Randi
Weingarten, president of the AFT, gave the following speech at the
National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on January 9:
Eight
years ago, I spoke at the Press Club as the newly elected AFT President. At
that time, President Obama was inheriting the worst economic crisis since the
Great Depression. America was losing 750,000 jobs a month.
President-elect Trump will inherit a different economy, one that has added an average of 200,000 jobs every month for a
record 75 straight months. While we still have a long way to go to combat
social and economic inequality—and to address the effects of
deindustrialization, globalization and automation, it’s wrong not to
acknowledge the real progress of the last eight years.
Today
we face a very different crisis. Voters have lost confidence in our
institutions, and that confidence is lowered still by the distorted reality
created by fake news. Our country is intensely polarized. And for the second
time this century, more Americans – nearly 3 million more, in the case of
Secretary Clinton—voted for a candidate who will not be their president.
So
what can we do to address, head on, the deep anger and distrust so many
Americans feel?
I
believe–
...whether
one wants a less polarized environment…
…whether
one wants a skilled workforce and more middle class jobs…
…whether
one wants pluralism and democracy…
…whether
one wants diversity and tolerance…
…or
whether one just wants children to thrive and be joyful…
—the
answer always starts with a powerful, purposeful public education.
The End of the Education Wars
And
we have the opportunity to provide that education. After years of education
being a battleground; after No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top and the
tyranny of testing; Congress and the country, Republicans and Democrats alike,
took on and moved past the education wars.
I
was in the Senate gallery in December 2015 listening to Senator Lamar Alexander
and Senator Patty Murray, two folks who don’t often agree, agree about what was
needed: pass the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA. Senator Alexander, who
marveled at the remarkable consensus around ESSA, said at the time: “We have
created an environment that I believe will unleash a flood of excellence in
student achievement, state by state and community by community.”
Eighty-five
senators, 359 Representatives, the National Governors Association, the Council
of Chief State School Officers, the School Superintendents Association, civil
rights groups, many parents across the country including the PTA, our brothers
and sisters in the NEA, and the people I represent in the AFT, cheered what
President Obama called a Christmas miracle.
So,
despite the extraordinary political divisions in the country, and after the
damaging failures of policies like NCLB, we finally reached a strong bipartisan
consensus on a way forward to improve public education in America.
The AFT worked hard to shift the focus away from testing back to teaching, to
push school decision-making back to states and communities, and to direct
federal funds to the public schools that educate the kids who need the most.
That
consensus- that fundamental reform of education policy is why K-12 education—as
important as it is—wasn’t a major issue in the presidential campaign, the
subject of not one debate question.
Well,
it’s becoming an issue now. On Wednesday, the Senate Education Committee
will hold its first hearing to consider Betsy DeVos’ nomination.
Instead
of nominating an education secretary who sees her mission as strengthening
public schools and implementing the blueprint Democrats and Republicans crafted
and cheered, Donald Trump has decided to ignore the will of the people and has
chosen the most anti-public education nominee in the history of the
department. Betsy DeVos lacks the qualifications and experience to serve
as secretary of education. Her drive to privatize education is demonstrably
destructive to public schools and to the educational success of all of our
children.
If
DeVos is confirmed; if she shatters this hard-won consensus; if she reignites
the education wars it will demonstrate, that her ultimate goal is to undermine
public schools. The schools that 90 percent of American children attend. It
should come as no surprise that we are steadfast in opposing her nomination,
and equally steadfast in our continuing work to advance reforms that will make
a positive difference in the lives and success of children.
The Purpose of Public Education
Obviously,
not all schools work as well as we’d like. Many “failing” schools have
themselves been failed—by flawed policies, budget cuts, and a tacit acceptance
of inequality. When parents send their children somewhere other than the local
public school, it’s not because they believe the private market is the best way
to deliver education or that their child will benefit from a longer bus ride.
It’s most often because their local school is underresourced, is not safe
enough or is otherwise struggling.
It’s
our obligation, as a society, to provide all families with access to great
neighborhood public schools—in every neighborhood in America. This must be a
viable choice.
So
how do we accomplish this?
