This edition of the Notebook NEWSFLASH is also available online at: www.thenotebook.org/newsflash/2004/november
Notebook NEWSFLASH: November 2004
Teacher contract called 'disappointing' for lacking real incentives
Student Success Centers open to address needs of oft-neglected high schoolers
Philadelphia's school partnerships: "Get to know us"
Events
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Education advocates have labeled as “disappointing” a handful of incentives in the newly signed teacher contract designed to counter the inequities in the distribution of skilled teachers that haunt Philadelphia’s hardest-to-staff public schools.
After nine months of negotiations and three deadline extensions, the School District and its teachers’ union signed a new four-year agreement on October 15. They came to terms on such topics as site selection, or school-based selection of teachers, and healthcare benefits. The contract governs the working conditions for the District’s 11,000 teachers and 10,000 other school employees. The agreement allows teachers to largely maintain their current level of benefits, but gives principals, in many instances, final say in teacher selection.
In the past, seniority determined which teachers could transfer into positions in schools that had teacher vacancies. The old system often resulted in the most challenging assignments being left for the least experienced teachers.
But education advocates concerned about teacher quality argue that simply switching to a principal- and school-based hiring arrangement, known as “site selection,” is not sufficient to convince teachers to take on the challenging positions at the District’s high-turnover schools. They lament an absence of targeted incentives they say the contract could have provided to encourage a fairer balance of qualified, experienced teachers throughout the system.
“The incentives we wanted were smaller class size, extra teacher coaches, librarians and reading supports, so that really, the learning environment improves,” said Shelly Yanoff, executive director of Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth. “We wanted site selection, but we never thought site selection by itself would do it.”
About 20 civic and advocacy groups this past spring initiated the Teacher Equity Campaign. They argued, “For far too long, many of our highest-poverty schools with the most difficult working conditions are unable to staff their schools with certified and experienced teachers.”
Aside from the provisions Yanoff mentioned, the group also lobbied to provide hard-to-staff schools with improved teacher transfer policies; additional staff support; mental health and discipline supports and personnel; additional money for classroom supplies; professional development and training opportunities to establish professional culture; reduced work loads and administrative duties; extra planning time; and strategies to “ensure a regular cadre of substitutes.”
But few of these ideas appears in the new contract, based on a summarized “Tentative Agreement” document provided by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, to which observers have been referred to find out the new contract terms. The School District has said the actual contract is not available for public release, citing on-going work by attorneys on both sides to finalize its official language. A District spokesman, in a brief interview at the end of October, said the official, written contract would not be completed for another 10 days.
Along with a shift toward site-based selection of teachers, the new contract counters barriers to staffing the District’s most-difficult-to-staff schools through measures identified under an “Incentive School List.” This list will contain up to 25 schools to be jointly selected by the union and District, according to District officials.
Elizabeth Useem, a senior research consultant at Research for Action, a locally based nonprofit organization engaged in education research and evaluation, said that based on the PFT’s contract summary, “There really are no meaningful incentives. It looks like they just ran out of gas when they got to that section. There really isn’t anything to be a draw to those schools.”
According to the PFT document, teachers working at schools on this Incentive School List can receive tuition reimbursement up to $2,400 a year. Teachers holding a Masters +30 and beyond, can receive the reimbursement or three additional personal leave days a year, which can be placed in a “frozen leave bank” to be paid at retirement or resignation.
At these schools, the new contract also promises:
· to provide “targeted professional development” in dealing
with managing disruptive students;
· to allow teachers who voluntarily transfer into Incentive Schools to
“suffer no loss of building seniority”;
· to set a “goal” to “reduce class size below the School
District’s average class size in comparable buildings.”
But Meg Wise, Director of the Philadelphia Education Fund’s civic engagement activities, noted that on class size, “There’s been no indication from what anyone has seen so far for how they would achieve that.”
Eric Braxton, director of the Philadelphia Student Union and a member of the Teacher Equity Campaign, commented on teacher contract provisions in general, “The trick is, it’s all in implementation. . . . It is not just about getting the right things in the contract, but about how they implement it.”
