Education Week SR Labor Mgmt 11-16-2011

8/3/2019 Education Week SR Labor Mgmt 11-16-2011

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E ducation W EEk A Sp c al R p r La r-Ma a m C lla ra www.edweek.org/go/collaboration

Joiningforces

Moving district-union negotiations beyond bread-and-butter issues

A Supplement to the November 16, 2011, IssueVol. 31 No. 12
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EDUCATION WEEK SpECIAL REpORT:JOINING FORCES: Mo ing district-union negotiations eyond read-and- utter issuesNOvEMbER 16, 2011

OVERVIEW

2 New Attitudes ShapingLabor-District Relationships SuccESSES & challEngES

6 Teacher Support at CoreOf Affiliation

8 Evaluation Reforms PutPartnerships to the Test

10 Collaboration a Never-Ending Process nExT STEpS

13 States Urged to PromoteCooperation

15 Getting AlongIn Memphis

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brennan-Rogers Schoolin New Ha en, Conn., talks with fellow teacherMichelle Zordan, left,while teacher AmandaKi ell, gathers studentsafter lunch. Ms. Rhoneim ro ed her e aluationrating from 1 to 3, withsu ort from coachesand her rinci al, andhard work.

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New Attitudes ShapingLabor-District Relations

Back in the mid-2000s, in public and in thenews media, Joseph P. Burke, then thesuperintendent o the Spring eld publicschools, and Timothy T. Collins, the presi-dent o the local teachers union, o tenseemed to be at odds with each other.

With the Massachusetts city underthe control o an independent nance

control board, Mr. Collins membersaced no raises. Turnover was high. Re-porting in part to the board, Mr. Burke aced competingpressures during drawn-out contract negotiations.

Out o the public eye, however, the two men had begunmeeting regularly, with help rom the Cambridge, Mass.-based Rennie Center or Education Research & Policy. Grad-ually, they put new initiatives jointly into motion, includ-ing e orts to use surveys to improve school climate. WhenMr. Burke le t the district, the work continued under hissuccessor, Alan J. Ingram, who appointed Mr. Collins to thedistricts senior leadership team and budget-advisory com-mittee. Both bodies provide advice to the superintendent.

Forming a relationship with the union was not a luxury, itwas absolutely necessary, Mr. Ingram said in an email.

The relationship has started to trickle down to schools,particularly those with unding rom a National Education

Association Foundation grant to urther such work.In schools where people can eel ree to disagree and to chal-

lenge their thinking, theyre moving orward at a much moreaccelerated rate, Mr. Collins said. Teachers eel respectedand teachers eel listened to not necessarily agreed withbut they walk away rom the conversation eeling like theyvebeen heard.

In ts and startsand amid budget crises and legislativechanges to bargainingthere are signs that more school ad-ministrators and teachers unions, like those in Spring eld,are doing business together in a di erent way.

Three large urban districts and their American Federationo Teachers-a liated unionsNew Haven, Conn., Baltimore,and Pittsburgheach recently used the collective bargain-ing process to ink contracts with new approaches to teacherevaluation or compensation. A ft has also established a$3 million Innovation Fund to help other local districts andunions begin joint projects.

While generally less associated with the move toward col-laborative labor-management relationships, the nEa has

committed more than $15 million, nanced through memberdues and its independent oundation, to support collabora-tive e orts, such as those in Spring eld.

Outside philanthropy has also prodded in a similar direc-tion. At least on paper, districts receiving unding throughthe Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations $290 million Inten-sive Partnerships or E ective Teaching had to commit toimplementing their teacher-quality plans with the supporto their unions. (The Gates Foundation provides operatingsupport to the nonpro t that publishes Education Week, andhas supported both national unions.)

As a national school improvement strategy, however, theidea o collaboration remains somewhat unde ned, and it isonly starting to gain a oothold in policy circles.

There are some big hurdles to overcome, including theapplication o the concept o collaboration in right-to-workstates where teachers have no ormal bargaining; in stateslike Cali ornia and Michigan, where union chapters havetraditionally resisted the idea; and in states such as Idahoand Wisconsin, where legislative changes have pro oundlyaltered the union-management dynamic.

There have also been plenty o detractors o the concept.Michelle A. Rhee, a ormer chancellor o the District o Co-lumbia schools, amously called collaboration overrated.

On the other hand, prominent supporters like RandiWeingarten, the president o the American Federation o Teachers, argue that ew, i any, e orts to improve schoolsand make sustainable changes to the teaching pro essionare likely to succeed without the participation o teachersand unions. She remains probably the highest-pro le gureendorsing the concept o labor-management collaboration,and has made it a priority since assuming the top job at the1.5 million-member union in 2008.

Particularly in times o tight school budgets, cooperationis needed, Ms. Weingarten said.

We have to do more with less. Its the right strategy, shesaid. Its only the people who dont understand schools whothink these partnerships are a political strategy, not an edu-cation strategy.

Perhaps the biggest vote o con idence has come romthe U.S. Department o Education. In February, the agencysponsored the rst-ever national con erence on labor-man-agement collaboration, with support rom both unions andgroups representing administrators.

It was obviously just a starting point, but I thought it wasreally help ul to catalyze the conversation, creating the spaceto do it and letting olks know how important we thought itwas, U.S. Secretary o Education Arne Duncan said in an in-

terview. I de nitely hope and expect it will continue to grow.This special report rom Education Week pro les three dis-tricts that have begun joint projects to re orm teaching and

Collective bargaining being used as vehicle to drive better-prepared workforce, higher student achievement

By STEphEn SaWchuK

s2 | EDUCATION WEEK: Joining Fo ces > www.edweek.o g/go/colla o ation NOvEmbEr 16, 2011
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learning. The e orts in those places have evolved to di erentdegrees and with varied aims, contexts, results, and lessonslearned so ar. And the report probes new wrinkles to thedebatelike those surrounding the use o value added test-score data.

For all its perceived novelty, the idea o labor-managementcollaboration itsel is not actually new. Scaling up early adap-tors o the concept, however, has proved to be a challenge.

When then- nEa President Bob Chase spoke in 1997 o thenew unionism, in which unions would advance changes tothe teaching pro ession, or instance, the idea made littleheadway with rank-and- le members. It wasnt even par-ticularly well received among the unions sta or board o directors, according to sources.

Districts, too, have historically been unwilling to share orapportion some duties traditionally under their purview,such as teacher evaluation, with unions.

Theres been this kind o rigidity set in place by man-agement, by these bureaucracies. And the teachersunions build these systems o de ense in response, said JoAnderson Jr., a senior adviser to Secretary Duncan.

A ormer executive director o the Illinois Education Asso-ciation, Mr. Anderson credited the Education Departmentsederal competitions, such as Race to the Top, with helpingto unstick such relationships. Indeed, some state unions,in Delaware, Illinois, and Massachusetts, or example, haveworked together to revamp evaluation and tenure in re-sponse to those competitions.

But the Education Departments e orts have not comewithout some mixed messaging, some observers say.

Lots o good things have come rom the Obama adminis-tration on education, but also a lot o things that are barelydistinguishable romand some that worsenedthe posi-tion o the previous administration. And that is very rus-

trating to teachers, said Adam Urbanski, the head o theRochester, N.Y. teachers union and a ounder o the Teach-ers Union Re orm Network, which seeks to engage locals in

plans to improve student achievement.Unions, or instance, were urious when Mr. Duncan and

President Barack Obama spoke in support o the ring o teachers at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island, underthe administrations School Improvement Grant program.