In
a world with more bullying and less tolerance, it starts by providing a safe,
welcoming environment. This is not just a nice sentiment—there is a growing
body of research showing the connection between a supportive school environment
and student achievement.
And
instead of fixating on tests—we must fixate on the whole child. Educating the
whole child is not based on sanctions—it’s rooted in joy. And while technology
is important, the goal of education is not digital, it’s personal. It’s not
for-profit—it’s equitably funded. And it’s not one-size-fits-all—it meets
students’ individual needs and aspirations.
Just
as we came together to transform federal education policy, it’s time–guided by
our innovation, our experience and our collective wisdom of what works, to work
together to build that system of great neighborhood public schools. That rests
on four pillars: promoting children’s well-being,
supporting powerful learning, building teacher capacity, and fostering cultures
of collaboration.
Promoting Children’s Well-Being
Let’s
start with children’s well-being. We need to meet kids where they are, and that
means recognizing that fully half of all public-school students live in
poverty. The many effects of poverty—hunger, toxic stress, and untreated
medical conditions are terrible in and of themselves, but they also hurt
children’s ability to learn and thrive. Poverty is not an excuse for low
expectations; it is a reality that must be acknowledged and confronted.
Educators
and community partners are taking steps to meaningfully address the effects of
poverty.
Community
schools, like the Community Health Academy of the Heights, or CHAH, help meet
students’ physical, emotional and social needs—needs that left unmet, are
barriers to learning. CHAH is located in northern Manhattan. Nearly all of its
650 students live in poverty. Nearly one-third are English language learners.
CHAH
provides vision screening for every student and free glasses to the nearly 200
who need them. Think about that. Kids were struggling to learn because they had
headaches, or couldn’t see the board. What they needed were glasses.
CHAH
stays open until 9:30 at night to offer adults GED and ESL classes, as well
physical fitness and health classes. CHAH has a food pantry and a parent
resource center. And it offers a full-service community clinic, with more than
6,000 enrolled members.
All
245 middle schoolers receive annual mental health screenings. Students also
have access to social workers and a full-time psychologist.
All
of this bolsters student achievement. CHAH reduced the number students reading
at level 1, the lowest level, by 37 percent between 2013 and 2016. During that
same period, the percentage of students reading at the highest levels rose 24
percent.
CHAH
proves that great results are possible when you focus on the well-being of the
child, the child’s family and the child’s community. And this is not an
isolated example; schools in Austin, Cincinnati and dozens of other communities
have taken similar approaches with similar results. And that allows teachers
and their kids to focus on the second pillar: powerful learning.
Engaging in Powerful Learning
We
set high expectations for our public schools, as we should—to develop students
academically, prepare young people for work, equip them to be good citizens,
and enable them to lead fulfilling lives. None of this is accomplished by
requiring students to memorize information and regurgitate it on standardized
tests.
It’s
about powerful learning; learning that engages students and inspires them to
tackle complex concepts and difficult material. Students learn when they
collaborate in teams on innovative projects. They learn when they are
interested and excited, when they are exposed to music and art, theater and
robotics. They learn in environments that are safe and welcoming, with
restorative justice practices that encourage responsibility and reduce discriminatory
discipline. They learn in environments that cultivate critical thinking,
collaboration, creativity, and joy. They learn when class sizes are small
enough to do all this.
The
effects of powerful learning aren’t revealed by a test score. They’re evident
in student engagement and confidence. They’re evident in the skills and
knowledge students demonstrate on real-world assessments. They’re evident in
how well students are prepared to thrive in a challenging, changing world.
Powerful
learning is achievable and sustainable. One way is through project-based
instruction. That’s when kids take on a long-term, real-life problem. They
investigate. They strategize. They share responsibility. And they build
resilience, initiative, and agility.
That’s
also what happens in David Sherrin’s international law class at Harvest
Collegiate High School, in New York City. Students don’t just memorize facts.
They select defendants, choose witnesses, write affidavits and create exhibits.
And the grand finale: they go to a Brooklyn courthouse and hold a mock trial of
a perpetrator of the Rwandan genocide. That’s powerful learning.
Another
area where we see such powerful learning is in career and technical education,
or CTE.
