Assigned Reading

Brown University conducted a poll the last week in July to gauge voter opinions about the economy, our elected officials, and candidates for office. One of the most interesting questions for those in Rhode Island education came at the very end. Here’s the question as posed by the pollsters to 702 registered RI voters.

A few months ago, in an effort to reform the school system, the state commissioner of education asked the Central Falls school system to make changes. The superintendent of schools asked high school teachers to extend the school day 25 minutes, provide tutoring on a rotating basis and eat lunch with students once a week. The teachers union refused and in response the Central Falls superintendent fired all the high school teachers. After negotiations, the teachers agreed to the requested changes and were rehired. Do you think the decision to fire the teachers was the right thing to do, the wrong thing to do, or don’t know.

Although a solidly blue state with strong labor ties, poor economic conditions might lead to an assumption that many RIers would think firing the teachers was the right thing to do. But most couldn’t possibly have expected the numbers, as reported by the Brown poll. Over 60% of respondents thought firing all the teachers at CF high was the right thing to do.

This poll undoubtedly offers a glimpse at the anger and hostility many RIers have toward teachers unions, as I have pointed to so often. Union leaders would be wise to take notice.

Teachers unions and Department of Education bureaucrats will be seeing a lot of each other in the coming year. Mostly in courtrooms.

The Providence Journal calls one court challenge “inevitable”, and rightly so. Commissioner Gist’s assertion that the Basic Education Program, or BEP, authorizes her to alter the way teachers are assigned to job openings has rankled union leadership. These leaders have been waiting for the first opportunity to challenge Gist’s directive, and have found it with the Collaborative. RIFT, the Rhode Island AFT affiliate, represents teachers and assistants at the Northern RI Collaborative, whose contract expired June 30. Forty-five staff members have been laid off, and will be rehired based on qualifications and seniority, rather than seniority alone.

The RIFT’s Michael Mullane claims the NRIC action “violates the contract”. But with its expiration, this may be another challenge to the law that mandates a contract remain in effect until another is agreed upon.

If the court sides with RIDE and NRIC, the decision could be a final nail in the seniority coffin.

RIFT is planning to file another suit in the coming days. Gist’s overhaul of the recertification process includes the elimination of teacher iPlans. Many teachers have been working for three or more years completing professional development and electronic iPlans in order to renew their teaching credentials. Union leaders will argue that teachers fulfilled the iPlan requirements as directed by RIDE, and the work should be honored. If not, teachers should be reimbursed for the money spent on conferences and other PD. RIFT is seeking at least two teachers from each district to sign the complaint.

From the beginning, the iPlan seemed a bureaucratic behemoth. Teachers required extensive, and expensive, training to understand the process and be able to use the technology. The paperwork alone was enormous, and “professional development” was too loosely defined. The bureaucrats at the Department of Education wasted a fortune putting into place an ineffective recertification tool. Now new bureaucrats have their own ideas, and teachers are left waiting in the dark.

Teachers near completion of their iPlans should be grandfathered, and union is right to argue on their behalf.

When difficult students behave, teachers shower them with praise. Providing positive attention will hopefully encourage more appropriate behavior.

Education Commissioner Deborah Gist is a teacher at heart, and so she showers the legislative leaders with praise for passing a funding formula this year. Her opinion piece in today’s Journal specifically names the leaders and committee chairs of both houses of the General Assembly, and all legislators in general.

Gist congratulates the assembly for its foresight, leadership, and pioneering efforts in taking “a historic step” to develop this “transparent, consistent education-funding formula”.

Gist is smart to use the old behavior modification strategy, heaping praise on the generally misbehaving legislators. But she shouldn’t expect the General Assembly to suddenly start working for the benefit of everyone. This is Rhode Island, after all.

East Greenwich is taking a giant step in its efforts to more wisely spend its education dollars. The School Committee voted 4 to 3 to end its relationship with the local union and outsource custodial services.

As one can imagine, unionists are not happy. Supporters came out in full force to disrupt the school committee meeting Tuesday night. Arriving early, they chanted, addressed the audience on their own, and refused to clear the room for the regularly scheduled executive session. According to the website my02818.com, the lone police officer at the meeting called for assistance to ensure the safety of the school committee members as they moved to a separate room for executive session.

After School Committee Chairwoman Jean Ann Guliano announced the vote to go into executive session, no one left. For the next 25 minutes, people got up to speak to the crowd while School Committee members appeared impassive.

Finally, additional police officers appeared and they escorted School Committee members down the hall to the library, followed by a group of chanting, horn-blowing union supporters.

Police stopped the parade at the top of the hallway, prompting renewed chanting. For the next 45 minutes, while the Committee met in closed session, police stood guard and union supporters waited, their numbers growing.

