Shared Decision Making at the School Site; Moving Toward a Professional Model. An interview with Patrick O'Rourke

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SHARED DECISIONMAKING

.AT TIIE SCHOOL SITE:


MOVING TOWARD


A PRoFESSIONAL MODEL


An Interview with Patn:ck O'Rourke

T
T
HE COMMON structure of authority in school districts
around the country is a hierarchical one.

Teachers are typically at the receiving end of policies
and directives that issue from the offices of district-level
administrators and school principals. The autonomy
that teachers have within their classrooms is considerably
compromised by their exclusion from decisions on
issues that affect life in the classroom, such as school
structure and organization, disciplinary procedures,
curriculum content, academic standards, staffing needs
and hiring decisions, and spending priorities. Teachers
sometimes sit on committees that consider these issues,
but there usually is a clear distinction between "input"
and decision making, with teachers on the input side.
Although collective bargaining contracts touch on
some issues of educational policy, school boards -
backed by courts and state legislatures -have generally
tried to narrow the scope of bargaining, insisting that
topics other than wages and working conditions are
management prerogatives and, as~ such, "not negotiable."
In Hammond, Indiana, all of this is changing. To the
extent that it is legally and practically possible to do so,
decisions that were once made by the school district's
central office are being turned over to each individual
school. Not only has the locus of authority changed, so
has the constellation of who holds it. A growing number
of decisions are now in the hands of school-site committees
composed of teachers, administrators, and community
representatives. The boundaries of teacher allowed to be a separate culture -and in theories of
authority have been dramatically expanded. For the first modern management that emphasize the importance of
time, teachers are touching all the areas that touch them decentralization, employee involvement in the deciand
their students. sions that affect their work, and the development of a
Hammond's new school-site management system is feeling of "ownership" of those decisions.
the result of a program called the School Improvement The city of Hammond has a population of about one
Process, more commonly referred to as SIP. The princihundred
thousand and is situated in the northern tip of
ples that underlie SIP find strong support in both the Indiana, between Gary, Indiana, Lake Michigan, and the
literature describing the characteristics of effective Chicago metropolitan area. Student enrollment in the
schools which
says that each school is and must be school district numbers just over thirteen thousand and
10 AMERICAN EDUCATOR SPRING 1987


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Pcllrick 0 'Rourke (abot. e)
Kindergarten teacher Karen Csigas
(Ilpper right) was partofthe team that
restructured the kindergarten
CUrriculum at her school to

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Incorporate a wide range ofhands~
n actil'ities. These design team
dXlIrpersons (lower right) at Lafayette

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Elemerllan' School are leaders in the
eJJort to it;l'Olle teachers in all matters
that {/Jleet them and their students;
Back ROll'; Lois Rogers, Joel~vn
Sehu'(lndt, Susan Vandemerkt,
Roseman' Balczo. From Roo'; Alma
,Hurphy: :Uelissa Ped)er, Betty 'ramada.

AMERICAN EOUCA'IOR 11

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there are twenty-five school sites and approximately

nine hundred teachers. The economic depression that

has hit the citys industrial base -the steel mills -and

that has left the school district in a constant struggle

against financial constraints seems to stand in sharp

contrast to the hope and enthusiasm generated by the

SIP program.

In 1985, following a successful pilot project at one

high school and two middle schools, language outlining

the authority and procedures for the School Improve


ment Process were negotiated and made part of the

contract between the Hammond Teachers Federation

and the Board of School Trustees. SIP was then

expanded to all schools in the district. The president of

the Hammond Teachers Federation -and by everyone's

account the source of much of the energy and inspira


tion behind SIP -is Patrick O'Rourke. Mr.

O'Rourke has been president of the teachers union

since 1974, during which time he has continued to

teach U.S. history part time at Hammond High School.

He is a member of the Executive Board of the Indiana

Federation of Teachers and part-time instructor in labor

relations at Indiana University Northwest.

Mr. O'Rourke was interviewed by Uz McPike, editor

of the American Educator.

* * *

McPike: So that we can immediately get some grasp
ofthe dimensions ofwhat is happening in Hammond,
tell me this: Is there anything that is "off limits" to
these school-site committees? How encompassing is
their authority, or their potential authority? Is there
any issue, any toPic, any area ofdecision making that
is hands Off?

O'Rourke: We're not sure. The only constraints that

we know for certain are the same constraints that the
,.old system had, that is, limitations -often of a legal
. nature -that stem from Supreme Court deCisions, state

and federal laws, school board poliCies, city regulations, '

and to some extent, our union contract. But other than

those constraints, it's wide open. As long as a school

adheres to the process we've developed, the people at

that school and in that community have a great deal of

control over what happens in their school.

In those instances in which a school-based decision

conflicts with an existing school board policy, a special

systemwide review council, composed of teachers,

administrators, parents and community representatives,

meets to see how the SIP proposal could be accommo


dated. And even in those situations in which a SIP pro


posal clearly violates state policy, ifthe SIP committee is

very interested in pursuing an idea and convinced that it

will improve learning at their school, and if they're able

to muster a good argument to support their case, then

the school district has said it will attempt to secure a

waiver from the state.

A few of us tried in the beginning, when we were

brainstorming this whole thing, to assign all possible

deciSions to their appropriate level. Which decisions

could be made at the building level, which had to be

citywide, and so forth. Heres what we did. This sounds

hilarious in retrospect, but we were feeling our way

through many of these questions, and it was a helpful

exercise. We actually built a st~ucture, a box, and

12 AMERICAN EDUCATOR


Rather than the old model ofafew
people, a handful ofadministrators
primarily, Sitting around trying to
develop policy, we open it up.

divided it into different sections. Then we took some
small plastic balls, and we colored them various colors;
we coded them. For example, the color red would
signify a school board decision, blue would be a building-
based deciSion, and so on. We sat and brainstortl).ed
all the types of decisions that might arise in a school
district: "Well, that's obviously a red ball, that goes in this
slot. That's the kind of issue that you could characterize
as a building-based deciSion, we'll color that blue, and
all the blue balls go in this slot," and so on with Supreme
Court decisions, state directives, etc. We sat there and
tossed spheres into the box for several hours.

McPike: You literally had a lot ofballs in the air.

O'Rourke: Yes, too many, as it turned out. As we tried
to visualize how we were going to delineate the proper
boundaries of authority -where does this fit, where
does that belong, what were the various impediments,
the potential conflicts -it occurred to us that the
number of decisions was unlimited; we were going to
run out of balls.

So we learned through this process that it is not
possible -or necessary -to divide up the turf ahead of
time. In other words, the program does not say, "These
decisions are proper for building-based committees,
these are not"; it does not say, "These programs may be
altered, but these may not." These divisions will have to
emerge as the program moves along. There are no preconceived
limits.

There is only one exception to this: We have said that
no decision made by one school could have a negative
impact on programs or teachers in other buildings.

McPike: School A couldn't decide to send all its
disruptive students to School B?

O'Rourke: Exactly, although that very constraint
might serve as a spark to bring SIP committees from
various schools together to try to work something out.
There have alreadv been instances in which a recommendation
made by one school has forced the district to
re·examine its overall policy. We have a SIP team right
now at Clark High School working on the problem of
student attendance. They have developed a very sophisticated
attendance policy that goes beyond the current
citywide policy. But we have been advised that this new
proposal may be in violation of court decisions because
it would mean that students at one high school would be
treated differently from the rest of the city's students on
a matter that might affect their grades and even their
continuation in the program in thebuUding. However,

SPRING 1987


__••• _ •• ___ " ..... u, •

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n firSt appeared to be a dead end for the Clark teams composed cA about ten 00 fift<cn ~~:.~ ~sa1is now becoming the genesis for a fresh look at majority would be teachers. There are no hard and fast

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~~existing districtwide policy. Their ideas are being

. ewed as perhaps the resolution ofa citywide problem.
VI SO there will be instances in which a SIP team will
brai~storm the resolution of a problem at one school
that may eventuallywind up having very positive effects
on cityWide policy. That's part of the spin-off that
intrigues me. As SIP teams hit roadblocks, they have to
start looking at other problems in other buildings or
perhaps look citywide. They start thinking in broader
terms than their own classrooms or their own schools.
So rather than the old model ofa few people, a handful
of ' administrators primarily, sitting around trying to
develop policy, we open it up. We now have more peo-,
ple,let's say more brains, more ideas, floating around out
there, and out of these ideas, we are developing some
very sophisticated approaches to citywide problems,
which was really not, quite frankly, the original intent of
the school-based decision-making process. But that is
happening, and it's very exciting.

McPike: We haven't said anything about money.
How much say-so over spending comes under the SIP
committees?

O'Rourke: Each school receives a certain amount of
money over which it has control. Should a SIP committee
want to get involved in how that money is spent rather
than leaving it as a unilateral decision by a building
administrator, which is the way things previously
worked -it can.

As a matter of fact, last year -and I view this as a
mistake -last year in an attempt to convince building
administrators that the school system was serious about
this process, the responsibility for the allocation of
funds normally given to the building administrator was
turned over by directive from the assistant superintendent
of schools to the SIP team in each building. The
reason I say that was a mistake is that it violated the spirit
and the intent of the process in the sense that the
administration is not supposed to set the agenda for SIP
committees. The directive was issued with the very best
of motives -to show that SIP committees have power
over the purse strings -but the decision as to what a
SIP committee wants to get into and what it doesn't
should really be left up to each committee. Ifit wants to
decide how the money allocated to its school should be
spent, it certainly can. Now don't misunderstand me.
SIP teams do not control the school district's overall
budget. They only have control -if they choose to
exercise it -over those monies that are allocated to
their particular building.

McPike: Describe for us in more detail how SIP
operates. Is thereoneSIP committeeateach school that
defines the issues to be taken up and subcommittees
that form around those issues? Does an administrator
~the principal or assistant principal or someone -
SIt in on every committee meeting? And how arefinal
deciSions made?

O'Rourke: The teams are made up of teachers,
administrators, parents, and to a lesser degree, students,
although there might not be peoplefrom every category

o.n every committee, or what we call design teams. The
sIZe of the committees varies. In a large high school o(
lets say, one hundred teachers, the core team is usually
SPRING 1987

rules, other than that we try to involve people on the

statfwho are viewed as leaders and we try to have a well


balanced core team. The subcommittees or design

teams are open to anyone who is interested; likewise,

any member of the staff can propose that a new design
team be formed around any issue of concern. There is
also an attempt to identify the strong parent advocates
in the community, people who have a long history of
involvement in the school and who can be counted on
to bring other parents into the process. In addition,
where applicable, students who are respected by their
peers and who have an interest in school improvement
are identified. Especially in the beginning, when things
are just getting off the ground, the question of who is
involved is critical to the credibility ofthe whole undertaking.


We believe in this program not only
because itwill make teachers/eel more
involved, give them more ownership, but
becauseUwfllintprovelearning.lbars
the botto", line.

This group then takes part in fairly intensive training
in communication and group dynamics. The particular
method that we use is a modification of a problemsolving
process called the Delphi technique, which is
designed to help people reach consensus on the resolution
of a problem by constantly re-examining the nature
of the problem. Similar to the process used by the
United Auto Workers and General Motors in their new
Saturn agreement, it forces people to continually rethink
their pOSitions with a view toward consensus. The
training in group dynamiCS and decision making is
important; and it's ongoing, not a one-shot workshop.

This core committee then spends a considerable
amount of time developing what we call a vision of
excellence for their school: How we can make this
school the best possible school, both in the short run
and in the long run? Example: At my school, Hammond
High, our original SIP team outlined ten specific goals
that we felt Hammond High should W9rk toward over,
say, a five-year period. Following that, subcommittees
were created to try and design programs to meet those
goals. One ofour target areas was professional development,
to do something that might really help teachers.
Out of that came a mentoring program through which
two of our faculty are released half time to work with
teachers who want to become more effective.

As to the question of administrator involvement on
the design teams -sometimes they are part ofa committee,
sometimes not. The math department at my

AMERICAN EDUCATOR 13

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school is now brainstorming ways to totally reorganize
the time periods so that they and their students aren't
always working within the confines of a fifty·minute
structure. Those discussions -and the final decisionwill
be made by the math teachers onl)!, unless the
schedule changes they devise have an impact on the rest
of the school, in which case there will, of course, have to
be broader involvement. I want to add here that, if a
principal is part of a SIP committee, it doesn't mean his
or her opinion weighs any differently in reaching a
decision than does the opinion of any other member of
the committee. The administrator is there not as an
administrator but as a peer. For this reason, we have said
that a principal should never serve as the SIP committee
chairperson.

Both the school administration and the
union are committed tofinding a way to
build this process into the

reguLarschoolda~

In terms of how a final decision is made, we proceed
on the basic principle that underlies the whole system,
which is that those who are affected by the decision,
those who are closest to it, those who have expertise in
the area, those who will be responsible for carrying it
out, those who will be living with the decision are the
ones who should make it. If the proposal affects the
entire faculty, then the entire faculty would be involved.
Ifit's something more limited -a change in the kinder·
garten program -we encourage input and involve·
ment from the entire faculty, but the actual decision
would be made by the kindergarten teachers and
whoever else might be part of the SIP design team
looking at that issue. In almost all cases, if the SIP
problem·solving technique is followed, a group should
be able to reach consensus. However, in instances
where someone is being unreasonably recalcitrant and
where the overwhelming majority wants to move
ahead, they do so. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, ifa
proposal conflicts with an existing state or school board
policy or with language in our collective bargaining
contract, then a more' involved process of resolution
kicks in. Let me add here, with regard to the whole
program, that it is still quite new. Many situations and
problems can't be anticipated; we just have to deal with
them as they arise. We are working out the kinks as we
go along.

