MIXED MESSAGES Just five months ago Governor Deval Patrick came to the Murkland School in Lowell to celebrate huge gains on the MCAS tests by students there. This week administration officials gave the nod to a for-profit charter school in Lowell that will compete with the Murkland for scarce resources.

That was then. Late last month, apparently no longer satisfied with the pace of reform in Lowell, state education officials, gave the green light to a for-profit charter school in that city. If the Board of Education approves the proposed Collegiate Charter School of Lowell as expected, the eventual 1200 seat school will divert millions of public funding from the same schools that Patrick and others so recently praised.

Paul Georges, president of the United Teachers of Lowell has joined Superintendent Jean Franco of the Lowell Public Schools, in opposing the creation of a third charter school in Lowell, arguing that it jeopardizes the tremendous gains made in the city’s public schools. “We produced amazing results at our two turnaround schools and our reward is a charter school that’s being run for profit? You explain to me the logic in that,” says Georges, who teaches English as a Second Language at Lowell High School.

The education reform bill passed in 2010 doubled the amount of funding that can be diverted from public schools to charter schools in districts with low academic performance. In Lowell, the public schools could lose as much as $24 million in the coming years, undermining the progress they’ve made, says Georges.

“This raises an obvious question: is the state’s policy to help strengthen public schools or is it to expand the number of charter schools, whatever the cost?” asks Georges.

For profit education™
Massachusetts is no stranger to charter schools. If, as expected, the Board of Education votes to approve the proposed Lowell school, along with three others in Holyoke, Springfield, and Boston, the number of charter schools in Massachusetts will reach 83. The Collegiate Charter School of Lowell will be one of just a handful of schools in the state, however, that is operated for a profit. The school will be run by SABIS Educational Systems, Inc., a private, for-profit company with headquarters in Minnesota and Beirut, Lebanon. SABIS runs schools in 15 countries and manages 11 charter schools in the U.S., including schools in Holyoke and Springfield. The company is part of a rapidly expanding network of so-called education management organizations or EMOs, for-profit entities created to tap into the country’s $500 billion public education system. These “corporate” or “franchise” schools compete with traditional public schools for increasingly scarce resources.

Today, one-third of the charter schools in the U.S. are operated by for-profit entities, a proportion that is growing rapidly each year. In states including Michigan, nearly eight out of ten charter schools are operated by private for-profit companies.

Powerful allies, questionable numbers
In Massachusetts, SABIS has powerful allies, including the Boston Globe, which ran an editorial just last month urging state education officials to approve the company’s expansion into Lowell. The Globe editorial writers praised SABIS for above average MCAS scores among 10th graders at its Springfield school, arguing that SABIS is closing the achievement gap between its mostly minority student body and white counterparts in the suburbs.

But a recent report conducted by the Department of Education found that far more students leave the SABIS school in Springfield than graduate. According to the report, “significant numbers of students do transfer out of the school at the secondary level because their academic or programmatic needs were not being met.” Of the 160 students who were part of the grade nine cohort, just 73 remained in grade ten.

SABIS also has a questionable history when it comes to educating special education students in its schools. State officials intervened several times in the Springfield school’s early history in an effort to get SABIS to comply with the special education mandates in Massachusetts, including translating basic communications into Spanish. Secretary of Education Paul Reville cited the company’s continued problems with special education students in his decision to oppose SABIS’ expansion into Brockton in 2008.

Troubled history
For Lowell education officials, the troubled track record of SABIS Education Systems on special education issues is anything but reassuring. At a recent public hearing in Lowell, Superintendent Jean Franco warned that Lowell’s existing charter schools fail to provide adequate services to special education students in the city, noting that many such students are forced to transfer back to the Lowell Public Schools.

Indeed, the recent history of charter schools in Lowell should provide a strong cautionary tale. Just two years ago, state officials threatened to yank the charter of the Lowell Community Charter Public School due to management problems and persistently low test scores. The school ultimately remained open but was forced to contract with a professional management team and eliminate grades seven and eight, sending hundreds of students back to the Lowell Public School. Several individuals involved with the struggling charter will also serve in the leadership of the new for-profit venture.

