This article appeared in the February 1998 edition of AFT's American Teacher. The article outlines resources for educators striving toward teacher quality.

Alice Starchy has seen the sink-or-swim world of teaching from below the water line. After success as a teacher at a South Bronx, N.Y., elementary school, Starchy was transferred two years ago to a middle school with no training, no support and little chance of success with the new class, made up almost entirely of students identified as discipline problems in previous years. "It was impossible to teach," she remembers. "Leave the room for a minute, and they'd be yelling, fighting, breaking things and throwing stuff out the window."

School days were ending in tears and frustration, and work problems soon spilled over into Starkey's personal life. Glaring administrators were bursting into her classroom and capping their unscheduled visits with critical memos. The message was clear: Get better or get out.

"The administrator kept telling me I didn't have a clue," Starchy remembered. "I finally said, 'If I can't identify what needs to be fixed and you're not helping me, I'll get someone who can.'"

Starchy was able to get help, thanks to a peer assistance and review program negotiated by her union, the United Federation of Teachers, and the school district. The program, and other AFT initiatives like it, constitute only one of the ways that the union has taken the lead on the issue of teacher quality, preparation and professionalism. Along with leading-edge models of professional intervention and evaluation, AFT affiliates have crafted state-of-the-art programs to help induct new teachers, provide ongoing professional development opportunities and promote effective recruiting and hiring.

'The single best investment'

Policy makers are beginning to understand how investments in teacher education, continuous professional development and training pay big dividends when it comes to student achievement.

Doing What Matters Most: Investing in Quality Teaching, a recent report from the blue-ribbon National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, looked at 60 studies matching student achievement and teacher training and found strong ties between the two (see graph). Student achievement rose an average of .22 standard deviations (about the equivalent of 5 percentiles for the average student) for every $500 spent on teacher education and .18 standard deviations for every $500 spent on teacher professional training or experience. These gains exceeded the impact of many other proven reforms, the report shows.

The commission also cites studies showing that students achieve at higher levels and are less likely to drop out when they are taught by teachers with certification in their teaching field, by those with master's degrees and by teachers enrolled in graduate studies. The underlying message is clear, Linda Darling-Hammond, executive director of the commission, told reporters. "Teacher preparation is the single best investment" a state or district can make in improving achievement of students.

AFT members need little convincing on that point. A 1997 Peter D. Hart poll reveals that most AFT members feel a lack of assistance offered to teachers who are struggling in the classroom is one of the top two factors that contribute to the problem of poor quality teaching, second only to low salaries and poor working conditions. Peer evaluation and assistance programs for both new and tenured teachers were viewed positively by more than 60 percent of AFT members surveyed.

And the issue of teacher quality is very much a union concern, members feel. More than three-quarters of those surveyed believe that the district and teachers union should share responsibility for ensuring good quality teaching, and an overwhelming majority want to belong to a union that stands for high-quality teaching standards and promotes good teaching. Fulfilling that mission involves not only help for struggling teachers but also helping new teachers prepare for the rigors of the classroom. And it means the union must help create ongoing professional development for all educators.

Time to grow

That mandate is at the heart of the 10-year-old Dade (Fla.) Academy for the Teaching Arts. The Academy, housed at Miami Beach High School, offers teachers in Dade County, Florida, a nine-week opportunity for professional reflection, research and growth while their regular teaching assignments are covered by subject-area certified instructors from the academy.

More than 600 teachers have graduated from the academy, which is actively supported by the United Teachers of Dade/AFT. Over the nine weeks, teachers pursue independent research projects, participate in classroom observations and workshops and work directly each afternoon with outstanding teachers who make up DATA's resident teaching staff.

Carlos Navarro, one of DATA's visiting teachers last fall, says the program has allowed him to observe exceptional teachers in world history, his subject area, and to visit different districts, museums and learning centers that offer a wealth of information in his field. "I've done things that I never thought I'd be able to do in my career," says the 20-year teaching veteran, who is on leave from Dade's Design and Architecture Senior High School. "This is a way to keep teachers motivated, hopeful, bright [and] to see what's going on around Dade County and to learn from it. The most important thing is to see what other people are doing and to apply it to my own program."

Jerri Lee Harris, DATA's resident teacher in special education, says the system provides the best of both worlds for the staff, allowing them to work directly with students in the mornings and to meet with visiting teachers, called "externs," in the afternoon. This arrangement "maintains our credibility by keeping us in the classroom," Harris says. "I've gone to a number of workshops where people have talked at me about what I should be doing in a classroom-people who have not been in the classroom. That's not the case here."