McPike: Give us some more examples of what the
SIP committees have been dOing. Are they jumping
right into major policy areas, or taking it slow? I
WOUldn't be surprised if the latter were true, because
you're talking about a significant shift in roles, and it

14 AMERICAN EDUCATOR

~~


might take some time forpeople w n used to
having authority beyond their classrooms to see them·

. selves as responsible for the larger questiOns involved
in running a schooL
O'Rourke: Well, it varies, but generally you're right.
There is a slow but clear shifting of roles and responsibilities
taking place, and it takes time. To use my own
school as an example again, the first question we took
up was how to get students out of the halls and into the
classrooms. That was a terribly important issue to us,
but dealing with it didn't suggest the same kind of shift
in authority that other issues that we later got involved
in do -like selecting the new principal for our school,
which is something we subsequently played a big role
in.
Now that SIP has been in place in a few schools for a
couple years and in all schools since September 1985,
SIP committees are moving into more and more areas of
decision making. I was ata meeting of SIP chairs just
recently where the ideas -and the desire to share ideas
-were fiying left and right. But let me give you jlist a
few examples of what has taken place to date.
Morton Elementary School has formulated a new pol·
icy on homework. They've also directed monies to be
spent on certain computer equipment they felt they
needed, and they've ou~tted a portable C()mputer u~t
for the lower grades.
Kenwood Elementary School has restructured its
reading program. Spohn Middle School has moved to a
"clustering" schedule for its students, which provides
more time for teachers to meet to discuss curriculum
and student progress and to have more fiexibility to
hold conferences with students and parents. Scott Middle
School -and I should note here that improving
parental and community involvement has been an area
stressed by all the SIP committees-has trained a group
that it calls "computer moms" to help in the computer
rooms. On quite a different level, one SIP team is taking a
look at teacher evaluation. They feel that there may be a
better, a more effective, a more meaningful way to evaluate
teachers than the way it is now done. They are
looking for something that not only assures quality but
also improves teaching. They've been gathering infor·
mation from around the country and they've been to
Toledo, Ohio, to study the program the AFT local there
has put into place.
One more example: Lafayette Elementary School has
revamped its whole kindergarten program. The student
population at that school is generally from very lowincome
and highly transient families, and many of the
youngsters come to school woefully ill prepared for a
traditional program. After a tremendous amount of
research by the kindergarten teachers and numerous
discussions with as many parents as pOSSible, the faculty
voted to establish a junior/senior kindergarten program
that will provide a wide range of hands·on activities for
children who aren't developmentally ready for a traditional
kindergarten curriculum, as well as a tranSitional
first grade.
This example reminds me of something that is happening
that I think is very important. Teachers are clamoring
for more information, for current state·of·the-art
research on every aspect of curriculum, of school
organization, of teaching practice. They want the latest

SPRING 1987


.~iiiiiiiiiii..~.-


n
. urnaIs' they want workshops; they want to know what prokssional faculty In all the decisi~Qlather school districts have tried, and what has worked ing in their schools, not as a peripherahctivity but as a
and what asn t. . broadened definition ofwhat a professional teacher is. It
a . h '
n McPike: Because that knowledge has more meantakes
time to stay current with the research and the
'n noW that they have more opportunity to 1JSe it. It's reading. It takes time to work through ideas with col~
o~ng to result in something; it's notjust an abstrac-leagues. We haven't really faced up to this time problem.
but both the school administration and the union are

t'n.

tOO'Rourke: Precisely. At that meeting I mentioned committed to finding a way to build this process into the
before, there was an absolute clamor, a chorus -I'm regular school day. This may mean a basic restructuring
not exaggerating -"Where can we get the information of our schools.
we need? Where?" And this desire [0 be in command of So, time is the first and foremost obstacle. Another
the relevant knowledge base is a good development; problem in ensuring informed judgments is the
indeed we know it is crucial to the whole program. We accessibility of the information. In my opinion, the
believe in this program not only because it will make quality and speed of dissemination of education
teachers feel more involved, give them more ownership, research in this country is in a sorry state. The AFf is
but because it will improve learning. That's the bottom helping us considerably in this regard through its Eduline.
How it helps these kids. And that means the decicational
Research and Dissemination program. Ham


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sions made by the SIP committees must reflect the best mond is one of the project sites. A group of our teachers

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we know of theory and practice. Time is our biggest is being trained in the latest research and given read


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obstacle in this regard. The kind ofprofessional involveable,
practical "translations" of the research that they
ment we're talking about takes a lot of time. can share with their colleagues. We are also explorin8'

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McPike: It can't be treated as just an add-on to a the development of a relationship with the federally
I ' regularfull scheduleofclasses. I imagine that to say to funded education research lab in our area and with local

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a teacher who already feels over-scheduled if not universi ties.

beleaguered byfive classes a day and one hundred fifty McPike: I certainly agree with you that the best

different students, "Congratulations, you have the guarantor ofquality is to putgood information in the

l J right to develop curriculum, formUlate the discipline hands ofgood people. Have you also builtany formal
policy, and design a new teacher evaluation promechanisms
ofaccountability into the SIP process?
f' gram, "you might not be greeted with glee. O'Rourke: We wrote specific time limits into our

O'Rourke: That's exactly right, and although we have contract governing the length of time any project may , , been able to arrange a substantial amount of release stay in place without review. We put a limit of one
time for SIP meetings and otherSIP activities, a lot ofthe school year. Example: A project might call for a six-week
r ' work has taken place after regular hours. In the long run implementation period, which would be one grading
the program won't be successful if it has to depend on period. The SIP committee says, "Let's try this new
that. We're not into volunteerism; that is not what this method and see if we like it; if we don't we won't
program is all about. What it is about is involving the continue it." The trial period could be a semester, but it

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INSIDE THE SCHOOLS: SIGNIFICANT CHANGES ALREADY

• Kenwood Elementary: Reartured
the school day to allow more slots for various subjects are
ranged the school day to ensure a time for teachers to meet to discuss rotated every twelve weeks, thus
r
' ninety-minute uninterrupted block curriculum and student progress responding to the needs of children
of time devoted to reading and to have more flexibility to hold who learn better at different times
activities. conferences with students and parof
the day.

• Clark High: Proposed a new ents. • Morton Elementary: Developed
policy on student attendance, • Hammond High: Put in place a a voluntary, nonthreatening peer
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which is now serving as the spark mentor program through which evaluation program through which

for a fresh look at the overall two teachers are released half time fellow teachers observe and cri


districtwide policy.
to work with colleagues who want tique colleagues and then

• Lafayette Elementary: to become more effective in the cooperatively develop self-improveRevamped
its kindergarten program classroom. Also, the math department
plans. SIP committees have
and established a junior/senior kinment
is looking at ways to also formulated a new homework
dergarten and a transitional first reorganize the time periods so that policy and directed that monies be
grade, which incorporate !l wide students and teachers are not spent on certain computer equiprange
of hands-on activities in always working within the confines ment they felt they needed.
order to better meeet the needs of of a fifty-minute structure . • Five school committees have
youngsters who are not develop•
Eggers Elementary/Middle: Set been involved in screening and
mentally ready for a traditional up a reading center for teaching recommending candidates for princurriculum.
across aU grade levels; adopted a cipal of their schools. In aU five
f if • Spohn Middle School: Restruc-course schedule in which the time cases, the final choice of the SIP
teams was accepted_

• j
SPRING 1987

AMERICAN EDUCATOR 15

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cannot be longer than a year. The reason we did this is
that one of the problems with the old model of school
governance was that too many projects and policies got

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locked in simply due to stagnation: "Well, they've always

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been there. We've always done it that war." Tradition. So
we feel that if something is worthwhile, it can stand

l annual scrutiny.
' J Second, the process requires that criteria be estabrt
lished to evaluate each project. How do we know it's

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P
working? The criteria must be very clearly spelled out
right from the start of the project or the implementation
of something new. At the end of the grading period or
the semester or whatever the time period, an evaluation
r 1 based on the agreed-to criteria is presented to the facUlty
so that they can make a considered decision as to'. J whether the project should be continued. For example,
one SIP team at a middle schoolwas concerned about

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, . the low level of parent involvement and teacher/parent
-~ contact. They came up with a new arrangement

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whereby parents would have to come to the school in
the evening to pick up report car_ds and meet with

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i teachers. They felt that the evening hours were crucial
\ J to parents in this community being able to come. This
called for an alteration of the working day for teachers,
-f } whereby they came in later in the day and then worked

"

that evening. The faculty voted to implement it for a
L J grading period. At the end of the grading period, they
evaluated it. They said it's working based on this data: X
i 1 number of parents came last year, X number of parents
came this year, and look at the difference. By the way, it

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was a smashing success.

r -, This review process may sound like a small thing, but
it isn't. The idea of accountability based on observable,
measurable data at the end of a specific time period is so
different from the way school districts are typically run,

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where too often no one knows who made what decision
or when or why; someone, sometime, decided that

-Ie •

things would be such and such a way and they are. No
one's responsible; everyone complains and passes the
buck. We're moving away from that attitude.

r , I McPike: Let mego back to a point thatyou touched

on earlier. Most ofthe issues taken up by SIP committees
are pedagogical ones, or they are questions of
school organization, school climate, community
involvemen~ and student behavior. With some exceptions,
these are not topics that are typically addressed
in a collective bargaining contract. The contract is not
going to have language on how to best structure a
reading program for the primary grades. But sometimes
there will be overlap and possible conflict. You
mentioned, for example, the case ofa SIP committee
that is looking into a new system for evaluating teachers
in its schoo~ and I'm sure your contract spellS out
in fairly preCise detail the procedures for teacher evaluation.
There are undoubtedly other examples in

which SIP proposals conflict with language that
you've negotiated in the contract. Now what happens?
The master contract says one thing; the SIP committee
calls for something quite different.

O'Rourke: Well, it depends on the situation. Ifthe SIP
proposal affects only a small group of teachers at a
school and if those teachers and their SIP team are
unanimous in wanting to proceed with implementing


is not a bar. We would not-intervene 0 unds that
it was setting a bad precedent for other schools -or On
any grounds. We would not pass judgment or impose
the language of the master contract if that's not What
those teachers wanted. And it would not surprise me
that different groups of teachers come up with a procedure
or a program or a reorganization that they like
better than what is contained in the contract.

We have a very good collective bargaining contract.
We have it because we're <1 very strong union. We've
been the bargaining agent since 1970, and we have a
membership of 96 percent of the teachers; the other 4
percent pay a representation fee. We have a comprehensive
master contract built up over a number of years, and
we are very proud of the language in that contract. But
that doesn't mean it is the best language for all teachers
in all situations. After all, each and every proviSion of the
contract does not and cannot reflect the preference of
each and every teacher, unless teachers have totally
identical opinions on every topic, which they obviously
don't: Where there are divided opinions, the cohtract
can only reflect the majority, and even that, of course, is
subject to what'we are actually able to negotiate. So for
various issues, there's bound to be teachers who would
prefer something other than what's in the contract.

The SIP process we've put together, since it is
decentralized decision making, makes it possible for
more teachers to exercise their judgment as to what
they think is best for themselves and their school, while
still retaining the strength that can only come through a
master contract. Don't forget, this is not a rejection or a
weakening of collective bargaining, but rather an expansion.
We negotiated language in our master contract which
was overwhelmingly ratified by teachers -that
sets forth the purpose and procedures of SIP. In so
doing, we have indirectly but quite dramatically
expanded the scope of what is bargainable.

Also, because the school-site committees are based
on shared decision making, we are moving away from
the "us vs. them" stance that is characteristic of traditional
labor-management relationships. Solving problems,
rather than assigning blame and responsibility to
one side or the other, is becoming the operating principle.
That is a fundamental shift in attitude.

Now, to get back to your original question, if a SIP
proposal affects the entire faculty at a school-let's take
the example you used of a new teacher evaluation sys


1be SIP process makes itpossiiJlefor
more teachers to exercise theirjudgment
as to what they think is bestfor
themselves and their school, while still
retaining the strength that can only come
through a master contract.

SPRING 1987

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t their idea, that's it, they go ahead. The contract language
\ 16 AMERICAN EDUCATOR
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4


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tern that conflicts with the collective bargaining con


tract -then the entire professional staff of the school,

and of course I mean teachers and administrators, must

vote on the proposal, and they must do so using a

specific voting scale. Before I explain how this works, let

me emphasize again that before such a vote would be

taken, there would be extensive small-group discussion

that would probably result in modifications of the orig


inal proposal based on the opinions and objections that

surfaced. The SIP committee doesn't just formulate an

idea and put it to a yes or no vote, up or down. They try

to work toward a consensus.

But after that process is completed, there would be a
vote. The procedure for this vote, by the way, is spelled
out very precisely in our collective bargaining contract.
The voting is scaled from zero to five, from very negative
to very enthusiastic. Anyone who votes zero retains the
right to file a grievance under the normal procedures
spelled out in the contract. They may decide not to file a
grievance, but they have the right to do so within the
regular time limits set forth in the contract, and if they
do, the union will back them in the grievance. The
resolution of that grievance could result in anything. It
could result in the elimination of the SIP project. It
could result in an arbitrator or someone along the way
saying to the SIP team, "Go back to the drawing board
and try to come up with a different approach to try to
meet the objections ofthe teacher or teachers who filed
the grievance." And it could also result in exempting the
grievant from having to participate in the SIP project.

McPike: Theoretically, one person could veto a project
that 99percentofthe faculty ata particular school
want to go ahead with.

O'Rourke: Yes, that's possible but it's not likely, given
the normal group dynamics ofpeople working together
and wanting to get along and the discussions that take
pllJce as part of SIP. And remember this only applies to
those instances in which there are conflicts with our
contract, which aren't many. But we may have gone
overboard. We deliberately erred on the side ofcaution.
Perhaps it should take a certain percentage of people to
block a program, or there might be some way of maintaining
existing conditions for the objecting party without
stopping the entire program. I'm not sure.

McPike:AsI understand it, in a situation in which a
SIP proposal conflicts with the contract, an individual
can file a grievance, but the union as an institution
can't. That's new, isn't it? Frequently, the union as the
protector of the contract would itself file a grievance
over a violation of contract language. I recall your
telling me a story about how, some years back, as local
union president responsible for enforcing the contract,
you went into a school and stopped the faculty
from implementing a program it had developed
because some aspects ofthat program were in conflict
with the master contract.

O'Rourke: Yes, I still remember that vividly. The
school was an elementary school and the teachers were
interested in developing a remedial reading program.
The socioeconomic level of the youngsters attending
that school was poor, and the teachers were discovering
that kids were coming to school unprepared.

The program the teachers developed violated a provision
of the contract, and because we were worried

SPRING 1987

~


about setting a bad precedent,~;~eJance, intervened, and brought the program to a screeching
halt, even though many of the teachers in the
building were looking forward to implementing it. I was
very uncomfortable with the role I had to play. And I
thOUght right then and there that there must be a way
that we can negotiate a master contract that would allow
teachers within a given building to deviate from that
contract as long as there were certain mechanisms built
in that would protect other teachers as well as themselves.
I think we have now done 'that through SIP.

Solving problems, rather than assigning
blame and responsibility to one side or
the other, is becoming the operating
principle. 1bat is a fundamental
shift in attitude.


McPike: The degree Of shared decision making
between teachers and administrators that you've been
describing is a radical departure from the authority
relationships and the divisions Of responsibility that
are typical ofalmost every school district in this country.
What changes in attitude, in mindset, do people
have to make in order to be able to work together in
this new configuration? Let's start with administrators.
The literature discussing the managerial and
organizational changes that are taking place in the
private sector is full Of stories describing the resistance
offirst· line supervisors, who often view any increase
in worker involvement as an encroachment upon
their authority, a threat to their power. What has been
the reaction in Hammond from principals and
assistant principals, and what changes in their
attitudes are necessary to make this process work?

O'Rourke: One of the concepts of SIP is a redefinition
of power. The traditional definition revolves around
an economic scarcity theory: that power is limited, so
that if I have less. vou have more, and vice versa. What
we're talking abo~t in Hammond is a redefinition, an
enlargement of the concept of power. We're not talking
abouttaking power away from one group and giving it
to another. We see this new governance structure rather
as broadening the base ofdecision making in a way that
empowers everyone involved because it results in better,
more informed, more accepted programs and policies,
with everyone on board. Building administrators
don't lose out if teachers are more enthusiastic and
creative, ifschools are better run, and ifstudents learn
more. They don't lose, they win. Everyone wins. .

But, naturally, not everyone sees things this way, and
yes, we have had building principals who are wedded to
the past and to the old definition of power who have

(Continued on page 46)

AMERICAN EDUCATOR 17


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SHARED DECISION MAKING

(Continuedfrompage 17)

reluctantly accepted this new process only because it's
been made clear to th.em that this is the way it's going to
be. Others have embraced it totally and willingly and
with enthusiasm. 1b a large degree, it depends on the
personality and the history and the tradition of the
particular building and person. We've also seen some
administrators whose initial reaction was very negative
but who have now done a complete turnaround. I can
think of individuals whom I would call the worst, the
most autocratic, who have gradually bought into this
process over a period of two years or so and who are
now very comfortable with it.

When people really believe that what they
think, what they say, what they do will
make a diJTerence, they take hold, they
make things happen.