PFT Vice President Jerry Jordan countered the criticism about a lack of incentives for teachers to work at hard-to-staff schools, saying, “For the first time, there is tuition reimbursement paid to teachers who accept positions in those schools. It is the first time in the history of the contract that teachers have been able to voluntarily transfer into a school and maintain their building seniority . . . . And clearly, reduction of class size is on everybody’s list. It’s at the of top mine and well as teachers’.”
“We agreed site selection was not a magic bullet for any of the schools,” Jordan stressed, “but it was one topic that many groups focused on.”
The teacher transfer policy described in the PFT document allows a “Staff Selection Committee” at every school to provide input on the teachers a school hires. It says the committee would consist of two teachers, a parent member of the Home and School Associationl, an assistant principal (where applicable), and the principal. "The principal will consult with the School Council and/or Home and School Association to establish the teacher parent members," it states. Where no School Council exists, the document adds, a school’s Building Committee can make recommendations. The contract summary states that a school’s Selection Committee should “establish appropriate, objective criteria and procedures to identify candidates for filling vacancies, including maintenance of racial balance.”
That committee will in effect “screen” candidates for that school’s principal, who will make the final decision.
Site selection is to be implemented for all newly hired teachers and for retired teachers returning to service. For “transition schools” -- defined as schools where new grades are added for the first time, middle schools that are converting to high schools, or smaller schools that are separating from a large high school -- site selection will be used for that “transition” year. Newly built schools will be staffed through site selection for the first two years. Finally, in all other schools site selection will apply in 50 percent of vacancies.
The District estimates that principals will have the power to select in 75 percent to 80 percent of all teacher-hiring instances.
Yanoff echoed the comments of many observers – both expert and non-expert -- in saying, “We are concerned with how this will work.”
Both District and union officials note that incentives to work in hard-to-staff schools could be provided outside the framework of the contract. That was certainly the case in 2001, when the District started offering cash incentives of a few thousand dollars for teachers to work in some schools and subject areas where there were shortages.
But generally deemed ineffective, those cash bonuses will conclude at the end of this school year, according to District spokesperson Joseph Lyons.
The Student Union’s Braxton argued that cash incentives hold less influence in attracting quality teachers than do improved working conditions. “A lot of teachers say, ‘You can’t pay me to work in those schools,’” he explained.
Some examples of what does work were provided in a Research for Action research brief titled, “Philadelphia’s Teacher Hiring and School Assignment Practices: Comparisons with Other Districts.”
Among the districts Research for Action cited for having seemingly effective incentives was Charlotte-Mecklenberg. In 52 selected schools, that district offered smaller class sizes, teacher bonuses of $1,500 to $2,500, additional materials and supplies for the classroom, and reimbursement for teacher tuition costs incurred in getting a master’s degree. It said teachers cited the master’s degree tuition reimbursement as the most popular of those incentives.
Research for Action also pointed to the key issue of hiring timelines, citing a 2003 New Teacher Project report that it said “highlighted the fact that the longer districts take to hire, the more likely they are to lose strong candidates and to start the school year under more chaotic conditions.”
To improve its chances of snagging high-quality candidates before competing school systems, School Reform Commission Chairman Jim Nevels said in an interview, that the terms of the new contract allow the District to move up its hiring process.
However, observers said they remain unsure of how much the District’s disadvantaged hiring timeline will improve, as the deadline for teacher transfer applications is to be July 1. Transfer placements were still being made up until that date last summer, thus still taking the District into mid-summer before it could identify its new teacher needs.
Contact Notebook staff writer Sheila Simmons at 215-951-0330 x156
or sheilas@thenotebook.org.
Simon Gratz High School’s guidance counselor bears a caseload of some 600 students, to whom she is assigned to help with college applications, roster concerns, work permits, counseling referrals, and much more.
If that workload seems a bit heavy, then Simon Gratz Principal Delores Williams has made her point, in explaining the creation of the school’s “Student Success Center.”
Standing outside what had previously been known as Room 217, Williams says of the new Center, “It’s a good resource and a concept that’s long overdue.”
