A groundbreaking project to determine if labor-management cooperation can be a driving engine behind real school reform is generating headlines and enthusiasm in the four AFT locals involved in the experiment.

Since 1999, AFT K-12 affiliates in Boston, New Orleans, San Francisco and St. Louis have joined administrators, parents, local education officials and other school staff in the project, called "Raising Student Achievement through Labor-Management Partnerships Using Research-Proven Programs." Labor-management teams from each district received initial training at the 1999 AFT QuEST conference along with follow-up training at Harvard University. The district teams worked together to identify schools in their home districts that could develop their own in-school labor-management teams, which would ultimately select a research-proven academic program best suited to their students and staffs.

A school-based team at Thurgood Marshall Middle School in New Orleans is currently reviewing a half-dozen programs that might be adopted by the school, says special education teacher and team facilitator Princess Johnson. The team has been busy laying the foundations for adoption of a new program: talking with teachers, parents and staff about the project; analyzing student test data; and, because the school has embraced a team-teaching approach, ensuring that these teams are grouped effectively throughout the school. "We're working hard to lay the foundation," Johnson says. "I feel that once we make a selection, we'll have the commitment of everybody in the building. It won't be [seen as] ‘just one more reform.'"

The project is based on a compelling premise, explains project director Patricia Hahn. "If individuals at the school level, who are charged with implementing programs to improve achievement, have a say and are given the necessary supports and training, then it will happen."

The project was featured in a recent issue of School Board News, which noted that among the project's early achievements was a formal policy adopted by the San Francisco school board supporting the labor-management initiative.

Lots of teachers complain about not having access to high-quality, effective professional development. But not many of them have a chance to do anything to rectify the situation.

Education Minnesota, the merged AFT-National Education Association state federation, decided to help teachers do something to improve their professional development. The union received an $800,000 grant from the state Department of Children, Families and Learning for a project it calls Teachers as Learners and Leaders (TALL). It's the first-ever grant in Minnesota given directly to a teachers union for professional development.

Minnesota law requires every school district to set aside 2 percent of its budget for staff development; state law also mandates that teachers constitute a majority on staff development committees at both the district and site level. Unfortunately, says Education Minnesota professional issues specialist Marcia Averbook, "the stuff they do [in typical professional development activities] is not helping people become better teachers." So instead of just continuing to complain, the union sought help and got it.

Through the grant, the union already has trained some 600 teachers and 140 local leaders in areas such as the role of the union in professional development, effective professional development standards, and statutes and policies related to professional development.

The project incorporates ideas from the AFT's Educational Research and Dissemination project, or ER&D, as well as other materials on effective professional development from the AFT and other sources. Two teachers, known as professional development activists (PDAs), were selected from every district in the state. Once trained, the PDAs will assess the current status of professional development in their district and develop an action plan for improving the training. For its part, Education Minnesota has put together a group of about three dozen members to serve as a "support team" for PDAs throughout Minnesota. The state federation also is developing a local professional development tool kit and using technology to support teachers involved in the project.

The grant is part of Education Minnesota's efforts to spread the message that "professional development is union work," says Averbook. As the union notes in its materials on TALL, "Research-based professional development in every school is a basic working condition. Professional development that leads to achievement gains for students and meets the needs of educators is union and professional business that cannot be ignored."

Although the grant runs only until the end of this school year, Averbook is hopeful there will be additional money to continue the project. But even without further grant support, the union will make sure districts provide useful training.

American Federation of Teachers, AFL•CIO - 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW - Washington, DC 20001