has sought to dismantle teachers' unions (as well as those that represent nurses) in his home state. Now, he's doing a 180 of sorts in his call for the return of unionized—and currently locked out—NFL referees. 

I guess for Governor Walker what's good for professional football—well prepared and compensated referees who have pensions that encourage them to remain in the profession—isn't good for public schools and teachers. Team owners have decided to sacrifice valuable experience and expertise instead of spending more money. In the meantime, 1,500 years of collective experience on the field are being lost as substitute referees man NFL games. Team owners have decided to sacrifice
 
Walker's words are timely, considering much of the nation is still attuned to the teachers' strike in Chicago, and the factors at play there. Matt Miller, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, has noted of late that there is a lot “lost in the clash” between school reformers (e.g., Mayor Rahm Emanuel) and teachers' union leaders (e.g., Karen Lewis).

I suspect the same can be said for what ails NFL management and the referees' union.

According to Miller, at the “heart” of the Chicago public schools kerfuffle is money—because that's what it takes “to boost teacher salaries to attract and retain decent talent.” That in turn, he says, ensures that all students—no matter where they live—have access to high-quality teaching and learning opportunities. Miller’s take is that simply making students go to school for more days or evaluating teachers primarily on the basis of test scores will not solve the underlying problem: gross inequity of funding in public education.
 
Don’t get me wrong: there is much more to school reform than additional dollars. And the unions should not expect more pay and benefits for its members without a teacher evaluation system that draws on student learning results. But reformers miss the mark when they insist on evaluation systems that rely on statistical tools that can easily misidentify teachers as "good" or "bad."

They also miss the mark when they press for a longer school year for students by hiring ill-trained (and cheaper) novices instead of laid-off (and more experienced) veterans. And they surely miss the mark when they want to extend the school year without supplying the resources students need—including textbooks, computers, and classrooms that do not freeze in the winter and swelter in the summer. What's also missing is high-quality professional development for all teachers in the school system.

Similarly, NFL team owners have clearly prioritized saving money over valuing professional experience and expertise. One of the many consequences of the replacement referees is the loss of more than 1,500 years of experience on the field.

It seems that Governor Walker, now that these inept substitute referees robbed his beloved Green Bay Packers of a sure victory, has learned something about the importance of investing in people as a key lever for quality control. He has made quite a turn—though I suspect his views on the NFL referees' union won't affect his views on teaching and learning.

It's time that we extend the same benefits and open thinking we give our sports teams to our public schools and teachers.

Teacherpreneurs: The Direction Forward

Click the graphic to enlarge.

In our book TEACHING 2030, I proposed, along with 12 of my teacher colleagues, that our nation would need 600,000 teacherpreneurs to advance the public school system that students deserve. I hold a relentless belief that a high quality, 21st-century system of public education, designed for all students to achieve at high levels, must be driven by the bold ideas and expert practices of teachers.
 
Consider the exploding knowledge bases and personalized learning systems required to make sure our diverse group of 55 million (and growing) students is prepared for a global economy. Individual school principals, even with a small band of assistants, do not have the know-how and bandwidth to build and score new assessment tools tied to internationally benchmarked standards, integrate digital media into a more relevant curriculum for constantly wired students, and serve as partners with community organizations. (We strongly believe that schools must morph into 24/7 “hubs” for integrated academic, social, and health services.)

And while technology can allow students to engage in personalized learning experiences like never before, it will take well-prepared expert teachers, soon to be known as learning architects, to broker potent opportunities for them.
 
Dramatically improving public education for all will take both collective action and discretionary judgments of many expert teachers, not just a few, because teaching and learning in the 21st century is as complicated as a federal judge issuing a decree on immigration law in the contentious communities in Arizona and South Carolina, or doctors interpreting an array of blood tests, MRI results, and family medical histories to determine how to treat a brain tumor. We will need far different approaches to organizing our schools, and the 7.2 million educators in K-12 and higher education, to best serve children and their families.
 
Now is the time to cultivate teacherpreneurs—practicing teachers who have the time and space as well as reward—to lead reforms beyond the boundaries of their schools and districts. This year, CTQ is doing its part to meet this goal by sponsoring four teacherpreneurs and two teachers in residence.
 
Sarah Henchey is spending this year working out of our offices here in Carrboro, and her energy and insight are already bringing tremendous value to efforts to support teacher leaders implementing the Common Core.

Lori Nazareno is taking a year away from the teacher-led school she launched to drive teaching and learning and school-design policies in Colorado and the nation.

