Teachers Unions as Partners, Not Adversaries Keith Catone The work of teachers unions in Chicago and nationwide offers a promising model of teacher and community engagement. Chicago has long been one of the Chicago when he was CEO of Chicago national epicenters for public Public Schools from 2001 to 2009. school reform. In many ways Shuttering low-performing schools (as the reform efforts of the past decade measured by test scores), facilitating in the Windy City have served as the the restructuring of schools (often re- blueprint for the current focus of fed- sulting in major shifts in personnel and eral education priorities. In particular, student population), and promoting federal policy for school turnaround the growth of charter schools have all and transformation takes clear cues been strategies for Chicago reform and from the efforts that current Secretary are now centerpieces of federal school of Education Arne Duncan oversaw in turnaround guidelines. Keith Catone is a senior research associate at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. 52 Annenberg Institute for School Reform However, for such technical ap- previous decade. They specifically proaches to school turnaround to be sought to counter what they describe successful, they must be accompanied as a “myth” that “school turnarounds by close consideration of the social, have benefited Chicago Public Schools political, and cultural dimensions of by giving ‘failing’ schools a new start.” school change. Without attending Instead, CReATE cited evidence that to these other dimensions, Chicago since the implementation of Chicago’s has experienced the alienation of its major school turnaround policies, professional teacher corps and the districtwide high school student disillusionment of many parents and achievement hasn’t risen and most of grassroots community leaders with re- the lowest-performing high schools gard to public school reform, outcomes saw student test scores decline. The that undermine the social capital and researchers also pointed to the dispro- trust that ensure broad local support portionate impact of school closings for public school systems. on low-income African American and Scores of underperforming and, yes, Latino communities and increasing failing schools across the country are in trends of violence inside and outside of severe need of turnaround and trans- “turned around” schools (Chicagoland formation. However, federal policies Researchers and Advocates for Trans- that introduce technical change and formative Education 2011). innovation without careful attention Disappointment in Chicago school toward how to create change collab- reforms also led to the formation of oratively with teachers, parents, and the Caucus of Rank-and-file Educators other community leaders miss crucial (CORE), which was started by a group opportunities to engage those for of teachers who came together to read whom the change matters most. The Naomi Klein’s (2008) The Shock Doc- work of the Chicago Teachers Union trine. Klein argues that in the practice provides a promising model of teacher of “disaster capitalism,” policymakers and community engagement that the and corporations take advantage of U.S. Department of Education (DOE) man-made and/or natural disasters to can look to as they seek to create poli- push through particular changes as a cies and guidelines that will support response to crisis. CORE members saw sustainable reform, particularly in connections between Klein’s argu- urban areas. ment and the ways in which education reformers were framing changes in TEACHERS MATTER Chicago as a crisis response, forcing school closures, transformations, and Many grassroots community orga- conversions to charters. nizations, parents, and teachers in Chicago who have been fighting for In five years, the leaders of CORE won high-quality education for years do election as the leadership of the Chi- not believe the city’s reform strategies cago Teachers Union (CTU) – evidence have worked in their communities. In that they were not alone in their cri- fact, in June 2011 a network of more tique of the direction in which Chicago than 100 Chicago-area university Public Schools were headed. In the professors – Chicagoland Research- midst of contract negotiations in June ers and Advocates for Transformative 2012, CTU displayed a high degree Education (CReATE) – published a of solidarity when 90 percent of its research-based statement on Chicago membership voted to authorize a strike school reform that decried the vast should the union leadership deem it majority of reforms initiated in the necessary (Davey 2012). This vote VUE Winter/Spring 2013 53 signaled not only that Chicago teachers a long way toward ensuring that the overwhelmingly supported their union resulting reforms and priorities repre- leadership, but that they were just as sent a viable and sustainable path for overwhelmingly disillusioned with the change in our public schools. leadership and direction of Chicago’s public schools. COMMUNiTiES, P ARENTS, Virtually the same school turnaround AND STUDENTS MATTER strategies tested in Chicago are what have driven federal regulations for the Teachers and communities have a School Improvement Grant program, mutual interest in collaboratively ad- Race to the Top, and ESEA waivers. dressing the real impacts of poverty As in Chicago, federal policies have on a child’s readiness to engage in promoted practices that have been crit- academic learning. Not only should icized by teachers and teachers unions, teachers unions be seeking to partner such as teacher evaluations and school with families and communities around accountability based on student test these and other issues, but policymak- scores alone and the spread of charter ers should also be shifting priorities to schools that are not unionized. These support these partnerships and address priorities have little or mixed research- these challenges. based evidence for success (Springer et al. 2010; Fryer 2011; Fryer et al. 2012; Union-Community Collaboration Center for Research on Education in Chicago Outcomes 2009).1 In the absence of such evidence, the value of the serious Public opinion polls conducted during disruption and alienation of the teach- the CTU strike repeatedly showed ing force should be questioned. that