One of the biggest problems the program has faced in recent years has been the budget ax, says Evelyn C. Campbell, teacher-director of the academy. "Everyone is trying to see what programs they can cut next, and the union has been very important in keeping us alive."

When teachers help teachers

After more than 20 years as a classroom teacher, Gail Seiden opted to become a peer intervenor in New York City schools. Aid from Seiden and other intervenors is given to tenured teachers who request the program; it provides confidential access to regular, in-depth, one-on-one help from a veteran educator. "Teaching in the United States is a very isolating experience," Seiden says. "This [program] gives the teachers a link to someone who knows a great deal about teaching and puts them squarely in their corner. It dignifies teachers-making them better or giving them an opportunity to leave gracefully" if they cannot improve.

The district-funded program currently has nine peer intervenors. They work for up to a year with teachers who are struggling in the classroom and would benefit from professional assistance.

Teachers involved in the program are exempt for the first three months from administrator evaluation while they get help. The intervenors, each of whom have at least 10 years' teaching experience, are selected by a program governing board created jointly by the union and the district. They help their clients identify professional needs and then address those problems using strategies that range from classroom modeling to communication through teachers' journals and observations of excellent teachers in action.

If those strategies are unsuccessful, the intervenor may advise the teacher that a career change might be a good idea and offer counseling-out services through the program.

For months, Seiden worked with Starchy (not her real name) to give her the strategies and confidence she needed to succeed with her new class, particularly in the area of classroom management. In Starkey's case, the intervention has worked-her students are achieving at higher levels, discipline has improved, and she is now considered a strong, effective member of the middle school's instructional team.

"I'm very proud of the fact that I knew there was something wrong and I found a way to fix it," Starchy says. "I would definitely recommend [the program] to other teachers in trouble."

More than three-quarters of the teachers involved in the program in the fall of 1995 went on to achieve "satisfactory" ratings in the following spring. In contrast, less than half of teachers on a waiting list for services from the peer intervention program achieved satisfactory ratings in the following spring. Program director Clare Cohen says one of the strengths of the program is that intervenors are exceptional teachers-picked by a panel that was jointly assembled by the union and school board-who are adept at modeling the types of professional skills they seek to instill in struggling teachers. "The intervenor is not some retired teacher of physics who comes in to mentor a gym teacher because their mahjong game was canceled," she stresses. "The teachers who seek help through this program should be commended for their bravery in coming forward to cement a trusting relationship with a skilled colleague."

The first year

The teacher-to-teacher connection also has been used to great advantage under a 10-year-old program for new teachers crafted by the Poway (Calif.) Federation of Teachers and the school district.

New teachers are paired with teacher consultants: veteran classroom teachers who have been released temporarily to work full-time with up to 15 new hires and to evaluate their progress during the first year.

The teacher consultants spend at least 40 hours with each new teacher during that critical first year and often as many as 100-observing, modeling practices, offering guidance and support, suggesting strategies and resources, and arranging visits to the classrooms of other outstanding veteran teachers. The teacher consultant is also the first-year evaluator. They make recommendations to a peer board of review about whether that teachers' contract should be renewed for a second probationary year.

For the beginning teacher, the ongoing support and weekly observations help keep little problems from becoming big ones, says first-year teacher Janice Teixeira, a sixth-grade math and science teacher at Medowbrook Middle School. "Being observed by a teacher, rather than an administrator, helps you feel relaxed and builds your self-confidence. In September, you're just so unsure about so many things. It's now December, and I don't feel so overwhelmed" because of the steadying influence Teixeira says she has found in Debbie Busch, her teacher consultant.

"What we hear, over and over, is the biggest resource we provide is listening-providing the resource of time," says Busch, who is also director of the program. "We are a sounding board, hearing what [new teachers need] and then providing it. If we hear that they are stressed because they don't know how to teach the writing process, then we can get them resources or model strategies."

Poway Federation of Teachers president Don Raczka emphasizes that trust is an essential ingredient of the program. Teacher consultants return to their regular classroom assignments within three years-keeping their skills sharp and building their credibility with new hires as professionals who actually work in the classroom. And through a decade of sometimes-stormy relationships, both the school district and the union recognize teacher quality as a top-priority issue and "we've made a conscious effort to keep the program above politics," Raczka says. Today almost 40 percent of teachers in the district have gone through the program. Of the 620 teachers who participated, 25 were not renewed. At a time when California is aggressively reducing class sizes and thousands of new teachers are being hired by districts statewide, this type of program is critically important to maintaining classroom quality, Busch says.