What has been indispensable in all of this is that SIP
has had the full commitment ofthe top administration of
the school district. This is especially essential in the
beginning when there are plenty of doubts floating
around as to whether the administration is serious
about sharing authority or whether this is some new
gimmick. Dave Dickson, the superintendent here,

;'brought with him to Hammond a very open style of
management and a belief in the principle that those
affected by a decision oUght to have some input into
making that decision. He is by personality and style a
person who governs through consensus. In addition, we
have a school board composed of five very secure individuals
who are willing to listen to a superintendent
who says to them that we can enhance education in
Hammond, Indiana, by involving professionals in decision
making. That is very important. If there is a lesson
here for other school boards and other superintendents,
it is that they have nothing to fear from sharing decision
making. The school system is not going to fall apart; it's
going to get bette.: .

McPike: What about teachers~ What effect has SIP
had on them and whatkinds Of changes have they had
to make?

O'Rourke: There has been a tremendous release of
energy and creativity. It's true what they say about this
sense of ownership, it's very powerful. When people
really believe that what they think, what they say, what
they do will make a difference, they take hold, they
make things happen, they look for what needs changing
and they change it, be it in the system or in themselves.
The result here has been a very noticeable feeling of
professional pride and investment in "this school as my
school."

46 AMERICAN EDUCATOR

This doesn't happen autQm~a

considerable amount of cynicism that has grown up

. over the years, which must be overcome first. There are
a lot of teachers who have served on textbook adoption
committees but not had the textbook they recommended
selected; many who have put time and research
into developing better curriculum only to be told in the
end there had to be one unifonn curriculum; many who
were assured that their ideas were good ones or that
their "input was valued," but when it came around to
budget time, there always were "higher priorities" than
the programs the teachers said were needed. These
teachers' enthusiasm and their willingness to be
involved has been drained over the years. It has to be
restored, and that will take time.
Second is the fact that many teachers have accepted a
limited definition of their role. This is a result of years of
lack of empowerment. Teachers were never given the
time or the authority to develop a master schedule; they
were just told to show up for their classes at a certain
hour. They were never asked to develop a disciplip.e
policy for their school; they were just told to keep order
in their classroom.
One often hears about the "autonomy" teachers have
in their classroom, but most teachers realize that it is a
limited autonomy, that all the decisions and polici~
outside of their control eventually find their way into
the classroom, impinge upon that autonomy, and profoundly
limit or expand a teacher's ability to do a good
job. The boundaries ofprofessional authority have been
drawn quite narrowly. As a result, in my opinion, not
only have teachers been robbed of a full expression of
their professional abilities, but the schools and our students
have been denied the full benefits of their expertise.
I really do believe that if education refonn is going
to mean anything at all in this country, and we're not just
paying lip service to it, we must redefine what it means
to be a classroom teacher. If we are really going to
emerge as a profession, we need more control over all
the conditions that affect teaching and learning. A lot of
teachers are ready for that; they need no prompting,
they just need to know that they're not wasting their
time. Others need to really begin to see themselves in a
new way. And this will happen, I'm convinced of that. As
new models emerge, as people begin to see what is
possible, as they build their confidence, as they restore
their trust, as events prove to them that they will be
taken seriously, things will change.
McPike: As I heard you say once, in response to a
question about how hard it would be to bring real
change to a system that has stayed the same for so
long: "Look, we're just one local union in Hammond,
Indiana, we didn't know everything, we took some
risks, and we are making it happen. "
O'Rourke: That's true, we are. And so can others. 0

Initial and ongoing support-in theform ofideas,
training, andfUnding -for the School Improvement
Process has come from the Institute for the Development
ofEducational Activities (IDEA), an ami ofthe
Charles Kettering Foundation, and from the Eli Lilly
Endowment, with additional funding from the Indiana
Criminal Justice Institute and the Indiana State
Department Of Education

SPRING 1987


By Jean Latz Griffin

EducatIOn writer

Pilot ,prggramsthat would enable
teachers to have more say in
how schools are run, what curricu-, 1 lum is used and how students arer taught will becomo' part of nesoti-

J

ations between the Chicago Board
of Education and the Chicago
Teachers Union, according to
union president Jacqueline

fJ Vaughn..
Restructuring schools to allow
teachers more control over their
jobs is a recommendation expected
to be adopted Sunday by the
American Federation of Teachers,
which has been meeting in Chicago
this week.

1

Vaughn said she hopes the

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school board would be receptive to
such a plan. But the approach
would be unusual in Chicago
schools, which until this year had
followed the Chicago Mastery
Learning Reading program, considered
one of the most structured
curricUlums in American schools.

P

t . And though the program was
L j disgarded, the school bOllrd still
exerts stricter controls on its
teachers than do many other systems,
including a recent directIve
that tells teachers how many hours
of homework they must assign
each night at each grade level.

In Chicago, educators se'elf ~rol


Such "oppressive supervision,"
in which' teachers are told what
and how to teach, is driving the
most talented people away from
the profession, said Albert Shanker,
president of the teacher federation.


Vaughn said she believed the
biggest non-monetary obstacle for
the school board would be to having
teachers take over responsibili.
ties that now belong to ·principals.

Principals' organizations around
the natton have objected to that
recommendation, which was made
in May by the Carnegie Forum on
Education and the Economy and
which is mirrored in the federation's
proposal.

Vaughn said she is encouraged
by progress made in a joint committee
of union and board members
that has been meeting amicably
for the last year to work out
how lllinois' comprehensive sebool
reform plan will work in Chicago,
schools.

,

"At first, the board people' were
apprehensive," said Vaughn. "But
as we came in with positive sug~
gestions on how new ideas co~ld
work, they became more recepuve.

Their only question now seems to
be. 'How much will it cost?'"
Vaughn said she sent a draft

r ~

I Why I&GoVemor CUomo New York asaawna'
tile State Boardof Regents? e bas called iUn "eU·
I·, tist group" that exercises "irresponsible leader·
r • I ship" in~.Thole are p!'OpCIIiticD that need
I more evideace ad, it.uue. 111m. .,ecifk: remedies


L j
I dwlthe~bu"etp~-,
111e RepDIa decree ,~anc:lbroad pon..

, .
cies for ~UId private ecIucidoa at all levels,

I

and select b :pammigjoaer of, Education. now
l Gordon Ambac&· Tbe IS-member board alIo U..

j

ceues anct dllc:fp1lne8 31 professtoaa, from pIIpi


ciaIIs to masseurs. aDd oversees Ubrut. aDIi I!No

seems. Created in 1784. it is die oldest CODtiDuouI
ecltfcatioft.pollcy body in the COUDtry;

l "

On the theory that education ~special
insulation from p)litical passions. the state Constt.
tution protects tile board's independence. its mamben
are appointed by the Legislature'for seven

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years. That limits but does Dot elimiDate poUtical
pressure. As opposition to mandated busIDI spread'
20 yean ago. for example, tile Legislature deliber.,
atelylookecl for regents otlikemind. '

I J Mr. Cuomo asks for more direct autbority in
education. but for reasons and in ways that are not
yet c1~. He complains that generous tncreaaes in
state aid to local school districts havenot produced

l J
,the results he wants. He tb1nks the R.epnts and Mr.

copf' of the federation's-propo
to members of die Chicago unio
?~F-2Jj
, -/~
and did "not get a groundswell of
objections. "


But she acknowledged that some

of the ideas, like paying teachers
more in areas' where there is a
shortage and baving teachers evaluate
their peeD. would be contro'
versial departures from union po


sitions.

"The biggest stumbling block,"
Vaughn said, "will be for teachers
who went to education schools to
accept the alternative routes for
college graduates."

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I Why Pick%'New York's Regents?" .

AIIlbadl's EdueatlGa Department sbould be mote·

"accountable" to the Govemor's office, bat wbatis

It he wants doaeorundonethat. theyrefuse?

~ It's admirable that the state's top elected. ~'
da1 wants to be more accountable for ec1uc:ataI '
prosress. But it's also important that the Regems.
with much broader responsibWties thaD, say, New
Yorit's Board of Educatioll, keep a depee of lndependence.
Mr. CUOmo otters no evidence that, with
more direct control, be could better protect the
Board from unwholesome pressures Nor bas he

. sound
• ,

shown that educational priorities have been
neglected bythe Regents.

New York bas indeed raised its lJUlual CODtributiODS
to local schools by S2 blWoa since 1982. to an
annual level of ••8 btlllon. But what results did the
Governorexpect by now? A Repata' "action plan"
to stiffen requirements for bigh school aracfuattoo
took effect....tban a yearago.

He sugpsts that the Regents work full time.
But that runs tile risk of diverting them from broad
policy debate to administration. To reorpnize an
institution that has generally served the state well.
forlOOyean.Mr. Cuomo should offer more substan~
evidence of fallure and changes that address the
problems bepereeivel.

~. '-6

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Metropolitan Ne"Ws

NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY, CONNECTICUT/MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1986

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City Begins Using Teachers to Teach Teacher~


Oy ARI L. GOLDMAN
Seasoned New York City teachers will begin
training their newest colleagues today in
a pilot "master teacher" program being
closely watched by education officials who
are considering making it a permanent feature
of the city's schools.
Robert F. Wagner Jr., the president of the
Board of Eaucation, said that if the program
proved successful, he would be willing to pay
the master teachers up to $60,000 a year, an
increase of nearly 50 percent over current
top salaries for teachers.
Under the pilot program, financed by a
$4 million grant from the State Legislature,
45 mentors -those distinguished by experience
and accomplishment -will oversee the
work of 80 new teachers in 30 schools around
the city.
The"program is part of a national effort to
improve education by drawing on the skills
of seasoned teachers. Advocates say the arrangement
helps keep good teachers in the'

Teachers Teaching Teac11ers


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Continued From Page 01

tract expires in September 1987.

The current top teacher salary is
$40,700. The beginning teacher salary
Is $20,000. Mr. Wagner said he envisioned
1,200 to 1,500 master teaching
positions among the city's 65,000 school
teachers.

The board president said the mentors
would be selected by peer review
-"similar to the way tenure decisions
are made in a universi~y" -with the
principal of the school having the final
say,

I
I
i Ms. Feldman,said shtl also favored
making the master teacher program
permanent, but had some reservations

schools, as well as provide the best training
for newcomers.

There are similar master teacher pro-.
grams in California and Florida, as well as
in school systems around New York State.
New York City got the lion's share $
1.6 million -of the $4 million state grant;
the rest went to 20 other systems.

Motivated but Ineffective

Officials of the New York City Board at
Education and the United Federation· of
Teachers, who jointly developed the pilot
program, agreed that the training was badly
needed.

"You go to the schools and see well-motivated
teachers totally incapable of controlling
a class," Mr. Wagner said.

"The board has been hiring a lot of people
without any pedagogical training," said the
president of the teachers union, Sandra Feldman.


about the Wagner proposal. ,

Of the new salary, she :;aid, "Obviously
this has to be something rhat
comes on top of a generous salary offer."


"This cannot be a substitute for a
substantial raising of the salary schedule
for all teachers," Ms, Feldman
went on. "Our salaries are way be~ind
those of teachers in the surrounding
metropolitan area."

She also said she did not want the
final deCision on who was chosen a
master teacher left to the princip.al.
"We would want to negotiate a b~ter
selection system, where the teac1iers
would have a greater say," she 'Said.

Many of the 2,000 teachers hired this year,
for example, do not have degrees in education,
according to board officials. And because
of an administrative error, two-thirds
of the new teachers missed training sessions
that were held before school opened in Sep


, tember.
Under the pilot program, each mentor is
released from classroom duties 20 percent of
the school day, while the new teachers are
released 40 percent of the time.
: The new teachers spend part of the day as
observers in the mentors' classrooms. They
; also meet to discuss teaching techniques and
: to talk about problems the new reachers
i may be having. The mentors are paid extra
. only for the overtime they accrue.
Mr. Wagner said he would put the proposal
, to pay permanent master teachers $60,000 a
year before the union in the contract talks
that are scheduled for next spring. The can·

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+ THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, MAY 10, 1987
'TEACHERS' SCHOOL
PROPOSED BY UNION


New York City High School Js
Seen as Drawing Minority
Youths Into Teaching


By JANE PERLEZ
Instead of seeking minority and bilingual
teachers in foreign countries, the
New York City Board of Education
should establish a high school to prepare
students to become teachers, the
president of the United Federation of
'[(':-tchers, Sandra Feldman, said yes,
erday_ ,
Such a school, she said, could serve a
two-fold purpose: to train more minority
students to be teachers and to
help alleviate an impending shortage
of It-achers in the city.
According to the Board of Education,
,:hllut 18 percent of the city's teachers
nrC' hlack, Hispanic or Asian. Almost 80

percent of the studE'nts are members of
mil1llrily groups. In addition, about half 'h" city's teaching force of 62,000 will

be ('ligible to retire in the next 6 to 10
Vl';~rs, Ms. Feldman said.

Critical of Recruiting

Speaking at the spring conference of
the teacher'S union at the Sheraton
Centre Hotel in Manhattan, Ms. Feldman
said speCialized high schools to
train students in a variety of careers
are proliferating in the city but none Is
devoted to teaching. "How ironic it is
that the school system encourages its
students to enter every profession but
'~lIcation," she said.

"I don't think forays into foreign
countries are going to produce the
kinds of teachers we need," Ms. Feldman
said.

.For the past two years, the Board of
Education has hired teachers from
Spain in an effort to increase the numbers
of teachers capable of instructing

hilinoll"\ r\"""pl::

Girl Scouts Celebrate Their Diamond Anniversary

Scouts waiting yesterday to march in a parade in leaders participated along with eight marching
lower Manhattan to mark the 75th birthday of the bands and several floats. There are some 37,000 Girl
Girl Scouts of America. About 6,000 girls and their Scouts in New York City.

For the coming school year, instead Robert F. Wagner Jr., said he was eluded two suggestions for dealing with
of hiring from Spain, the board has an-' eager to improve the standard of poor teachers.
nounced it will recruit more teachers teaching in schools. But he said such an
from Puerto Rico. The board said it effort needed the cooperation and en-The first, Ms. Feldman said, was to
was also recruiting teachers from the thusiasm of teachers. streamline the process of hearings that
Dominican Republic because of the in-. , can drag on for 18 months when a
creasing number of students from that Mr. Wagner "said he ha~ be~? ap-school administrator attempts to dis-

country

.

Wagner Seeks Cooperation
Ms. Feldman said she had informed
the board of her proposal and hoped it

mi hl be ado ted b convertin one of
th gl P rehY i h'ghg h I

e arge comp ens ve I sc 00 s

' I f d tit ted .

into a s ch00 or stu en s n eres m

. 'd

teaching, or such related areas as gUI


ance counseling

.
In. remarks to the conference, ,the

nrf'sident of the Board of Education.

palled by the moral turpitude and miss a teacher

"terrible behavior" evident in discipli-. .

nary cases of teachers that had come fo correct p.rofesslon.al problems,
before the board. Ms_ Feldman said, the umon was eager
to try "peer intervention," in which a I

Ms_ F~ldman said she was also con-highly regarded, experienced teacher
cemed_ I understand they have a few would be assigned to a teacher with a

h d " she sa'd "No one

orren ous cases, I . poor performance record The experl

f th U 'ted Fed t' f T ach-.


rom e m era 100.. 0 e enced teacher would try to counsel the

ers is interested in having child molest-oth t h .. i kill h

." er eac er m Improv ng s s, s e

. ers m the classroom. . said. Such a program is working
She said the union, as part of Its cur-smoothly in Toledo, Ohio, and Roches


r<>n' ...nllo.... ; ..o h~rn..inino nrnnn",,1 in_ '<>r

,


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Professional Issues: Setting an Agenda for 1987-1990

III. Teacher Shortage--Labor Market Trends
1 -"State will need 10,000-ZO,000 teachers, education chief
says", Boston Globe, 1Z/18/86

2 -"Study predicts teachers shortages by 1991", MTA
TODAY, 6/19/87

3 -"Boston Maxket is tight for teachers", Boston Globe,
6/30/86

4 -"Is There a Teacher Shortage? It's Anyones's Guess", Ed
Week, 6/Z4/87

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tI:.-___I...-~ l.-.__~:":""""'" ~...;:._~-d ·'..L..J.....L.:J.__

"----~

-"

THE BOSTON GWBE T1lURSIJI\... , DECEMIJER Hi..19OO 37

METRO/RE N
St,lte will need 10,000·20,000 teacliers, education chief says


Ih \1.,.,;, I ('"hen couraglng the best and brightest. we have :-' study of the supply and demand' for

bring more teachers Into the profession.

c.I"I~ SIIII to ta~e off some of the baroque and rcr For the bright. capa-teachers and an analysIs of the number "There Is no way we could train enough
~1'''',,,d1Usetts will need between coco. he said. bl t t th and quality of teacher education pre>-to fill 20.000 Jobs." Raynolds said.