more Chicagoans supported the teachers than they did Mayor Rahm Further, federal competitive grants like Emmanuel. In fact, more people actu- the Race to the Top initiative require ally blamed the mayor for the strike teachers unions to co-sign the applica- than they did the teachers. Community tion. This creates competing interests organizations, parent groups, and for teachers unions: they are pressured youth groups all spoke out in support to either support reforms that will of the teachers’ strike (Clawson 2012). alienate their members or be blamed for The widespread support for CTU unsuccessful grant applications. For the surprised many observers, but not the DOE to avoid replicating these dynam- CTU. Since winning leadership in the ics across the nation, federal priorities CTU, president Karen Lewis and her need to reflect a clear and proactive team made it a priority to organize and commitment to engage with teachers build relationships with community and their union leadership, looking for members as well as teachers. common ground and working to ensure that teachers are not automatically Caught in an education reform context placed on the defensive. Treating teach- that has made it commonplace to blame ers and their unions as true partners, teachers as a primary cause for the not as coerced co-signatories, will go failure and underperformance of our public schools, the CTU shifted their relationships with the communities in 1 F or an additional list of research showing the negative impacts of high-stakes testing, which they work. They embarked on see the source list for FairTest’s Resolution the development of their own research- on High-Stakes Testing at http://fairtest.org/ based reform agenda for Chicago’s sites/default/files/resolution_on_high_stakes_ public schools, “The Schools Chicago’s testing__signing_final_w_biblio_4-23-12.pdf. Students Deserve.” The agenda calls for 54 Annenberg Institute for School Reform ten essential elements that are student (see the sidebar on page 59 for more and community centered and focus on AISR’s work with teachers unions). squarely on important issues of teach- For the past three years NEA Priority ing and learning conditions, such as Schools Campaign (PSC) has targeted reducing class size, supporting students intense support for teacher-community and families with wrap-around social collaborations in the neediest schools services, directly addressing systemic where their members are committed inequities, partnering with parents, and to “disrupting the status quo.” The respecting and supporting teachers as campaign focuses on supporting three professionals (Chicago Teachers Union key levers for student achievement 2012). Efforts like these have solidified (National Education Association, n.d.): CTU’s legitimacy within Chicago com- munities. The union has worked hard • A strong partnership between the to earn the trust of parent, youth, and school and students’ families. community organizations by articulat- • A n investment in increasing the skills ing its interests in ways that align with and effectiveness of the school staff. the interests of these other constituen- cies, and this trust garnered the support • C ommunity-provided social and CTU experienced during its strike. health services for students and their families. Taking Union-Community Collaboration to Scale “ More broadly, both major national teachers unions – the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association “ (NEA) – are working to build authen- Teachers and communities have a mutual tic community ties and relationships with families to identify and organize interest in collaboratively addressing the around mutual interests. With the sup- port of national staff, AFT union locals real impacts of poverty on a child’s and community partners have been co-hosting community-based town hall readiness to engage in academic learning. meetings to discuss the development of “community-driven reform agendas” while committing to “solution-driven unionism” (American Federation of Teachers 2012). To date, these meet- ings have been attended by hundreds of teachers, parents, and other com- NEA PSC accomplishments have munity leaders in over ten cities. The included support for innovations to Annenberg Institute for School Reform strengthen teacher-family partner- (AISR) has been supporting these ships focused on student learning meetings by documenting the content and achievement. In Sacramento, the of the conversations and will help Parent-Teacher Home Visit Project dis- the AFT and their community-based rupts the cycle of blame and mistrust partners throughout the country distill that is often found between teachers the major themes and ideas for change and parents. In Phoenix, Academic that will inform a truly grassroots and Parent-Teacher Teams have revolu- partnership agenda for school reform tionized parent-teacher conferences to support interactive meetings between Keith Catone VUE Winter/Spring 2013 55 “ parents and teachers aimed at devel- oping capacity for effective at-home learning activities. The Compadres in Education program in Oklahoma Without meaningful partnerships between “ City has worked to alleviate previous language and culture barriers between policymakers, unions, communities, and teachers and families at a city high school, overturning the feeling that families, we will continue to witness the parents were unwelcome at the school. Each of these NEA-supported innova- failure of school reform and the separation tions works to build the joint capacities of teachers and communities. of parents and teachers to support student learning, with the ultimate goal of dramatically increasing student achievement. iN THE MiNNESOTA NEigHBORHOODS FiELD ORgANiziNg FOR CHANgE Excerpted with permission from “Real Parent Power: Relational Organizing for Sustainable School Reform” by Keith Catone and Sara McAlister, forthcoming in National civic Review. Minnesota Neighborhoods Organizing for change (NOc) is a multi-racial member-led organization whose mission is to build power in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods across the Twin cities. A large part of NOc’s organizing focuses on home foreclosure prevention and changing the policies that govern foreclosure. NOc has also worked on other economic