DEFINING COLLAbORATION

Some observers criticize the very nature o the concept o labor-management collaboration. They note that teachersunions have legal obligations to represent members inter-ests, whether or not they accord with those o studentsoror that matter, administrators.

Democrats tend to have this anci ul belie in collabora-tion. That way, they can have their cake and eat it, too.

You can have education re orm and you can have power ulunions, said Terry M. Moe, a political science pro essor atStan ord and the author o a new book, Special Interest ,that asserts unions have blocked many re orms. Although he acknowledges that some unions have suc-

cess ully worked in partnership with administrators, heargues they have done so to avoid more-radical changes tothe education system.

Yes, you can make some progress [through collaboration]i youre satis ed with incremental gains that will not takeyou across the goal line, Mr. Moe said. Im not satis edwith that, and I dont think re ormers should be.

Even or those who believe in the power o the concept, asticking point has always been how to de ne and measurethe collaborative enterprise.

In a 1997 volume, United Mind Workers , Julia E. Koppich,Charles Taylor Kerchner, and Joseph G. Weeres concluded

that true collaboration is de ned by unions and districts jointly addressing a problem a ecting the quality o in-struction: a poor evaluation system, high turnover at low-

Marcia bess instructs her2nd grade class at OceanoElementary School inCalifornias Lucia Mar district.That school system is oneof a small ut growing num erof districts where union anddistrict leaders are trying outways to im ro e studentand teacherlearning.

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OVERVIEW

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OVERVIEW

A bRIEF HISTORyOF COLLAbORATION

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American Federation of Teachers President Sandra Feldman, center, rallies with Detroit union members during a 1999 strike.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper campaigns for measures on theelection ballot that asked voters to give up tax refunds over five yearsthat would go to schools, health care, and infrastructure.

1999Sandra Feldman, the president of the AF T, encourages the use of thin contracts,

an idea informed by a book by consultant Julia E. Koppich and others.

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1970sFloridas Hillsborough County district and itsteachers jointly craft new curriculum in allcore subjects; they begin to es tablishaligned assessments.

1981The Toledo Plan, a joint labor-management evaluation and professional-support tool also known as peer review,debuts in Toledo, Ohio.

1993The teachers union in ABC school district,in Los Angeles County, goes on strike. In theaftermath, union President Laura Rico worksto build better relationships with thesuperintendent, resulting in a formalpartnership in 1999 that has guided districtpolicy ever since.

The Douglas County Federation of Teachers,in Colorado, and its school district jointlycraft one of the firs t performance-pay plansin the nation.

1996Adam Urbanski, the president of theRochester Federation of Teachers, in NewYork, begins the Teachers Union ReformNetwork, a project of progressive nionaffiliates. Initially formed with 21 chapters,it now counts 30 member unions and fiveregional TuRN networks.

1997D ring the National Ed cation Associationsannual meeting, President Bob Chase callson unions to embrace new unionism.

NEA President Bob Chase addresses thenews media at the unions RepresentativeAssembly in 1998.

2005With a voter-approved tax levy and a pilotprogram under its belt, the Denver districtand its teachers union begin the ProCompdifferentiated-pay initiative.

2008The AFT passes a resolution calling on allaffiliates to explore peer review.

2009The New Haven Federation of Teachersapproves a contract with its districtagreeing to overhaul evaluations and setup a tiered system for intervening inlow-performing schools.

The NEA deb ts its Priority SchoolsCampaign, which supports collaborationin several school districts.

2010The Baltimore and Pittsburgh AFT chapterssign new contracts overhauling pay andpromotion systems for teachers.

2011The U.S. Department of Educationsponsors the first national conferenceon labor-management cooperation.

Dede Schaffner, the chairwoman of the Sanford, Fla., school board,listens to a panel discussion on the positive impact of reform during alabor-management conference in Denver in February.



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EDUCATION WEEK: Joining Fo ces > NOvEmbEr 16, 2011 | s5CLiCk oR MoRe in oRMAtion About thiS AdveRtiSeR

per orming schools, or a budgetcrunch, or instance.

The book went on to propose ashi t toward thinner districtwidecontracts, with individual com-pacts created or each school inwhich details and responsibilitieso the parties are de ned.

Collaboration has to be groundedin doing things di erently, havingdi erent kinds o agreements, saidMs. Koppich, a consultant. Therehas to be a commitment to take ontough issues and lesh them outtogether. I all unions and districtstake on with collaboration is not toyell at each other, they will accom-plish nothing.

For a process that ends withcommitment to speci c strategies,it o ten begins with intangibles.

My personal opinion is thatits all based on relationships,and trust, and communication,said Jim Hogeboom, the superin-tendent o the Lucia Mar schooldistrict, in Cali ornia. The districtrecently used the collective bar-gaining process to bring a compre-hensive school re orm model to ahand ul o schools.

WINNING CONvERTS

Especially in its early phases,nding a new groove in the labor-management relationship canbe uncom ortable. For one, thestrength o the endeavor dependson being clear-eyed about the roleo ones counterpart, including thepressures put on that counterpartby internal constituencies.

As a union leader, you have to un-

derstand that the superintendenthas a school board he has to satis y,and i he cant satis y them, hes nohelp to you, said Joan Devlin, asenior associate o educational is-sues at the aft . And the head o thedistrict has to understand that theunion president has to take care o his or her members, that there aresome basic expectations or that inthe law, and that youve got to beable on occasion to pound on thetable, because olks expect it.

Its clear that context matters, too.Value-added data purporting to iso-late teachers e ectiveness at rais-ing students scores became a lotscarier a ter The Los Angeles Times posted individual teachers ratingson its website. School turnaroundre orm in New Haven, Conn., waschallenging, recalled New HavenFederation o Teachers PresidentDavid Cicarella, because teacherslook around and see Central Falls. And recently, the budget crunches

that many states and districts acehave added a new variable to theequation, as a recent occurrence inPittsburgh illuminates.

The district and union there areimplementing a new contract thatoverhauls the pay scale and anambitious teacher-policy re ormplan unded by the Gates Founda-tion. But this past summer, theyhit a bump over the details o a

new teacher-residency program orpreparing teachers. The districtsseniority-based layo policy meant

that most o those new teacherswould be let go, and the two partieswerent able to come to an accord toshelter teachers to be trained in theprogram rom that rule.

It doesnt mean that we arenttalking to each other any more,said Superintendent Linda Lane,in an interview at the time. Fiscalissues make collaboration more di -cult. They simply do. Sometimeschoices have to be made youre notgoing to agree on. But we still havea commitment to do what we needto do or children.

She and the teachers union later

altered the plan to create an induc-tion program or existing novices.

Observers are waiting to seewhether the recent lourishing o collaborative activity will continueto wax, or whether it will begin towane.

Ms. Koppich believes that it couldgo either way: Tough times and leg-islative change could cause the twoparties to hunker downor providethe impetus to begin a new kind o relationship, she says.

