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- Weingarten's QuEST Address Calls for Collaboration and Innovation
- ER&D Participants Focus on Union Role in School Reform
- QuEST Attracts Guests from Around the World
Weingarten's QuEST Address Calls for Collaboration and Innovation
AFT president Randi Weingarten called on elected and school officials to do school reform "with us, not to us," and urged teachers and their unions to "be the engines of real change in education, providing the ideas and the people that can get the job done."
Speaking on July 13 at the AFT QuEST (Quality Educational Standards in Teaching) conference almost exactly one year after her election as AFT president, Weingarten emphasized the need for collaboration toward school improvement. She stressed that any reform must be "good for kids and fair to teachers." (Weingarten's full remarks at QuEST are available online.)
Many in the audience of more than 2,500 educators wore buttons bearing the message "With us, not to us," a variation on the pledge Barack Obama made as a presidential candidate to enact education reforms "with teachers, not [do them] to teachers." U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has echoed that pledge.
"We have tried to find common ground on issues that often have been battlegrounds," Weingarten said, including advocating for common academic standards and the conditions necessary to reach them; developing incentives to attract the best teachers to schools with the greatest challenges; differentiating teacher compensation through so-called merit pay plans; and removing ineffective teachers in a "fair and appropriate" way.
| Watch video highlights of President Weingarten's address. |
The election of a United States president and a congressional majority with whom we can work, along with the federal stimulus they enacted, create conditions that could "fundamentally change public education," Weingarten said. "The question is how will we change public education?"
Noting that many teachers unions have developed a "good defense" necessary to counter educationally empty "so-called reforms," Weingarten employed a series of football analogies to urge educators to "play offense" just as aggressively and "move the ball forward." And she laid out a series of questions to determine whether the authorities who run schools and school systems are working in a collaborative, and therefore effective, manner.
Weingarten discussed several often controversial issues around which the AFT has sought to advance commonsense, collaborative approaches, such as teacher evaluation and charter schools. Later in the speech, Weingarten unveiled a "collaboration meter" that educators can use to gauge how serious the people who run schools are about working together on reform.
Teacher Evaluation
She decried the too-common state of affairs in which evaluation consists of little more than a principal spending 15 minutes in a teacher's classroom, "checking off a grocery list of minimum competencies."
"One principal observation a year is not the way, and neither is basing evaluations solely on test scores," she said. "This process does not improve teaching, nor does it improve learning," Weingarten continued, adding that an AFT committee on teacher evaluation was working to develop fair and meaningful ways to evaluate and support teachers.
Charter Schools
Noting that she has helped establish two charter schools and that the AFT represents educators in 80 such schools, Weingarten said charter schools should be held to the same standards as other public schools and they "should not be pitted against each other."
"Successful charter schools should be applauded and should share their lessons; troubled charter schools that fail their students should be held accountable and closed; and charter school teachers should be supported and given the right to union membership and voice," she said.
Weingarten cautioned elected leaders not to walk away from their responsibility to help all public schools succeed "by turning entire public school systems into charter schools."
"Our commitment must be to educate all students, not only those who submit an application or who are selected by lottery." More than 40 AFT-represented charter school teachers are attending QuEST.
Public School Successes
Weingarten described many of the school improvements she has seen firsthand on visits to AFT affiliates in the first year of her presidency.
In the ABC Unified School District in Los Angeles County, the union and district officials have worked collaboratively to significantly raise achievement in the district.
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| Students from Washington, D.C.'s Garfield Elementary School entertained the audience during the opening session. |
In Detroit, 7,000 teachers union members attended a professional development day as part of a labor-management effort to work collaboratively on school improvement.
Toledo's union-developed peer assistance and review program pairs experienced teachers with new and struggling teachers. Weingarten observed the union's efforts to help teachers improve their work, and to counsel out "in a fair, appropriate way those who do not meet their high standards of competence and commitment."
Teachers unions can bridge divides, Weingarten concluded, "because our feet are planted in two essential institutions. Our public schools, which at their best, are the great equalizer for young people. And our union movement, which at its best, is the great equalizer for working people."
