|
4401-A
Connecticut Avenue, Box 294, Washington, DC
20008
Tel: (202) 244-7535, Fax: (202) 244-7584
|
Education Exchange
Volume 3, Issue 12 -- December
1999
|
Focusing on
Education Reforms at Your School, in Your State
Legislature, and in Congress
|
California
on Front Lines Concerning Charter School Bargaining
New legislation approved in October by Governor Gray
Davis threatens the way charter schools have been conducting
business in California. After their legislative proposal to
require collective bargaining in charter schools failed,
California teacher unions successfully lobbied for Assembly
Bill 631, a compromise almost as egregious.
A.B. 631 affects new and existing charter schools. Before
new applications to operate as a charter school will be
approved, the charter board must decide whether 1) to be an
independent public employer, or 2) to be subject to the
district's collective bargaining negotiations with the
incumbent employee unions. With well over 250,000 members,
the teacher union likely to capture the most additional
members will be the California Teachers Association -- the
NEA affiliate.
Similarly, California's 264 existing charter school
boards must choose one of these options by March 31, 2000.
By becoming part of the charter school's sponsoring
district, the charter school employees will be governed by
whatever collective bargaining situations exist in the
district. The California public employee unions (CTA, CFT,
CSEA, SEIU, etc.) are already trying to convince charter
school boards to select this option. For many charter school
boards and employees, unionization will diminish the
flexibility the charter school has that is not permitted in
teacher union/school district contracts.
Under A.B. 631, a charter board could declare itself to
be an independent public employer. In this case, its charter
school employees could decide whether or not to engage in
collective bargaining. Either option presents difficult
problems.
By declaring itself independent from the chartering
school district's collective bargaining process, the charter
board and its employees face a host of questions. How will
the board and its employees resist the constant pressure
from the established unions to accept unionization? Who will
pay for the opposition to unionize? Will the CTA bargain for
provisions that will penalize veteran teachers now teaching
in charter schools? How will affiliation with the CTA (or
for that matter the California Federation of Teachers or
other public employee unions) negate the collaborative
employer/employee arrangements of charter schools? How much
time and distraction will these disputes cause for teachers
and the 113,000 students in charter schools in the state?
There are no easy answers, and the consequences are
likely to have long-term effects. Certainly, the CTA's 150
political operatives (UniServ directors) will pressure the
charter school employees to pay the $523 state and national
dues, plus local dues, as CTA/NEA members do. Virtually no
one doubts that acceptance of conventional unionization will
adversely affect the employment relationships within the
charter school communities.
Although the California Network of Educational Charters
(CANEC), the Charter School Development Center, and several
other organizations, are providing advice on how to proceed,
what the charter school employees really need are more
choices.
Charter school employees could benefit from an
organization that could craft a working agreement with the
charter boards, in keeping with the spirit of independence
and collaboration that make charter schools unique.
Furthermore, a new organization should avoid the political
baggage the other public employee unions now carry. Finally,
membership dues could be reduced significantly. Dues should
be sufficient to provide quality representation in contract
negotiations and administration, adequate liability
insurance coverage, access to legal services, and other
services for charter school employees, but need not fund a
state or national union.
A.B. 631 is another piece of legislation protecting the
teacher unions by stifling innovation in charter schools.
Although A.B. 631 allegedly protects the employees in
charter schools, California's huge school district unions,
not charter school employees, lobbied intensively for it.
Again, the impact of A.B. 631 on the education of children
was not part of the debate.
Regardless of their public relations claims, the benefits
to unions, not to teachers or children, were incentives for
A.B. 631.
Family
Friendly Schools Offers New Concept for Parent
Involvement
At last &endash; an out-of-the-box thinker has tackled
some of the basic issues in the nebulous parent involvement
chant in education! Steve Constantino, principal at
Stonewall Jackson High School in Manassas, Virginia shared
his concept of parent involvement at the December meeting of
the National Coalition of Parent Involvement in Education
(NCPIE). Too many current programs masquerading as parent
involvement efforts are designed to do things FOR kids.
Critical of such programs, Constantino said his Family
Friendly Schools concept works because it emphasizes
working WITH kids, parents, and staff to improve student
academic achievement.