Says Paul Georges: “If this debate were truly about the best way to improve student achievement and outcomes, the state would be looking at how to replicate our success at the Murkland. That’s not what’s happening here.”

Members of the Boston Teacher Activist Group, who teach in public schools in and around Boston. The educators warn that a ballot question being pushed by Stand for Children would have a chilling effect on the ability of teachers to advocate for their students.

In November, Massachusetts residents will be asked to vote on a ballot question backed by a group called, deceptively, Stand for Children. But critics of the organization, which is funded by corporate foundations and has deep ties to Bain Capital, say a more accurate name might be Stand Against Teachers. If the ballot question wins the backing of voters, the controversial measure would gut workplace protections for educators and make it far more difficult for them to advocate on behalf of the students who need them most.

Stand for Children claims that the initiative will “promote excellence in public schools,” but a closer examination shows that it will have the opposite effect: It could drive great teachers from the classroom and silence teacher voices at the expense of children.

High Stakes Ratings
If voters approve the measure, state law will be changed so that, in cases of layoffs or budget cuts, decisions about which teachers go and stay must be determined by evaluation ratings. The initiative forces all schools to tie local hiring, firing, layoff and transfer decisions to the state’s brand new teacher evaluation system. Under the new system, still to be fully implemented, all teachers must be assigned one of four ratings: exemplary, proficient, needs improvement or unsatisfactory. And even slight differences in teacher ratings will have major consequences. “When you realize that the distinction between ‘proficient’ and ‘exemplary’ is poorly defined, yet could be the basis for decisions of hiring and firing, it hits close to home,” says Riana Good, a Teach Plus policy fellow and fourth-year Spanish teacher at the Boston Teachers Union Pilot School.

Get the facts about the Stand for Children’s controversial ballot question here.

Who will stand up?
Many educators say that what most concerns them about the Stand for Children ballot question is that it will prevent teachers from standing up for the children who need them most. Current workplace protections exist so that teachers can advocate for students and educational quality—without fear of retribution. Taking those protections away robs teachers of the power to speak their minds freely, since doing so might result in a lower performance rating or even job loss.

Ann O’Halloran taught in Boston and Newton for more than three decades and was named Massachusetts history teacher of the year in 2007. She fears that by stripping teachers of workplace protections, the Stand for Children initiative will also punish educators who are willing to criticize education policies they believe are harmful.

“Experienced teachers are less fearful than those who are just starting out. They’re not afraid to speak up about what’s happening in our schools even if they have to be a thorn in the side of an administrator,” says O’Halloran, who now works with the advocacy group Citizens for Public Schools.

And with nearly two thirds of new teachers leaving the profession within the first five years of their careers, O’Halloran argues that the mentoring role of experienced teachers is more essential than ever. “If I hadn’t been guided by veteran teachers early on in my own career I would have been out the door,” says O’Halloran.

No experience necessary
The Stand for Children initiative reflects a distorted—but increasingly widespread view—that in teaching, experience is a detriment rather than an asset. A recent Boston Globe editorial lamented that, in an age of layoffs, “young, talented teachers” could lose their positions to “veteran teachers.” In fact, in the hotly-charged debate over the best way to turn struggling schools around, experienced teachers are routinely characterized as “burnt out,” “lazy” and “out of touch,” as compared to their young colleagues, who are depicted as eager, tireless and selflessly dedicated to closing the achievement gap. According to this argument, the best way to improve the public education system is to eliminate the rights of its teachers.

Haidee Morris, who serves as general counsel for AFT Massachusetts, warns that the language of the Stand for Children initiative provides subtle encouragement for administrators to replace more experienced teachers with younger, cheaper educators. Says Morris: “If experience is no longer considered a measure of merit and ability, then decisions regarding who to hire and who to let go can easily be clouded by self interest, prejudice against older workers, and economic factors which make less experienced teachers cheaper to employ than more experienced teachers.”

Morris argues that by minimizing the role of relevant experience in good teaching, the teaching profession as a whole is being diminished. “Are lawyers and doctors with less relevant experience more valuable than those with years of practice to draw upon? In what other profession does relevant experience make one a less valuable professional?”

