Parent Revolution

Saluting the parents at Lazear Elementary

We believe that parents have the power to enact real change in schools, and perhaps no school reflects that more than the Lazear Elementary in Oakland. The empowering story of parents taking a school district to task by pulling their kids out of school after a teacher, who had accumulated numerous serious complaints but is not being removed from the classroom, can be found here. The teacher was reported to be taking smoke breaks during class, and, as recently as two weeks before the strike, had picked up a child by his collar to reprimand him, leaving bruises around the child’s neck. After a year of complaints and no action, the parents took to the picket line, and demanded that the teacher be removed. Of the 300 students in the school, only 60 arrived for school the day of the strike. And the school district took notice.

Lazear Elementary School has been the site of an attention grabbing education strike before, when in 1995 over 500 students were kept out of class for three weeks to protest the abysmal condition of facilities at the school. The New York Times reports in June of 1995 here.

These Oakland parents are the pioneers of what we are working for today. In 1995, they started a parent revolution. They were tired of bureaucracy, tired of waiting for good educators, and tired of not being heard. And the nation took notice. Olga Gonzalez, a lead organizer in the 2010 campaign, spoke to this at the rally, “When we unite, it's for a good cause. We're not disruptive parents. Our children deserve the best quality of teaching." We couldn’t have said it any better ourselves. Parents are the most powerful vessel for real change in our schools because they are motivated by a single focus, their children. And, just as Olga said, parents will not stop fighting for great education.

This powerful story gives parents everywhere a reason to believe that bureaucracy cannot, and will not, stop education reform in California. The teacher has since been placed on administrative leave, and the parents are satisfied with the results. But Olga Gonzalez and the other protesters wonder why it took such a drastic act to call administrators to action, “"We didn't want to pull our kids out of school. I think this was the only way we were heard.” If we had schools and school districts that were actually created to serve children, parents would never have to pull their kids out of school in order to get an abusive teacher removed from the classroom.

We would like to thank the parents of Lazear Elementary School for being the pioneers of this movement in 1995, and demonstrating its power in 2010.  Ultimately, parents and teachers can and must march together for reform, as they are at Locke High School, Washington DC, and many other locations.  But parents only get one shot are giving our children a great education, and we will do whatever it takes to ensure that they do.

News round-up

In reading the blogs and articles of those fighting to maintain the status quo in our public schools, a common argument arises: teacher evaluations are just too hard and too expensive to possibly implement in LAUSD. However, places like the New Haven are proposing school reform plans that have comprehensive ways to evaluate teachers. Often, opponents of this reform will argue that teachers are universally against evaluations, however, the New Haven Public School system found that 70% of teachers were in favor of an evaluation system.

The system that New Haven would implement is quite comprehensive, and is a real move towards change in teacher evaluation. There is no doubt that teachers like the late Jaime Escalante are rare, but it is possible that these extraordinary teachers can work together to create a school environment that pushes students to improve, and challenges them to succeed. With a rating system that garners rewards, as well as collaboration between administrators and teachers, the New Haven plan succeeds in evaluating teachers in a fair, and balanced way. Those who defend the status quo oppose any kind of education reform on the basis that there is no way to fix the problem, even when there are real solutions.

In other news, many researchers have come out swinging against the Civil Rights Project’s conclusion that students in charter schools are hyper-segregated. You can read the original study here. The detractors find that the data used in the study is flawed, and has fundamental problems with interpretation. The rebuttals can be found here and here.

Cafe Espuelas Live this Sunday

Univision radio host and huge Parent Revolution supporter Fernando Espuelas will be hosting an unscripted, live audience show this Sunday at the Alex Theater in Glendale.  You can find more info here - should be a great event!

CA middle school teacher on seniority-based layoffs

I wanted to share this piece in Teacher Magazine by a California middle school teacher named Heather Wolpert-Gawron, which examines in detail whether a "last hired, last fired" seniority layoff system makes sense for either teachers or children. The whole thing is worth a read - here are a few key excerpts:

It’s spring 2010, and I am no longer called Heather among my peers. Instead I am known by my number: 173. That’s my place on our district’s seniority list.  (...)

I want taking a step back and look at the pros and cons of the seniority issue, and hopefully, with a little more perspective and helpful feedback from you, we can tease apart this Gregorian Knot and answer the most important of questions: “What’s in the best interest of students?”

As many of us know, to indiscriminately cast aside some of our most vibrant and promising teachers—just because they’re the most recently hired—is also a crime. And at a time when teacher quality is under fire, I have to ask, why are we as a profession so hell-bent to maintain a system that may harbor teachers who are of questionable quality, while extinguishing the careers of many who have great potential?

We who work day to day in the schools know that the vast majority of teachers are hard-working, dedicated, and devoted to their profession. But it would be proof of our own inability to see with clarity if we deny the unfortunate truth that there are some teachers in our higher ranks whose time has come to go. We can argue about why they slipped through the safety filters, but there they are, and the List does protect them.

At a time when schools are losing huge numbers of great teachers, every single unfairly protected teacher counts. And watching poorly performing teachers remain protected can chip away at the morale of a staff while also undermining the reputation of the profession.

No capable and dedicated person wants to work in a quality-blind profession, but that’s what’s gradually happening to education.

Much as we might honor the roots of the current system, the cold hard truth is that establishing the vulnerability of a teacher based on seniority alone is bad for students. By disallowing performance as a factor in job security, teachers are being told, in effect, that “professional growth is not really important.” We are shackled by a system set up to reward people based on their hire date, not on their achievements, ability, or effort.

Historic reform union contract in DC

The announcement yesterday of an agreement on a reform union contract between the Washington (DC) Teachers union and Michelle Rhee could go down as a turning point in the arc of public education reform. While it appears to be far from a perfect document, the 103 page contract strikes the sort of deal that the pro-union, pro-reform community has been pushing for years – pay teachers a lot more, provide drastically expanded professional development, and in exchange hold them (and all other adults) accountable for student performance. Per some great write-ups here and here, the key points are as follows:

This is what kids-first, pro-union reform can look like, and those on all sides deserve to be applauded and congratulated for their hard work negotiating this. It is clearly movement in a direction that is good for kids, and has sign-off from Randi Weingarten, head of the 1.4 million member American Federation of Teachers. And while it is far from perfect, it provides a better model than any other large urban district anywhere in the country has been able to create. Now the onus is on other Districts and unions around the country – including here in Los Angeles – to come together and finally build contracts that protects kids as well as teachers. Contracts like this.