Family Friendly Schools begins with the
premise that relationships between the 1) student, and his
or her peers, 2) family, 3) community, and 4) school greatly
influence academic achievement. Constantino explained his
concept by using a series of contrasts in each of the four
groups, all of which affect student achievement.
Students are either involved or uninvolved; they are
engaged in their class work, belong to the chess club,
participate in sports, band, or debate or they float through
their classes and immediately leave school for the nearest
mall after the final bell. Those who are involved outperform
those who are not.
To encourage more student involvement, he encourages
teachers to be more caring and communicative. He trains
teachers to use the extensive telecommunications systems now
in his school to help achieve this goal.
Families want to be a part of their child's education
experience; however, many factors keep them from becoming
engaged in it. According to Constantino, one back-to-school
night just doesn't meet the criteria for involvement and, in
fact, ignores the needs of many parents.
He advocates consideration for families without
transportation. His school now sends a bus to transport
families to Stonewall Jackson High School for parent
meetings and activities. Some Latino families receive school
news through church bulletins that encourage parents to talk
with their children about upcoming class work and
activities.
Constantino also recommends extensive training for
parents who wish to become part of a school's on-site team,
so the team can be effective, not just exist in name only.
Negative school news passes quickly through communities
that often have no idea about what's really happening in the
school. Family Friendly Schools encourages
"real partnerships" with community businesses, where
individuals actually come into the school to mentor or tutor
students and actively participate in ways to understand what
the school is all about.
To promote high academic achievement, the school and
school staff must achieve a balance between challenging
academics and cocurricular programs. Again suggesting that
parents should take advantage of technology-friendly
options, Constantino points out that parents and the
students are less likely to be ignored if the research paper
is not in, if the student has been absent, or if excessive
tardiness prevails. Constantino encourages school staff to
contact parents with positive as well as negative messages,
cautioning that only negative messages may be
business-as-usual.
LEAP &endash; Linking Education and Parents -- is an
especially innovative program to link the school, parents,
and students. For a small stipend, classroom teachers teach
a series of programs intended to help families help their
children. Classes are available to explain the techniques of
writing a good paper, understanding algebra, and the basics
of other subjects. When parents sign up for the programs,
the staff and parents can achieve a rapport that benefits
the students.
Constantino suggests that school cocurricular programs
should be more family friendly and more cordial to more
students. Less student alienation is another goal of the
program.
Unlike the goals of the majority of so-called parent
organizations, Family Friendly Schools, as envisioned by
Constantino, certainly has the potential to raise student
achievement. Take a look at
http://www.familyfriendlyschools.org
sometime soon.
New Magazine
Created to Address PTO Issues
PTOtoday is the brainchild of entrepreneur Tim Sullivan,
a former educator from New York City, now living in
Massachusetts. With a bimonthly production schedule during
the 10-month school year, this new magazine, which is
currently regional to New England, is distributed to more
than 4,100 parent group presidents. It's inaugural issue was
released in September/October 1999, with articles on the
difference between PTAs and PTOs, fundraising ideas, and
local stories of PTO successes.
PTOtoday's companion website, ptotoday.com, provides an
interactive discussion forum in addition to the same
articles found in the hardcopy magazine. Sullivan notes that
"we're also developing a series of 'PTO Shows' to bring PTO
leaders together for in-person networking and learning."
INTASC
Promotes Standards-based Reform for State Licensing of
Teacher Candidates
The Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support
Consortium (INTASC) is a 12-year-old organization whose
primary constituency is state education agencies responsible
for teacher licensing and professional development. INTASC
Senior Project Associate Kathleen Paliokas explained that it
is based on the same framework as the National Board for
Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS).
NBPTS, however, targets individual teachers with three or
more years of professional experience for "professional"
certification, while INTASC deals only with the agencies and
state organizations preparing to license new teachers.
The assessments utilized by INTASC, like the NBPTS
counterparts, are comprised of a variety of portfolio
entries, taped lessons, and lesson plans.
Whereas, the final six-hour test NBPTS candidates must
take determines whether or not they receive the desired
"master teacher" status, INTASC candidates final test
consists of portfolio entries after they have begun
teaching.
Prospective teachers must pass tests of teaching
principles and subject matter in order to receive a
"provisional" license prior to beginning a classroom
assignment. Then, sometime during the first three years of
teaching, the teacher must pass the portfolio assessment to
receive a "permanent" license.
