It takes a team

AFT institute brings together district teams to improve schools
and advance student achievement

Teamwork and cooperation are core principles of the AFT’s approach to improving schools and student achievement. The union’s Redesigning Schools To Raise Achievement (RSRA) project is a great example of these principles being put into practice. For the past seven years, the project has hosted the annual “Effective Leadership for Academic Achievement Institute—Facilitating for School Redesign” program, which brings together teams of classroom teachers, union activists, school administrators, and elected union and school district leaders for the purpose of developing the skills and relationships needed to improve low-performing schools.

Nearly 150 people representing 17 local and state AFT affiliates attended the 2005 institute, which was held in New York City in early February. It was easily the largest institute ever. “It’s critically important that these major stakeholders have an opportunity to come together to both identify the challenges to improving schools and to develop solutions aimed at addressing the specific learning needs of students,” says Linda Stelly, an associate director in the AFT educational issues department and coordinator of the RSRA project.

The AFT, along with its New York City affiliate, the United Federation of Teachers, conducted the three-day training institute for labor and management teams from 39 schools. Institute participants discussed professional development practices that support student achievement, analyzed data for comprehensive educational planning and examined research-based programs and practices.

The Lynn, Mass., school district sent 16 people to the institute, including union leaders, classroom teachers, principals, the superintendent of schools and a representative from the mayor’s office. Alice Gunning, president of the Lynn Teachers Union, was part of the district team.

“Student performance needs to be improved. Our teachers have been working very hard to do that and will continue to work hard—but we face many difficulties, and we face new difficulties almost every day,” she says.

Gunning says the union and its members need the entire  school community on board for true reform to take place in Lynn. “Attending the training as a team helped to put us all on the same page,” she says. “It also put us in a stronger position to bring about any needed changes because we had influential leaders such as the superintendent there.”

The institute’s seminars and work sessions provided interactive skill-building exercises in effective communication to accomplish meaningful school and district reform. “Communication is an essential element in fostering teamwork and creating a common understanding about the kind of change that’s needed,” Stelly stresses.

The role that communication plays in building trust and a cooperative relationship was a lesson the team from the Hempstead, N.Y., school district took to heart. That team included the acting superintendent of schools, the co-director of the district’s teacher center, and the president and second vice president of the Hempstead Classroom Teachers Association. “One of the things that we talked about within our team was the need to build trust and to develop a collective vision and plan,” says Dawn Sherwood, president of the Hempstead local, an affiliate of the New York State United Teachers/AFT—and, she adds “to make sure everyone on the team is clear as to their role and responsibility.”

The training also helped the Hempstead team “understand how to use the data that we have about student performance to identify realistic student achievement goals,” Sherwood points out. The Hempstead district was designated as a district in need of improvement under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Team sessions were structured so that by the conclusion of the institute each team had produced a follow-up plan of what to do upon returning to their districts and schools, including how they would get their message of school improvement to parents, the community and others. Teams also identified resources, supports and technical assistance needed from their districts to implement their action plans.

School teams interested in participating in a one-day mini-institute slated to be held just prior to the AFT’s July 2005 QuEST conference should watch for the QuEST 2005 conference call for details, or visit http://www.aft.org/quest2005/index.htm.