10,IlllO .",1 20.000 classroom teachers With the average teacher In Mass-e person 0 en er e grams In Massachusetts public and prl-

Raynolds Is calling for a new category.

'I'd hill '1 ,,. next few years to replace those achusetts nearing 50. Raynolds said he profession adminis-vate colleges and universities.

apprentice teacher. for liberal arts and

\\,10" ".• 'i be retiring state Education will make two major recommendations to • ,

(',,'"""', ,;"ner Harold' Raynolds J~. pre-the state Board of Education today that trative red tape and The Massachusetts survey follows a sciences graduates who are Interested In

national report that called the warnings teaching. He said he would recommend

dl. Hoi ,""erday. will make certification more flexible and unnecessary require-

of a forthcoming teacher Shortage "a that such candidates be allowed to teach
myth." Author Emily Felstrltzer. director for two years while working toward full

1111 1""Jected loss from among the encourage bright college graduates to en


,Iall"c, 1" •• 000 teachers comes at a time ler the profession. ments should be eJimi


of the National Center for Education Incerllflcatlon.
with the details to be left to

"1,,," II,' '.Iate's teacher certification pro-Raynolds' proposals are among sever-ted .

formation. says a state-by-state analysis the local school department.

,'1',', I' I" i IIg sharply criticized for ,lis lack al mOves under way by the Board of Re-na .

contradicts earlier warnings of a pending

"I t"JIo'II"'·s.~. excessive regulation and In-gents of Higher Education and legislative "That. In effect. would be a master In

shortage of teachers.

al.;lit\ I" Ic"Spond. Raynoldssald. lead~rs aimed at strengthening the -Edward Doherty. president of arts In teaching." said Raynolds.
"W,. Io:,ve constructed a very ornate state s schools, the Boston Teachers Union However. Raynolds argues that Massrd,
ll.',-· 10-1 leacher certification. If It Is dls-In January. the regents wtlliasue their --------------


achusetts must face up to the need to TEACHERS. Page 44

~..----...

,-,-._-_.

~4 -"-----.~...

Slat~' will need 10,000·20,000 teachers, education chief says


ers to get CertlflC~on. The rules legislature can do." said Paleoloprofession
Is because of lockstep
('0111.111'1' j from Page 37 certification,.. ates who have to delay their emshould
be easier a more fleXible. goo yesterday. adherence to regulations that are

• TF:A(,IIERS plicant must go the usual route to cult for liberal arts college gradumore
appropriate to 1968 than to

Raynolds saln he will also recployment.
to take a semester off to but the standards hould be made Paleolog08. one of the archI


1986." said J?aleologos.

IIi 'nnd recommendation higher," Doherty added.

ommend thaI state funds be allotdo
their practice teaching." said tects of the 1985 School Improve


"It would be nice to get teach


"""I, I· " hllsh a certification rement
Act. said the focus on teach


ted for a 22 percent pay Increase Doherty. Next Monday. a legislative

ers who majored In something oth


"11".' 1,-'H"I"felghtto 14 members, ers Is the second wave of the

.I for teachers volunteering to work Commission on the Conditions of

"There are now artificial and er than education. It Is not sur


kII·.·.. "01.~'·able about teacher

40 more days a year on planning Teaching will meet to explore school reform movement In Mass


unnecessary barriers to certificaprising
that surveys show that

~k;II', ",,, could certify candl


and related professional tasks, strategies for making teaching achusetts.

tion. For the bright. capable perone
out of every five elementary

dat.", """ college degrees on the

son to enter the /professlon. admore
attractive to capable college "Nobody adheres to the present teachers never took a science

One of the complaints about

ha0.;1 '. ql III!' experience.

ministrative red tape and unnecgraduates.
according to Rep. NIchcertification
process. There are course," Paleologos added.

I I" ' are older people whc the current certification process

comes from Edward Doherty. essary requirements should be olas Paleologos (D-Woburn). House problems with the statute and the He and Raynolds are strong

""" ',', ,,,,1 til change their fields or

presIdent of the Boston Teachers eliminated. chairman of the education comway
It Is adminIstered. The educasupporters
of the slx-months-old

f'nlc'l !. 'I' hlng after working In

mittee. tion department's certification

hll~;l!tl";" or other areas," said UnIon. the largest In the state. "Looking at what may be a sigcarnegie
CommiSSion report on
R;I\ Pldd" "One of the problems Is the renificant
teacher shortage In the "We have asked the regents

process Is totally In,flexlble. and teaching. which calls for the elimiand
the educaflon commissioner their Inability to deal with changnation
of the undergraduate de


"II ,,!!' panel approves. the cerquIrement
for practice teachIng. next five or 10 years. the state
t ilil :1' 1I11! Ie; granted: If not. the ap-Enlry Into teachIng Is mane dlffl-ought to make It easier for teach-for recommendations on what the Ing circumstances In the teachIng gree In education.


Coalition recommends reorganization of the school budget process

The Citywide Educational Ccr day. the group rl'('ommended the the 6.526 specIal education, stu•
Begin planning Its 1988 budalltton
thIs week Issued an analydepartment
reorganize Its budget dents who are taught In both regget
as soon as possible.
sis of the Boston School Departprocess.
particularly by concenular
classrooms and In resource • Move toward a programment
budget. saying It failed to retrating
Its resources on programs rooms; $9.717 for each of the based budget -making budget deflect
"an organized and planned that wtll resolve the system's aca4,132
specIal education students cisions based on program results,

response to the near-crlses educademiC
problems of low test scores who are taught In classrooms sep•
Decentralize deCiSion-maktional
needs of Boston students." and a high dropout rate. arate from the main student body:

Ing for state Improvement grants

The coalition. an advocacy Based on the costs for educaand
$20.683 for each of the 872 by allOWing' schools to develop
group for the public schools. noted tion. transportation and other adspecial
education students who their own problem-solVIng proposthat
the school budget of $335.\

~ t

ministrative and maintenance exare
educated outside of Boston als ralher than follow gUidelines
mUlIon Is the largest In memory. penditures. I he coalition estimates public school buildings. Issued by the superlntendent's of-
Of the total. $295 million was allothe
School Department spends The group commended Superfice,
"

cated by City Hall and $39.8 mil$
4.916 for each of the 39.432 reguIntendent
Laval S. Wilson for • Broaden remediation efforts
lion comes from state and federal lar education students; $5.228 for "trying to reorganize the budget through systematic change. not
grants.

each of the 8.529 btllngual educaprocess."
but /I recommenned "piecemeal."
In an analYSiS released Tues-tion students; $5.910 for each of that the School Department: -PEGGY HERNANDEZ



f'vlEMBERS' RIGHTS



n

Study predicts teachers shortages by 1991

I__________________________________________________________________________

~--------------------


Enrollments expected to drop

A new study predicts a teacher'
shortage in Massachusetts by 1991 and
gives local school systems explicit
advice: hang on to the teachers you
have.

The "Report on, the Status of Teacher
Supply a,nd Demand in Massachusetts"
was prepared by the Massachusetts
Institute for Social and Economic Research
at UMassl Amherst., It was released
June 1 by the sta'te Board of
Regents ,of Higher Education and the
state Department of Education.

The report predicts a turnaround in
enrollment declines by the end of this
decade, creating a situation "in which
too few teachers will be produced by
colleges to match already swelling
primary and secondary enrollments."

Specifically, the report sees coming-f ~ teacher shortages in biling\!al education,
English, general sciences, mathe


l

d

matics, biology, chemistry, social studies
and vpcational studies. ,
Areas which the report says are
r ' "unlikely to experience either shortages
I
L J
or surpluses of any great magnitude"

include early childhood, elementary
and middle school education.
Areas "likely to have no future

f 1

I
shortages but which have some near
term, modest surpluses" include

L J

French, Spanish and other languages.

r > 'Paradoxical'
Of this !;ist finding, the report notes,

\

~ ,
"This is paradoxical given the bilingual
education dilemma." But the "paradox"
only underscores the report's admitted
limitations due to the exclusion of
certain geographic and other factors.

l J
Thus, ' the report predicts, "Shortages
are likely to occur in some places at
times when others have sufficient
supply."

The report also acknowledges that an
analysis of geographic factors "focusing

on wages from neighboring states
would show difficulties caused' by
competition with bordering states."

The report advises the state and its
school districts to "maintain teachers
through periods with potential surpluses
to help defray anticipated, later
shortages."

Some of the report's major findings:
ENROLLMENTS:

• Total enrollments in the state
reached their peak in 1974 at 1,183,028
students and are ·expected to decline by
31.6 percent through 1990 to 809,402.
"Beyond this point, enrollments will
rise," the report says.
• K-6 enrollments reached their
minimum at 414,281 in 1985 from their
peak of 629,147 in 1974.
• Grade 7-12 enrollments will drop
to 350,451 by 1991 from their peak of,
560,454 in 1976.
TEACJlING WORKFORCE:

• The teaching workforce has fallen
from a peak of 73,559 in 1977 to 62,225
in 1986. It may fall further.
'. The average age of the workforce
increased from 36 in 1973 to 42 in 1985.
This aging is expected to continue.

• The aging of the workforce"
coupled with Proposition 2'h', has
greatly diminished the participation of
the young in teaching. There has been
a 91.5 percent decline in the youngest
cohort, aged 20-24, and an 83.7 percent
decline in the number aged 25-29
between 1973 and 1985.
• There has been increased attrition
for all age groups from 1973 to 1985.
These rates increased dramatically in
the year of Proposition 2'h, the highest
rates being for teachers of ages 20-29.
• Recent attrition rates seem highest
for art studies, special education, bilingual
and foreign language teachers. It
has been lower for the sciences,
chemistry and biology (although phys-
Elin Schultz, a first-grade teacher at Fiske Elementary School in Lexington, protests the proposed
implementation of an extended morning kindergarten ·program in September. Lexington teachers
demonstrated in front of Clarke Junior High School May 19 because they say that the program, at

~ ."-~ .•r <:1Q"1-'Q .";,, .........,., :",....., ... ' .• ' ..... f '."J_,~ ,1.,' '0'-f, ••" •.• .J •.•• -l t.,,, 4'1c:'nnnn


Commissioner of Education Harold Raynolds Jr., left, listens as Chancel/or of Higher Education
Franklyn G. Jenifer discusses the MISER report on teacher supply and demand.

ics is relatively high) and the early
childhood; elementary and middle
school teachers. (The report contends,
"These data do not support the popular
concept that science teachers are dtained
away in large quantities by nonteaching
job offers.") ,
CERTIFICATION PROGRAMS:

\.• Only 15.7 percent of the graduates
of the programs surveyed were hired
in Massachusetts.

• Only 425 of the 2,154 persons
newly hired in the state in 1985 were
1982-85 graduates of Massachusetts
programs.
MINORITY BALANCE:
• While enrollments of white public
school students in the state feU by 23.7
percent from 1979 to 1985, enrollments
of minorities rose by 7.4 percent. Asian
students doubled and hispanic students
increased neady 45 percent. The
percentage of minority students enrolled
in the state has increased from less
than 12 percent in 1979 to almost 16
percent in 1985.

• Only 19 of the Massachusetts
programs leading to certification reported
on the minority. status of their
graduatelt. Of those that did, the
percentage of minority graduates declined
from 13 percent to about 6
percent between 1982 and 1986. The
percentages of minorities hired from
these programs were less than the
percentages of the minority graduates.
According to the report, "This implies
either a bias in the teaching system
against hiring minority teachers or
greater job opportunities for minority
college graduates who consequently
choose not to enter teaching."
\ j

Contract provides
19% pay hikes

, The Milton Educators Association
has ratified a three-year agreement
which provides for a 19 percent
increase during the life of the contract.
\ , hi~~et~:a~~:!sy:~!~ ~:~ a6~ ~:~~:~:
increases in each of the second and
third years.
In addition, teachers holding a mas


t ,
ter's degree will receive a $500 increment
in the third,yeaP of thet:ontract.
The MEA was successful in maintaining
the current work day schedule

'despite a sChool committee move to

, , alter the schedule. The association also
staved off the' school committee's efforts
to reduce the contract's job
security, language.
, School nurses wilL receive the same

, percentage increases and two addition


~1 o:::h:"ru:~ lvnl hn ~""'rtnrl f.n thO;''' ~,h....

retirement provIsions as teachers. The
increments will yield an additiorial
$500 a year in the first and second
years of the contract for nurses at the
maximum level.

The contract settlement followed
active association involvement in the
bargailling. llte MEA told the school
committee that the town was obligated '
to make a commitment to retain
quality teachers with adequate compensation
in the next three years.

, The members of the MEA bargaining
team were: MEA President Lorraine
Greenfield, Mary Cobb, chair of
the negotiations team, MEA Vice President
Liz Mercer, Nancy. Peterson,
Margaret Gibbons, Carol McDonald,
Jim Donahue,· Leslie Haines, Linda
Griffin, Anne Marie Stanton, Jean

v ... :_.. T"t••• f): .........:1,..... ...... T:~ Q.,T....1~,.: .... 'T'1....



r--""T'""': ~ ~

~

~

~

l~ --_..... IL__ L~ ~__,..:......:.J ~:~ =::=J

'\

?' THE BOSTON GLOBE MONDAY, JUNE 30, 1986 21
_.~;~._ ttg

Comics 24,25
TV & Radio 27
~ "7
:r~ ·~j;ii::~::::~~:::::::::'':::::~~~~~::;:''''~~::~!:::!!~~:!!!~~!!!::!!!!!~:!!!!:~!!~''...........:~~~~~~~~~~.......::.. , ·.ur
""T~,
Boston·market is tight for teachers
By Muriel Cohen
Globe Staff

Francesca Beninati, just graduated
from college, is now competing with hundreds
of other candidates for the few
available teaching jobs in Greater Boston,
while the rest of the country, including
New York\City and Los Angeles, is
clamoring for teachers.

''i'live in SOmerville and I don't want
to relocate," said Beninati, 23, who
transferred to Northeastern University
after majoring for two years in math and
busine$S at Boston College. On June 22,
she graduated with a degree in elementary
education.

For Beninati and others in the class
of '86, getting a teaching appOintment in
Massachusetts will be difficult, personnel
specialists agree. In addition to the

,But jobs are plentiful elsewhere in" US


immediate tightness of the job market,
the teaching profession faces long-range
questions about how teachers should be
trained.

A teacher shortage in Massachusetts .
comparable to that in the rest of the
country will not develop for a few more
years, according to Stephen Coelen, a
University of Massachusetts-Amherst researcher
who is conducting a study for
the state Board of Regents of Higher EdU.,
cation.