Mr. Urbanski, or one, holds outhope. I youre in the same boat,it doesnt matter which end leaks,

he said. I dont know o anyone Icould respect who would argue thatschools and public education can bechanged substantially by any singleconstituency alone. I think its hardenough even when we all pull to-gether, and I know were dead in thewater i we dont.

For the union and district inSpring eld, the breakthrough hasbeen made.

The two sides, anxious to beginimplementing a new state-re-quired teacher-evaluation system,are awaiting guidance rom thestate education department and

nEa chapter on details such as theobservation measures to be used.But theyve already come to somepreliminary agreements about howto transition teachers rom a 3- to a4-point evaluation scale.

Were the relationship betweenthe district and union not as rm,Mr. Ingram said, we would still beat the table at an impasse. n

Coverage of policy efforts to improvethe teaching profession is supportedby a grant from the Joyce Foundation,at www.joycefdn.org/Programs/

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OVERVIEW

TOC
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New Haven, Conn.

When Melissa Rhonereturns to her 4thgrade classroom inthe Brennan-RogersSchool a ter a brie interruption, herstudents greet her

jubilantly.Ms. Rhone, look

how many compli-ments we got! they say, pointing to eight lines tickedon the whiteboard by a substitute teacher, each onerepresenting an instance o good classroom behavior.

The ticks mean even more to Ms. Rhone: Theyre evi-dence o her growth and success as a teacher.

Last November, she received a preliminary ratingo 1, the lowest level, on the districts new teacher-evaluation system, primarily because o classroom-management issues that sprang up a ter a co-teacherquit early on in the school year.

But over the course o the school year, with supportrom instructional coaches, her principal, her husband,and some hard work, Ms. Rhone improved her per or-mance to a 3a good rating on the 5-point scale.

I think maybe I used the act that the co-teacherhad le t as a crutch, Ms. Rhone said. Getting that 1was the reality check I needed. I couldnt foat by, notgetting things in order.

Outlined in a new contract in 2009, delineated in the2009-10 school year, and implemented in 2010-11, tEval ,as the system is known, requires at least three pro es-sional con erences between an instructional leader per-orming classroom observations and each teacher. The

con erences help to home in on areas on strength andweakness and provide a path or improvement. The sys-tem also integrates student-achievement results.

t Eval is only part o the districts three-pronged im-provement e orts, but its emblematic o New Havenscommitment to re orm in partnership with its teach-ers union.

The rst data rom the system were released this year.O the systems 1,850 teachers, 73 percent scored in thetop three categories. Seventy-ve teachers had scores thatput their jobs in jeopardy. Thirty- our o those teachersultimately resigned, including 16 who had tenure; others,like Ms. Rhone, improved enough to keep their jobs.

I expected a lot o crying and weeping and [teacherssaying], Lets give this person another chance, said Su-perintendent Reggie Mayo about the rst year o results.But the union was pretty adamant that there was noplace or incompetence in New Haven.

O the changes in the 20,000-student district, thepresident o the New Haven Federation o Teachers,David Cicarella, said simply: It needed to be done, andit was the right time to do it.

The public was upset about things in New Haven,he continued. We had to deal with the problem o ine -ective teachers, o poor instruction.

Indeed, the year-end data rom tEval reveal whatmany educators nd to be the best part o the system:pro essional learning that acilitates better teaching.

Rebecca Gratz, a high school history teacher at theSound School Regional Vocational Aquacultural Cen-ter, is one o the instructional managers permitted toper orm observations under the systema categorythat includes principals, assistant principals, and someteacher leaders.

TEval , she said, has created a structure or having re-ally rich conversations about teaching and learning.

Mr. Mayo and Mr. Cicarella had a cordial working re-

lationship be ore the contract, but they agree it wasntparticularly close knit. The rapport that led to tEval andother district re orms crystallized, like a diamond, only

TeacherSupport at

Core of Affiliation

Partnership yieldsrevised evaluation

system in New Haven

By STEphEn SaWchuK

SuCCeSSeS & ChALLengeS

c h r i s t o

h e r c o z z i e

o o r E

u t

i o n

W e e

k

Fourth grade teacher Melissa Rhoneleads students in a grammar lesson.She calls the new teacher-e aluationsystem eing used in the New Ha en,Conn., schools a reality check.


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10/20


A ter a ull year o planning,during which district and unionleaders alike met with the sta ateach school to explain the complexsystem, the districtin an unusualmoveput it into ull-scale opera-tion in the 2010-11 school year.

Though many teachers wanted

a pilot, doing so risked sendingthe wrong message, Mr. Cicarellanoted. The public would havesaid we were stalling.

COACH AND bOSS

Educators say that the powero the system lies in its ability tospur conversations about pro es-sional practice.

Theres nothing [in the evalu-ation ramework] teachers dontaspire to or cant improve upon,said Daniel Wajnowski, a second-year English teacher at Coop-erative Arts & Humanities HighSchool, or Co-op, who attributesimprovements in his ability toengage students in group work tothe conversations he had with hisprincipal, Frank Costanzo. A challenge o per orming the

reviews, said Mr. Costanzo, is bal-ancing the coaching role o sup-porting teachers with the under-standing that a ailure to improvebrings consequences

The most important challengewas getting that needs improve-ment teacher to believe in me asan instructional manager, someonewho is really a coach, when you arealso an evaluator, and termination isat the ar end o the line, he said.

The student-achievement com-ponent o the system, though notpopular with all teachers, has won

some supporters. Each teacher, inconsultation with his or her prin-cipal, sets two goals or studentachievement and identi ies as-sessments to measure progresstoward those goals.

Youve got to look more honestlyat each kid in your room and toask yoursel i youre really reach-ing every child, said John Laub,a data coordinator and historyteacher at Coop. The data allowsyou to look at it objectively.

Karen Lott, the principal atBrennan-Rogers, says it also helpsher track how each teacher is con-tributing to the overall schoolsprogress.

Leaders are aware that theevaluation system can still be im-proved. The strength o the stu-dent-achievement goal-setting, aswell as the quality o instructionalcon erences, varied somewhat byschool and leadership capacity,they note.

There are schools where it hasbeen less thorough, or the processless developmental, said Mr. Har-ries, the assistant superintendent.Those are the schools were ocus-ing on. And the three pro essional con-

erences also take up a lot o time.I dont think anyone disputes how

valuable the process is, but it istime-consuming, Ms. Lott said.

Ms. Rhone, the 4th grade teacherat Brennan-Rogers, believes thatthe district could improve the sup-port system or those teachers scor-

ing in the middle range. Colleagueswho scored between a 2 and 4 weresometimes unclear about whatthose ratings meant, she said.

TEval also has room to growor teachers who earn the high-est scores. Those teachers aresupposed to take on additionalroles in their buildings mentoringtheir peers, developing curricula,and contributing to the culture o learning, though the exact ave-nues or doing those tasks haventquite been worked out yet.

I think over time it will cre-ate more opportunities, said Ms.Gratz o the Sound School. Inyear two [o implementation], itshard to say.

pLAyING ALL INNINGS

As e orts in New Haven ma-ture, Mr. Mayo and Mr. Cicarellahave agreed to keep the linesopen, even when they have dis-agreements.

Ive said to my members, therestwo things were not doing. Werenot marching on City Hall andwere not calling the media, Mr.Cicarella said. Some membersdont like that, but my eeling isthat its counterproductive. And while neither man is sen-

timental about their rapport, ithas evolved to include a degree o genuine a ection.