Opposition is growing
A growing body of education leaders and organizations has come out in opposition to the ballot initiative. Massachusetts Education Secretary Paul Reville has publicly criticized Stand’s effort, warning that the ballot initiative is likely to lead to a “distracting and divisive battle, engendering an over-simplified public dialogue that would alienate educators.”

In recent weeks, the list of opponents has continued to expand and now includes all of the major education organizations in the state: the Massachusetts Parent Teacher Association, AFT Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the Massachusetts Secondary School Administrators’ Association, the Massachusetts Elementary School Principals Association, the Massachusetts Reading Association, the Massachusetts Association of College and University Reading Educators, the Massachusetts School Library Association, and the Massachusetts Administrators for Special Education.

James Liou, a peer assistant in the Boston Public Schools and a nationally board certified teacher, says that he judges opposition to the ballot question by another measure: its failure to win the support of a single teacher that he knows. Says Liou: “And I know quite a few excellent and dedicated teachers who are active in their classrooms, school communities and professional organizations.”

Occupy the classroom
At a recent gathering of a teachers, a middle school math teacher said that he’d heard that Stand for Children is funded by Bain Capital and Wal-Mart. Could this possibly be true? A half a dozen heads nodded, and a high school English teacher provided a quick overview of Stand’s funding, using the organization’s own annual report to substantiate his claims.

In recent years, funding has surged into the coffers of groups like Stand for Children that are pushing corporate education reform. Stand in Massachusetts has received millions of dollars from the Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation, the philanthropy of Wal-Mart.

But while Stand may have amassed an estimated $23 million to influence Massachusetts voters, the group will also have to contend with growing public concern about the ever expanding role of corporations in public education at both the elementary and secondary levels. Says Teach Plus policy fellow Good: “Outside interests have their eyes on the $850 billion spent each year on public education. It’s no secret that stamping out union protections and collective bargaining, as the Stand initiative tries to do, is a move to put more money and power into the hands of the one percent.”

AFT Massachusetts, which represents over 22,000 teachers, librarians, nurses, custodians and college faculty, has endorsed Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. “Elizabeth Warren promises to be a strong voice for education in Washington,” said Thomas Gosnell, president of AFT Massachusetts. “She is committed to preparing students with the best possible education and supporting the dedicated teachers and professionals of Massachusetts.”

Warren is running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate against immigration attorney Marisa DeFranco and Boston attorney Jim King. The primary winner will meet U.S. Sen. Scott Brown in November in a race that’s attracting attention for the impact it could have on control of the U.S. Senate in 2013.

“AFT Massachusetts is a unifying voice for a variety of education professionals throughout the Commonwealth,” said Gosnell. “Elizabeth Warren vows to advocate for our concerns and the many issues facing Massachusetts families.”

For more information about Elizabeth Warren, visit her website.

]]> http://aftma.net/2012/02/aft-ma-endorses-elizabeth-warren/feed/ 0 http://aftma.net/2012/02/diary-of-a-new-teacher-6/ http://aftma.net/2012/02/diary-of-a-new-teacher-6/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:46:48 +0000 AFT MA http://aftma.net/?p=3017 Read More →

Matt Robinson, an ELA and journalism teacher at the Burke High School in Boston, says that he is learning to juggle the needs of his students, the demands of a “turnaround” school and the requirements of his graduate studies. Pictured here: Burke juniors Cherokee Brown and Prince Papa Collins

By Matthew Robinson, ELA, journalism and boxing teacher, Jeremiah E. Burke High School Dorchester, MA

Being at one of Boston’s “turnaround” schools is a challenge and an education. As we have been charged with lowering dropout rates and raising attendance, grades, and MCAS scores, we have to be extra determined, extra committed–and extra patient.

As I had taught every age and grade from pre-K to adult at public, private, and parochial schools, I thought I was ready for whatever might come along. Teaching at one of Boston’s famed exam schools while working towards my second master’s degree in education added to my confidence. When I got to the Burke, however, I was still thrown for a loop. Many of my new students had just recently arrived in the United States or came from homes where there was little parental or familial support. Some of them, in fact, lived on their own and even supported siblings and other family members. It was an environment and an educational scenario for which I was not fully prepared.