School Committee members in East Greenwich are making tough choices. With huge cuts in state aid, local communities need to be more efficient with tax dollars, and spend the limited funds where it will have the most impact on kids and learning. Privatizing cleaning services is a sensible option. Like busing and cafeteria services, districts can negotiate limited-time contracts through competitive bidding, and quality of service and cost will determine whether these contracts are renewed.

The hostility at last night’s meeting is an example of consequences of the difficult decisions school committee members make on behalf of taxpayers and kids. It appears the members in East Greenwich are up to the task.

Kudos to Commissioner Deborah Gist, who listened to parents and supporters of Highlander Charter, and granted it a three-year extension. While Highlander has areas in which growth is needed, the school has been outperforming Providence schools, and deserves to remain open as a positive choice for city students.

Sunday’s Providence Journal featured a front page story about a partnership between the city of East Providence and Bradley Hospital. The program establishes classrooms in neighborhood schools for students with significant needs who would otherwise be bused to Bradley. The article’s author, Alisha Pina, celebrates the program as a win for everyone. Children go to school with their siblings and friends in the neighborhood, and the district realizes substantial financial savings in these troubled times.

Classroom teachers will tell you they are supportive but cautious of such programs, and for good reason. We should make every effort to educate kids in their neighborhood schools, and as federal law requires, do so in least restrictive environments. But we cannot succeed without significant special education support.

Budget cuts have left districts looking for new ways to save money. “Mainstreaming” of children with special needs has at times been instituted to cut costs. Placing children with special needs in regular classrooms with minimal support will save plenty of money, but is a disservice to all children in the classroom. Without the support of special education professionals, special needs students will require a significant amount of the classroom teacher’s time, depriving other students of the attention they need.

Most classroom teachers would champion an integrated program with the proper support to ensure all students succeed. When full-time co-teaching becomes part-time, or when districts replace special education teachers with instructional assistants, the mainstream model becomes one of cost savings rather than providing what is best for kids.

The Bradley partnership in East Providence sounds good. A significant number of professionals, both from Bradley Hospital and the district, are included in the model. Parents and classroom teachers should be vigilant in ensuring the district maintains the full-time support needed.

Nowhere in Pina’s long article did we learn the opinions of any East Providence classroom teachers. Because of this, we should remain cautious.

Surprising was the RI Future post headline Victory for Central Falls teachers! when they agreed to Dr. Gallo’s transformation model last month. This was the very same model the teachers union had rejected back in February that resulted in the mass firing.

But there doesn’t seem to be any victory post over at RI Future concerning the contract agreed to yesterday by East Providence teachers. Approved by more than 3 to 1, the contract makes permanent the salary cuts and healthcare contributions enacted by the school committee early last year. Teachers also agreed to longer school days, longer school years, and in increase in class size at the secondary level.

Could it be that the teachers, in general, understand the financial woes of the city? Or that the majority of the union membership did not support the hardline position of its leadership. Perhaps, the East Providence teachers saw what happened at Central Falls high school, and realized concessions were worth job security.

Regardless, the teachers in EP did the right thing. The paychecks may be a little lighter, but in these tough economic times, it’s much better than none at all.

The Journal’s front page feature on three teachers at Central Falls High School was a great read. It’s heartening to know there are talented and committed teachers working for the best interests of students. No one can honestly disagree with Commissioner Gist, who argues only the very best educators should be teaching at difficult, urban schools like CF. The three highlighted by the Journal appear to be exemplars.

My criticism is reserved for the newspaper and reporter Jennifer Jordan. While it was nice to read about these committed educators, it’s a shame their opinions about the recent controversy were omitted. All three teachers stay after school to help students, seem current on educational theory and strategy, and have strong personal relationships with students. So were these teachers opposed to the transformation goals originally proposed by Dr. Gallo? Was the union leadership effectively representing them when it ignored Dr. Gallo and allowed the mass firing to occur?

One wouldn’t expect the teachers to speak negatively in the press about their boss, or to throw their fellow unionized teachers under the bus. But the reporter could have asked, and shared their responses.

These talented teachers could help us learn so much more, if only the reporter had asked.

Mark Patinkin is right. His column in today’s Providence Journal praises CF Superintendent Fran Gallo. Despite all the attacks (read the comments following Patinkin’s column), Dr. Gallo stood her ground, and in the end got what she wanted for the students at the high school.

Supt. Gallo herself was the target of profane hate mail. She was ridiculed in school hallways and at public rallies. It’s a disgrace what they put that woman through. For Gallo, it was a horrific period of attacks and derision. And yet she did not back down.

Dr. Gallo remained steadfast, even when under personal assault. Like it or not, the way administrators and unions deal with failing schools has forever changed.

Rick Hess, on his blog and at National Review Online, shares similar sentiments about Dr. Gallo.