Currently, model licensing standards have been completed
for math, English language arts, and science. The
development process continues for elementary education,
social studies, special education, and the arts. Most are
expected to be complete by the summer of 2000.
Like the NBPTS, much of the work underway at INTASC is
being underwritten by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
New York
Psychologists Association Affiliates with American
Federation of Teachers
In the recent affiliation between the New York state
affiliate of the American Psychological Association and
AFT/AFL-CIO, some surprises emerge. One is that other school
employees and nurses in the AFT do not seem to care that the
AFT is associated with an organization that has given the
appearance of approving pedophilia.
Along with poultry workers, shipyard workers, drivers and
dispatchers, teachers, nurses, and other employees, 3,200
New York psychologists are now members of the AFL-CIO. More
specifically, the psychologists, members of the New York
State Psychological Association, have become associate
members of the American Federation of Teachers.
According to published reports, as associate members, the
psychologists will pay just over $14 each or $46,000 during
the first year of their AFT affiliation. Affiliation is
expected to benefit the psychologists by tapping into the
political clout of the 13-million member AFL-CIO as well as
the formidable clout of the AFT. The fact that associate
members cannot vote in union elections did not seem to be a
deterrent. However, union health insurance and legal
services will be available to associate members.
The AFT expects to sign up an additional 7,000
psychologists in New York who are not yet members; AFT
intends to target psychologists in other states as well. In
making the announcement, the executive director of the
Psychological Association said that its relationship with
the AFT will provide leverage that can come with teaming up
with the 430,000 members of the New York State United
Teachers, the AFT affiliate.
Psychologists are particularly concerned that the number
of visits allowed and paid for under government and/or
managed-care programs not be capped. The AFT strongly
supports legislation that does not restrict government
payments for medical care.
A quick review of the record indicates that the American
Psychological Association, of which the New York state group
is a part does not appear needful of a more powerful
mouthpiece. It received $4.78 million in federal grants last
year alone, most of them extending over more than one year.
In addition, the National Institutes of Health has provided
support to the APA for over a decade. The federal government
has heard APA's pleas, and so have others who fund APA's
$77.63 million annual budget.
As for being heard in public, the APA made a splash in
July 1998 when its Psychological Bulletin published an
article that seemed to condone pedophilia. "A Meta-Analytic
Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse
Using College Samples" argues that the negative potential of
sexual abuse has been overstated. Child sex abuse, they
contended, actually encompasses a wide range of behavior
best described with value neutral terms, according to
reporter Evan Gahr.
The APA has long supported unrestricted abortion rights,
gay rights, and strict affirmative action measures.
Readers are advised to take note of this association; EPI
will update you on this matter from time to time.
EPI's
Education Quick Facts
- The number of foreign students enrolled at U.S.
colleges and universities rose 2 percent in 1998-99, to
491,000. China led all countries with 51,000 students in
the United States. Japan was second with 47,000 students,
and South Korea was third with 43,000. A growing number
of foreign students spend their first two years at U.S.
community colleges. (Source: Los Angeles Times, December
6, 1999)
- The NEA's legislative agenda is 15 times larger ($906
billion) than the average agenda of Members of the 105th
Congress. Only 22 Senators and Representatives in the
105th Congress recorded agenda totals over $600 billion
and of these, only three Members came within $300 billion
of the NEA agenda. (Source: Capital Ideas, National
Taxpayers Union Foundation, November/December 1999)
- The top three states in numbers of National Board
Certified Teachers (NBCT) are Florida, North Carolina and
Mississippi. With the addition of 2,965 1999 NBCTs, 4,799
teachers have received certification from the National
Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). So
far, 6,500 candidates have applied for certification in
the 1999-2000 school year. (Source: School Board News,
December 7, 1999 and NASBE News, December 13, 1999)
- Only 64% of school districts and 61% of postsecondary
institutions said, in response to two national follow-up
surveys on American education's Y2K readiness sponsored
by the U.S. Department of Education, that all their
mission critical systems are Y2K compliant. (Source: The
Education Industry Report, December 1999)
Copyright 1999
Education Policy Institute, PMB 294, 4401-A Connecticut
Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20008-2322 202/244-7535, Fax
202/244-7584 http://www.educationpolicy.org
|