While
campaigning, Donald Trump said, “vocational training is a great thing—we don’t
do it anymore!”[i]
Actually,
Donald, we do. And we’ve been fighting for over a decade to do even more.
Take the Toledo Technology
Academy, in Ohio, where students are offered a chance to develop their STEM
skills with local businesses, including a little outfit called General Motors.
The director of manufacturing at GM said of TTA students, “they do as well as
interns we bring in from places like Purdue and the University of Michigan.”
The AFT has devoted resources to
incubate even more CTE programs across the country. Whether it’s connecting
students with Peoria businesses to secure internships or partnering with Pittsburgh’s
fire, police and EMS services to train high school students, CTE is part of the DNA of the
AFT.
We’re glad the president-elect
shares our desire to expand this work.
Building Capacity
Focusing on well-being and
powerful learning gives our kids what they need most. But we can’t achieve
powerful learning without a powerful conduit—their teacher.
We know how much teachers do to
help children reach their potential. But what about helping teachers reach their full potential? That’s why building capacity
is our third pillar.
Becoming an accomplished teacher
takes time and support. And dignity and respect. Building teachers’ capacity
begins long before they take charge of their own classrooms, and it should
never end.
Take the San Francisco Teacher
Residency program. Teachers in San Francisco’s highest- need schools start with
a year-long residency alongside an accomplished teacher. The program has led to
higher teacher retention and a diverse teaching corps reflective of the
community it serves.
In Meriden, Connecticut, support
never stops. They’ve got everything, from a New Teacher Induction Program for
the rookies to the Meriden Teachers Sharing Success program for veterans.
Students benefit from this
investment in their teachers. The district has seen a 62 percent decline in
suspensions and an 89 percent decline in expulsions. And Meriden beats
Connecticut’s average growth on the state English and math tests.
Building capacity is a shared
responsibility. And unions are a crucial partner. AFT
locals use their advocacy and collective bargaining to help teachers
continuously hone their craft and build our profession. And a recent study
found that highly-unionized districts have more rigorous and robust tenure processes.[ii]
Speaking of tenure, the AFT has
worked with willing partners to ensure it is neither a cloak for incompetence
nor an excuse for principals not to manage—but a guarantee of fairness and due process.
With the recent surge in bigotry and hate, a teachers’ ability to stand up for
her students and herself is more important than ever.
Far from being against evaluations, the AFT has fought for evaluation systems that support both teacher growth and student learning. With our Innovation Fund and a federal grant, 11 AFT locals and their districts took a hard look at evaluation. We learned that evaluation systems built through labor-management partnerships, that center on growth and improvement instead of punishment, consistently benefit students. That’s why we fought for ESSA to end federally-mandated, test-driven evaluation. And that’s why we support locally-driven evaluations with multiple, meaningful measures.
Far from being against evaluations, the AFT has fought for evaluation systems that support both teacher growth and student learning. With our Innovation Fund and a federal grant, 11 AFT locals and their districts took a hard look at evaluation. We learned that evaluation systems built through labor-management partnerships, that center on growth and improvement instead of punishment, consistently benefit students. That’s why we fought for ESSA to end federally-mandated, test-driven evaluation. And that’s why we support locally-driven evaluations with multiple, meaningful measures.
Fostering Collaboration
and Community Collaboration
And the glue that binds
everything else together is the fourth pillar: collaboration.
Rather than fix and fund
struggling schools, too often in the last two decades, the response has been to
privatize, to pauperize, to disrupt. Let’s be clear: In the wealthiest country
in the world, 23 states still spend less on K12 education than they did before
the 2008 recession. “Disruption” may be in vogue in business schools, but
disrupting—rather than fixing– struggling schools has come to mean mass
firings, school closures, and district or state takeovers.
These approaches are disruptive
alright, but they are not effective–especially when it comes to improving
student outcomes. As the president of a teachers union and the former president
of the largest local union in the world, I can attest that, in education, if
you set out looking for a fight, you’ll find one. But you probably won’t find a
solution.
You don’t hear as much about the
many quiet successes that result from educators and administrators working
together to improve student achievement and well-being.