Fortunately, the Burke has plenty of support systems in place for both the students and the staff. In its effort to create an academy system that starts with the freshmen I was teaching and follows them up through their eventual graduation, we have all sorts of experts and consultants coming through the building, offering a bevy of professional development courses and other programs that are intended to help us clarify our mission and focus on our goals. We even have City Year corps members in our classrooms to help us deal with our often challenging and challenged students.

At first though, the near constant meetings felt trying, and the information garnered from was both confusing and often overwhelming—especially during the early weeks when I was also trying to get to know my students, colleagues and the many other people who were constantly coming in and out of the building). Soon the process began to sort itself out and the truer, deeper lessons began to be revealed. Among these was the lesson that, despite my training and past experience, I would have to take on this task as a completely new venture with no preconceived notions whatsoever. I even heard someone describe working at a turnaround school as teaching in an institution that was “not school as you might think of it.” I had dealt with a wide array of ages and abilities before, but never all in the same building. The range of skills and needs was impressive, to say the least, and in order to be successful here, I knew I would have to be open minded and open to the many ideas that were presented to me.

Unfortunately, I went a bit overboard in those early months, signing up for additional trainings in an effort to maintain and improve my licensure status and to learn even more about the educational theories that had so intrigued me in my master’s coursework.

It seemed like I was reading a new treatise or attending another seminar every week and coming into my classroom each Monday with a completely new plan and way of seeing things. Posters went up and then came down. Student work went into folders, then binders, then back to folders. I lectured more, then less, then more again. All the while, I began to notice that I was not the only one who was becoming confused. Even if they were having difficulty keeping up with the workload of the “new “ Burke, many students began to make it clear to me that they were having trouble keeping up with me!

It was time to go back to basics.

After a number of extended and engaged discussions with my amazing mentor, Frank Pantano, I returned from a long weekend with one last new plan: follow the students. In order to turn a student and a school around, I realized that I had to stop spinning and go back to what I knew to be true. It was the same lesson I had learned nearly 10 years ago when I first began my teacher training. Despite the myriad new theories that have come and gone, gained and lost credence and come into and fallen out of vogue since then, that lesson—follow the students—feels just as true today as it did back then.

]]> http://aftma.net/2012/02/diary-of-a-new-teacher-6/feed/ 0 http://aftma.net/2012/02/educational-issues-conference/ http://aftma.net/2012/02/educational-issues-conference/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:44:57 +0000 AFT MA http://aftma.net/?p=3009 Read More →

]]> Save the date!
The AFT MA annual Educational/Legislative Conference is just around the corner.

When: Saturday, March 24th, 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM (breakfast and lunch provided)
Where: Boston Teachers Union Hall, 180 Mount Vernon Street, Boston. Need directions?

Topics will include:

• Fighting Stand For Children’s proposed ballot initiative
• Bargaining teacher evaluation procedures under the new state regulations
• Bargaining health insurance under the new state law

 

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Bus drivers and monitors in Pittsfield where members of the Pittsfield Federation of School Employees wear their residency as a badge of honor.

Recession runs through it
The economic recession that has had a grip on Massachusetts for nearly four years has been particularly hard on places like Pittsfield—cities that bore the brunt of previous downturns. This one-time manufacturing hub, tucked into the banks of the Housatonic River, has spent decades attempting to bounce back from the loss of its major employer, General Electric. GE’s decision to leave the city, taking roughly 10,000 jobs with it, devastated Pittsfield, draining the city not only of jobs but of optimism. The result: a slide in the city’s population. In recent years Pittsfield has sought to remake itself as the culture hub of Western Massachusetts, promoting the arts as a way to attract both jobs and tourist dollars. Today art galleries and music venues increasingly fill the buildings that industry long ago vacated.

The ones who stayed
The 500 members of the Pittsfield Federation of School Employees wear their residency here as a badge of honor. Unlike so many of the city’s former inhabitants, the PFSE members have chosen to stay. “It’s a nice little town,” says Nina Pyrzanowski, a bus monitor who also serves on the union negotiating committee. “It’s a great place to raise a family—now we just need more good paying jobs,” says Pyrzanowski. “We need the kind of jobs that will allow our kids to stay here and raise their families,” says Pyrzanowski, who notes that her own children have left Pittsfield for New York and Colorado in search of just those kinds of jobs.

