San Antonio ~ in the wake of Waiting for Superman, the Education Manifesto and a raft of US Department of Education initiatives, TURN leaders met, Oct 22-23, to assess the damage being done to their best reform efforts, and to consider stategies for turning the unprecedented attacks and media attention into opportunities to advance the cause of teacher unions as partners in transforming education.

In attendance at the two-day conference were 79 TURN members and guests, representing 31 locals in 12 states, plus representatives of both AFT & NEA, as well as Dr. Dennis Shirley and two graduate assistance who are providing research support for the Ford Foundation Grant.

The meeting began with a moment of silence in remembrance of Don Whatley, former president of the Albuquerque Federation of Teachers and one of the original TURN members. Don recently passed away after a long battle with cancer.  

The morning session included a two-hour conversation with Jo Anderson, Senior Advisor to the US Secretary of Education.  One of Mr. Anderson’s responsibilities at the Department is to be a liaison with teacher unions.  In this role, he has participated in TURN regional meeting as well as national meetings.  Thus, he was able to open the conversation with a review of what he has seen in TURN meetings across the country and comment on the potential he sees in the regional networks.  

The three areas of prime concern for the Department continue to be evaluation, compensation, and struggling schools.  Anderson explained that in the first 18 months they were consumed with the work of structuring the stimulous money and getting new programs out the door (i.e. Race To The Top, State Incentive Grants, Teacher Incentive Fund, Investing in Innovation Fund, Promise Grants)

The intial Department strategy was to simultaneously support and shake up the system - to disrupt the status quo. They are satisfied that the strategy has worked, so the work is now shifting from seeking and celebrating break-through reform efforts.  Anderson acknowledged that they do not yet know how to support the requisite transformation, but insisted that it must be a collaborative approach.

TURN members responded positively to the call for collaboration, but related a very different experience in the field.  Several local leaders shared stories of state and local administrators using federal policy as an excuse to impose top-down change.  According to the testimony, many of these changes are making collaboration more difficult and having a negative impact on long-standing work with teacher evaluation and teacher development.  Several members cited examples of local administrators distorting or outright ignoring the requirement that unions be involved in the development of proposals for federal support.  The stories, comments, and questions seem to indicate that from the perspective of local teacher union leaders, the status quo is alive and well - teachers and their unions are still taking the blame for a dysfuntional system without the means to affect systemic changes.

The most impassioned comments conveyed the sense of deep disappointment about public statements from the Department and White House in support of teacher firings and a sense of betrayal in that the push for student outcomes as part of teacher evaluation preceded the development of assessment systems that might make such systems possible.

The sense of frustration in the room was palpable as one member described the impacct of the carrot and stick approach in federal education policy - the way a relatively small amount of funding (in comparison to total education spending) affected policy changes that is raising expectations in the midst of deepening budget-cutting, with no visible efforts to address the underlying issues of poverty that are at the root of so many of the issues facing classroom teachers.  The chatter in the room indicated that local union leaders across the country are sensing a crisis in teacher morale, and that the solution is beyond the capacity of schools alone.

Anderson affirmed the assessment and tries day after day to communicate the morale problems with the Department.  He noted that the federal role has always been about equity and high-needs schools. "It's a huge injustice, but we have not found a handle to fix it," he acknowledged.  Economic pressures are driving everything; however, the US Deptartment of Education cannot fix state budgets.  The stimulus and other federal sources of funding have been patches only.  Anderson warned that this spring will be a financial armegeddon in many states.

One of many turning points in the conversation came when a TURN member made reference to an experiment in learned helplessness in which dogs were trained not to avoid electric shock; instead to lay down and accept it. He shared his experience of reforms that have damaged previously collaborative relationships and a climate where the loudest teacher bashing gets rewarded and causes a sense of powerless among the teachers. He asked, "how can we organize in the midst of this deep sense of disappointment?"

Anderson noted that some of the most powerful organizing has come out of the most deplorable conditions.  "I'm not trying to suggest that this is easy," he acknowledged, "But, learned helplessness is the worst path."  He reminded the group that part the reason that we are at this point is that the system is not achieving the expected results and that the perception, right or wrong, is that unions are the biggest obstacle.  On the other hand, this current crisis and the federal support has created space to do things differently.  He strongly encouraged the group to report abuses of the requirement for collaboration and to share stories of the breakthroughs.

In introducing Dr. Dennis Shirley (mentioned above) to the group, Co-Director Tom Alves made reference to the May meeting of TURN at which Diane Ravitch had told the union leaders to “just say no” to RTTT.  Tom introduced Dr. Shirley as someone who can "help us figure out how to say yes.”  

Dr. Shirley’s presentation was based on his recent book, The Fourth Way.   

Michelle Renee introduced TURN Leaders to Communities for Excellent Public Schools.

Tom Alves described the San Juan Teachers Association’s work with turnaround schools. 

These conversations provided a context for regional planning.

• Regional teams convened for the last 45 minutes of the meeting and reported their next steps and take-aways from the conference:
• Great Lakes TURN is exploring the idea of inviting members of the media to attend their regional meetings to get the story of their work in print.  The primary concern is how to open up - warts and all - and still maintain a safe place for conversation as they continue tracking the issue of teacher assessment and evaluation.  
• CalTURN leaders are in the early stages of planning and seeking funding for an invitational conference for current and potential members at which they would develop common language on a single topic - probably assessment literacy.  
• Mid-Atlantic and Southeast TURN (MASE) is hosting a conference on teacher evaluation, Feb 19-20, 2011, in Durham, NC, featuring a panel: Jo Anderson, Senior Advisor to the US Secretary of Education; Brad Jupp, currently at the Dept of Ed, but speaking about the ProComp work in Denver; Elena Silva, Senior Policy Analyst at Education Sector; Carolyn McKinney, Executive Director, NC Professional Teaching Standards Commission; and Kitty Boitnott, President of the Virginia Education Association.
• Southwest TURN is still in the formative stage (second meeting to be held, Oct 24, on the heels of the national meeting.  Student learning outcomes will be one of the topics since it is the focus of so many districts/locals in the region.  Places like Denver, Jefferson County, and Austin, provides a lot of grounding on the work that they have already done.  They intend to define change they can stand for and push for systemic change. 
• Northeast TURN will continue the theme of teacher evaluation. Several network partners already have Peer Assistance and Review in place, most notably Rochester, NY.   They will be able to fold ideas from the TURN presentations into their work. Others around the table are working with Mary to develop a reporting format.  They will also be taking a closer look at job satisfaction surveys.  
• TURN leaders - heard loud and clear that there needs to be time for regional network coordinators to meet at national TURN meetings, and more time for table talk and regional planning in the main part of the meeting.