Bill Christopher, a teacher evaluator at the high school level, says that the relationship between him and his first-year teachers is fundamentally different from a traditional evaluation environment. "A teacher will call me and say, 'I'm really struggling with my fifth-period class. Can you come in and give me some ideas?' How many times will teachers do that with administrators?"

Faye Wilkerson, a first-year teacher at Highland Ranch elementary who was formerly an instructional aide with the district, says that the peer assistance program was a big reason she decided to start her teaching career in Poway. "I know it could take five years to become the type of teacher you could become in two or three" in Poway. "In some districts you're just thrown in there-this is a wonderful check on you and a support that helps you succeed."

Honoring professionalism

One of the most significant steps now under way to make teaching a true profession is the brainchild of AFT's late president, Albert Shanker: the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. In its 10-year history, National Board certification has enjoyed strong support from all levels of the union as a program developed by and for classroom teachers that allows the profession to set high and rigorous standards for itself, create meaningful performance assessments based on those standards, and identify experienced teachers who meet the standards.

Unlike state licensing systems, which set entry-level standards for beginning teachers, National Board certification establishes advanced standards for experienced teachers. Where state licensing focuses on course requirements and varies from state to state, National Board certification focuses on knowledge, performance and professional judgment, reflecting nationally recognized standards that were set by teachers. And National Board certification-unlike state licensing-is completely voluntary.

The year-long certification process provides outstanding opportunities for collaboration and reflection as teachers refine and strengthen their skills on the basis of standards written and reviewed by their peers. Teachers demonstrate their progress in meeting the standards through an innovative two-part performance assessment that goes far beyond the usual checklist evaluation or short-answer test.

"The process of board certification is a learning tool-the most rewarding thing that I've ever done professionally," says Cincinnati teacher Sharon Draper, one of the first teachers to be certified by NBPTS and the 1997 National Teacher of the Year. Draper says that the whole process challenges teachers to think about how they do their jobs. "A teacher learns about himself or herself as a professional," whether or not they are successful in gaining the credential.

Draper, currently a member of the NBPTS board of directors, has taken a year's leave of absence to speak with educators around the country about the merits of the program. To date, there are 911 board-certified teachers from 40 states and the District of Columbia. NBPTS now offers certification in seven fields that cover approximately 60 percent of the teaching force.

Several states and many AFT affiliates, including the United Teachers of Los Angeles, have negotiated additional salary premiums and other benefits for board-certified teachers. New York City is launching a union program that allows NBPTS-certified teachers to help guide certification candidates through the rigors of the process. In Cincinnati, where Draper teaches, NBPTS-certified teachers are automatically qualified to become lead teachers, and the district and state provide exam cost assistance and pay incentives for board-certified teachers. Where such support is unavailable, the AFT has made available a low interest loan to cover the $2,000 cost of the process. (For more information about the loan program, call 1-888-AFT-JOIN.)

Last February, President Clinton in his State of the Union address indicated that he would introduce legislation to help assure that by the year 2000, at a minimum, there would be a National Board-certified teacher in every district in the country. The payoff of such an expansion, Draper stresses, in not only teacher professionalism but improved student achievement.

"The self-improvement you get from NBPTS certification helps the kids you teach. The bottom line is helping kids and improving instruction. And [NBPTS] is going to do that."

Strong beginnings

Turnover rates suggest that few programs adequately prepare new teachers for the rigors of the classroom. More than 30 percent of beginning teachers leave the profession within the first five years, the National Center for Education Statistics reports.

The problem is prompting many districts, unions and universities to collaborate on the training of new teachers, giving them the knowledge, skills and experiences they'll need to launch a successful teaching career.

Such an effort is now under way in Cincinnati, where the school district, the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers and the University of Cincinnati have teamed up to restructure teacher education. The Cincinnati Initiative for Teacher Education, as it's called, provides a five-year teacher education program that culminates in a year-long internship at one of Cincinnati's 11 Professional Practice Schools. Students, who earn dual degrees in Education and in Arts and Sciences, work as half-time teachers during that final year under the guidance of one of the district's lead-teacher mentors and other career teachers.