A family feeling
On a recent winter day, the Pittsfield bus barn, from which 60 school buses depart in two shifts on each school day, felt like a family gathering. The predominantly female employees—most of the bus drivers and all of the monitors are women—often bring their own small children to work. “We’ve got car seats in the buses,” says Christine Bossana, who is the chapter chair of the bus drivers and monitors unit and also served on the negotiating committee.

But it’s more than just the presence of children that lends the bus barn its family air. The drivers and monitors regard themselves as something of a family. Says Bossana: “We can be dysfunctional—but we all stick together.” And stick together they have. In recent years, as Pittsfield has been battered by the recessionary economic tide, these support workers have had to hang tough merely to hold on to the wages and benefits they have.

Picking the city up
Four years ago, Pittsfield’s public employees joined the Group Insurance Commission, becoming one of the first municipalities to do so and saving the city millions of dollars in the process. While their new contract did not include a significant boost in compensation, members of the PFSE say that the city’s willingness to enter into a multi-year deal feels like a confirmation that the work they do is appreciated. Brian LaPierre, the AFT Massachusetts field representative who assisted the five chapters of the PFSE in their negotiations, says the members have made plenty of sacrifices over the years. “These are the people who live in Pittsfield, they’re raising their families here. They’re trying to pick the city up,” says LaPierre. “I think that everyone in Pittsfield appreciates the services they provide. These folks are really the backbone of this city.”

Behind the scenes
For the bus drivers and monitors that behind-the-scenes work starts not long after sunrise, with the first shift of the day. Carol Francesconi has been a driver for the past 10 years and transports children to Pittsfield’s alternative school. While the route is regarded as among the most difficult—many of the students have behavioral issues—Francesconi notes that it’s a run she selected. “These kids are real and I like being able to give them the attention they need,” says Francesconi.

And while the drivers and monitors remain responsible for making sure that their young charges get to and from the correct destination, the job doesn’t stop there. These positions now require medical training to deal with the growing number of students who suffer from life-threatening allergies. Says Pyrzanowski: “We’re trained to use EPI pens, to give CPR, to deal with asthma attacks—we’re really on the front lines.”

Member to member
The 500 members of the PFSE enjoy another distinction that sets them apart from many of their public employee colleagues in other cities and towns. Because their contracts lack something called a “fair-share” provision, employees must choose to be part of the union. That means that every time a new employee is hired to drive a bus, prepare a meal in one of the Pittsfield school cafeterias or perform clerical or custodial work, members of one of the five union chapters must recruit their new colleagues. When a new bus driver arrives at the bus barn on this winter day, she is quickly surrounded by members of the driver and monitor unit who extol the importance of joining up and paying union dues. “We explain that one of the things that we have going for us is that we’re part of a union,” says Bossana. In the cafeteria at Taconic High School, virtually all of the employees who prep more than 800 lunches per day—the most in the school district—belong to the union. Says Connors: “I think they understand that we’re stronger together.”

Eye on the future
While there was plenty of relief after members of all five of the PFSE chapters ratified the new contract, union leader Sara Aserr says that she’s focused on the future of her members—particularly those who earn the least. She notes, for example, that cafeteria workers who’ve worked for the school district for three decades still earn less than a decent wage. “In the past the people who earn the least haven’t had enough of a voice,” says Aserr, who took over as president of the PFSE two years ago. Cafeteria workers here are paid from the proceeds of the revenue they generate; even their health insurance is paid for by the sale of meals. While the arrangement means that the cafeteria is self-sufficient, the need to keep costs low for students—lunch tops out at $1.80—has meant low pay for cafeteria workers. “We’re still having to fight for a decent wage,” says Aserr.

Sandy Rawson has worked at the Taconic High cafeteria for nearly three decades. As the lunch hour nears, and Rawson prepares quesadillas with super-human speed, she reflects that this year will probably be her last. As for her plans in retirement, Rawson knows exactly what she wants to do. “I’m going to relax and work on my crafts,” says Rawson. “Anything but prepare meals.”

AFT MA congratulates the members of the Pittsfield Federation of School Employees on their successful contract negotiations!

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