. While his study will not be completed
for two or three more months, Coelen
said last week that "the numbers of high
school seniors in Massachusetts will continue
to decline until 1995. That means

fewer students who will be entering
teacher-training programs.

i,

"The number [of graduates] selecting
teaching has been declining since the
early '70s, until three years ago when
there was a slight rebound. The percentage
going into teaching ran from 9 percent
in 1973 to about 2.5 percent In 1980
and is now ruimlng about 3 to 4' percent,"
Coelen Said in a telephone interview.


Coelen also said that enrollment data
show a slight riSe in the first three
grades across the state,-giving some hope
to Beninati and her classmates as they
look for places in elementary classrooms.

The Boston area, with its concentration
of colleges, is regarded as a prime

target for recruiters of teachers. In,April,
teams from communities across -the
country sought candidates het:e.. Trte
most aggreSSive was Prince Georges
County, Md., which offered discounts.on
rents and cars, restaurant m~18; al1d
other benefits to attract new graduates.
Prince Georges offiCials said last iveclt f·1

they were not ye,t sure how IpariY~,stir "
dents would aCCept their job otters: < : ..... -•

MeanwhUe, teacher-training et!R1C1lb-:
la and certification standards rilaY::be .
changed in the wake of recentnn.m-,

mendatlons by two presttgi6uS,··~)t,.·0'" "

groups, the deans of colleges of education ~
and a Carnegie Commission p~, I, ,:it
which urged prospective teachers (b • .
jor in liberal arts as undergraduates.aiL , . ~
pursue pedagogic training in g~a!e r\

school. •
TEACHING, Page 26 '... ~


~~.' ~

-, ----, ~

~
~
tJ.__ J_ .._ • ..::.W ~~ L~Ll..-,...I

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TillS WEEK'S FORUM: PAGES 21, 22, & 23

h
DUCATION EEK


C'! 1987 1",,1,._....:._...... •

Ameri('an Education's Newspaper ofRecord I $1.00 Voluine VI, Number 39 . June 24, 1987

Is There aTeacher Shortage? It's Anyone's Guess


Absence ofReliable Data
Casts Doubt on Studies


By Lynn Olson
and Blake Rodman

The debate rages.

Last winter, the National Education
Association announced that "public
schools in the United States are facing a
severe teacher shortage."

But the U.S; Bureau ofLabor Statistics
weighed in with a decidedly di1fe:rent view.

~cations...arethatnosho~eof
teachers will develop," a bureau analyst
wrote, shortly afterthe N.E.A. released its
report.

The American Federation ofThachera,
the RAND Corporation, the National Center
_ ~nInformation, and numerous
..players on the education .
stagehave also weighedinonone side or

. ~otber. .

The pNb1eni, accOrding to many experts,
isthatthereis notenoughinfurmation
to know which view is c:onect.

Despite the rush of media attention
given to the teacher shortage in the past
tewyears,dataon thesubject are80 inadequate
that a ~trepQJt by the Na-

EDUCATION WEEK· JUNE 24, 1987

Teachers' Age Distribution, 1974 and 1984


,,':.."
Total
2.490,000
55 __00w
250.000
45-54 yeatS
440,000
3&-44 yeatS
820,000
_us.o.s--"'_

;.' .

'.....

tiaoa1 Academy of Sciences calls it the
-statistical dark."

Asked to describe the data on which
people are basing their projections, Leo
Eiden. a Senior programanalyst with the
federal Center fur Education Statistics.
said, "'nlere are holes big enough to drive
Mack trucks through." .

More than halfofthe states collect some

kind of data on teacher Supply and d&
mand, experts estimate. But fewer than a
dozen conduct any eophisticamd analyses.

Both stateandfederal databases and
the interpretations basedon them-have
been trounced by critics as being grossly
inadequate. .

The federal government and many

Continzuul. on Page 14

.UJ~rk~
Creati~ foil

Inl~~ €J /riitf~~
BySC n-;~(,

Statute's j .'

ISRule~® ~/:;<'?h


WASHINGTON

=l~:hJ}.LJ,.J ;/~~/J 4~

lates the First I..YI!uu~
gov~t est. ~/~

U.S. Supreme Court rweu Jast week.
In a 7-to-2 decision, the Court held that
the state legislature's primary intent inenacting
the law in 1981 "was clearly to advance
the religious viewpoint that a supernaturalbeingcreated
humankind," and pot r{\

to advance the cause ofacademic freedom,~~,
as the state maintained. ~

-n.e legislative history dOOIJJJlmts that ~
the act's primary pwpoee was to'change the ~
science cmriculum ofpublic.....in order ~
to provide ~advantage to a ~reli-~
giousdoctrine that~the.~basisof:1evolution
in its entirety," AAArC:iate d\1atice '
WilliamJ. Brennanwrote_the ~in ~

Edwards v. Aguilard (~No. 8/).1513).
Continzuul. on Poge 6

r


rl
rl
14EDUCA'J10N WEEK·JUNE 24.1987

J

L j LiCk ofDatfi'Stymies Efforts To Predict TeacherSupply and Demaii<r--'

will remain relatively stable or

Continued from P,,# I

complete picture of the nationsl

more important. acoording to ana·

Far trickier, everyooe -.ia

fl
fl
surge in the coming decade.

estimating teacher supply.

ocene.

lysIB. Statee are the primary gate


Aa:onIing to RAND officiala, an ago

state governments do Dot report

"!bere are 16.000 di1I'erent situa


keepen Cor teacher supply and de


According fA> the Academy. cur·

data on teacber supply and demand

Uollll, and it', fair to say that no two

mand. They determine teaching

rent estimatea ofteachor supply are

ingteacberli>rce-whoaeaverage iii"

ia!lOW 41-moans that the number of

by geographic regiona or 8ubject

are alike." said Dorothy M. GiIfurd,

standarda ODd provide incenllv ....

"totally inadequate' and '80 inacocu·

retirements will climb in the future.

areas. Neither do they know pn!Ciso


Itudy director for the Academy',

ADd they are paying an increasingly

rate" that they are "uaeIe. oven in

Thatfact, combined with an in1hu: of

ly how many certified or uncertified

committee on national statistics.

large share ofeducallon coots.

the short run."

rJ
rJ
'This ia why you get such dill'en!nt

10 addition, most oboervera agree.

new teed>en, who have a1raditional·

people are tW:hing particular clas


Thad>en!lOW in the claaoroom rep


the teacher labor lDIlIket is largely

ly higher turnover rate, could n!I!Ult

ses from year to year, or how many

perceptiona. "

......tthe bulkofteedJersupply. The

_ part of the picture, Ihen!in. ia

in an increUe in attrition within the

teachers are miBaBBigned at any

Said Mr. Eiden: "!'he aneedotal

state. regional. and local-not no


non 10 years, they say.

tional-becauae teaching is Dot a

point in time. And they do not keep

infurmatlon you've been acquiring.

flying to prqect how many people

But Daniel Hecker. alabor.."no


ia it true? Could be. But trying to

particularly mobile profeasion.

will contlnue to teech from .... year

detailed informallon on where the

Right now. no one knows whate!


miat with the Bureau of Labor Stat


new teachers hired. Olme from.

jump from that to 8 number-it

to the next and into the iIture.

[1
[1
iatlca, diaagrees.

can\ be documented."

fects reoent educallon-reform poli


In addition, e.sperta say. many

Th detennine that figure. statlstl·

-ns. preaent pool ofteachera aged

'"I8king local situallonll and tzy


cies will have on the labor market.

clans estimate the "attrition" or

state data bases are not automated

45 and older ia only slightly larser

or centralized to provide easy acceoo

ing to generalite will create pr0b


Accurate, reliable information to

"separation" rate-tb.e number of

than it wu in 197'," he wrote.

to informatlon. Moot diatrids do not

lema, and it can't be done."

help policymakers shape their deci·

people who will leave t.ead!.ing ei·

~refore, the number of retiJ"e..

keep track oChow their hlring plana

sions is just not there.

ther far retlrement orother reaaoIia.

Politico aDd Moaey

menta in the next decade should be

But policies baaed on inadequate

Until recently. the Center b-Edu


change during the year. based on

about the same aa it was in the last

supply and demand. And DO ODe

In the aboenco oCfigures that ev


Demand for Additional Teache<s
Supply 01 New Teacher Graduates
one; no surge is likely.


r-P>ws the effects ofteachor migra.

-eryon.e can agree on, politica and

'So the average age baa gone up,"

money are playing a large part in

&n on eoIimateo ofsupply.

Demand for Additional Teachers

he said. 'It ia the Dumber who are

shaping ~0D8ofsupply and de


Moreover. the v~oourc:e of the

l J

within 10 years of retirement that

information. achool adminislnton

mand.

Supply of New Teacher Graduates

Thus far. both notlonaJ teachers·

really """'lB."

and teachera. may not be providing

1980-1983

Although Mr. Hecker conceded

aa:urate, coosistentclata. iIeepoD8eO

uniona are predicting serious teach


. may VII!y based on how and when

that the retirement rate may in·

er shortages in the future. as ia the

"
"
the qu_are aoked. (See 1ttJry.

creaae after 1995. be noted that

RAND Corporation's center for the

making projections more than 10

stUdy ofthe t.ead!.ing pro_on. 10

pagtl6J

l 1

years into the future ia risky.

10 the aboenco ofcomplete and re


mntraat, the Labor Department and

Eatimates of attritlon at the state

liable data, conduaiona are being

C. Emily Feiatritzer. a private edu·
level VII!y from 4 percent to 12 per·

callon analyst, have insiated that no

drawn on what experts deeoibe ..

nollonal shortage _ or is pend


cen~ aooording to Ms. Gerald ofthe

disparate "hilB and pioceo" oC infur


Center far Educatlon Statlstlcs. She

ing. That view baa heeo endoraed by

( mallon. anecdotea. and "personal

also noted that each atate's defini


Socretaty of Education WillJam J.

belie&.'

I

tion of attrition variea, .. does the

~ J o.cwe are very much concerned.

BeIUlett.

way it computes the figure. Many

According to Arthur E. Wlae. di


about the ertObeOU8 coocluaioos that

states do not publiah attrillon ratea

rector of the RAND center, "1b say

are 8'lingto be made,"said Mr. Eiden.

at aU.

that we have a aisia coming means

The Academy's 1987 interim re


Recent studiea also indicate that

that we must do something aerioua.

port on teacber supply and demand,

attrition ratee VII!y by age. ezper


So depending upon whether your

oommiasioped by the Nalloaa/ Sci·

ience. and subject taught. Thus.....

main miaaion in life is the preserva


ence Fbundatlon and the U.s. Edu


ing one rate to predict ahortagea

catlon Deportment, caulloneci that

tion of the status quo or your main

across slBtee. fielda, or grade levels

miaeion ia to try to brinjJ about ma


"fiuzy c:o<>cepIs and an aboenco of

may not be aa:urate.

agroed-upon terminology" are fUel


jorchange colora how you look atthe

ing the COIItrover.y.

W:IB."

NowSnpply

At the bear! ofthe debate lie .......


"Thooe people who want to bring

Aller determining how many of

ahoutchange mayhave aome reaaon

inI!IY im>ooadlable opiniooa about


today. teachers will leave the pro


to pay attenllon to data that indicate

'quality" and human behavior. Who

l J

_on, the remainder ofthe supply

ia qualified to _? ADd what, if

a-problem," he said. 'People who are

anything, wiU attract different

more cooservative, who want to be


estimate ia based on the "new aup


lieve that we am maintain the eya.

ply." This inoolvea determining the

groupo of people to the pni€eosioo?

willingnoas to teach of people not

tem as it currently is without ~

16,000~

now doing ao-a nearly impooaible

ing more money, have an incentive

_atpreaent.

Baood OIl _!rom the Cen


to ... that there·, no problem."

data, the Academy wama, 'will be

cation Statiatiea baa based ilB no


ter for Education Statistics, most

CoDBt.anoe F. Citro. study director

irrelevant at best and counterpro


tiooal ~OIl a 6 percent attri


Included in thia pool are new

ductive at worst.·

agree that at minimum the natloD

far the Academy's committee on na


tioo rate. oomputed in 1989-a rate

graduatoa of teadJer.educatlon pr0


Ilonal statistics. agreed: "What it

Inllated prediction, of future

that aome ..y iaaoolditoould not pos


gram&. It alao ~yincludes:

will need to hire oomo 200.000 teach


oibIy be oorTOct.


other newly certified graduates with

en a year b-the next five years.

comes down to here is money. Do we

shortages, othera say. could cauae

want to spend money, or do we want

too many people to prepare to teach.

In contraat, far 1983-84. the Bu


"..,-education maion; thoee certified

The dehate really centers around

through _ and altematlve

beliefB about whether that need !:aD

not to spend money? Bringing out

"You want to make sure that we

reau of Labor Statlatiao calculated

don't tell millions oflrida that there

routes; people in othar pn>feaaions

be met.

numberscan help make a caae Cor or

an attrillOll rate fur elementary and

againat that."

are going to be joha out there. ODd

oec:oodary teachera ofroughly 9 per-

who may decide to become ~

cent. .

then have them trained to he tee.ch


and eertilIed teochers who loA ~

Said Debra Gerald. a mathemat


era and notbe able to uaethem,"said

ing b-ODe ...... or another or who

"You wanl to moke ical etatiatician with the Center far

Aca.nlingto Linda Darling-Ham


moocI, cliroct« of ......,•• education

[ , Education Statlstlcs: "Unfortunate


Peter M. Prowda, coordinator ofre


....... entered the........,..


_ aervices fur the Connecticut

"

sure that we don't teU ly, to tryand "'Plain teacher supply

and human-re&0un:e8 program, the

"Each of tbeae groupe," notea the

Department ofEduc:allon.

Nallonal Academy of Science. re


and demand, the public baa tried to

difference amounts to 600,000

f millions ofkids that

teachers between now and 1992-93.

port, 'has. very dill'en!nt prohohil


l simplify very. very compl"" situa


J

'Not1'00 TrIcky'

there are going to be Ilona. We often get into trouble.

The federal center'a projection

ity ofbeing atuaded to t.ead!.ing un


ProjectiOns of a shortage are

der current conditioD. and of

"Supply and demand ia not a aim


that 1 million teachera will need to

jobs out there, and

pletopic;itiaacomple:J:topic. You've

based on two compononlB: the an


be hired betwoen IIOW and tben-or

reaponding to particular polky ini


then •.• not be able goo! to be willing to ru-aU the

ticipated demand far tead>era. and

200.000 a )'08I'-<Mta OIl the 6 pertlall_
aimed at a-.,. teach


the expected aupply of teachers

cent attrition rate. Ma. Darling.

pi..,..."

ers. Yet virtually nothing ia known

to use them."

available to 6Il that demand.

Hammond believ..theoomoctnum


shout tbeae clifI'erenceo."

'Cotmterproduclive'

Estimates of demand at both the

ber ia cloaer to 1.5 million.

"Virtually none'ofthe national or

-'_M.~

nationaJ·and etate levela are baaed

Although RAND favors the 9 per


Developing better projectiona of

state ri>odelo of teacher supply and

c_~o.,.-.

teacher supply and demand ia im


priInarilfonprqectedstudeotenroU.

cent figure-haaed on data it baa

demand providea a "serious analyaia

gathered from a number oC atatos-.

portant far a number ofreaaona, ex


ment and OIl teacher_t ralloa.

of theae various typos of potential

10 addition, everyo""; _ that

"!'hat', not too hard to do. bo


pertaaay.

the Conte< far Education Statlstlca

teacher supply," it arguea.

cause baaically you figure out how

argues that it ia too high.

there are current apot shortages in

If people knew that there was a

Fears of a teacher shortage have

nollonal shortage oCteachera, Cor in


many kids are going to be in

According to center omow. the

heeo fueled inrocent yearsby projec


l certain goographic areas and in oer


_.it might away them to enter

school," said Richard J. Murnane.

