Federal Update - May 9, 2008
Brought
to you by your voice at the national level,
the Association of American
Educators.
A National Survey of Public School Teachers
Possible New School Construction Mandates
2008 National Teacher of the Year
Reading First Study Lacks Positive Results
$13.2 Million Grant Lost Due to Disputes About Teacher Pay
$81 Million for Teachers on Retainer in New York City
Washington’s Teacher Union Seiged by Infighting
A National Survey of Public School Teachers
A comprehensive study of teachers’ views on a variety of educational issues including pay, evaluations, and the role of teachers unions was recently released by Education Sector. The study is authored by Ann Duffett and Steve Farkas of the FDR Group, and Andrew J. Rotherham and Elena Silva of Education Sector. For the report 1,010 randomly picked K-12 public school teachers were surveyed in the fall of 2007. The researchers also had six focus groups which took place in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Phoenix, and Milwaukee.
Key findings from the report include:
In the conclusion the study infers that the teachers join unions as a result of practical concerns, not necessarily because of a broader sense of unionism. “They’re the policemen [sic] which just keep an eye on the laws and regulations,” explained one teacher. For the most part teachers do not associate improvements in teacher quality with their union. “I never looked to the union for professional development. If I did [look to the union] it was a contractual question or something like that,” explained one New York City teacher.
On the issue of teacher pay the survey found that new teachers are more receptive than veteran teachers in paying teachers more for teaching in low-performing schools in tough neighborhoods; receiving accreditation from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards; consistently receiving outstanding evaluations by their principals; teaching hard to staff subjects such as math and science; and routinely having their students score higher than similar students on standardized tests.
The study admits that the findings are not the last word in the debates about reforms in education but they attempt to “offer guideposts” for the conversations.
For more information about the report, please go to http://www.educationsector.org/research/research_show.htm?doc_id=683708.
Possible New School Construction Mandates
On April 30 the House Education and Labor Committee held a markup on HR 3021, the 21st Century High-Performing Public School Facilities Act. HR 3021 authorizes $6.4 billion for construction, modernization, or repair of kindergarten, elementary, and secondary schools in 2009. One of the stipulations in the bill requires that recipients of the funds use them to ensure that construction projects meet one of three green building standards: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design; Energy Star; or Collaborative for High Performance Schools. Corresponding state or local standards will be accepted as well.
“I joined in offering this legislation because we cannot provide our children with the world-class education they need and deserve if we do not provide them – and their teachers, principals and other staff – with safe, healthy, modern, energy-efficient schools,” said U.S. Rep. Dale E. Kildee (D-MI), the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education.
Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), the ranking member on the committee, voiced concern about some provisions in the bill, mainly the inclusion of Davis-Bacon prevailing wage mandates, a Depression era law that often times drives up the cost of construction projects by requiring them to adhere to the prevailing wage in the area, which is often close to the union wage. A staff analysis done by committee Republicans found that the inclusion of Davis-Bacon mandates in the bill would “undermine efforts to increase funding for key education priorities, weaken efforts at the state level to fund school construction, dramatically increase the cost of elementary and secondary schools, and significantly expand the size and scope of the federal government.” Rep. McKeon offered an amendment during the markup that would remove the Davis-Bacon mandates from the bill, however, it was defeated.
“Inclusion of Davis-Bacon wage mandates on federal school construction projects adds insult to injury – diverting resources from critical programs to improve student achievement, these flawed wage requirements and the red tape that comes with them will dilute the purchasing power of our investment even further,” stated McKeon.
For more information about the bill, please read the fact sheet prepared by the majority office of the Education and Labor Committee at http://edlabor.house.gov/issues/schoolfacilitiesact.shtml.
To read the report about the Davis-Bacon mandates prepared by the minority office, please go to http://republicans.edlabor.house.gov/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=536&IID=4.
2008 National Teacher of the Year
Michael Geisen, a Crook County Middle School science teacher in Oregon, has been named the 2008 National Teacher of the Year. Geisen, a teacher with an immense dedication to his students, often has many students come visit his classroom before school and during lunch to sit and talk, join him for jam sessions on their guitars, visit his turtle or be part of the “Ketchup Club.” Geisen’s students know that during his free time he is always available to help students “catch up.”
In his speech honoring Geisen, President Bush highlighted Geisen’s students appreciation for their teacher by quoting one student, “…he's an awesome teacher. He could make watching grass grow interesting.” In his speech President Bush also praised Geisen for using humor and creativity to encourage students to take science seriously as well as stressing the point that America needs more scientists. Every year Geisen has a science fair for his students which he calls a “legendary evening of science, creativity, food and wackiness.”