This process has really made itcloser, more open, more honest,Mr. Mayo said. David [Cicarella]is almost like an additional arm. As or student results, it is

early yet to attribute results tothe changes in the district, butit hasnt stopped observers rommaking connections.

New Havens scores on state testscontinue to tick upwards. There arealso pockets o impressive gains.Co-op High School e ectively elimi-nated the black-white reading gapin the reading or in ormationpart o the state test.

Leaders are rank that gainsneed to accelerate across the board.Mayor DeSte ano notes that lastyears improvements werent ona trajectory to meet the districtsadmittedly ambitious goal to closethe black-white achievement gap inve years. But the strategy o col-laboration makes sense and seemsto be helping, he added.

Weve got a ways to go, hesaid. Youve got to play all nineinnings.

pERSISTENT EFFORT

For the uture, the district plansto increase e orts in certain areas,particularly in working with com-munity partners to provide wrap-around services, boosting parentalinvolvement, and in rein orcing acollege-bound culture, notably

through a scholarship program,Promise, that rewards studentswho maintain good grades, atten-dance, and behavior. As or the teacher-evaluation

system, the district will ocus onmonitoring progress and ensuringdelity o implementation.

Some obstacles, inevitably, loom.New Haven has traditionally strug-gled with principal talent, and per-haps a hal -dozen principals plan toretire at the end o the year. Not allthe assistant principals are readyto take their places, Mr. Cicarellaopines. Superintendent Mayo ac-knowledges that training thoseindividuals is a top priority.

The mayor, meanwhile, wantsthe culture o collaborative re ormto continue to fourish.

Persistence o e ort, Mr.DeSte ano said, when queriedabout the districts biggest chal-lenge. Eventually, mayors willchange, superintendents willchange, principals will change,union leaders will change.

I think it is the climate o changethat matters, he continued, thatits not dependent on a group o people or an individual, that weare able to create a new normal o academic excellence. n

Coverage of leadership, expandedlearning time, and arts learning is

supported in part by a grant fromThe Wallace Foundation, at www.wallacefoundation.org.

EvaluationReforms Put

PartnershipsTo the Test

Look,

there willalways bepeople calling

about theirprep periodor their lunchperiod. ButI wanted to dosomethingdifferent, andthis was it.

DAvID CICARELLAPresident, New HavenFederation of Teachers

The rapidly changing debate on how to account orstudent achievement in teacher evaluations isputting teacher-district relationships to the testacross the country.

More than hal the states now require dis-tricts to take student achievement into accountwhen evaluating a teachers per ormance. Inmost cases, thats calculated through a so-called

value-added model that attempts to account ora teachers role in a students growth over the

course o a year, via test scores and other per ormance measures.Most o the push or value-added evaluation systems has come onlyin the past ew years, driven in part by the ederal Race to the Topgrants, which gave extra weight to states that included achievement-

based teacher evaluations in their applications, and by the ederalTeacher Incentive Fund grants, which so ar have supported experi-ments in 175 districts in 33 states using student achievement inteacher per ormance-pay plans.

Some o the ear and worries were seeing now, not just romunions but across the board, are because weve seen an enormousamount o change and uncertainty in a short amount o time, saidChristopher A. Thorn, the associate director o the University o Wis-consins Value-Added Research Center and its director or data qual-ity and systems innovation. Moreover, he said, Budget pressureshave actually stressed districts and pushed people to do these things.Forget about paying teachers. Thats a minor part o the re orms wesee in districts; theyre changing who they hire, theyre changingtheir leadership systems, theyre changing pro essional development.They are changing everything in the system. Value-added, or growth, models track individual students test scores

rom year to year, which advocates say can help isolate the e ect o theinstruction that students recieve during one school year rom their aca-demic backgrounds and prior education experiences. Criticsincludingmany teachers unionsargue that annual test scores do not give a ullpicture o student growth, and that the statistical models used or themeasures are not designed to evaluate teachers.

Mr. Thornes research center, which the U.S. Department o Ed-ucation contracted to provide technical assistance on the TeacherIncentive Fund grants, is now evaluating how the 175 participat-ing districts have implemented value-added systems, including howthe implementation has a ected the working relationships betweenteachers and administrators. The di erent models vary widely in thesubjects covered and the types o student characteristics taken intoaccount, and researchers and teachers unions alike have voiced con-cern that the systems do not give an accurate picture o teacher per-ormance, particularly or teachers outside mathematics and reading,the subjects tested under ederal accountability requirements.

In districts rom Cali ornia to Florida, experts say value-addedevaluation systems are proving a catalyst to bring out the truestrengthor weaknesso districts relationships with their teach-ers.

There have been a lot o game changers, particularly in the lasttwo to three years, Mr. Thorn said. Race to the Top has changed thegame or many winning states; there are places where people were

By SaRah d. SpaRKS


11/20

collaborating, and rtt has throwna wrench in the works because itchanged the rules o the gameor, to the contrary, places whereit has been helping collaboration,in states where they had nevertalked about teacher e ectivenessat all.

The combination o political andbudget pressures may also giveall sides more incentive to worktogether than ever be ore. Pub-lic schools are in a huge state o trans ormation across the nation.I a place is only accustomed to re-ally contentious old-style negotia-tion, youre going to have a lot o really important issues that aregoing to be orced on you by statelegislatures or Congress i youdont gure it out or yourselves,said Jean Clements, the presidento the Hillsborough County teach-ers union in Tampa, Fla. This isnot a place where you hold eachother hostage and say Im notgoing to talk to you about the newevaluation system until you do X,Y, and Z.

As somebody practicing inpublic schools, I absolutely wantto have a say in what that changelooks like, she added. I dontwant to abdicate that ability topeople outside our district becausewe dont know how to sit down andtalk to each other.

HIGH vISIbILITy

Even when districts and teach-ers initially commit to working to-gether, the highly public debatesand scrutiny that have surroundedvalue-added teacher-evaluationsystems can strain relations, asthe 670,000-student Los Angelesdistrict has learned.

Los Angeles initially starteddeveloping a value-added teacher-evaluation system in response toa 2009 series o articles in the LosAngeles Times that highlightedthe di iculty o iring teachers,even those who committed actsthat could be subject to criminalprosecution.

The school board launched atask orce intended to evaluateand overhaul the teacher-evalu-ation system. Both teachers andadministrators ound it wasntair or valid, according to DrewFuredi, the executive director o the districts o ce o talent man-agement.

It was the Noahs Ark o taskorces: We had two o everyone,Mr. Furedi recalled, rom teachersand principals to union and cen-tral-o ce sta , parents, students,and community leaders. The groupo about 35 met or six months,setting up criteria or a new, com-prehensive evaluation system.

When you get groups like that

together, it takes a while to buildtrust; you tend to make statementsrather than have discussions, Mr.

Furedi said. It took months o conversations, but in the subcom-mittees, people started to dig intothose conversations more.

By summer 2010, the task orcehad developed a plan to evaluateteachers using our measures:

value-added student-assessmentdata, plus separate observationsby principals, teacher leaders, andpeer teachers. The group was stilldiscussing what student-outcomedata to include in the value-addedmeasure in August 2010, when theTimes broke a second series o re-ports on teacher per ormance, thistime using a separate value-addedcalculation to rank teachers e ec-tiveness publicly, by name.

