New Haven as a model for district/union collaboration
The NYT editorial board this week wrote about some exciting news out of my home city of New Haven, where district and union collaboration is showing "what can go right when school districts and unions work together." The two sides have sat down and hammered out what appears to be a smart, thoughtful proposal for transforming the way New Haven teachers are evaluated, with potential to serve as a model for other districts nationally.
The New York Times comes out hard against the status quo, explaining:
"In most schools today, teacher evaluations are not worthy of the name. An administrator typically observes the teacher at work once or twice during the year. Nearly every teacher passes — even at the most dismal schools. Struggling teachers rarely get the help they need to improve. Once they are tenured, it is nearly impossible to dislodge them."
This status quo is absolutely unacceptable given the importance of putting a great teacher in front of every child, and the consequences when that does not happen. With smart, common-sense evaluation systems like New Haven is developing, we will be able to reward outstanding teachers to keep them in the classroom or promote them, and help struggling teachers get the professional development and support they need to improve. And if struggling teachers are given support but cannot improve, they can eventually be removed from the classroom without years of administrative hearings. Equally important, principals and administrators will no longer be able to gloss and ignore the teacher evaluation process, but must be engaged in giving meaningful evaluations and support to their teaching staff.
It is critical that we see more of this collaboration and willingness to find affirmative solutions from districts and unions around the country - especially here in Los Angeles. As teachers unions and reformers in New Haven, Washington, DC, and elsewhere are showing, the days for excuses and claims that evaluating teachers well is "just too hard" are over. Our children are too important to keep defending what is an indefensible status quo.