justice issues and voting rights. In 2010, NOc surveyed its members about the issues they wanted to prioritize for the upcoming year. Though education was not included on the list, a large proportion of members wrote it in as a top concern. While NOc leaders and staff were gauging members’ specific interests around education in early 2011, the Minneapolis school district announced plans to close North High School. North was more than 100 years old and had been an anchor of the predominantly African American North Side. It had lately struggled through a cycle of declining enrollment and sinking achievement, which NOc and many local families attributed to the district’s previous decisions to close all of North’s feeder elemen- tary and middle schools, eliminating the school’s attendance zone. NOc joined with other community organizations, student and alumni groups, and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) to form the Save North High community coalition. Their public campaign convinced the district to reverse its decision and bring in a nonprofit school reform organization to lead a community redesign process. To build off the momentum of the North High campaign, NOc leaders decided to conduct a commu- nity-wide survey to understand how families felt about the public schools and what issues resonated widely. Based on their collaboration on the North High campaign, they decided to approach the MFT to see if the union would be willing to help fund the survey. The MFT and the St. Paul Federation of Teachers both agreed to support the survey and a part-time education organizer for NOc. The group experienced some pushback about their decision to engage with the teachers unions from allies who saw unions as impediments to improving teacher quality. But NOc leaders and staff believed that in order for whatever campaign they might develop from the survey to gain traction, they would need 56 Annenberg Institute for School Reform TURNiNg gOOD WORk as leaders and partners rather than iNTO gOOD POLiCY as adversaries. Without meaningful partnerships between policymakers, These efforts demonstrate a signifi- unions, communities, and families, we cant and substantive commitment to will continue to witness the failure of building partnerships with families school reform and the separation of and communities and offer promis- teachers and communities. The DOE ing blueprints for federal, state, and should both acknowledge and utilize local education policymakers to use the substantial and effective work of in developing reform agendas seek- unions and communities in Chicago ing similar partnerships among all and nationwide to lay the foundation stakeholders. There is an opportunity for powerful, sustainable reform. in this next Obama administration to chart a new bold course for reform, one that includes teachers unions the support of classroom teachers to carry it out. They saw the process of jointly developing the sur- vey as a way to build understanding between families and teachers. The process was not without tension. The SPFT’s contract was up for negotiation, and the union was nervous about questions that NOc had developed (with the help of AISR staff) that asked parents to give their child’s teacher, the school, the district, and the state a letter grade. NOc leaders felt that the question was important for understanding parents’ concerns, and the question stayed. The two unions were able to suggest a question that would help inform the upcoming contract negotiations in St. Paul. NOc conducted a massive survey collection drive, through door-knocking, phone-banking, and attending community festivals and other events. More than 400 parents from neighborhoods across the Twin cities completed the survey. Parents rated their teachers quite highly, giving them much better grades than the district or state. Two clear issues emerged from the parent survey: reducing class sizes to allow more individualized attention and providing more time and avenues for parents and teachers to communicate about children. Both mattered a great deal to teachers, as well, and the union embraced them as priorities in their contract negotiations. The SPFT was able to use the survey results to demonstrate broad parent support for lowering class sizes and new programs to facilitate communication. Union leaders invited parents involved in NOc to sit in on the bargaining sessions and explained what was happening at each step of the process. Through the survey development and contract negotiations, parents and teachers built a great deal of trust and developed personal relationships. The final contract included pledges to keep class sizes low and district investment in a Parent-Teacher Home Visit project, based on a model developed by another community organizing group, the Sacramento Area congregations Together. NOc leaders are currently working with several schools to improve parent engagement and strengthen relationships between teachers and families. For more on Minnesota Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, see www.mnnoc.org. For a short AISR-produced video featuring the NOC story, see www.realparentpower.com. Keith Catone VUE Winter/Spring 2013 57 REFERENcES American Federation of Teachers. 2012. Fryer, R. G. 2011. “Teacher Incentives and “Community-Driven School Reform + Student Achievement: Evidence from New Solution-Driven Unionism = Real Solutions York City Public Schools.” NBER Working by Real People.” Washington, DC: American Paper No. 16850. Cambridge, MA: The Federation of Teachers. Downloadable PDF National Bureau of Economic Research. available at http://www.naleo.org/institutes/ Available online at http://www.nber.org/ newly2012/Jurisdictional Breakout Sessions papers/w16850. 2/AFT Resources/Community Driven School Fryer. R. G., S. D. Levitt, J. List, S. Sadoff. 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Available online at http://www.dailykos.com/ story/2012/09/11/1130467/-Poll-47-of- Chicago-voters-support-striking-teachers. Davey. M. 2012. “With No Contract Deal by Deadline in Chicago, Teachers Will Strike,” New York Times (Septem- ber 9). Available online at http://www. nytimes.com/2012/09/10/education/ with-no-contract-deal-by-deadline-in-chica- go-teachers-will-strike.html. 58 Annenberg Institute for School Reform