That became very much the dis-cussion o the moment, whetherpeople were de ning teacher e ec-tiveness using value-added, Mr.Furedi said. Lost in the hubbubaround that issue was that ourtask orce had months ago saidthis should be part o the e ort tounderstand not just teacher e ec-tiveness but evaluation, support,and the development process.

In the allout, the initial taskorce has not continued to meet,and the 670,000-student districthas struggled to build consensuswith its teachers on an evaluationsystem. Although 1,000 teachers

volunteered or a district pilot pro-gram to test an evaluation systembased on its recommendations, theunion has led a complaint withthe Cali ornia labor-relations

board to stop the pilot.There are some in the union-elected leadership whove saidtheir concern and ear is that thisis just a path to get to test scoresbeing as big a part o this [evalu-ation] as possible, and weve triedto say continuously that that isnot what we want to do at all, Mr.Furedi said.

The highly public, and national,debate prompted by the Times

value-added series de nitely cre-ated some challengeshow do youthen move rom there to develop-ing a partnership with all stake-holders? Mr. Furedi said.

LEARNING CURvE

Houstons school district hashad a steep learning curve onthe importance o collaborationin cra ting evaluation measuresor its merit-pay program, accord-ing to John C. Hussey, the chie strategy o cer o the Columbus,Ohio-based Battelle or Kids,which provides technical supportor developing teacher-evaluationsystems, including Houstons.Although they had a cordial re-lationship with the union be orethis started, there was not col-laboration. The unions were not

engaged at a strategic level; theywere consulted, in ormed, commu-nicated to.

Texas does not give collectivebargaining rights to public em-ployees like teachers, and GayleFallon, the president o the Hous-ton Federation o Teachers, saidhistorically teachers have lobbiedor changes to state laws, whichshe said is o ten less contentiousthan going through the localschool board. In many cases, statelaw includes provisions on arbitra-tion and even planning periods asdetailed as normal contract lan-guage.

That approach back red in 2005,when Houston rst experimentedwith value-added systems or thebonus-pay program. Houston did

just about everything wrong thatyou could do wrong initially, Mr.Hussey said. That rst year whenthey tried to do everything them-selves, it was a disaster.

LITTLE INpUT

The 204,000-student district de- vised the value-added calculationor its merit-pay program by itsel ,without major teacher or outsideinput. Ms. Fallon recalled thatmany teachers ound out abouttheir bonuses not rom the district,but rom a story about them in the

Houston Chronicle . It held onlytwo voluntary open meetings toanswer teachers questions aboutthe system be ore it was launched,and then miscalculated about 100

o the merit-pay awards and aweek later had to ask some teach-ers to return their checks. Someo them did so, Ms. Fallon said;others, who had already spent themoney, simply quit.

Julie Baker, Houstons chie o -icer o major projects, said theschool board was surprised at the

vehemence o the backlash. Therst school board meeting a ter themerit-pay plan started promptedconcerns rom the ire marshalbecause the meeting room waspacked to overfow with teacherswho were there to complain aboutthe system, she said.

Districts that involve teachersin the development o value-addedsystems tend to air and addresssuch concerns early in the processand establish a plan to accountor any instability in the irst

years o implementing the model,Mr. Hussey said. When you haveunion or teacher involvement, youtend to have more measures in-

volved, and they are more cautiousin the way they use value-addedor accountability purposes, hesaid.

In response, Houston has triedto take a di erent tack to developits teacher-evaluation system. Itadded outside researchers to setup a new value-added system andhired Battelle or Kids to help

bring teachers back into the dis-cussion. More than 2,600 teachersparticipated in the design dis-

cussions, through surveys, ocusgroups, and committees. It alsorecorded classroom observationso the teachers rated most e ec-tive, or use in sta training. Onceyou can put a ace to who thesemeasures are intended to identi y,you start to get more buy-in, Mr.Hussey said. Misconceptions thatthe teachers who get value addedare these teachers who drill andkill get washed away with the vid-eos that show that these are reallygood teachers.

Teachers still participate in abiweekly student-per ormanceworking group and a new one ded-icated to implementing the evalu-ation system, though Ms. Fallonsaid the union has led a griev-ance with the state over how theadvisory committees were ormed.The district will roll out the obser-

vation protocols or the evaluationsystem this year, with value-addedcalculations added next year, dueto a delay in state assessment re-sults required or the measure, Ms.Baker said. In the meantime, thedistrict is ramping up training orteachers on how the new systemworks and plans regular checks onhow implementation progresses inthe next year.

What we dont want to havehappen is next spring to have apoll and nd out people think thenew system is no better than wehad be ore, Ms. Baker said. Youhave to have a comprehensive en-gagement, not just communication

but real engagement with all yourstakeholders.Collaboration has improved

somewhat in the district in thewake o the value-added debateover merit pay, Ms. Baker said.The May school board meeting atwhich it approved the new evalua-tion system was much less conten-tious than the previous merit-paymeeting, she said; three teach-ers union representatives spokeagainst the move, but eight otherteachers spoke in avor o theplan.

UNION pERSpECTIvE

Yet Ms. Fallon o the teachersunion said the relationship be-tween teachers and district ad-ministrators has gotten a wholelot more hostile, and she said thedistrict still has not built a strongoundation or partnering withteachers in the uture. The actthat there probably isnt a teacherin Houston who understands the

value-added [system] and howthey calculate it doesnt matterto them, Ms. Fallon said o thedistrict. A lot o teachers considerit like winning the lottery: I dontknow what I did to deserve this,but Ill enjoy spending it.

Its going to take a lot to rebuildtrust, not just in the union but in

LAyING THEGROUNDWORK

Through case studies, theWashington- ased NationalCommission on Teachingand Americas Futurehas distilled se eral wa sthat teachers unions anddistrict administrators canla a oundation or a closecolla orati e relationshie ore contro ersial issueslike teacher-e aluations stems come u .

they SuggeSt: Systemic reform must include

ac , rmal a rmalc p ra w s r ca m s ra rs a ac r r pr s a s.

All stakeholders must agree a c mpr s sc s s l ar

a mpr s r c .Any improvement proposal,mpl m a r pla ,pr ss al l pm , r m r a ass ssmsystem should be viewedr s l s.

Key stakeholders should setas a ca m aspac m w r details, particularly whens a l s c lla ra .

All sides should agree to shift c s a s a s ar al s

ac m .

All sides should activelyl p, r r , a pr c

trust and honesty in thec lla ra .

All stakeholders should be keptrm a s l rmr c s c sa

c a als a pr r ss.t s als m a s s rp pl rs a wc a s w ll w r a r

ram fca s. Leaders should reach out to

s a s, rs,a rs as a am apr s a c mm a a.

A l ll r p r ,R c Ac mgap t r d s r c /uC lla ra , s pra w . r /l s.

PAge 11 >

SuccESSES & challEngES


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Arroyo Grande, Calif.

The Lucia Mar school

district is a study in con-trasts.Million-dollar homes

nestle on cli s abovethe Paci c Ocean in thisarea, located betweenSan Luis Obispo andSanta Maria, Cali . Aew short miles away

elds o peas grow; agricultural work remainsan important part o the economy.