Labor Department included in ilB

Ilona from the Center for Educ:allon

0
lain BUbiecta, and that thia situallon

professor ot education at Harvard

calculallon all thoee wbo described

ia likely to contlnue. But they dis


the field. Similarly. if the sholtage

Statlstlcs that the proportion of col


were Bevere enough, it might result

University. "It', a little tricky to

themselv... as teachero-including

agree about how aevere theae short


lege graduatee with a msJor in edu


part-time peroonnel and private


ages are.

in federal action-euch as grants

make predictions about cl... size.

cation baa declined precipitously

but once you've done that, it's mula

ochool teachers-and thia artlfi-

The fact that teacher supply and

and other incentives to entice sci


since the early 1970' •.

tiplieation."

0011y in1Iated the reaullB.

Baood on the center'1 fIgum, Cor

demand appears to VII!y ao widely

ence II1I\iors to enter teaching.

l )

Nallonal figures also help statea

Alm06! everyone making nallon


libr these reaaona. the Labor De


example. !be H.'.A. baa concluded

from state to state and from district

01 predictiona reli..on the estimate

partment choae to use the 6 percent

to district adda to the confusion.

know whether their problems are

that"by 1993 the need far newteech


by the Center far Educallon Statis


figure when it predicted that there

en will exceed the Dumber of new

Contndictory reports of8 severe

unique orpartofalargertrend. This

would be no teacher shortage.

can, in turn, influence their policy

tics that Itudent enrollment will

teedJer graduatee by 37 _l"

shortage in ODe location and a sur


, climb by approsimately 2.5 percent

Eatimatea also clifI'er on the ques


plus in another could both be mr


decisions.

But that figure may he mislead


each year from now until 1997.

tion of whether the attrition rate

roct-and neither could provide a

State-based information is even

Contin.w on FoIlowln81'ag<

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( 11

Professional Issues: Setting an Agenda for 1987-1990

IV. Teacher Recruitment--Issues and Programs
1 -AFT Issue Paper on Teacher Recruitment and Early Career
Incentives
Z -"Talent Scouts: Pittsburgh's Finest Recruited for

Teaching", American Teacher, February, 1987
r~ 3 "'Teachers' School Proposed by Union", NY Times,
\ .~ 5/10/87


4 -"Public-Service Ad Campaign to Combat Nation's Teacher
_ (TI Shortage", Ed Week, 10/6/86

. I,

5 -"A 'Teaching Hospital' Model: New training Sites for

L;i

Teachers in Louisville", Ed Week, 11/19/86

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C7-~a Reawrmr""u~

AFT Issue Paper on
Teacher Recruitm~nt and Early Career Incentives


The Issue

The recruitment and retention of a high quality teaching force should
have the highest priority for anyone who values excellence in education.
Teachers are central to the learning process and successful education reform
cannot take place without the proper attention being paid to questions
of how we can recruit and retain high quality individuals .in teaching. This
involves issues of teacher compensation, restructuring the teaching profession,
and revitali~ation of education to make teachers more likely to make

long term career commitments.

There
which merit

•
By
to
are many aspects of-the issue of teacher recruitment and retention
attention. Some basic facts are important:

the mid 1980s the teachers trained during the 1950s will begin
retire, creating large numbers of vacancies. More than 20 per


cent of teachers active in 1971 were 50 years of age or older.
• The recent rise in the number of births will increase the enrollment
in elementary schools, and, as this trend continues over the
next ten to fifteen years, this will greatly increase the demand
for elementary teachers.
• Fewer college bound students are selecting education as their
major field of study. In 1983, only 4.5 percent of college
bound high school seniors selected education as their field of
study. This is down from twenty two percent in 1962.
• The students entering education recently have not been those with
the highest measured academic performances. In 1982, those entering
education averaged 80 points below the national average in math and
verbal skills, and ranked 26th in 29 academic fields surveyed. In
the National Longitudinal Study sample for the class of 1976, education
majors ranked fourteenth out of sixteen fields on SAT verbal
scores, and twelfth of sixteen in college grade point average.
• As many as 50 percent of teachers who do enter the profession leave
teaching by the seventh year, and those who remain are the least
academically able. Two-thirds to three-fourths leave after only
four years.
• Of factors that are cited by students for failure to pursue a
career in education, the most common are low salary, lack of
opportunity to earn sizable salary increases, generally poor
working conditions, and the lack of opportunity for professional
growth and advancement.
Main Points of Controversy

Any number of suggestions have been made about how to solve some of

these problems. This section will briefly describe some of those ideas.


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Teacher Salary Levels. To make teaching attractive to high quality
individuals, the financial incentives of the profession will need to be
radically altered, both in terms of entry level salaries and career earnings.
In High School, Ernest Boyer recommended that "salary averages for
teachers be increased by at least 25 percent beyond the rate of inflation
over the next three years, with immediate entry-level increases" (B9yer,
1983:168). This, of course, will be very costly and require an additional
investment in education. .

Financial Incentives for College Students. There is a need for financial
i~centives to attract top college students into teaching. Proposals
include special scholarships for qualifying students, as well~as loan forgiveness
programs for those top students who will agree to teach for a
specified period of time. The hope is that these will attract bright and
able college students to teaching. \

Shortage Area Salary Differentials. Some people have proposed salary
differentials for teachers in shortage areas, such as science and mathematics.
Others questions whether the modest differentials will make any
impact at all on the supply of qualified teachers in those areas. The
shortage of highly qualified new entrants in teaching goes well beyond a
few critical areas and the issue needs to be considered in its broader
context.

Salary Schedule Reforms. In addition to ra1s1ng general salary levels
for teachers, other suggestions have been made to shorten traditional
teacher salary schedules to 3 to 5 steps so that a beginning teacher could
loo~.forward to significant salary improvements early in the teaching
career and veteran teachers could reach career salary levels earlier. Such
proposals could significantly increase career earnings for teachers and make
the profession far more attractive to well qualified candidates.

School Organization and Management. In order to attract and retain
high quality teachers, some observers have noted that fundamental changes
must take place in school organization and management in order to expand
the professional role of the teacher and make teaching more satisfying.
This would allow teachers greater opportunities for career development
and advancement.

Teacher Preparation and Licensing. Other suggestions have been made
for attracting high quality individuals into teaching which relate to
issues in teacher preparation and licensing. These are discussed in another
paper in this series.

AFT Policy

In the comprehensive policy statement on education reform adopted by
the 1983 AFT Convention, the issue of finding ways to ~ecruit and keep a
quality teaching force was made one of the major items on the AFT agenda.
We do not have any final answers in this area, but there are some concerns
and views which must be taken into account:

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Page 3

• The AFT believes that incentive payor discretionary merit
pay is not the best solution to the problem and that these
n proposals divert attention away from the real issues.


•
The AFT believes that a radical restructuring of teacher
compensation systems is necessary. Beginning teacher salary
levels must be increased radically to make them competitive·
with entry salaries in other professional fields. Salary
. r ~I

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schedules must encourage good teachers to stay in the profession
by allowing teachers to reach ~areer salary levels earlier and
by increasing total lifetime earnings.


•
The AFT believes that schools and teaching need to be restructured
to make teaching more intellectually stimulating and professionally
satisfying. This involves providing opportunities for professiohal
development and enrichment as well as improving school climate and
discipline. Also needed are changes to allow teachers more control
-r'1 over instruction and a separation of the functions of administration
and educational leadership in schools.

II

An Annotated Bibliography

r I

!
l J Adler, Mortimer J. 1982. The Paideia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto.
New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.


Chapters 7 & 8 support the idea that the quality of the teaching

force affects the quality of the learning that occurs. Adler
r ' .describes the requirements that are felt to be essential for quality
i ; teaching.


t j

r l Boyer, Ernest L. 1983. High School: ~ Report ~ Secondary Education in

America. New
York: Harper and ROw, Publishers.

I

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Chapter 10 on "Teachers: Renewing the Profession" discusses the generalr " problem of teacher recruitment and retention and offers a number of

l J

possible solutions.

r "

Jones, Landon Y. 1980. Great Expectations, America and the Baby Boom
l .' Generation. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan.


Chapter 24 on "The Education Bust" discusses the Baby Boom Generation's
important impact on the demographic trends that shape our national
l 0 responses in education, politics, and economics.

Ravitch, Diane. 1983. The Troubled Crusade: American Education, 1945-1980.

l J

New York.: Basic Books, Inc.

This well-written hist.ory of American education in the post-World
War II period. Ravitch provides some useful background information
on the evolution of the teaching profession over the period ·of her
work.

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H

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Schlechty, Philip·C., and Victor S. Vance. 1983a. "Recruitment, Selection
and Retention: The Shape of the Teaching Force." Elementary School

n Journal (March).

This important article brings together the salient research on the

lJ

J
topic of teacher recruitment and retention. It provides a great
deal of information on the character and composition of the group
now entering the teaching field.

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Schlechty, Philip C., and Victor S. Vance. 1983b. "The Promotion of
Quality in Teaching." In School Finance ~School Improvemen~:
Linka~es for the 1980s, ed. by Allan Odden and L. Dean Webb.

IT Cambr~dge, Mass.: Ballinger Publishing Co.

-

This chapter provides a discussion on the quality of teaching as ann occupation rather than on the quality of teachers as individuals.
It looks at the environment of teaching as a context for promoting
-more quality in teaching.

l~

j Ward, James Gordon. 1983. "On Teacher Quality." In School Finance and
School Improvement: Linkages for the 1980s. ed. by Allan Odden and

L. Dean Webb. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger Publishing Co.
l~

This chapter broadly outlines the AFT view of the nature of the

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i problem of teacher quality and offers some possible solutions.
l J It calls for increasing teacher salaries, revitalizing public
education, and restructuring public schools.


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AFT in Pittsburgh is
recruiting the best and
bri students there
TAX RnuRNS, THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY 2This is the last year of doing tax returns the 'old' way before the big
changes go into effect. See our full page of helpful tips.
PSRPS: THEIR ROLE IN REFORM 6With AFT support, paras and school-related employees are at last
winning recognition for their role in educational excellence.
PROUD TO BE UNION 4What good is a union? We asked football stars Dan Marino and Neal
Olkewicz just that-and they were proud to answer.
THE An TRAVEL BONANZA 14Check out our expanded travel packages for the USA and abroad:
They're top quality at bargain prices!
ture teachers
!;/c}ty schools
-see page 10
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PI RGN'S

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RECRUITED

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H
H
onors student Neil Dixon. a
junior at Langley High School in

Pittsburgh. has been thinking

seriously about going into teaching since

last year. "I want to reach the future." he

says. "I want to teach it."

Students like Dixon-the "cream of
the crop" of their classes in Pittsburgh
high schools--may never have even given
a teaching career a second thought had it
not been for one simple fact: Somebody
asked them to be a teacher. and. in
essence, guaranteed them a job.

While two recent national reports deny
that a teacher shortage is imminent,
Pittsburgh educators know otherwise.
Within the next 10 years, approximately
700 of Pittsburgh's public school teachers--
nearly one fourth of those now
teaching-will retire and need to be
replaced. These same statistics are mirrored
all over the country. Where will the
teachers come from to take their place,
and will they be talented and wellqualified?


The Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers
has found the answer in its own backyard-
its schools. To help head off a
teacher shortage, the PFr, in a joint effort
with the Board of Education, is recruiting
future teachers from the ranks of the
district's most promising high school
students. Launched last year, the teacher
recruitment project offers jobs and competitive
salaries to outstanding students if
they do well in college and choose
teaching as their career. Officials are
targeting honor roll students and other
students who are recommended by their
teachers.

The program is part of the Teacher
Professionalism Project, a negotiated
provision of the PFr contract that
encourages joint efforts between management
and the union to improve the
district's schools and teaching. "The
union has the responsibility to make sure
that we can replenish the ranks and bring
in top-notch teachers," says PFr president
AI Fondy. "We get a lot of
satisfaction from this program. and
nobody can argue that it's not good for
the schools." So far, union and school
district representatives have visited six of
the city's high schools to urge students to
go into teaching, and judging from
student reaction, the program is an
unqualified success.

"The response has been terrific." says
PFr vice president Paul Francis. Cards
filled out by students attending the six
presentations indicated that 117 are interested
in entering the profession. "We're
talking about 117 excellent students
wanting to become teachers," says Fran


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cis. "It will be wonderful if most will teaching is an extremely important proassembly,
including teacher Donald
cany through ... fession ... we need the best people we can Demeter, chairman of the physics depart


Thirty-seven of those students expressrecruit.
.. ment, who observes that since the
ing a definite interest in teaching attend "The last 15 years of layoffs and no recruitment program began, more stuLangley
High School and were among hiring are behind us now," fundy tells dents have expressed an interest in
217 students who heard a presentation on the students. While uncertainty surrounds teaching.
teaching there earlier this winter. Senior other jobs---for instance, the recent Ruth Henderson, an English teacher
Ed Teeple says he knew he wanted to be layoffs at General Motors of workers at for 16 years in the Pittsburgh school
a teacher before he arrived at the assemevery
level---he adds, "you would be district, is enthusiastic about her role as a
bly. "I just like helping people," he says. entering a profession where you would be support teacher ...I want to encourage
"I like to know the future is in good assured of security." He also urges the students and show them the rewards and
hands if people stay around to help ... students to consider that the average challenges" of becoming a teacher, she

Senior Jerri Armes says she would teacher salary in the district is now says. Next semester, Henderson will be
also like to help students as an English $35,000 to $36,000. "The PIT has taking II th and 12th graders to observe
teacher and eventually as a counselor. agreed to hire you at a higher step on the education classes at the University of
"The assembly reinforced my feelings salary schedule if necessary to compete Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania State Uniabout
becoming a teacher," she says. with other professions. I can assure you versity... I want them to see what college

fur others who are unsure about what that if you qualify and are interested, we life is like and the kind of training they
they will do, the assembly has helped will have a job for you and give you can look forward to. I think ifs exciting
encourage them to keep their options preference. " to promote teaching." she adds. .. When I
open on a teaching career. Senior Rhonna The union and school board are willheard
about the program I thought, • I
Morrison, who will pursue business and ing to back up their commitment. was born too soon' --especially to· get all
accounting in college next year, has been Depending on what the school district that support and then almost be guaranaccepted
at all five of the colleges to feels it can contribute. fundy says that teed a job when you finish."
which she applied. She admits that the together they should be able to provide Students ask a lot of questions about
teacher recruitment assembly has spurred about $10,000 in scholarships per year salary and working conditions, says supher
to keep teaching in mind. per student for those juniors and seniors port teacher William Duty, who has

Senior Greg Boggs has not decided if in college who definitely intend to enter taught social studies for 25 years. They
he wants to be a teacher. but the teaching. A local business consortium is are also concerned about discipline prob~
sembly was an eye-opener for him. "I also interested in contributing to the lems. "They feel teachers don't get
didn't know there was such a demand, " program, he adds. enough respect; they don't want to have
he says. "I have a great trigonometry The Congressional Teachers Scholto
deal with the discipline problems they
teacher who has made me think about arship, providing up to $5,000 per year, see in the classroom. "
going into teaching. " is also available to future teachers from Duty is enthusiastic about his recruit


