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Boston tutoring program takes teachers to students
Union-funded program is a big hit across city’s neighborhoods
There is a new “regular” joining the ranks of schoolchildren who pop into South Boston’s Washington Village branch of the Boston Public Library after school. Her name is Joan Harrington, and she is a “homework helper.”
Harrington, a longtime member of the Boston Teachers Union, is one of several dozen union members who are available to schoolchildren in Boston libraries one night a week under BTU’s Homework Helper Program.
“It’s fun,” says Harrington who left the classroom in 1994 to become a high school career connections facilitator for special needs students. “I’ve gotten to know all the kids and librarians. It’s a great group.”
As a homework helper, Harrington has gotten back to the basics—and then some—helping primarily elementary and middle school students with everything from penmanship to sonnet writing.
BTU president Richard Stutman conceived the program when he was thinking about different ways the union could reach out to the community in a joint effort with the public school system and the Boston Public Library. Union members endorsed Stutman’s idea and generously voted to spend $44,000 on the program. The money pays the helpers for their time at the contractual hourly rate.
The program also got the nod from Boston mayor Thomas M. Menino and other city officials. “I want to thank the union for its forward thinking in developing Homework Helpers,” said Menino when he joined Stutman, Boston school superintendent Thomas W. Payzant and library president Bernard Margolis last fall to announce the program. Margolis noted that the pairing of the Boston Library’s resources “with the expertise of the city’s teachers will benefit young learners in all neighborhoods of the city.”
The Boston Teachers Union’s program is up and running in 25 of the city’s 27 libraries (two libraries are closed for renovation), one evening a week. The program, which is open to all students in the city, not just those attending public schools, will run through June 3.
The program not only helps students, it also allows the union to assess student needs. Homework helpers provide the union with feedback on the number of kids they assist each session as well as the subject areas for which help was sought.
Governors hold summit on high school reform
For two days in late February, the nation’s governors focused on reforming U.S. high schools at a national education summit in Washington, D.C. This marked the fifth time since 1989 that governors have gathered for an education summit, but it’s the first meeting devoted to high schools.
“The summit is a major step forward in what I hope will be sustained momentum toward comprehensive reform in dozens of states throughout the country,” said Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, who chairs the National Governors Association. The NGA and Achieve Inc. co-sponsored the summit. Through an initiative titled “Redesigning the American High School,” Warner has made high school reform the centerpiece of his chairmanship.
AFT executive vice president Antonia Cortese was among the summit participants, who included education policymakers, CEOs and educators as well as the governors. Among the challenges they discussed: restoring the relevance of the high school diploma; increasing graduation rates; closing the achievement gap among different groups of students; and aligning high school, college and workforce expectations.
Cortese points out that “there is no silver bullet to reforming high schools.” Small schools, which are widely touted as one solution, “are not the only answer,” she adds. “There are alternatives other than small schools that we ought to be looking at, as well.”
An Achieve Inc. report released in conjunction with the summit showed that for every 100 ninth-graders, only 68 graduate from high school within four years, and only 40 of those graduates go on to college the following year. Part of the problem, the report notes, is that high school students are not taking courses that adequately prepare them for either college or good jobs. Only 31 percent of students take algebra by eighth grade, and only 41 percent of high school students take a course beyond algebra II before graduating.
At the summit, the governors of 13 states—which enroll about one-third of the nation’s students—announced that they are forming a coalition to raise standards, require more rigorous courses and develop tougher exams for high school students. The Web site, www.2005summit.org, includes more information on the meeting.
National affiliates assist Indiana employees
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is steering the state in the wrong direction. That was the message state employees took to the Capitol on March 10 when the Unity Team, a joint local of AFT and the United Auto Workers, met with lawmakers in Indianapolis to discuss the new governor’s policies.
Within days of taking office in January, Gov. Daniels, President Bush’s former Office of Management and Budget director, rescinded collective bargaining rights for state employees, revoked existing collective bargaining agreements and set out on a mission to contract out government work to the private sector—starting with 1,000 food service positions within the state department of corrections.
“Gov. Daniels was wrong to think he could silence state employees by revoking their collective bargaining rights,” says Steve Porter, director of the AFT Public Employees division. “Both the AFT and UAW have assigned representatives and other staff experts to assist the Unity Team in maintaining its operations, developing communications and expanding political action efforts on behalf of Indiana state employees.”
The Unity Team represents 14,000 state employees, from correctional officers to toll booth attendants to information technology professionals.