Some schools enroll quite wealthy students,while in others, more than 90 percent o stu-dents are classi ed as low-income. As part o an e ort to help bridge some o

the contrasts in school per ormance here, the10,800-student district recently became therst in Cali ornia to adopt the Teacher Ad-

vancement Program school re orm initiativein seven o its schools.

The complex model combines pro essionaldevelopment, multiple teacher observationskeyed to a set o teaching standards, and lead-ership opportunities or skilled master andmentor teachers. Details o the program,including a bonus-pay element, were negoti-ated into the districts collective bargainingpact early this year.

For teachers here in Lucia Mar, much de-pends on this, the rst year o implementa-tionand on the relationship between twoo its education leaders. They, too, present acontrast in temperament, say those who knowthem: Superintendent Jim Hogeboom is outgo-ing, while Lucia Mar Unied Teachers Associa-tion President Lloyd Walzer is more reserved.

Their experience in bringing tap to this dis-

trict is both representative and instructive o the labor-management cooperation process asa whole.

It is representative, in that both parties havetaken a leap o aith, and instructive, becausetheir experience demonstrates the delicatenature o a collaborationand underscoresthe truism that no such venture is ever ullycomplete. As the parties here have discovered, external

actorschanges in leadership, a disagreementabout a school construction projecta ect thepolicy context or working together.

Collaboration is really hard work, Mr. Ho-geboom said. Its kind o like a marriage. Youcant take it or granted. You always have towork at it.

NEW bEGINNING

The tap project here grew rom an inauspi-cious beginning. Faced with a budget crunchduring his rst year leading the district, in2008-09, Mr. Hogeboom oversaw the sendingo more pink slips than were ultimately neces-sary.

It was in grappling with the ensuing uproar,he said, that he and Kevin Statom, at that timethe president o the teachers union, began todevelop a better working relationship.

I can say that we get along pretty well; wedont agree very o ten, to be honest with you,but we have a good relationship, Mr. Statom

said o the superintendent. I can say anythingto him, and he can say anything to me. Botho us are in it or the students and the best o

the district.When Mr. Hogeboom grew interested in ap-

plying or a ederal Teacher Incentive Fundgrant to nance the tap model, Mr. Statomagreed to accompany him to a con erencehosted by the National Institute or Excel-lence in Teaching, the Santa Monica-basednonpro t that oversees tap .

Mr. Statom ound the con erence a littleoverwhelmingIt was a bit too rah-rahor mebut had the chance to discuss withother union leaders their experiences withtap . And while concerned about the systemsper ormance-pay element, he saw promisein its emphasis on regular, sustained pro es-sional development.

Mr. Hogeboom, in the meantime, kept upthe pressure on the union to give the plan ago. Not all members were enthusiastic.

Originally, we werent going to [supporttap ]; we ought it, said Mr. Walzer, who be-came the president o lmuta in May 2010.

The input o a key union player helped toshi t the dynamic. A sta er rom the NationalEducation Associations Uniserv regional-sup-port network advised the lmuta on how theprogram could be adoptedwith sa eguardsor teachersthrough the collective-bargain-ing process. And though the unions executive board was

divided on the programand remains soadegree o pragmatism prevailed, and the union

sent a letter o support or the grant applica-tion. According to Mr. Statom, at least one exec-

New challengescontinue to popup for a coastal

Californiadistrict where

union anddistrict leaders

forged anagreement to

bolster theteaching corps

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By STEphEn SaWchuK

CollaborationA Never-Ending

Process


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p h o t o s

b y

d r y

p e v e

t o / l u e o

o r E

u t

i o n

W e e

k

the work orce, because we have a very demoralized work orce rightnow, she said.

Its too early to tell whetherHouston will be able to buildstrong enough support to sustainthe evaluation system in the longrun, Mr. Hussey said. In the yearssince Houston rst experimentedwith value-added merit pay, orexample, it has had two superin-tendents and more than 50 newprincipals, he noted. As leadershipchanges, to sustain these types o e orts, you need to institutionalizethem, and the only way to do thatis in a collaborative way, he said.

I think i you have a collabora-tive environment, it makes theimplementation o value-added oraccountability purposes much eas-ier, Mr. Hussey said. Its a muchmore di cult situation i you donthave that collaboration at the be-ginning.

LOOKING bACK

The Hillsborough County dis-trict, now in the rst year o roll-ing out its Empowering E ectiveTeachers evaluation system, hasthat kind o history. Amanda W. Newman, a 2nd grade

teacher at Valrico ElementarySchool, said the district has alwaysinvolved teachers rom every grade

level in decisions on everythingrom the reading curriculum tobasic school calendar planning.

In a lot o districts, I know thesewould be sort o top-down deci-sions, Ms. Newman said. But thebottom line is all those decisionsa ect us. Just having that abilityto have a voice in it has alwaysbeen something weve had.

District o cials involve teacherrepresentatives, including unionmembers, on all decisionmakingcommittees and hold monthlymeetings with teachers rom eacho the districts 243 schools.

Its not just about bringing[teachers] to the table up ront, butkeeping them at the table and re-specting their expertise, trying toengage them in all the work thatwe are doing, said Tracye Brown,the director o communicationsand project management or thedistricts Empowering E ectiveTeachers initiative. I think thatswhy it happened so naturally orus, because it wasnt based just oncontract negotiations, but aroundmaking sure our teachers weresupported throughout.

Even in districts with a historyo collaboration, value-added dis-cussions can raise concern, expertssay, because they are based oncomplicated statistical models thatteachers generally cant calculate

on their own.Inevitably, even in a districtthat does an A-plus job and sticks

the landing, there will still be ahand ul o teachers who dont like[value-added], said CharmaineMercer, the policy and researchdirector or the Los Angeles-basedCommunities or Teaching Excel-lence, a nonpro t that works withdistricts on value-added evalua-tion systems, and they may notbe bad teachers; they may be theteachers who were always ratedsatis actory under the old system,and now with the new system andgreater granularity, they are sim-ply average.

Ms. Clements, Hillsboroughsunion president, said the discus-sion over value-added has in-creased both the collaboration inthe 195,000-student district andthe need or it. The district hasspent the last 2 years developingits evaluation system, with mas-sive teacher pa rticipation. A teran initial 8,000-teacher survey andocus groups to identi y concerns,it drew up an advisory group o 30teachers, including representativesrom each grade span and contentarea, as well as special areas suchas career and technical educationand instructors or students withdisabilities.

What was really cool was thatin these meetings it wasnt just abunch o teachers sitting aroundhaving pie-in-the-sky discus-sions; we had top district o cialsin there taking urious notes andasking or clari cation on criteriawe were recommending, Ms. New-

man said. They didnt want peoplewho would just sit there and nodand agree with them.

Teachers received their rst e -ectiveness score this all, 60 per-cent o which is based on principaland peer observations, includinga 60-minute ormal class observa-tion and several 20- to 30-minutesurprise visits, based on a teachersprior evaluations. The value-addedcomponentwhich represents 40percent o a teachers scoremea-sures student growth during thepast three years on several tests,including the state accountabilitytest, Stan ord achievement tests,and end-o -course exams.

The multiple assessments areintended to help the district evalu-ate teachers who work in subjectsand grades outside math andreading.

