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- McElroy Calls for Changes in NCLB
- Make Education a National Priority, Says Gov. Vilsack
- ER&D: It's Union Work
- Engaging New Members Through Professional Issues
- Collecting Data Key To Improving Instruction
McElroy Calls for Changes in NCLB
President McElroy: The standards movement is in jeopardy.
The No Child Left Behind Act's over-reliance on testing and its unfair and inaccurate accountability measures threaten to undermine the standards movement and much of what has been achieved in improving student achievement, said AFT president Edward J. McElroy.
In his July 7 keynote speech at the AFT QuEST conference in Washington, D.C., McElroy focused on the union's growing concerns about NCLB and the AFT campaign to "get it right." McElroy emphasized that that while AFT members are overwhelmingly unhappy with the law, they don't want it repealed and support its underlying goals, including raising standards for all children and focusing on helping disadvantaged children.
But good intentions have given way to unintended consequences, he told the group, including less emphasis on content areas outside literacy and math and the derailing of proven reforms and programs. An overarching problem, he noted, is the inadequate federal funding of the law.
McElroy was particularly critical of how the law's "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) requirements for schools are being implemented, noting that many schools have been labeled as "failing" even though their students actually have made considerable academic progress. The accountability measures are unfair and inaccurate ways of determining student and school performance, he charged, and "the entire standards movement is in jeopardy if the shortcomings of NCLB are left unaddressed."
The AFT will "never back away from high standards and accountability, but it is important to get the regulations we place on teachers and schools right," said McElroy. To that end, the AFT in May launched a media campaign as part of the union's efforts to spur the administration, Congress and regulators to fix problems with the law.
McElroy also asked participants to become stronger union and political activists to influence policymakers and elected officials on issues that affect AFT members. "Don't just carry your union card," he urged. "Carry the union with you in all you do. Be a voice for the fact that unionism and professionalism go hand in hand."
McElroy called for greater attention to improving teacher salaries. "Teachers should not have to toil for a decade or longer to be paid the same amount a recent college graduate can make in another field," he charged. He also addressed new teacher compensation proposals now gaining momentum in legislatures and at the bargaining table. While some show promise, many are simply variations on failed merit pay schemes, he noted, and most are intended to pay only a few people higher salaries rather than pay all teachers a professional wage.
That does not mean that the union rejects out of hand any idea for alternative compensation plans, he said. AFT affiliates nationwide already have implemented, or tried to implement, pay plans that reward schoolwide improvement or individuals who earn National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certification, who teach in hard-to-staff schools, or who demonstrate additional knowledge and skills in the classroom. (Download the full text of the speech - PDF file)
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| Iowa Gov. Vilsack outlined his vision for a national commitment to education. |
Make Education National Priority, Says Vilsack
If the United States is going to be truly secure and successful in the global economy, it must make a commitment to "substantially improving educational opportunities," Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack told participants at the QuEST conference plenary session July 7. This commitment would enable U.S. schools and citizens to remain leaders in innovation and creativity. Americans, he said, need "to make the transformation of education and our economy a national priority."
A Democrat, Vilsack has been credited with establishing programs that have significantly improved the quality of education in Iowa. These initiatives have included reducing class sizes, providing professional development opportunities for educators, implementing more rigorous high school programs and funding school construction and repair.
In his remarks, Vilsack laid out his vision of a national and community commitment to education that would engage all Americans. His proposals would increase parent involvement, particularly in the early years, provide families with access to quality child care and preschool programs, give new teachers increased support in the form of mentoring and induction programs, and ensure that high schools are rigorous and relevant.
The Iowa governor said he believes that most Americans would agree that providing quality preschool programs, giving high school graduates an opportunity to go to college and increasing teacher compensation are far more important than tax cuts for the wealthy. "I believe that Americans are willing to sacrifice a little bit so that the next generation can be innovative and creative."
Vilsack urged QuEST participants to "get engaged in the political process" and let their legislators know that nothing is more important than the future of our children. "We need to work hard in every community [and] in every forum to make sure that education is a national priority."