The Rhode Island story is a truly encouraging development. As with Michelle Rhee’s new contract in D.C. or Commissioner David Steiner’s ability to win new language on teacher tenure in New York, this story shows how leaders with backbone can eventually force union leadership to accept a new reality. Yes, Gallo walked back the bold action that won her many education reformers’ approval, but good management is about discipline, not bloodlust. The point of school turnarounds is not to count scalps, but to win necessary changes, force out lousy teachers, and reset the board.

The union losses in Central Falls and East Providence have shaken the pedestal upon which the union leadership has stood for so long. Expect it to get nastier as the union position becomes more perilous.

Hopefully there will be more like Dr. Gallo, who will firmly stand for what is best for students. We, as teachers, should do the same.

In a post Friday, Brian Hull at the RIFuture blog worries how changes will affect education at Central Falls High School. Writing from a union viewpoint, Hull’s worries are reserved mostly for the teachers, and he claims those who seek to put students first are taking the debate to “new lows”. In truth, the situation in Central Falls is about kids more than teachers. Questionable are the motives of those who claim otherwise.

I was more than a little surprised to hear that over 800 applications have been received to fill the 93 positions that are available at the high school.

To be surprised is to misunderstand the employment opportunities for teachers. There are so many who want to make education a career, but cannot find jobs. More importantly, there are many professionals who believe that all students, regardless of their home environment or socioeconomic status, can learn, graduate, and be successful. I suspect many of those applications received from outside the state are from teachers up for the challenge.

There seems to be an assumption that “operational flexibility” will force teachers to be better instructors because their job depends on their performance. In this scenario, teachers are the problem. Teachers are lazy, teachers are spoiled, and teachers never care about the students, only about their huge salaries and benefit packages that come without fear of losing their jobs, no matter how poorly they perform. I don’t agree with this vision.

Dr. Gallo believes change is necessary at Central Falls High School. With the low student achievement and graduation rate, who can argue against the need for change? But Hull’s assumptions are faulty. The reason for the mass firing is because current teachers were unwilling to make the changes necessary to better meet the needs of the students. Proposals by Dr. Gallo were rejected or ignored. Backed by the union, teachers demanded the status quo be maintained. Student performance simply could not allow this. While the change of faculty will mostly likely have an impact, it will be the change in the way instruction is delivered that will bring about the most change.

On the other side of the coin is job security, high wages, and decent benefits as incentives for attracting the best and brightest to be teachers, and a commitment to support teachers with additional training and development so that they can be the best instructors possible. Stripping away the safeguards and protections will make the teaching profession less attractive (especially for math and science teachers), and in the long run students will suffer by not having the most qualified and effective teachers in the classroom.

This has been the long-term position of the unionists. Only if teachers are given more will the best become teachers. The 800 applicants for the positions at CFHS, many willing to relocate, should end this argument. Dr. Gallo and the hiring committee will have a giant pool from which to choose the strongest teachers. Undoubtedly applicants will be asked if they are willing to work longer school days, use some Saturday mornings for professional development, and eat lunch with students. Those who agree will be hired, or rehired, and the community at the school will begin to change almost immediately. Because all of the teachers will be non-tenured, it will not be difficult to send packing those that don’t meet the higher expectations.

My fear is that because the assumption from the reform movement seems to be predicated on “bad teachers are the problem and all teachers are bad,” there is no movement toward fixing the actual problems that exist in the state’s education system which lay outside of the classroom: poverty, stable education funding, language barriers, teen pregnancy, special needs students, family instability, lack of professional support, lack of stability in curriculum, lack of stability in school leadership, etc. etc.

The real fear of unionists and union supporters is that education at CFHS will improve. But it’s sophomoric to suggest those who seek reform simply believe “bad teachers” are the cause of all problems in education. In fact, most praise the work of individual teachers. I understand that school funding, language barriers, special education laws, and educrats are all factors that negatively impact public education. And while social conditions are a significant, if not the most significant, factor that causes our public schools to fail, I realize this is the most difficult factor to change. Decades of time, effort, and money have not made families more stable, have not decreased poverty or teen pregnancy, and have not helped to maintain the nuclear family that can provide the best foundation for children. Such social conditions will not change overnight, but we must do what is best to educate the kids in our schools right now.

I do not solely blame teachers for the failings at Central Falls High in particular, or in public education in general. Those who regularly read my opinions should know I believe many are to blame, including administrators, bureaucrats, unions, and the society at large.

The situation in CF has not been about blaming teachers. Dr. Gallo pointed to the failings at CFHS and explained to teachers that the kids needed more from them. The teachers, on the advice of their union, refused. The city’s leadership is now looking for teachers who are willing to provide more. The kids in Central Falls, more than more, deserve it.