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- McElroy Calls for Extended School Year for Struggling K-3 Students
- Twenty-five Years of Forging the Teaching Profession
- ER&D: Meeting the Needs of Students
- Getting Strong By Getting Along
- Powering Up Expectations for All Kids
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| “We need to do a better job of identifying young children who start out behind—and continue to fall further behind," McElroy said. |
McElroy Calls for Extended School Year
for Struggling K-3 Students
AFT president Edward J. McElroy proposed extending the school year into the summer in order to provide intensive instruction and enriching out-of-classroom activities for the nation’s most vulnerable K-3 students in his July 12 keynote address at the union's 2007 QuEST (Quality Educational Standards in Teaching) Conference in Washington, D.C.
Speaking before more than 2,000 teachers, paraprofessionals and school officials at the AFT’s national professional issues conference, McElroy said, “We are simply losing too many children during the long summer months, when they forget much of what they learned during the school year. Struggling students need additional instruction, enrichment and more time.”
The AFT’s proposal is designed to help counteract the so-called “summer drop-off effect,” a well-documented loss of knowledge that occurs during the summer months and is more severe for disadvantaged students. Although the program would be developed in each state according to its needs, McElroy proposed that the summer extension last a minimum of 20 days. If enacted, the plan would serve hundreds of thousands of students who have fallen behind their peers.
The summer extension would offer struggling students instructional methods proven to be effective, as well as enriching experiences such as museum visits, educational field trips and other summer activities.
| AFT president Edward J. McElroy discusses Early Childhood Education. |
McElroy called for screening by teachers and other school personnel—beginning in prekindergarten and continuing through third grade—to determine which students would benefit from an extended year. Research has shown that brief individual screenings, conducted several times a year, can identify students who are struggling.
“We need to do a better job of identifying young children, from pre-K to grade 3, who start out behind—and continue to fall further behind. Teachers are already identifying these children, but we need to build the intervention system into our schools,” McElroy said. A strong body of research confirms that academic problems are much easier to address when detected early.
McElroy asked the AFT’s state affiliates to work with their legislative leaders to develop state-by-state legislation to enact his proposal.
The AFT president also announced the release of “Charting the Course: The AFT’s Education Agenda To Reach All Children.” This statement of action priorities addresses five critical elements of school improvement: teaching quality; safe and orderly schools; early reading instruction and intervention; a common, knowledge-rich curriculum; and intensive assistance to high-poverty schools.
McElroy also addressed the nation’s hottest education topic: the upcoming reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. He cited the AFT’s recommendations for changing the law’s faulty accountability system, its interventions for schools in need of improvement and its requirements for student testing. McElroy said, “We will work with and support measures that improve our schools, and we will oppose any bill that doesn’t.”
| AFT president Edward J. McElroy discusses the NCLB reauthorization. |
McElroy praised AFT members for their activism in the 2006 elections, which he said helped elect members of Congress, state legislators and governors who appreciate the value of public education and workers’ rights.
Emphasizing that the 2008 elections also are critical to AFT members, McElroy invited attendees to visit the AFT’s You Decide 2008 Web site and continue to work for change. Through the site, AFT members and others can learn about the presidential candidates, watch videos of their speeches, read their responses to the AFT’s questionnaire, and even suggest questions for the candidates to answer.
McElroy said that choosing a candidate is just the beginning of the work: “Once we as a union decide whom to support for the highest office in the land, as well as for other important elections, the real work begins.”
Read the full transcript of President Edward J. McElroy's speech here.
Twenty-Five Years of Forging
From left, AFT executive vice president Antonia Cortese; Cliff Huen, president of the Hamburg (N.Y.) Teachers Association; and Hamburg mentor teacher Kimberly DeGal.
the Profession
Decades of AFT experience with union-spearheaded professionalization programs were on display at a QuEST general session July 12. Dal Lawrence, former president of the Toledo Federation of Teachers, detailed how his local blazed a new trail in peer support and review programs in the early 1980s, while leaders from AFT locals in Hamburg, N.Y., and Los Angeles (Calif.) County told the crowd how many of the paths that Toledo blazed remain viable today.