ER&D: It's Union Work
From reaching out to new members to "organizing the organized," the AFT's Educational Research and Dissemination (ER&D) program remains an indispensable tool in helping locals build and activate their membership. That was the message driven home by speaker after speaker at a national gathering of ER&D coordinators, held July 6-7 prior to the QuEST conference.
"We all know how important ER&D can be to union building," AFT educational issues director Joan Baratz-Snowden told the crowd. "With labor under attack, we need union activists now as never before," and ER&D is a great way for unions to build that activist base, engage classroom veterans and reach out to "younger members who are not as secure in the classroom and are looking for help."
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| Shelley Potter: Make professional development a core union activity. |
"We have to incorporate professional development and professional issues into the core of union activities. It's what members want. It's what the public expects. It's what I think will help us save public education."
Potter, who became an ER&D local site coordinator when ER&D was established in her local in 1986, helped spark a rise in membership that spanned decades and ushered in a major shift in attitudes toward the local. Both within the district and in the public at large, people began seeing the organization as "a union that was tough but also an organization that cares about what was going on in the classroom," she said.
Engaging New Members Through Professional Issues
If new teachers are going to learn about the work of the union, it is up to the union to educate them. "Reaching Out to New Members," a mini-institute held prior to the QuEST conference, provided participants with strategies and examples to help locals recruit new members and then get them more actively involved in the union through professional development.
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| NYSUT's Frank Ciarlo, pictured with Atlanta retired teacher Vivian Dixon, advises locals to engage members, not just "sign them up." |
While activating new members is the main goal of NYSUT's new member program it also strives to preserve the union tradition and transition leadership. "Success is not just signing up new members; it's engaging new members in union activity," said Ciarlo. "We want to help members become skilled professional unionists and leaders."
"We believe it's important to make a lot of personal contact and promote the union constantly," said Ron Smith, president of the Sayville (N.Y.) Teachers Association, who discussed how his new member program works.
One of the best ways to reach out to members is with professional development such as workshops offered through the AFT's Educational Research & Dissemination (ER&D) program, noted Elise Matthews, a member of the Anderson (Ind.) Federation of Teachers. And professional development plays a major role in attracting new members to the Corpus Christi (Texas) Federation of Teachers, said Linda Bridges, former president of the Corpus Christi local and now president of the Texas Federation of Teachers. The union works closely with the school district to provide professional development workshops that support new teachers in their first years.
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| Researcher Quinn: "To prove that what we think is right is right, we have to collect data." |
State assessments can provide lots of information on how schools are doing, but they don't usually give individual classroom teachers the data they need to improve their instruction. At a general session of the AFT's Educational Research and Dissemination (ER&D) conference held prior to QuEST, researcher Mary Quinn offered an array of tips and practices to help teachers gather useful data on their students.
Quinn, a research scientist at the American Institutes for Research, helped develop the union's ER&D training module on anti-social behavior, so her remarks focused largely on data collection strategies related to behavior. However, as she pointed out, learning is directly connected to behavior, so better conduct in the classroom should lead to higher achievement. Quinn emphasized that educators need specific data to assess what's going on in their classrooms, adjust their practices as necessary and monitor student learning based on that data. "To prove that what we think is right is right, we have to collect data," she said.
Most of her presentation detailed specific data collection methods that can be used during teaching—either by the teacher herself or by a trained observer. One eye-opener when teachers do use systematic methods to collect data is that the student behavior they are analyzing often isn't as bad as they suspected, Quinn said. In addition, she added, sometimes simply by collecting specific data on some targeted behavior—such as time on task, acting out or aggressive behavior—positive effects spill over to nontargeted behaviors, including student achievement.
The bottom line, Quinn noted, is that data on student achievement are the "lifeblood" of improvement.
AFT Online coverage of the QuEST 2005 conference is prepared by the AFT editorial department. Photographs are by Michael Campbell.