"Teaching is still one of my options," the freshman year on, says PIT vice ment role: he talks to students about
says science enthusiast and senior Walter president Francis. To be eligible, students teaching before, during and after classes,
Palm, although he says he has some must graduate from high school in the he says. He also discusses teaching in a
reservations. His mother, an elementary top LO percent of their class. section of his social studies class on
teacher in the district, "has told me about Francis is also meeting with represenvocational
choices.
the plus side of being a teacher-the tatives from area universities who are Another support teacher, Steven Spagbenefits,
pay and working with people." interested in future students for their nolo, tries to zero in on students who

education schools; they may also make have the potential to be teachers. "The

T
T
he presentation at Langley is typscholarship
money available. ability to communicate to them is as
ical of those given at other schools fundy says he hopes the recruitment important if not more important than the
in the city-a short film, a weleffort
will attract between 25 and 30 idea itself," adds Spagnolo, who teaches
come from the school principal, a speech students each year. Through the cards advanced psychology and advanced
by a representative of the district's perstudents
fill out at the end of the social science.
sonnel department and a pitch from . assemblies-lWting whether they were PIT president fundy doesn't find this
school superintendent Richard Wallace. interested in teaching, the PIT can keep new-found student interest surprising.
Wallace quickly gets the students' attenin
touch with students and track their "This is the first time teaching has been
dion when he announces that "we can progress through college. Students are presented in the proper light, and having
virtually guarantee that if you pursue assured of.a job in the Pittsburgh public teachers act as liaisons with students has
teaching and are able to maintain the school district if they make the deall's list been positive," he says. "And since other
same honor roll status in college, we will at least 80 percent of the time. "These professions are more unstable, we have
have a job for YOLL" [n four years, he students have been doing this all through every reason to believe students will take
notes, starting pay for Pittsburgh teachers high school, so it shouldn't be any a serious look at teaching and like what
will be about $22,000, with pay for different when they get to college," says they see."
harder-to-fill areas such as chemistry. Francis-"I really like this program," fundy
math and foreign languages as much as adds. .. It not only says that teaching is a
$27,000. -In addition to the financial incentives, career worth looking at, it also says to
But also on the agenda at every the PIT has called upon its own the teachers now teaching that it is a
presentation are PIT representatives. members to help with the recruitment good profession to be in. That makes it
Explaining to the gathered students why efforts by acting as mentors to interested good for the outlook and morale of
they were chosen to attend the assembly, students. At Langley, II "support" present teachers."
PIT president fundy argues that since teachers were introduced at the end of the -SHERYL HOVEY


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-30 + THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, MAY 10, 1987

'TEACHERS' SCHOOL
PROPOSED BY UNION


New York City High School Js
Seen as Drawing Minority
Youths Into Teaching


8yJANE PERLEZ
Instead of seeking minority and bilingual
teachers in foreign countries, the
New York City Board of Education
should establish a high school to prepare
students to become teachers, the
pre'sident of the United Federation of
Te:tcllers, Sandra Feldman, said yestenlay.
Such a school, she said, could serve a
two-fold purpose: to train more minority
students to be teachers and to
ht'lp alleviate an impending shortage
of f(·achm·s in the city.
According to the Board of Education,
..hout 18 percent of the city's teachers
an' hlack, Hispanic or Asian. Almost 80
percent of the students are members of
mil1()rity groups. In addition, about half
thl' city's teaching force of 62,000 will
1)(' digible to retire in the next 6 to 10
ve;~rs, Ms. Feldman said.

Critical of Recruiting

Speaking at the spring conference of
Ih(' teacher's union at the Sheraton
Centre Hotel in Manhattan, Ms. Feldman
said specialized high schools to
train students in a variety of careers
are proliferating in the city but none is
devoted to teaching. "How ironic it is
that the school system encourages its
students to enter every profession but
"uucation," she said.

"I don't think forays into foreign
c()untries are going to produce the
kinds of teachers we need," Ms. Feldm:
1I1 said.

.For the past two years, the Board of
Education has hired teachers from
Spain in an effort to increase the numbers
of teachers capable of instructing

.,ili"I" I,lol I"'

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Girl Scouts Celebrate Their Diamond Anniversary

Scouts waiting yesterday to march in a parade in leaders participated along with eight marching
lower Manhattan to mark the 75th birthday of the bands and several floats. There are some 37,000 Girl
Girl Scouts of America. About 6,000 girls and their Scouts in New York City.

For the coming school year, instead
of hiring from Spain, the board has announced
it will recruit more teachers
from Puerto Rico. The board said it
was also recruiting teachers from the
Dominican Republic because of the increasing
number of students from that
country.

Wagner Seeks Cooperation

Ms. Feldman said she had informed
the board of her proposal and hoped it
might be adopted by converting one of
the large, comprehensive high schools
into a school for students interested in
teaching, or such related areaS as guidance
counseling.

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Robert F. Wagner Jr., said he was eluded two suggestions for dealing with
eager to improve the standard of poor teachers.
teaching in schools. But he said such an
effort needed the cooperation and en-The first, Ms. Feldman said, was to
thusiasm of teachers. streamline the process of hearings that

. can drag on for 18 months when a
Mr. Wagner "said he ha~ be~? ap-school administrator attempts to dispalled
by the moral turpitude and miss a teacher

"terrible behavior" evident in disciplinary
cases of teachers that had come
before the board.

Ms. Feldman said she was also concerned.
"I understand they have a few
horrendous cases," she said. "No one
from the United Federation of Teachers
is interested in having child molest


'I ers in the classroom."

__ ~?e S~id ,~he ~nion,as part of its .cur·

.

To correct. professional problems,

Ms. Feldman'said, the union was eager

to try "peer intervenUon," in which a I
highly regarded, experienced teacher
would be assigned to a teacher with a
poor performance record. The experienced
teacher would try to counsel the
other teacher in improving skills, she
said. Such a program is working
smoothly in Toledo, Ohio, and Roches


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6 KIlUC.mOH WID: . OCI'OBER 8, 1988

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Public-Service Ad Campaign To Combat Nation's Teacher Shortage

By Blab Rodmaa i to improve !lie public's imqe o(!lIe INational .'->ciatioa at lncIepeo. I and ~tioa.....:iaticmlo.l Corporatio,,; Thereee K. Dosi.....
! t-=hiDc pro(eeoion and to """""" I dent Scboola. submitted !lie Idea iJr I to.,.,... the idea. Mr. Eoty ia a 1986teacberO(!lIeyear:LouiaHarrl
An OI'pD.ia.tion that produeea . age young people to corwder teed>-I !lie advmianacampaign to !lie Ad


member o(!.be ameartium. ria. chairman and chiefI!D!C\IUYe 0(t
j public.-vice adverti.oing to draw inc .. a =-. i vertiaing Council earlier thia ,......

, fioer 0( Lows Hania and "-:iatea
altentio" to 11&tio.w problema ia "Ita a terrific idea,' aaid Arthur I !tlr. Enr·. effona to make the

National Committee I'OrmecI

line.; Gav. Thomu H. KeaIl 0( New
prepariIIg it ~CIIIlpIIign to com-Wwe. director of the CIeI1ter !Or the Icampaigll a reality beglll three

In .tdition, Mr, Eat)' and A. Rich-iJeney; J. RichanI MIIIII'O, prMideut
bat !lie nati...•• powiDg shortage 0( study 0( !lie teaching pror-io" at , yean ago after the imlepell<iellt

ani Belding. the project'. executi"" I o(Time iD<.; DaVId RockeCeIIer Jr,

qualified teIIcben. • !lie RAND CorparatiOll. "I think!lle : oc:hoolA' board of directo~


director. orgaru.d a ....tional advi-1 vice chairman atRodteCeller Family
The reaultillc advem.eme"ta ....,.."t ...tio.w reporta go a long Icemed by reporta 0( 8lI impeIldinc

.rj committee" at promineIIt citi-Iand Auociatea; SlId Peter Ueber!
bouJd begiII ~nati...wide way toward restoring 8lI attUnIte Iteacher ~edhim to de


..... to sene .. ~with the roth. commiaeiOIler 0( lDIIP' league
In DeWIpIlpOn and lIIIglLIiDM and pert>epti... of the life ata teacher. vel"ll !lie idea.

COIID'tium and eatabIimed a IlOD-baaell.IL.
0JriDc ... teIeviaion and rwl.io _ "But !lie reporta do DOt reach !lie Silloe !hell, Mr. Eoty baa ...ned

profit corporatio". iUocruiti", Mr. Roc:bieII« alaobaa apwd to[1 _ early 1II!lI1,...... said EI....... vut American public. and I think it Ito gam suPllO"t !Or the campaign

YOWII 'IMdIon iDc.. to DIIJ>II8'II the .."....!.be .....corpantioo·,cba.ir-

I . E. HaqIey....uar vice president 0( ia LmJIIIl1ant that !lie promae and ",thm !lie broader educatioa com-'1 ~ IIWI. and Mr, MWlI'O baa ac-d to
I 0 IIIe Adwztiaill&' CooDcil. which lut poteIltial of a career ill teaching be munity. and lut rear be ~ ~committee members ill_
..ita vice c:bailmaD, Mr. BeId.,.,.,..,.,..
qreed to coordiIlate!lle brought to !lie public's COII8Ciou&-i ill persuading !lie Educatioa Le.d-! dude r-ia 1\(. ilraIwcomb, furmer

inc said.
c:ampaip. .-.' I en Cooaonium, a group ~Ivice pnSdeat and chiel aciebtiat iJr


While notiIIithat the Adwrtiaiq
She said the ... will be deoigned John C. Esty Jr.• presiderlt o(!.be I !lie executive directon 0( 18 pub!» Interllational Buaine.!iacIliDM

CoWlCil w.. impreued with the

r1

campeip propoMI OIl ita ...nta.

l Mr. Belding said be beliefta Yr.

Rocl<eCeIIer'. iIlvolvemellt ill the
~"'-lIy......... the orpniation.
"It .....critical fad« ill tboir
........-.·beaaid.

The COWICiI ollly accepta abDut
1M 0( the roughly 01 pniect pm~
oubmitted to it fJIIdl ,.... .".

o.....i..lio". a"d iovel"llllle"t
......,a... .....,.u;." to Ma. Ha.ncIe1.
1b be aa:epted. a prujeS IIIIIIt be
IldiooaI in alO(II, ,.0( -..ill
all ~and appIirahIe to
all Amerioca.-; ............. to dietm.
adowtiiaiDc; and 0( ~

impIrtaIIce. _ HanP7 I&id. Sba

added that ~_!lOt...,..,ted
if they are ill tuq "111' ~
deumnjMtjm.1 or poIitbl

.~Shapea 0piaJaa'
"We gy to deal with !be DIGIt __
partam problema Cao:iJIc !be _

gy,' Ma. H&IIIIeY aaid. "QuaIiiJ ....
UClItion ia IIlIIIoI!i!dJIc our baud fII
eli..-. tbougb& we abouId be ia""'-
liIl.ltiooabig ........UI...

.... pan 0( it that we feel we _


tadUe and have __ 6:l.


Mr. W_ 0( the RAND C<Irpara


t ]

~~//J7,.,l./J

tioaaW: "AdvertiaiDcaIIapeapublic
opiDiaa iIllIIiaooumr,..... If.......
to IIIla sipIifIcantIIIIIIIhor0(taJa.
eII)'QUIII people to become ~


_ in tedliJ>g, we -'totalra....


0(tbia IlIture."

Familiar Adverliaiq CoWICiJ
oampe.igIII ilIc.lude !be long-.".
! Ilin« "Smokey the IIMr" ~

!()()~ ~/
c;/J1mP~~ J

: 'o"eIltion advertiaemeIllB, apoD8OI"eolI.".the U.8. FInatSerrioe, and opoa
, iJr the United N ...... CoIIece PImd,
! wIUdI hture !lie aIopIl, "A miIld ..


Gvc....w7~Ia terrible IhiDtr to .......•


The ~talu!n0ll by the_

r~rYt

ciJ rec:eive he craiive .......
I J A


I

from advertising ...... AweU,
IFree."GiMberg.aNewVork-bued
firm that ~a highJy popular

h~C2 /j-:rJN. qLe

!iDe 0( cat-ilod televisioa .............
ciaIa iJr Ralston PurinaCompany. ia
curreJltly clevelopiJlg co"cepts iJr
!lie tead>er-recruitment cacammP"P"'8ilP'lDo---


h77J,-JJ;AJ / '7 ,j~


Me. Hanaeiy said.

The cotmciIestimatea that each 0(
ita ~re<:eiveshe ofcharge 8lI
aveJ'llP 0(S20 miIIioo worth 0( media
time ..,d space each year.

i ,

I
I
llo<Jgbly 22,000 media outIeta ...
IioIlwide either print, broadcut, or
display the reauJtlni public.........

r~
l:
rl
i
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r 1
1 I , "
adYertiaementa.

I Still, !.be campaigIla are !lOt he
,.... the ~orplli&atioaa.
Spoaeon mll8t beer the cceta 0(fiha

and other produo:tioD mat.riala, _

...n -a....-iJrilllow-upd.....
tift. Such coata rallle betwee"
.150.000 to S5OO,OOO • ywr, Ma.

I ,

ffa!lIIe7 aaid.
1b elate, Recruitinc YOUIII ~

en hu raiaed near1), 1200,000
throuPprimedonatiaM and"daDan
anmta. amd Mr. BeIdI1Ic. die

CIIIIpIfttioD'. -.tn.cIindar_


~UCATION EEK

U Volume VI, Number 11 . November 19, 1986 © 1986 Editorial Projects in Education

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A.'Teaching Hospital' Model


In Louisville, New Professional-Development Sites
Will Impart 'The Art ofTeaching , Through Practice


By Lynn Olson

LoUISVILLE, Ky.-When Becky West
began teaching in the Jefferson County
(Ky.) Public Schools 14 years ago, she got
little help from the system.

"Wejust sort of floundered and learned
from our mistakes," she recalls.

Her experience as a student teacher,
she says, had been much the same: "I never
really had anybody who taught me the

artof~."

Now an accomplished language-arts
teacher at Lassiter Middle School here,
Ms. West may soon have the chance to
ease the transition to the classroom for
future teachers. She hopes to be among
those veteran teachers who will pass on

their hard-earned expertise in an ambitious
hew program being launched this
year by the county's school system.

Inwhat will be one of the first ventures
of its kind, Jefferson County is creating
the equivalent of ''teaching hospitals" for
educators, sites at which new teachers
and school administrators will develop
their skills in much the same way that
internists learn the art of medicine.

1b be. established at existing school
sites, these "professional-development
schools" will provide the clinical settings
for educators to assimilate the values,
norms, and practices associated with effective
teaching while receiving close supervision
and support.

Continued on Page 8


A teacher at Price Elementmy
School, which is seeldng a role in
planning clinical programs.

to B.D. Report Urges Regular Instruction

For Students With Minor Handicaps

J

G.. j

l'S By Debra Viadero
r-,
WASHINGToN-In a move expected to

sharpen,the debate over how learning-disat
abled students should be served, the Educarr-"
tion Department has issued a report recom


i mending that such students be taught in
tb J regularclassrooms, ratherthan inseparate
to programs.
Ir ' Written by Madeleine C. Will, the assis


, tant secretary for special education and rehabilitative
services, the report challenges
the common practice of''pulling out" learn,
'ing-disabled pupils 'from regular classrooms
for special help in nearby resource

l ..}

rooms.

The main theme of the report-which
special educators are already calling the
''regular-education initiative" -is a call for
"greater partnership" between special educators
and classroom teachers in the early

identification of children with learning
problems and the planning and provision of
services for those children.