The concept was presented two years ago by the activist group Philadelphia Student Union. It had initially sought centers for the four local high schools in which it had a Student Union chapter. Ultimately, the District decided on a total of 10 schools to house Centers. The other nine are Overbrook, Kensington, West Philadelphia, University City, Bartram, Frankford, Franklin, Penn and Edison High Schools.
The centers were a response to findings from a Student Union survey:
· 68 percent of students said no one in school supports them with personal
problems, and,
· 43 percent of students from neighborhood high schools reported that
they had never met with their counselor.
“This lack of attention,” the Student Union argued, “contributes significantly to students dropping out of school.” The group noted that in some schools, the guidance counselor-to-student radio is 1 to 1,200.
Student Union Executive Director Eric Braxton, on hand for the Gratz opening, noted that the Student Union and Success Center organizers were “pleased” the Centers were starting up, but stressed that there is “still a lot of work” to be done.
Organizers visualized “a place where someone can come with a problem, whether in school or out of school,” Braxton said.
Each school’s Center – three of which opened last school year, with others opening this fall or later in the year – is unique in its offerings. Each school provides a dedicated room, while the School District equips each Center with a conference area, computers for researching college and financial aid, and cubicles for both professional staff and student-led programs, such as student government. Professional staff comes from such programs as the Philadelphia Youth Network, the Philadelphia Education Fund’s College Access Program, and the School District’s GEAR UP Program.
Schools chosen for a Success Center either had a Student Union chapter already in place, or the school was a large, comprehensive high school that had available funding sources, such as the GEAR UP program, according to Courtney Collins-Shapiro, assistant director of the District’s Office of College & Career Awareness.
At its Nov. 10 meeting, the School Reform Commission is expected to approve a $411,000 contract with Resources for Change, for what Braxton considers the most important component of the Centers – professional social workers. When approved, the contract will provide for seven full-time social workers -- who will provide full-time coverage in five centers and part-time coverage in the remaining five. The funds will also provide for five University of Pennsylvania social work interns.
Meanwhile, each school’s own students assist in such services as peer
mediation.
Gratz’s Student Success Center dons colorful bulletin boards containing
college pamphlets, financial aid materials, and job information. It includes
a College Access Program,
an Education-to-Career coordinator, a master’s-level social worker, and
a member of the Devereaux Community Services of Philadelphia, to help with behavioral
health and social services.
Gratz’s Success Center has already shown one sign of success. Although
it officially opened October 18, since its unofficial launch at the beginning
of the year, up to 50 students a day have taken advantage of it, according to
Gratz Student Government President Johnny Patterson.
Some school districts for years have bragged about the outside partners they have secured to enhance educational resources. But partnering with universities, nonprofits, and for-profit companies to actually manage dozens of a district’s schools is a new distinction for which Philadelphia last month offered up itself as a national model.
In cooperation with the U.S. Department of Education, the School District of Philadelphia hosted a two-day conference at Drexel University called “Innovations in education: building a public/private partnership model for K-12 reform.”
The conference spotlighted both high-profile District partners like Microsoft and the role of education management companies. Workshops addressed university partnerships, corporate partnerships, foundation partnerships, and the role of city government and community stakeholders in partnership development.
A “partnership fair” allowed attendees to collect materials from 26 participating organizations – including school managers like Edison and Community Education Partners, university-based initiatives like a behavioral support program run by Arcadia University, and educational consulting firms like SchoolWorks, which is supporting the development of a school accountability system here. Most of these partners are being paid by the District for their services.
Out-of-town attendees not affiliated with a current partner were hard to find at the conference, making the event, in one skeptic’s view, “a kind of internal pep rally.”
The commendations culminated with a keynote address by President Bush’s Secretary of Education, Rod Paige. To a packed crowd that included many District administrators, he said, “The powerful partnership you have in Philadelphia is a model for many other cities . . . .You are a powerful catalyst for education reform.”
“It’s premature to make claims about success” with these initiatives, commented conference observer Sukey Blanc, senior researcher at Research for Action, a local education nonprofit which is evaluating Philadelphia's school reforms. "We don't know yet whether it's going to end up building the capacity of the District, or whether it's going to improve student learning," she explained.
