Team Austin gets a blueprint for school improvement

Jane Butters, assistant principal of J.E. Pearce Middle School in Austin, Texas, admitted she knew little about the AFT and the support it offers teachers eager to improve teaching and learning in their schools prior to attending QuEST.

Butters joined another assistant principal, the Pearce principal, three Austin middle school teachers, the president of Education Austin, and an area superintendent and her assistant as a team delegation to QuEST. “This conference has made me aware of the extent of services these organizations provide the teachers, and that the goal is—and should be—to support teachers collaboratively,” said Butters.

Most members of the Austin group hail from two “blueprint” middle schools in Texas—Pearce and Dobie. The schools, which cater mostly to low-income and minority students, had been underachieving and were recently restructured, becoming blueprint schools to serve as models for other struggling schools.

Louis Malfaro, president of Education Austin, arranged for the team to come to QuEST. He knew there was a good working relationship between labor and management at the two middle schools and wanted to encourage further professional growth. His goals included drawing additional qualified teachers to school districts like Austin. “We need to provide more incentives for teachers to come and stay in tough schools,” said Malfaro.

During the conference, the team split into three groups to focus on different workshop tracks—improving instruction, redesigning schools and improving school climate. The groups benefited immensely—not only from attending workshops but also from networking with other educators who face similar circumstances. “I’ve just been talking to everybody,” said Greg Green, a math teacher at Pearce.

Area superintendent Claudia Tousek said her experiences were validated by conversations with others in “Overcoming Challenges to Secondary School Restructuring,” a workshop covering the efforts to restructure a failing high school in Kansas City, Kan. “They talked about change and what they went through, and it reinforced that what we’re doing won’t happen overnight,” said Tousek, director of Austin Blueprint/Focus Schools.

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