Megan Allen and Ryan Kinser are spending half their time in their classrooms and half their time building a network of teacher leaders in Florida to lead teacher evaluation and the Common Core in their state. 

Jessica Cuthbertson spends part of her day teaching in Aurora, Colorado, and the other half working with Colorado teachers on the Common Core. 

Noah Zeichner has started his second year as a teacherpreneur with CTQ and will be leading efforts, in partnership with the Asia Society, to support teacher leadership for the Global Cities Education Network.

To learn more about these educators, click on the graphic above—and help us reach our goal of 600,000 teacherpreneurs by sharing it with your friends and colleagues.

At the Core of the Chicago Strike, Mistrust

The big news during the start of the 2012-13 school year has been the Chicago teachers’ strike. By now, we're familiar with the key players—and how they're portrayed: The district officials, led by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the “famously foul-mouthed mayor,” are pressing for a longer school day. Then there's the union, run by the “pushy, witty, unwavering” Karen Lewis, calling for better salary, benefits, and working conditions.

The media and the think tank analysts love a kerfuffle of this brand, often portraying district officials as doing what is best for children, while the union works for its own self-interest. Granted, on the surface, this does seem to be the case—with the average teacher in Chicago earning more than $70,000 a year.

But what is not often revealed is that, under the mayor’s leadership, class sizes have soared. Schools continue to operate without air conditioning and heat, and social work positions are not funded. All the while, the district continues to find ways to divert funds into non-unionized charter schools. Monica Davey of The New York Times has done a good job of providing a more balanced view of Emanuel and Lewis, as well as the politics behind the strike—the first in 25 years.

What's Missing? Context.

Few of today’s pundits point to the ways that yesterday’s conditions have led to the mistrust that abounds today. The historical dynamics among politicians, district administrators, and union leaders frame today's debate, and the actions and words that have led up to them.

Since the 1960s (when teachers began to get collective bargaining rights), unions have often been characterized as focusing on their adult issues, and—led prominently by Al Shanker of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)—sought to change the conditions that undermined their ability to teach effectively.

In fact, Shanker argued that school conditions—like the ones the Chicago teachers describe today—were demoralizing teachers. Fifty years ago, Shanker pointed to non-teaching duties, inadequate textbook supplies, and rote lesson plans as extra burdens that got in the way of teaching. He advocated on behalf of teachers who sought professionalism—not to pad their pockets, but to allow them the preparation, support, and autonomy required for them to teach effectively.

It's About Working Conditions

Today, Chicago teachers point to their current working conditions that have appeared to have substantially deteriorated—conditions that hurt students and their ability to learn. As Chicago teacher Xian Barrett writes:

"When you make me cram 30-50 kids in my classroom with no air conditioning so that temperatures hit 96 degrees, that hurts our kids.
 
When you lock down our schools with metal detectors and arrest brothers for play fighting in the halls, that hurts our kids.
 
When you take 18-25 days out of the school year for high stakes testing that is not even scientifically applicable for many of our students, that hurts our kids.
 
When you spend millions on your pet programs, but there’s no money for school level repairs, so the roof leaks on my students at their desks when it rains, that hurts our kids."
 
But the fact of the matter is that, since the 1960s, union leaders and administrators have engaged in industrial-style, adversarial, collective bargaining. This bargaining has resulted in periodic labor-management tensions, but also standardized work rules. Collective bargaining has worked well for union leaders who wanted equal treatment of teachers who have varying degrees of skill and marketability, as well as administrators who sought uniform rules for their growing school bureaucracies.

For a host of economic and political reasons, district officials and unions have focused their bargaining efforts on teachers as industrial or craft workers, not professionals who enforce standards among their own ranks.* While teachers during the Shanker era did not trust administrators to evaluate them fairly, they also wanted “no part of judging their fellow union members.”** They still do not in Chicago — primarily because they do not the trust the politicians and administrators. 

And the lack of trust is what is really behind the Chicago strike and current impasse on how schools should be funded, who is hired and paid what, and how teachers are supported in the best interest of students.

For those interested in digging into the various positions on the strike, I recommend starting with the New York Times' current Room for Debate discussion—reasonably titled "Must Teachers and School Officials Be Foes?"

*Kerchner, C.T., & Koppich, J. (2007). Negotiating what matters most: Collective bargaining and student achievement. American Journal of Education, 113, 349-365.
**Angus & Mirel (2001).