For more information about the 2008 National Teacher of the Year, please go to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24364581/.
Reading First Study Lacks Positive Results
A study done by the U.S. Education Department’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) shows that students that participated in Reading First do not have better reading skills than students who did not participate in Reading First. Reading First did, however, help teachers spend almost an hour more a week on phonics, a teaching method considered by many experts to be solid instruction.
Reading First was under investigation last year over the question of whether some top advisers kept certain textbook publishers from qualifying for funding so that contracts for textbooks and testing materials that the advisers designed would be chosen. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, stated that “coupled with the scandals revealed last year, [the report] shows that we need to seriously re-examine this program and figure out how to make it work better for students.”
“Moving the needle on reading is a hard thing to do. I don’t think anyone’s going to assert that the cure will be less focus and fewer resources,” stated Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.
For more information about Reading First, please read the article titled, “Study: Bush’s Reading First Program Ineffective,” at http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-05-01-reading-first_N.htm.
$13.2 Million Grant Lost Due to Disputes About Teacher Pay
Seven high schools in Washington State were slated to be the beneficiaries of a $13.2 million grant the state won last year from the National Math & Science Initiative (NMSI), but NMSI will now pull the grant due to disputes over how to pay teachers. The grant would have been used to strengthen Advanced Placement courses in math and science in the high schools. Issues arose, however, when NMSI ran up against Washington’s collective-bargaining laws. NMSI wanted to pay teachers for their extra time as well and for the success their students had on the AP tests. Collective bargaining laws require, however, that pay be negotiated between unions and school districts.
“We worked really hard to try to find middle ground,” stated Rep. Bill Fromhold (D-Vancouver) who is working with NMSI on implementing the grant. “We got caught in the middle of the grant requirements and the collective-bargaining laws in the state of Washington that have to be followed.”
“Honestly, I can't figure out why they couldn't solve this,” said Steve Seleznow, the foundation's program director for education. NMSI spokeswoman Rena Pederson said that NMSI “tried to be as flexible as possible,” but the aspects of the program that they thought were instrumental to the program’s success had to be maintained.
For more information about the grant, please read the following article titled, “$13 Million Grant for AP Teachers Lost Over Pay Dispute,” at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2004394554_grants06m.html.
$81 Million for Teachers on Retainer in New York City
According to a new report by the New Teacher Project, over two years New York City will pay $81 million in salaries and benefits for over 600 teachers whose positions have been eliminated at one school and have not found or have not looked for new jobs. The current collective bargaining agreement, which took effect in 2006, no longer contains seniority rights in staffing decisions and automatic transfers for teachers whose positions have been cut. As a result teachers who do not find new jobs are assigned to schools where they are required to show up each day and be available for principals to use as substitutes. There is no data available from the department of education on whether or not principals use the teachers on reserve.
According to the report about 90 percent of the 2,700 teachers whose positions were cut in 2006 have found new positions. The report also notes that of the 600 teachers who are on reserve, about 50 percent admit that they have not applied for jobs using the city’s online job posting system. The report also highlights the fact that the reserve teachers were six times more likely than other teachers to have received an unsatisfactory rating during the course of their careers.
“The danger is that at some point these excess teachers will be forced into vacancies and into schools. There’s no question what’s the most efficient thing to do. Obviously it’s very tempting, but it would be an awful thing for kids,” stated Dan Weisberg, the schools’ chief executive for labor policy.
For more information about reserve teachers in New York City, please go to http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/nyregion/29teachers.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss.
Washington’s Teacher Union Seiged by Infighting
The Washington Teachers’ Union in Washington, D.C. is no stranger to scandals after former president Barbara Bullock embezzled millions of dollars in teachers’ dues. The union is now back in the spotlight as a result of infighting between president George Parker and general vice president Nathan Saunders. Saunders has filed a suit aginst Parker claiming that his free speech rights were violated when Parkers instituted a policy stating that only he could speak on behalf of the union. Saunders has also alleged that Parker’s leadership has led to management and financial problems.
Tensions also exist between Parker and Saunders on the best way to handle reforms being instituted by Chancellor Michelle Rhee. Rhee plans to close 23 schools and reorganize 27 others in order to make the schools and the district more effective. Parker has been willing to discuss the reforms with Rhee but Saunders believes that confrontational tactics should be employed instead.
Some teachers in D.C. have launched a recall campaign to remove the president, vice president, executive board and board of trustees.
“I’m totally frustrated with what’s going on in the unions,” stated Benita Nicholson, a elementary school librarian in Southeast D.C. “I think the infighting damages the union.”
For more information about the Washington Teachers Union, please go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/04/AR2008050401726.html.