Results for Students

When Southwest TURN began, the school reform dialogue was controlled by politicians and the business community.  It seemed that we teacher union leaders were, if not silent, reluctant to engage in a very public way.  That had to end.  So discussion turned to developing an educators’ view of authentic, meaningful school reform that could be offered as a “better way” to improve our schools.  SW TURN is taking seriously the admonition, “if you don’t have a plan, theirs will do.”

Our plan, Results for Students, is an ongoing effort to frame an alternative to the anti-teacher, anti-union policies of the past few years that have been mistakenly described as "education reform."  For example, what began as a direct response to legislative initiatives mandating the use of test scores as the primary means to evaluate (and reward or punish) teachers, became an attempt to identify multiple measures of student performance to better serve the cause of teacher quality.  The primary thrusts of the plan are Quality Teaching, 21stCentury Skills, and Accountability for All. 

Coming to agreement on the vision was the easy part, while communicating the message to public and policy-makers proved to be a challenge.  We also realized that our past communication strategies have been insufficient in building the support necessary to implement our plan.  We need to learn new strategies as we go along if we are going to impact policy-makers.  This reality led to an exploration of the writings of George Lakoff and strategies developed by The Framework Institute, and ultimately, to the development of Results For Students.

As we move forward, SW TURN locals will emphasize the thrusts of Results For Students that best apply to their respective local situations, employ our shared communication strategies, and report what they learn to the other locals through TURNexchange.Net.

For an understanding of Results for Students, you may view:

• A presentation outlining its development and key principles
• An example of the Frame and Message developed by SW TURN leaders
• Jefferson County's adaptation of the Frame and Message.
• Framing documents from Aurora (AEA Message), (Our Voice Message),
  and (Time & Opportunity for Students)

If you have questions or comments about Results for Students, please use the form below (log-in required).