In the southern suburbs of Los
Angeles, the ABC Unified School District and its teacher union have an
intentional and purposeful collaboration to improve their schools. District
personnel are paired with a union counterpart. They meet frequently, attend
trainings together and hold an annual retreat. When there is a decision to be
made—they make it collaboratively.
The results speak for themselves.
ABC Unified performed better than the state as a whole, with Latino students,
African-American students and students from low-income families performing much
better than their counterparts in the state. Again, this is not isolated. A
2015 study of more than 300 Miami-Dade public schools found that high-quality
teacher collaboration—giving teachers the time and space to work with each
other—increased student achievement.[iii]
And
we need to collaborate more broadly: the entire school community: with
teachers, paraprofessionals, school counselors, bus drivers, school nurses and
administrators; schools with parents; schools with community partners. Parents
and students must see neighborhood public schools as their schools. That means creating environments
that respect and value their voice and input rather than discourage them.
A
great example is Chicago’s Parent Mentor Program, through which parents are
trained to help out in overcrowded classrooms to work with struggling students
one-on-one. Parents learn how to help not only their child but all the children
in the community.
So
too are parent-teacher home visit programs, such as those in Baltimore and St.
Paul. Teachers visit students’ families at the beginning of the school year and
again later on, to talk about the family’s hopes and dreams for their child,
and share any concerns or questions. Results include increased parent
involvement in school life, more positive behavioral outcomes, and increased
student achievement. And teachers report greater job satisfaction.
Encouraging
this kind of partnership is why the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools—AROS—was
formed. AROS is a national alliance of parents, young people, community and
labor organizations including the AFT and many of our locals, fighting to
reclaim the promise of public education as the gateway to a strong democracy
and racial and economic justice.
On
January 19, AROS will mobilize tens of thousands of people in hundreds of
communities to protect our students from the bigotry and hatred that have been
unleashed in this incendiary period. We will stand up for our Dreamers and
other youth fearful of deportation. And we will stand up for strong public
schools and the very institution of public education.
ESSA: The New Education Federalism
When
you see a neighborhood public school that’s working anywhere in the country,
you see these four pillars I’ve described. They’re not one-size-fits-all;
they’re tailored to different communities and needs. And they’re not a magic
elixir—they need to be funded and supported. One thing they don’t need is a
change in federal law—that already happened with ESSA. ESSA creates the
potential to put these pillars in place, although it doesn’t guarantee it.
The
frontier in education has moved from Washington to state capitols, districts
and school communities. This doesn’t mean that the federal government has no
role. We still need it to promote equity by funding schools that serve
disadvantaged children and protecting the civil rights of all children, still
vitally important 60 years after the landmark Brown decision.
But
ESSA quelled the education wars, and enabled our shared attention to turn to
what works… collaboration… and capacity building… and powerful learning… and
the well-being of all children. Practical concepts that are scalable and
sustainable. That Republicans and Democrats can support. And that red states
and blue states, rural, suburban, and urban schools can implement with the
right investment and management.
One
speech cannot encompass everything we need to do for children, families and
communities. We need to fight for a living wage, for retirement security, for
affordable and accessible healthcare and college, and for universal preK, to
name a few. And you can be sure we’ll continue to fight for those.
But
the passage of ESSA has created a moment of opportunity to use these four
pillars to help make every neighborhood public school a place that parents
would want to send their kids, educators want to work and kids want to be.
Betsy DeVos and the Attack on Public Education
So
as Republicans and Democrats, parents and teachers, all came together around
ESSA, where was Betsy DeVos?
She
was working in Michigan to undermine public schools and to divide communities.
And now—she’s poised to swing her Michigan wrecking ball all across America.
If
Donald Trump wanted an ideologue, he found one. DeVos’ involvement in education
has been to bankroll efforts to destabilize, defund and privatize public
schools. She hasn’t taught in a public school. She hasn’t served on a school
board. She never attended public school—nor did she send her kids to one. She’s
a lobbyist—but she is not an
educator.