Interviewed after the conference, Martha E. Barratt, chair of the Duval County School Board in Jacksonville, Florida, seemed impressed but unsure of how the information she obtained could apply to her school system. “We were looking for how best to form partnerships for the private/public sector. In reality, [the conference focus] was partnerships as far as [running] schools, which we don’t do here,” she commented about her District.
Duval County is more typical of school systems in what it means by “partnerships.” Arrangements are generally far less sweeping than the outsourcing of school management at place in 45 schools in Philadelphia. Partnerships are also often more supportive than managerial and contractual in nature.
Seemingly closest to Philadelphia’s outsourcing arrangement is Chicago’s proposed “Renaissance 2010” a project that aims for 100 new schools to be launched by Chicago Public Schools in the next six years, with most to be run by outside managers or as charter schools. Recent news reports have begun documenting the project’s rocky start.
No Chicago education officials were observed to be in attendance at the partnership conference.
Several attendees also noted the absence of community participants and labor
unions at the partnership conference. School District representatives stressed
that the teachers’ union had been invited but pointed to teacher contract
negotiations to explain the absence.
November 4: “A Moral-Religious Argument for Tax Reform. University of Alabama Law School professor Susan Pace Hamil shares her account of how Alabama’s governor came to propose progressive tax reform benefiting schools and other services. 7:30 p.m. Bryn Mawr College, Thomas Great Hall. Sponsored by Good Schools Pennsylvania.
November 9: “Report Card on West Philadelphia Public Schools.” University of Pennsylvania, 5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m., Stilerer Hall B6, 208 S. 37th St. Sponsored by West Philadelphia Tutoring Project and Civic House, the undergraduate hub for community service and social advocacy work at Penn.
November 10: School Reform Commission Meeting. 1 p.m., School District of Philadelphia, 2120 Winter Street, 2nd floor Auditorium. To register to speak, call 215-299-7850 by 4:30 p.m. the day before the meeting.
November 11: Hip Hop in the Classroom IV. 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., Honickman Learning Center & Comcast Technology Labs, 1936 N. Judson St. Art Sanctuary curator James ‘True’ Peterson, of the University of Pennsylvania, will lead this teacher workshop and professional development opportunity on how to adopt hip hop for the classroom. The scholars will present ethnographies, music, film, curricula, syllabi, and various pedagogical strategies that reveal the educational potential of multimedia platforms and technologies. Registration: $50. To register, contact Christopher Thompson at 215-232-4485 or email cthompson@artsanctuary.org
November 17: School Reform Commission Meeting. 1 p.m., School
District of Philadelphia, 2120 Winter Street, 2nd floor Auditorium. To register
to speak, call 215-299-7850 by 4:30 p.m. the day before the meeting.
November 19: Go Global Hip Hop Beats, Rhymes and Resistance: Asian-Americans
in Hip Hop. Sponsored by Art Sanctuary, 10 a.m., Church of the Advocate, 1801
Diamond St. Event includes film screening, panel discussion, Q&A, concert,
and promotional give-aways. Fee: $5 per student. To help prepare students for
the school matinee, a downloadable teachers’ packet is available at www.artsanctuary.org.
Teachers can reserve their space by contacting Education Coordinator Christopher
Thompson, 215-232-4485 or cthompson@artsanctuary.org.
School Calendar
November 4, 5: Approval for Supplemental Educational Services sent to parents. These free tutoring services are designed to increase the academic achievement of eligible students in eligible schools. For information, call 215-299-2525.
November 8: Supplemental Educational Services begin. For information, call 215-299-2525.
November 8 – 12: High School Benchmark test Week. Students test their mastery of math and reading lessons covered in this school cycle.
November 11: Veteran’s Day. Schools closed.
November 19: Last day for transfer application process for student placement September 2005. For information, contact the Office of Student Placement, 215-299-7672 or 215-299-3693.
November 25, 26: Schools closed for Thanksgiving.
November 29: First high school report cards issued.
November 30: Benchmark test for grades 3 – 8. Students test their mastery of math and reading lessons covered in this school cycle.
November 30: Last day for “Return to Neighborhood Schools”
transfer applications for high school students for 2004 – 05.
For information, contact the Office
of Student Placement, 215-299-7672 or 299-3693.
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