Tom Svoboda, an intern at the Hughes Center Professional Practice school, says the year-long internship gives students "a huge advantage" over students in traditional education programs, who typically might have a 10-week teaching experience compared to the 36 weeks afforded UC students. "I knew two friends who went through [the traditional education program] and no longer teach simply because I don't think they were prepared."

In contrast, Svoboda is actually doing the work in a demanding urban environment. For him and other interns in the program, the demands of the job are real and revealing. Prior to the fifth year, Svoboda said he had little preparation for the planning and organizational aspects of the career. "Now I realize there are discipline and management issues, preparation, planning lessons and units. It's developing a structure for students to excel in, and it's really tough."

Bob Moliterno, a lead teacher-mentor at Hughes, says the in-depth practical experience that the program offers interns is a vast improvement over limited opportunities that students in most schools of education have to experience the real class environment. In most programs, "you blink and your experiences are done. Here, you get to try things out through trial and error and learn from your mistakes."

Another major plus of the program, says Robert Yinger of the University of Cincinnati's School of Education, is that it has encouraged talented new teachers to pursue careers in urban education. "Many [students] have turned down suburban jobs in order to wait for assignments in urban schools," he says. "It turns out they're committed to doing this. They're not scared off because they have had a year of being successful" in an urban setting under their belts.

Fueling the pipeline

One of the oldest and most successful union-driven professional development initiatives is the AFT Educational Research and Dissemination program (ER&D). For more than 15 years, ER&D has been providing members nationwide with the latest in classroom-based research on effective teaching.

Participating AFT locals select members to serve as ER&D local site coordinators, who attend AFT-sponsored training institutes to learn about research findings that form the core of the program. Coordinators also learn how to effectively present those findings to educators in their district and how to set up a local ER&D program, working with local leadership to set up an action plan for implementation.

The coordinators identify and train research linkers-teachers and paraprofessionals who disseminate research at the school level by training colleagues in the concepts and applications of research findings. The research linkers then provide on-site support as educators as their schools incorporate research into practice.

The model has been used with great success in Pittsburgh, where the program has proved so popular with members of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers that they have voted to dedicate a portion of their dues specifically to ER&D.

"One of the key reasons for our success and our ability to keep expanding our program is our local leadership," stresses Mary Van Horn, director of the program. Hundreds of teachers have participated in ER&D, and the union has negotiated salary and degree credit incentives for those who complete the full ER&D training. The union also has used ER&D offerings as the basis of its district-supported orientation program for all new teachers.

"Many of the components we talk about in ER&D are things new teachers haven't had," Van Horn says. "Take classroom management. Nobody has been able to sit down with these teachers and talk about concrete strategies-time on task, working in groups, cooperative learning, how and when to use different strategies."

At the national level, the program is being tailored to incorporate features that will make ER&D even more effective. There is a new emphasis on training local elected leaders to help them fully appreciate and support a program that has been immensely popular with members. There is also a strong effort to incorporate state federations into the program, and AFT state affiliates in such states as Texas, Florida, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Minnesota are exploring opportunities to bring ER&D site coordinators together for special training and discussion sessions at state conventions and other regional gatherings.

"Through ER&D, members begin to see the union in another way-how we have a commitment to the professional development of our members," Van Horn observes.

What's ahead

Even more union-sponsored initiatives will come online over the next couple years. In Rhode Island, for example, a new professional practice school is being designed by a partnership of organizations that include AFT and NEA state and local affiliates, the Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory, the Central Falls School District and the state department of education. The project is an attempt to establish a learning community in urban high schools that will allow expert teachers to hone their expertise in content areas-particularly with an emphasis on meeting high standards in an urban area. "This model is the purest example of professional development," says state federation president Marcia Reeback, who is also an AFT vice president. "It allows teachers to objectively view themselves in practice measured against what we know from research."

These types of initiatives will be the focus of a joint AFT/NEA conference in the fall of 1998 that focuses on the full spectrum of enhancing teacher quality: from recruiting and training candidates to effective peer assistance and review. The conference will be an opportunity for leaders of both organizations to collaborate on teacher quality issues and to provide the information and tools needed to advance a meaningful teacher quality agenda.

When it comes to teacher quality, Reeback emphasizes that unions bring a particular strength to the table that no other organization can match. "Often, administrations have agendas that change, as do new superintendents. The union provides continuity-our commitment to the teacher in the classroom. It's really a dimension that no other organization can bring."