Lawrence, who served as TFT president from 1966 to 1996, described how frustrations with teacher induction in the late 1970s led him to propose a peer support and review program in his district. The program began as an effort to hook up new teachers with outstanding veterans. A more ambitious districtwide program of support and evaluation took root in 1981 when members responded enthusiastically to the question: "How would you like to be part of a profession that is respected for its excellence?"
The vision still holds sway for teachers today, said Cliff Huen, president of the AFT-affiliated Hamburg (N.Y.) Teachers Association. The Hamburg local was responsible for creating an award-winning peer coaching program in its 4,200-student system, a program that draws directly from the lessons learned in Toledo. And, like Lawrence, Huen says "the easiest sell I had was to the membership" when asked if they wanted to have meaningful control over quality in the profession.
Hamburg's program, which reaches teachers in their first three years, shows that peer support programs are applicable to smaller locals as well as to large urban districts. "We focus on everything [new teachers] never learned in college in order to survive," Kimberly DeGal, a mentor teacher in Hamburg, told the QuEST crowd.
The union-district cooperation that underpinned these efforts also speaks volumes about the best course of action when it comes to staffing all schools. Laura Rico told the audience how her local, the ABC Unified School District in Southern California, cooperated on several fronts—from relocation allowances to greater say at the building level—to guarantee that all schools are staffed by qualified instructors.
These lessons from California, New York and Ohio should not be lost in the ongoing debate over how best to ensure that every student is taught by outstanding educators, AFT executive vice president Antonia Cortese stressed. She urged the audience to remember the longer-term effects of programs like these—ensuring that thousands of new professionals get the expert support and assistance they need and deserve in the make-or-break first years of teaching.
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| Wynn: "Your voice is needed to motivate children to reach beyond where they are." |
ER&D: Meeting the Needs of Students
It only takes a "single voice" to successfully advocate for the needs of children and their families, education consultant and author Mychal Wynn told attendees July 11 at "Meeting the Needs of Students in an Era of Change," the opening session of the annual Educational Research and Dissemination (ER&D) Network Conference. Teachers, guidance counselors and other school employees are in a position to be that voice, he added. "What I really want to leave you with is the power of one voice—of your voice," he said.
"Your voice is needed to motivate children to reach beyond where they are," Wynn said, and then told participants to "make it a point to have conversations with kids about their future, their potential."
Wynn credited his father, who dropped out of school after the eighth grade, with "affirming" his son's potential from an early age: "My father was constantly telling me 'you're going to college.'"
Today, Wynn spends much of his time encouraging his own two sons as well as other students, most notably black males, to excel in school and prepare for college. He urged attendees to make sure low-income and minority students in their schools are given the opportunity to take Advanced Placement and other rigorous courses that will help them succeed in college. "There are no voices speaking for many of these children," he explained.
The July 11-12 network conference was attended by 200 AFT members who have been trained to conduct ER&D classes and workshops at the local level. "ER&D is a dynamic program, and it's critical that we bring our trainers together to make them aware of the latest research-based information," says Rob Weil, director of the AFT ER&D program.
In his remarks to the session, AFT educational issues department director John Mitchell noted that the ER&D program is currently in its 26th year. "This is the only professional development program where the courses are defined and taught by people in the profession," he said. Nearly 50,000 teachers participate in ER&D programs every year.
This year's conference also included sessions on topics such as English language learners, algebra in middle schools and best practices in after-school programs.
Getting Strong By Getting Along
"Strong Teams Build Strong Schools," a mini-institute that preceded the opening of QuEST, highlighted the concrete benefits that schools can reap in a climate of labor-management cooperation. Through presentations by union-district teams from suburban Los Angeles and Palm Beach County, Fla., the July 11-12 meeting put the spotlight on an impressive list of ways to drive collaboration deep into the life of a school—everything from giving teachers a voice on textbook selection and daily scheduling to using professional development grants and funds in ways determined by building-level educators.