No matter how stress ul teach-ers have gotten as we tried to wrapour heads around this very di er-ent way o being evaluated, thebest thing is teachers are now talk-ing with other teachers about goodteaching, Ms. Newman said. Theyare talking about that rubric andhow to demonstrate pro iciency.Thats been something thats reallyexciting to see. n

Coverage of policy efforts to improvethe teaching profession is supported

by a grant from the Joyce Foundation,at www.joycefdn.org/Programs/

Education.

Continued fRoM PAge 9

FROM TOp: Lloyd Walzer, left, the resident of theLucia Mar Unified Teachers Association, and Lucia Marschools Su erintendent Jim Hoge oom stand outsideOceano Elementary School. The air are working

together to im lement a com rehensi e teacher-su ort rogram in the district.

Migrant workers till fields of straw erries in the townof Oceano. The Lucia Mar school district enrollschildren from oth well-to-do and oor families.


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utive board member argued that itwas better to adopt such a program

voluntarily than later on, when it

might be done by legislative orce. Agreeing to support tap was nota small step or the lmuta to take.The state nEa chapter, the CaliorniaTeachers Association, has not beenkindly disposed to tap in general.

Some cta people just see it asmerit pay, Mr. Walzer said.

Under pressure to complete the

tif application on time during the vacation- lled summer months, thedistrict did not involve the unionin the writing o the actual grantproposal. Some o its details andphraseology later upset the union.

Mr. Hogeboom now counts thatas a mistake on his part. Maybewe could have avoided that i wedshared the process or shared the in-ormation, he acknowledged.

bARGAINING DETAILS

Nevertheless, when the districtsucceeded in winning a $7.2 milliongrant, the union came to the tablein good aith to bargain the detailso the program.

We were wondering, Are theygoing to give this a air shake?

And to their credit, they did, Mr.Hogeboom said about the lmuta ,praising its leaders or being open-minded throughout the process.

The six days o bargaining, inact, seemed to bring the partiescloser together.

It actually elt easier negotiatingthat side agreement than the pre-

vious three or our years bargain-ing a master agreement, said Mr.Walzer. We elt like we were nallysitting at the table with them, andthey were working with us to makeit happen.

During the grants planning year,the district allowed teachers to

visit tap sites in other states. Theeld trips helped to persuade someteachers, like Socorro Orozco, akindergarten teacher at FairgroveElementary School, to vote in avor

o adopting the program.On the plane ride there, I wasthinking, I cant imagine beingobserved this many times, Ms.Orozco recalled. She was convinced,though, by the strength o weeklycluster meetings where teacherslearn, practice, and debrie on theresults o new teaching skills. That

in-service eature is now her avor-ite aspect o the initiative.

A ter 17 years teaching, I standto learn things still, and Im excitedby it, she said.

EARLy RECEpTION

At Judkins Middle School, mas-ter teacher Edmund C. Alarcio isanother early convert.

During training with the initia-tives extensive teaching guidelines,All o us were like, wow, what did weget ourselves into? he said. But bythe third day, I thought, How couldI have been such an average teacheror 28 years? I was stunned by thesheer power o what could be.

The irst ew months in theweekly cluster meetings have beenspent helping all teachers learnthe standards, testing them out inclassrooms, and making connec-tions among them.

Its huge, and were going at apretty ast pace. Its a lot to internal-ize, said Kelly C. Logue, a masterteacher at Dorothea Lange Elemen-tary School. I am starting to seecareer teachers having some aha!moments in their classrooms, seeingthe value in this, and saying, This iswhat I learned about mysel .

Mr. Walzer, on the other hand,points out a ew stumbling blocks inimplementation. A trans er clausein the side agreement didnt workas the union had planned. A hand-ul o teachers at Dorothea Langedidnt want to participate in tap ,but werent able to trans er out o the school, he noted.

He believes that the program willsucceed in schools where it works,in his words, like a positive men-torship model, rather than a wayto monitor teacher behavior.

I think in schools where therewas already collegiality and astrong support network, its goingne, Mr. Walzer said. Thats nottrue o all the sites.

t ap , in its irst year, does comewith several learning curves,among them the regular scoredobservations. So ar, the process,which results in each teacher re-ceiving eedback on a teaching skillhe or she has mastered and onanother that needs strengthening,has been practiced but not ormallyconducted. The con erences werescheduled to begin as this articlewent to press.

The observations ultimately helpdetermine whether teachers willreceive a year-end bonus o up toabout $5,000.

Francesca Ardizzone, a mentorteacher at Judkins Middle School,said she believes the results romthe scored observations, which areconducted by principals as well asmaster and mentor teachers, will behumbling or some. Nearly all teach-ers currently earn a competent rat-ing in the districts evaluation, thehighest on the three-tiered scale. Onthe tap ramework, a rating o 3 on

the 5-point scale is considered solid.Youre not only changing theway its scaled, youre changing the

language, she noted. The concern[about tap ] is not about the moneyyet; were still in the ego phase. Andy Stenson, the assistant su-

perintendent o curriculum, saidthe district has urged observers touse common sense when they maketheir rounds. Weve made clearthat i you walk in and the teacheris not eeling well, or a kid is wind-ing out o control, put your pad o paper down and help out.

Mr. Hogeboom thinks most par-ticipating teachers will rally aroundthe tap approach.

Teachers never got much eed-back at all, let alone quality eed-back. Its a change that will take awhile to get used to, but I think the

vast majority o teachers are goingto think its great, he said. Andthere will be a ew teachers orwhom it will be hard to accept, orwhom it will be seen as an in ringe-ment on their reedom.

NEW CHALLENGES

Recent months have proved some-what more challenging or Mr. Ho-geboom and Mr. Walzer. Their rela-tionship hasnt quite solidi ed yet;some recent tension has emerged,though much o it is entirely unre-lated to tap .

One point o disagreement con-cerns the districts construction o New Tech High School, a acilitythat will share space with the ex-isting Arroyo Grande High School.The union has argued that theconstruction was pushed throughduring a sparsely attended board

meeting and could a ect the dis-tricts general operating und and,ultimately, teacher salaries.

Mr. Hogeboom, meanwhile, eltblindsided when the teachers unionsent a strongly worded missive toteachers raising concerns about theschool construction.

It elt like it went rom collabo-ration to con rontation, he said.They have some valid points; whynot bring them to me?

Both men, however, say they wantto communicate more. Superinten-dent Hogeboom envisions bimonthlymeetings between district o cialsand the unions executive board.

In the meantime, the contractand side agreement provide somecontinuity or the tap initiative.

Any changes need to be approvedby both parties.

T ap will continue to present learn-ing opportunities and challenges ordistrict and union o icials in theLucia Mar district. But teacherslike Mr. Alarcio hope the programwill mature.

I think it could change the aceo education in schools, i teachersare willing to be patient, Mr. Alar-cio said. It could be li e-changingor teachers. It is li e-changing orme. n

Coverage of leadership, expandedlearning time, and arts learning is

supported in part by a grant fromThe Wallace Foundation, at www.wallacefoundation.org.

TEACHER pROTECTION

When Cali ornias Lucia Mar school districtand its teachers union negotiated detailso a side agreement to im lement the TAp school im ro ement initiati e, the agreedon se eral sa eguards or teachers.