One
wonders why she was nominated. Well, like a lot of Donald Trump’s cabinet
choices, she’s a billionaire with an agenda. As she herself boasted: “my family
is the single biggest contributor to the Republican National Committee—we
expect a return on our investment.” By the way, those investments do not exempt
her from the ethics disclosures required of all cabinet nominees. Frankly, her
failure to disclose should delay her hearing.
In
2000, DeVos and her husband bankrolled a multimillion-dollar ballot initiative
to create private school vouchers in Michigan. Voters rejected it by more than
a 2-to-1 margin. No surprise, as the evidence over a quarter century shows that
vouchers have failed to improve student achievement significantly or
consistently.
That’s
when she shifted her focus to diverting tax-payer dollars from neighborhood
public schools to for-profit charter schools.
And
give her her due. Over the last 15 years, Michigan has become America’s Wild
Wild West of for-profit charter schools. Eighty percent of Michigan’s charter
schools are for-profit.
Yes,
give her her due… but don’t give her responsibility. Here’s why:
When
the option was to bolster underfunded public schools—she fought instead for a
tax cut for the rich.
When
the option was to support neighborhood public schools—she disparaged public
education and fought to divert taxpayer dollars to for-profit charters.
When
the option was to strengthen charter schools with real accountability—she
fought for NO accountability. No accountability even in cases like the Detroit
charter schools that closed just days after the deadline to get state
funding—leaving students scrambling to find a new school, but the charter operators
still profiting.
She’s
devoted millions to elect her friends and punish her enemies, and, at every
critical moment, she has tried to take the public out of public education.
What
is the result of all this? Student performance has declined across Michigan.
Nearly half of all its charter schools ranked among the bottom of American
schools.
Just
look at the yearlong investigation by the Detroit Free Press which
revealed rampant problems in the state’s for-profit charter schools—corruption,
cronyism, poor performance and lack of accountability.
That’s
Ms. DeVos’ legacy.
Walk the Walk
Back
when I taught Tamika and her classmates at Clara Barton High School in
Brooklyn, they would say, “You can’t just talk the talk; you’ve got to walk the
walk.” For a secretary of education, that means doing all you can to strengthen
and improve public education. To do that, you have to first experience it… and
be willing to walk the walk.
To
that end, I extend both a challenge and an invitation to Ms. DeVos. Spend some
time in public schools. There is no substitute for seeing firsthand what works
in our public schools, or for seeing the indefensible conditions too many
students and teachers endure.
Come
to some of the places AFT members are working their hearts out for our
students. Come to rural McDowell County, West Virginia, a county where many
voted for Donald Trump. A county where the AFT is leading a public-private
partnership to improve the public schools and health outcomes in this county
that is the eighth-poorest in the country. Join me at Harvest or CHAH, or
Toledo Technology Academy or in Meriden, Corpus Christi, ABC or Miami. Spend a
day or two in a class for severely disabled students. Before you try to do what
you did in Michigan to the rest of the country, see firsthand the potential and
promise of public education.
The
Trump administration can follow the will of the people, and walk the path laid
out by Congress a year ago.
Or
they can follow the destructive dogmas of the past, and reignite the education
wars.
Let’s
be clear, if they do the latter, communities across this country, will stand up
and defend their public schools and our children. Like hundreds of thousands
have done so far in open letters and petitions. Like AROS will on January 19.
Whatever
this new administration does, we will be walking the walk for great
neighborhood schools by investing and supporting the four pillars I’ve
described today.
Using
the AFT Innovation Fund to kick-start community school projects and investments
in CTE literally from coast-to-coast.
Building
the capacity of educators through AFT’s Share My Lesson, the largest free
website of teaching resources in America with more than one million users.
Fostering
collaboration through collective bargaining and labor-management partnerships,
and working with parents, civil rights and community groups.
We
are walking the walk. Across America, we are living our values and protecting
our kids.
[i]http://www.slate.com/articles/life/schooled/2016/12/the_damage_donald_trump_could_do_to_public_education.html
[ii] https://ourfuture.org/20151208/study-finds-unions-improve-teacher-quality-high-school-dropout-rates
[iii] https://learningforward.org/docs/default-source/jsd-october-2015/high-quality-collaboration-benefits-teachers-and-students.pdf