Getting to that degree of cooperation, however, requires both hard work and risk-taking, union and district leaders from the ABC Unified School District told institute participants. AFT local president Laura Rico and Mary Sieu, deputy superintendent of the Southern California district, detailed how the district moved beyond a climate that sparked a bitter, divisive strike 10 years ago.
A breakthrough came when the union and administration embraced a set of guiding principles which held, among other things, the belief that all students can succeed and that schools will be supported to ensure that success happens. Over the years, union leaders and managers often have looked back to the document—a way to recalibrate their relationship when tensions escalate. It's a new environment that challenges union leaders and administrators alike to rethink their work, Rico and Sieu said.
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| Theo Harris, local president from Florida, right, discussed labor-management cooperation in Palm Beach County. |
Many of the team-building activities at ABC Unified School District were facilitated by the AFT's Center for School Improvement (formerly the Redesigning Schools To Raise Achievement project). The AFT, through its Educational Research and Dissemination (ER&D) program, also has provided the foundation for union-district cooperation in Palm Beach County, Fla., where labor and management jointly fund and support ER&D for teachers.
Theo Harris, president of the Palm Beach County Classroom Teachers Association, told the crowd that both sides see how ER&D has "given teachers the tools they need to walk into the classroom and be successful." And, despite a history of labor-management tension in the district and new challenges posed by current contract negotiations, the ER&D partnership has stayed stable and planted a seed of cooperation that can grow in future years. For that to happen, Harris stressed, both sides need to redouble their efforts to build open communication around a new spirit of cooperation—between administrators and site managers, between union leaders and members, and between the school system and the public.
Linda Kaboolian of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, one of the researchers who spoke during the session, said that in an age when the public sector is under attack not just in the United States but also internationally, labor-management partnerships can be an effective way to harness new ideas and strategies that meet growing demands. These relationships are "not about a top-down fix but about eliminating the things that keep us apart," she explained.
Institute moderator Joan Devlin, associate director of the AFT educational issues department, told the audience how the union will continue to look for new opportunities to build these sustained, productive partnerships that strengthen public education. She invited participants to visit the AFT's Center for School Improvement online (http://www.aft.org/topics/csi/index.htm), for additional resources that can build the type of effective school teams that improve student achievement.
Powering Up Expectations for All Kids
Washington, D.C., teacher Johnny Brinson, right, and Rochester, N.Y., paraprofessional Linda Beeley at an ER&D mini-institute.
Teachers and paraprofessionals examined their schools' expectations for students at a mini-institute preceding this year's QuEST conference.
During the course on July 11-12, educators drafted a list of how expectations are formed, including such innocent-seeming factors as students' health, birth order, labels (such as ESL) and where they live.
Like the mythical character Pygmalion—on which the musical "My Fair Lady" is based—children from any background can become sophisticated learners if their teachers believe it will happen and communicate that belief, said the trainers in "Does Your School Really Expect Kids To Succeed?" The mini-institute, one of seven that was offered, was part of the AFT's Educational Research & Dissemination (ER&D) program.
"We have to watch our expectations when we're in the lounge and a teacher says [of a student], 'Well, you know she's in that crew. Birds of a feather flock together,' " noted AFT national trainer Melanie Hobbs, a special education teacher and member of the Toledo (Ohio) Federation of Teachers.
Hobbs and Donna Gruberg, interim coordinator of the Foundations ER&D course and an adjunct professor at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., presented research showing how expectations produce two main effects: self-fulfilling prophecies and sustained expectations.
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| Among the presenters was Donna Gruberg, an adjunct professor at Marist College. |
Sustaining expectations is even more common than self-fulfilling prophecies, and it keeps students stuck in a rut. Gruberg explained that a teacher might think, "60 percent didn't make AYP, and now they're all in my class." If low-performing students never get a chance to move ahead, then the low expectations "go beyond the individual student—they extend to the entire community."
Participants explored strategies for breaking through subtle expectations and getting underperformers to blossom. Strategies included never isolating lower performers in the front or back of the room, giving them enough time to answer questions, applying discipline consistently and relating content to students' interests.
AFT Online coverage of the QuEST 2007 conference is prepared by the AFT editorial department. Photographs are by Michael Campbell and Greg Adams.