Teachers at each school were required to ado tthe s stem a 75 ercent es ote. Si o these en schools identifed in the districts lan metthe enchmark, in some instances ar out acing it.(A se enth school was rought on oard throughhilanthro ic su ort.)

Teachers in the schools selected or TAp were to egi en frst inter iews at other schools i the didntwant to take art in the initiati e.

O ser ations in TAp schools in orm the ormalteacher-e aluation rocess set in the master

contract ut the dont su ersede it.

Each teacher gets one a eal i he or she eels ano ser ation score is skewed.

The side agreement went out or a districtwide ote,and it was a ro ed a 50- ote margin.SOuRcE: Education Week

Continued fRoM PAge 10


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3

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CLiCk oR MoRe in oRMAtion About thiS AdveRtiSeR
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nExT STEpS

from the o ces o the U.S. Depart-ment o Education come appealsor union-district collaboration.

From local school districts come ex-amples o labor and managementworking through divisive issues, inareas such as per ormance pay andteacher evaluation.

But what about at the state level?To read recent headlines, the idea o

state leaders building stronger bonds between districtleaders and unions on critical issues seems ar- etched,with two- sted battles between unions and elected o -cials, mostly Republicans, having erupted this year inWisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and other states.

Despite the apparent long odds, a number o observ-ers today are arguing that states can, and should, playa more active role in bridging those long-standing di-

vides. They believe that state o cialsschool chie s,governors, lawmakers, and otherscannot only use thebully pulpit to encourage cooperation on issues that canimprove student achievement, but that they can alsouse the resources o their o ces to bring complicatedand controversial policy changes to scale across manydistricts. Others are more skeptical, saying state e ortsto meet union concerns result in watered-down policy.

The Obama administration has encouraged coop-eration between unions and district and state o cialsthrough its Race to the Top competition, a $4 billionprogram that invited states to submit proposals to im-prove schools. In addition to o ering states points in thecompetition or improving data systems and evaluatingteachers and principals based on per ormance, statescould boost their scores by showing that their planshad buy-in rom local chapters o teachers unions.

The administration set a similar tone this year inthe guidance it gave to states seeking waivers rom theNo Child Le t Behind Act, saying applicants need tomeaning ully engage and solicit input on its request

rom teachers and their representatives.Gene Wilhoit, the executive director o the Council o

Chie State School O cers, said that state superinten-dents need to make it clear that they regard buildingunion and district support on teacher evaluation andother di cult policies as an important issue and acore part o their jobs. Not doing so may have beenne at a time when there was not the intense pres-sure to improve the system, Mr. Wilhoit said, but now,state leaders need to push some policy levers to createchange in systems that are not success ul.

bEyOND pIECEMEAL?

In February, the ederal Education Departmenthosted a con erence in Denver that was meant tohighlight examples o districts and unions workingtogether to make innovative policy changes. At thatevent, ederal o cials became increasingly convincedo the need or the states to play a more active role,said Joanne Weiss, a top adviser at the department.

Ms. Weiss later carried that message to state law-makers rom around the country, when she spoke atthe annual meeting o the National Con erence o State Legislatures in August. While ederal o cialscan encourage union and district leaders to work to-gether, state o cials have the power to promote thatcooperation across districts, she told legislators.

The question is how do you take these kinds o pro-ductive relationships to scale, so that its not one here,one there? said Ms. Weiss, the chie o sta to U.S.Secretary o Education Arne Duncan, in a recent inter-

view. I dont think theres one way to do it, but the goalis to prioritizeat the top levelscollaboration in theservice o increasing student achievement.

Unions, i they are brought on board, can also de- vote extensive resources toward building support or

StatesUrged toPromote

CooperationChiefs, governors, andlegislators have bully

pulpits, resources

By SEan caVanagh

Teachers and residentsin the Racine, Wis.,area hold aninformational icketin front of the schoolsystems central officesin Fe ruary to ex ressdisa ro al o er Go .

Scott Walkers lan to cur collecti e

argaining for mostu lic em loyees.

S o t

t a n e r s o n

/ j o u r n

T i m e s

/ a p - f i e

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policies in school systems statewide,she said.

Obama administration o icialshave touted Illinois passage o abipartisan law earlier this yearthat ties teacher tenure, hiring, and

job security to per ormance, ratherthan to seniority, as a model collab-oration. That measure was cra tedwith input rom teachers unionsand lawmakers rom both parties;both o Illinois two statewide uniona liates backed the law.

Many o the states that wonawards through the rst two roundso the Race to the Top competitionwon signi icant buy-in rom locala liates, which in some cases wereasked to meet deadlines or work-ing out agreements with districtleaders on teacher evaluation andpay or per ormance. In Delaware,which won a $100 million awardthrough the competition, the statearranged change management ad-

visory councils, to help local districtand union o icials sort throughRace to the Top issues. That workdid not come easily or local schoolo cials and union leaders, particu-larly i there was a history o dis-cord in their districts, said LillianLowery, Delawares secretary o education.

There were some districts that

were more collaborative than oth-ers, she said.

The Delaware o cial said she isnot under the illusion that it willbe easy or local school o cials andunions in her state, and other win-ning Race to the Top states, to liveup to the level o cooperation theypromised. Everybody in the worldcan write a plan. The breakdowncomes in implementation, said Ms.Lowery. We can implode all overourselves i we want. But the peoplewho walk into classrooms every dayare teachers, and the people whogive them the supports they needto do their jobs are the leaders andthe principals o those schools. Thechildren are in the middle waitingor adults to do their jobs.

Frederika Jenner, the presidento the Delaware State Education

Association, agreed that the levelo cooperation between school su-perintendents and local unions

varied by district. Some werereceptive to incorporating localunions ideas, she said, while oth-ers were inclined to view unionsacceptance o the plan as a aitaccompli. But she credited thestates education department andthe o ce o Gov. Jack Markell, aDemocrat, with including uniono cials in policy discussions a -

ecting schools. The path to allthis started way be ore Race tothe Top, Ms. Jenner said.

Local district o icials tend totake their signals on how closelythey should work with unionsrom state o cials, said HowardWeinberg, the executive directoro the dsEa .

States leaders have to modelthe behavior or productive rela-tionships, Mr. Weinberg said. Astate cant be talking about col-laboration i the behavior towardunions is not consistent with thatcollaboration.

Some observers are doubt ul thatschools will bene t rom states pur-suing collaboration with teachersunions. Terry M. Moe, a Stan ordUniversity political science pro es-sor who has criticized unions infu-ence on schools, said labor groupsare more inclined to make dealswith state and local o icials be-cause theyre being squeezed polit-icallynot because their positionson teacher evaluation and otherissues have shi ted in any substan-tial way. He cited recent gop gainsin state elections, and many Demo-crats embrace o ideas that chal-lenge unions, as having increasedthe pressure on labor groups.

When teachers unions secure arole in shaping policies on teacherevaluation, school improvementand other ideas, Mr. Moe argued,they tend to weaken them or sup-port only incremental changes.

Its destined to be a disappoint-

ment, he said o the idea o col-laboration. Anybody who thinksunions are actually embracing thesere orms is wrong. ... [Unions] willsee to it that the re orms that getapproved are compatible with theirinterests.

Documents

Education Week SR Labor Mgmt 11-16-2011