Weingarten's speech was preceded by a video, "AFT: A Year of Action," that highlighted the union's accomplishments in the year since her election. The opening session also included a video welcome from President Obama, who spoke about how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has helped keep thousands of teachers from being laid off. While the AFT and the administration may not agree on every proposed education measure, President Obama noted that he and Secretary Duncan "share a deep respect for the work that you do and the sacrifices that you make."
ER&D Participants Focus on Union Role in School Reform
In the opening address at this year's Educational Research and Dissemination (ER&D) Network Conference, held July 12-13 in Washington, D.C., Toledo (Ohio) Federation of Teachers president Francine Lawrence stressed the important role unions play in meeting the professional development needs of the members they represent. "Members want their unions to focus on [professional development] now more than ever," said Lawrence, noting that the quality of teaching is the single most important factor in student learning.
Using professional development as a union organizing tool was a primary focus of the ER&D conference, which had the theme "Beyond Possibilities."
Several sessions during the two-day meeting, which was attended by more than 300 people, featured nationally known education experts and union leaders. The sessions included workshops titled "Making Learning Fun," "Establishing Functional Learning Communities in Schools" and "The ABCs of Differentiating Instruction."
Students and educators from New Orleans led a workshop called "Explorations in Student Writing," which highlighted creative techniques educators can use to encourage students to express themselves through poetry, video and creative writing.
United Teachers of New Orleans member Jim Randels, along with current and former students from Students at the Center, a project that encourages creative writing and self-expression in New Orleans, talked to conference participants about how writing can combat negative behavior and provide students with a broader perspective on their future.
The closing session featured Lovely Billups, former director of the ER&D program, who noted that ER&D has become the avenue through which many members are connecting with the union.
QuEST Attracts Guests from Around the World
More than two dozen international guests from 12 countries are attending this year's QuEST conference. The guests, who were introduced at the July 13 opening session, are:
| AFGHANISTAN Afghan Institute of Learning Sakena Yacoobi Executive Director Mohammad Ishaq Deputy Director |
SOUTH AFRICA Education Labour Relations Council Dhaya Govender General Secretary |
| CANADA Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation Paul Elliott Vice President |
National Professional Teachers Organization Henry Hendricks Executive Director |
| CHINA Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union Tin-Chi Pun Director, Rights & Complaints Department |
South African Democratic Teachers' Union Matiseliso Dipholo Vice President for Education Renny Somnath Head of Education Department |
| COTE d'IVOIRE Syndicat National de l'Enseignement Primaire Public de Côte d'Ivoire Salimata Doumbia * Former General Secretary |
National Teachers' Union Eliam A. Biyela HIV/AIDS Director Department of Education Haroon Mahomed Director for Continuing Teacher Professional Development |
| IRELAND Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland Patrick Hurley President Teachers' Union of Ireland Don Ryan President |
SPAIN Federación de Enseñanza CC.OO., F.E.CC.OO. Jose Campos Trujillo * General Secretary Pedro Gonzalez Lopez International Relations Secretary Maria-Rosario Rizo International Relations Advisor |
| ISRAEL Israel Teachers Union Joseph Wasserman General Secretary Gad Diai Deputy General Secretary Gila Finkelstein Chairman of the ITU Council of Religious Teachers |
UNITED KINGDOM National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers Julian Chapman President Tracey Twist Assistant General Secretary Regional Development |
| NETHERLANDS General Education Union Walter Dresscher President |
ZIMBABWE Zimbabwe Teachers' Association Tendai Chikowore National President |
| REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA Trade Union for Education, Science and Culture in the Republic of Macedonia, SONK Dojcin Cvetanovski President Tatjana Janevska Professional Associate |
OTHER Education International Fred van Leeuwen General Secretary Laura Figazzolo Research Department |
| * Education International Executive Board Member |
AFT Online coverage of the QuEST 2009 conference is prepared by the AFT communications department. Photographs are by Michael Campbell and Marvin Jones. Video by Matthew Jones and Brett Sherman.