"There is increasing evidence that it is
better academically, socially, and psychologically
to educate mildly handicapped
children With non-handicapped children,
preferably within the regular education
classroom," Ms. Will writes in the report.

IfWidely adopted, the report's recommendations'
could have major implications for
the country's 8.4 million children with
learning problems, experts in the field said
last week.

Even before the report's release this
month, word of its contents had added fuel
to the longstanding debate over which environments
are best for the learning disabled.

Although a n~berof special educators
interviewed last week said they agreed

Continued on P£JS!p.1R

Governors Will Pick
16 School Districts
To Test Proposals

By William Snider

WASHINGTON-The Education Department
joined with eight governors last week
to take a "vital first step" toward implementing
several of the recommendations
included in the National Governors' Association's
report, Time For Results.

"These are reforms that we know make a
difference in producing quality education,"
Secretary of Education William J. Bennett
said in announcing a collaborative project
based on the report. "This innovative example
offederal-state partnership underscores
the value of the governors' proposals and
the benefits they can produce for our nation's
schools."

Within the next month, the eight governors,
in consultation with federal officials,

win tlAA;an"t.. tum iliohoit>to in hnft1. n~"1.~;_


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g EDucATioN WEEK •NOVEMBER 19, 1986


'Teaching Hospital' Approach Used at New Training Sites for Teachers


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Continued from Page 1

Ideally, such schools will become
"exemplars'" of the best in research
and practice, according to Phillip C.
Schlechty, director of the project.

The idea of creating better clinical
settings foiteachera baa been perrolating
in the professional literature
for some time, but it was given new
life this year by inclUBion in the recommendations
of several major reports
on education refonn.

Deepite support for the concept of
(lreal-school" training facilities,
however, no such schools yet exist.

Jefferson County-which encom·
passes Louisville and its outlying
suburbe, and serves about 92,500
students-hopes to be among the
first to tum the idea into reality.

"What we have right now is a plan
to plan," said Mr. Schlechty. "We
rea1ly don't know what professional·
development schools are going to
look like."

Twenty.four of the county's approximately
145 public schools-in·
cluding Ms. west's middle school-

have applied to become planning
sites for the new professional..d.evelopment
schools.

The district is expected to reach a
decision this month on whether all
24 schools will be accepted.

Ten·Year Goal

Teachera and administratora at
the planning sites will spend the
next year determining what the
clinical settings should look like.
Schools will have to then re-apply til
be considered as the actnaJ training
sites.

Mr. Schlechty predicted that it
would be one and a ha1fyesra before
the professional-development
schools are operational and ready to
train beginning educatora.

But in the long run-prohably 10
yesra, according to estimates-a11
new teachers and administrators in
Jefferson County will begin their ca·
reers in one of these schools.

The schools are a\eo expected to be

the primary place where veteran

teachers and administrators can

come for"haoda on" learning exper·

At Academy Schools, Teachers
Lead 'Knowledge Workers'


Fbr a school in Jefferson Coun·
ty, Ky., to be considered as 8 planningsitefor
the district's new pro


gram. or ~rofessional develop.

ment" achoo\a, itaprincipal and at

least 51 per<ent of its stefl' had to

agree to support and work toward

an imags ofschools and schooling

outlined by Phillip C. Schlechty.

According to Mr. Schlechty, ex·

ecutive director of the Gheens

Professional Development Acade


my, the central purpose ofschools

is to get students to do school·

work.•

But he dieagrees with thetradi·

tional vision ofteachers as manu


facturers and students as pro


ducts to be worked on.

Instead,he arguee, studentsare
"knowledge workers": people
whose jobs require them to mao
nipulate symbols and organize
ideas and facts.

Given that 8B8umptiOD, teach·
ers should be j'executives who
manage and lead knowledge
workers," he maintains.

They mUBt be empowered' to
make decisions, he says, and then
must be held accountable for the
reeults of their actions.

Principals in the professional·
development schools, in Mr.
Schlechty's view, will not be in·
structional lesdera, but "manag.
era of managera."

Their primary task, he says,
will be to inepire othera to lead,
based on "mutual respect, ehared
valuee, and ehared decieion mak·
ing."

'fu achieve such a vision, Mr.
Schlechty arguee, "we are really
talking about re-inventing the
echools and re-inventing school
syeteme."

Next Steps

At minimum, he predicts, professional-
development schools
will have to changs their staffing
patterns, improve the collegial relationshipa
between adults with·
in the school building, and aban·

don the traditional seven-period
day and one-teacher, one-classroom
structure.

Eigbtelementary schools, eight
middle schools, six high schools, a
vocational school, and an alternative
school for gradee K·12 have
applied to become planning sites.

Staff membeni at the proposed
sites must agree to participate in
all required planning ectivitiee
and in any training that may be
necessary.

Starting next month, the
Gheens Academy will bring together
faculty membera from all
of the approved planning sites for
a series of general meetings. Each
school will be asked to elect two
teachers to serve on a central
planning committee.

That committee will also include
Mr. Schlechty, the principals from
esch planning school, the execu·
tive director of personnel for tha
school dietrict, eight professcra
from the echool of education at the
University of Louisville, four
teacheraappointed by the teachers'
unioo, four administrators 8p-


, pointed jointly by the superintendeot
and the local school administratora'
association, and any other
membera that the superintendent
deaignates.

The central committee will
have primary reeponsibility for
formulating the plans for prof...
sional-development schools;
teachera and administratore at
each planning site will offer reaotiona
and discussion.

The schools have been ...ured
that any changee called for in the
resulting plans that would re


,quire modifying school-district
policies or union contracts will
not be carried out until they are
formally approved by the appropriate
partiee.

Schools that eerve as planning
sites will be among the first inthe
district to have a chance to become
professional-development
schools. -LO.

iences to keep them abreast of the
latest developments in their fields.

Booker T. Rice, deputy superin.
tendent ofinstruction, said he hopes
the professional·development
schools "will be places where we can
iske a look at the latest technology,
the latest teaching techniques, and
in the process, develop strong ad·
ministratora and teachers who can
go hack to their home or new schools
and share that information."

'High Leverage'

The Gheens Fbundation, a local
philanthropic organization, has
committed approximately $2 mil·
lion over five yesra to help create the
profesaional-development schools
and redesign the district's overall
stsff·development program.

According to Donald W. lngwer.
son, the district's superintendent,
the "guiding light behind the whole
propoea\ is that we want to attract
and keep qnality teachera teaching
in the classrooms in Louisville."

Added Mr. Schlechty: "We know
that 75 percent of the teachera who
will be teaching in Jefferaon County
in the year 2000 have yet to be em·
ployed. Nearly all of the administra·
tors who will be running the.schools
in the year 2000 have yet to be em·
ployed."

"If we've learned anything from
effective businesses," he said, "'it is
that the investment you make in
your new employees pays oft' in the
long run. It's probably the most
high.leverage ectivity that you can

engage in.n

Until now, he noted, schools have
"essentially treated. teachers and
teachingas an expendable product.·

"We haven't invested in them
enough."

Gheens Academ)'

Atpreseot, the only visible sigu of
the planned·for training facilities is
tha Gheens Professional Development
Academy, of which Mr.
Schlechty is executive director.

Located in a renovated elementa·
ry school on the outskirts of down·
town Louisville, the academy cel..
bretes its grand opening this week.

Eventually, it will become the coordinating
center for all teacher
training and professional-development
ectivities in the district.

The building houses a floor of
computer labs, a professional Ii·
brary,acurriculum·reeoureecenter,
and a grants-assistance office for
educators, ae well as conference
rooms, meeting rooms, and a 540


year in supervised internships at I Professions that are mosteffective
the professional-development in "socializing" new ,members, he
schools before moving on to their said, rely heavily on intensive clini.
teaching assignments. cal supervision, demonstration,

.. Icoaching. and constant corrective

School·Umvennty Gap feedback by real practitionere in
The notion of creating clinical real situations.
teacher-training settings based in I Entry into such professions is

real schools-not univeraitiea-baa

been around since at least the

1970's.

In many ways, the concept is an

outgrowth of the university·based

"laboratory schools" movement, in

which schools closely afIiliated with

universities served as sites for

teacher training and research.

But in the past year, the idea has

reeurfaced as one of the centra1 com·

ponents in many plans forreforming

the preparation ofboth teachers and

administratora.

Reports by the Carnegie Fbrumon
Teaching as a Profession and the
Holmee Group ofresearch unive"';·
tiee dedicated to improving teacher
education have both endoraed the
conceptofprofeesional-development
schools, although referring to them
by different namee.

But where the older laboratory
schools were primarily "child study"
organizations that assembled stu·
dent bodiee representative of the total
child population, profeeeional·
development schools, according to
Mr. Schlechty, will look more like
schools in the real world.

Some may have poor students
with minima1 parental support; oth·
era may have highly motivated stu·
deots whoee parents are deeply in·
volved in their education. Both
types ofschools should be successfu\
with the students they serve, he
said.

Although no one professional-d..
velopmentechoolwillreftectthedistrict's-
total student population, Mr.
Schlechty said, they should, as a
group, be representstive.

Arguments for creating such settings
are based largely on perceptions
of the gsp that exists between
what prospective teachera learn in
univeraitiee and what they learn in
the school environment.

According to John I. Goodlad, au·
thor of the landmark study, A P~
Called School: "Fbr all of the research
that's gone on in education,
and all that we know about better
waye to teach, teachera are taught
the same old thing year after year,
because of the power of the clinical
experience, which doee nothing better
than to confirm the conventional
wisdom."

seat auditorium. Much of that conventional wis·
Michael W. Woodeon, chairman of Idom may be "dysfunctional" for tothe
Jefferson County Board ofEdu· ,day's echools, according to many
cation, described the academy as an educatora. Instead of learning to be
"opportunity to bring the reform Icreative risk-takers, they note,
movement to the cl88BrDODL" i teachera learn to conform, to follow
"There's been very little reform Iordera, and to put apremiumon con·

that's really gotten down to the
clsseroom level, particularly to the
teachera and to the principals," he
said. "I think the academy is an opportunity
for UB to do that."

Although creation of the profes.
sional-development schools is only
one of theacademy'sprqjecte, it is at
the heart of the center's stalI'-dave1.
opment efforts.

The academy will be the admini&trative
hub for teacher recruitmant,
selection, training, and stalI'devel·
opment within tha district; the professional-
davelopment schools will
be the sites at which much of that
ectivity occurs.

Mr. Schlecht)' said that new
teachera would probab1)' spend a

trolling students. Instead ofcoming
to view themselves as professionals,
they learn to see themeelvee as cogs
in a bureaucratic wheei.

Many new teachera come away
from their first prolonged exposure
to scllools convinced that whatever
educational theory they learned at
the univeraity is irrelevant to educa·
tional practice.

'8oclaIIzIng' Professlonala

Guiding Mr. Schlechty in the developmentofJefferson
County's pr0gram
are severa! assumptione about
the nature of professions, which he
said were drawn mote from the literature
of business and eociology
than from education.

'marked by distinct stsges, he ar·

gued, giving as an example the COD.

treating privilegee and responsibil.

ities of medical interns and reai.

dents, and of first. and third·year

members of a law firm.

In a profeBBional.development

school, he said, the teaching staff

might include novices-known as

interns and residents-as well as

experienced teschers and adminis


tratora. Veteran teschera could be

either associates, who have success.

fully completed internship and resi·

dency programs, or fellows, who

haveagreedtoiskeonadditionalre


sponsibilities, such as tescher train·

ing and research.

Successful completion of each
stage would be accompanied by
"ceremony, ritual, and symbols"
that bond the individual to the
group and hold out the promise of
greater rights and privilegee for
thoee wbo peraevere. A teacher's receiving
tenura, for example, might
be a cause for public celebration
within the echoo1 building, he said.

Instead ofshuttingteachera away
in classrooms, Mr. Schlechty sug.
gested, the perfonnance ofboth new
and experienced teachera would be
"highly visible" to othera. And ways
would be daveloped to publicly aeknowledge
and recognize good prac


tice,

Novice teachers would ,not be g.
sigued to just one mentor, but to
teaching teams that could provide
opportunitiee for mutnal support
and affiliation.

Freda Norvell, principal of the
Sara Jacobs Price Elementary
School, which has applied to become
a planning site, said, "We hope to
give new teschera a total experience
when they come into the school, not
just in one classroom. but through.
out the building."

'Common Language'
According to Mr. Schlechty, "the

medical·school adage of 'watch one,

I
I
do one, tesch one' summarizes what
we know about the effective tl'8Il&o
mission of knowledge and practioe."
Beginning teachers, he noted,
should have the opportunity to observe,
and what they obeerve should
not be left to chance, but should il·
lustrate specific techniquee and proceduree
for working with different
kinda of students.
Similarly, new toachera should
have opportunities to practice, but
with "intense supervision and intense
feedback up front" by estab1iahed
membera of the profession.
In addition, beginning teachera
I should be expected to present or to

Iteach what the), have practiced to
othera.
As an illustration, Mr. Schlechty
talked about creating the equiv.
alent ofa medical teaching facility's

I
"morbidity·and·mortality confer·
encee," during which teachera could
review leescns thatdid not work and
analyze what went wrong.

"Youdon't1earnfrom a lesson that
goes the way it's supposed to; ha
said. "In the system that we now
have, we've viewed making a mi&take
as a bad thing, instead ofsolDOthing
that can keep you moving."

Continued on FbllDwing Page


...



~b NOVEMBER 19,,1986'EDUCATIONWEEK 9

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Continual (rom P""",ding Page

Systematic conversations among
experienced and novice teachers
would also ....ure that both the eeasooed
practitioner and the beginner
develop a "common language" and
shared understanding of "what the
best practice is, and why it is so," he
said.

Shared Enterprise

The professional-development
schools will be firmly lodged within
the school system, but they will rely
on the cooperation and support of
area universities.

Universities will share with the
school system the responsibility for
training beginning teachers and
student tpacbers in the new clinical
settings. The schools, for example,
will be staffed by both teschers and
professors.

Universities will still control
what many now think of as traditional
"teacher education." The
school district will oversee the staffdevelopment
of experienced educators.


Although Mr. Schlechty's primary
responsibility is to the schools, he
is also a tenured professor in the
University of Louisville's school of
education. Several members of the

teacher-education faculty are work


ing closely with the academy on a

part-time basis and have offices in

its new building.

Mr. Rice deocribed the universi


ty's relationship withthe schoolsys


tem in the past as "fairly casual


courteous, but not a lot of aub


stance," but he said the situation is

improving.

Both university and school per


sonnelsaidtheyviewtheprofession


al-development schools as bringing

the two groups closer together, pro


viding places where they can work

cooperatively.

"I think the limits are our own

imagination and perseverance and

commitment," said Ray Nystrand,

dean of the school of education. "I

would say the same for the school

district. I think this can beoome

what we mutually want it to be."

'Wall and See'

Whether or not the professional


development schools actually come

to fruition, however, will depend on

the project's success in garnering

the supportofdiverse groups within

the education community.

The Jefferson County Teachers
Association-an affiliate of the Na
·tiona! Education Association-bas
given its guarded approval to the en


"rrhe pro/essional-development schools] will
be places where we can take alook atthe latest
technology, the latest teaching techniques, and
in ihe process, develop strong administrators
and teachers who can go back to their home or
new schools andshare that in/ormation. "

-BookerT. Rice


StudeDt and teacber conferat Lassiter MJddle School, a
poaIbJe ~Blu. for LoulsviIle's JllJW cJInlca1-trsinJJJg
~~r~cber& .

deavor. Eightteschers appointed by
the union serve on an advisory
. board to the academy to ensure that
the union has a voice in the plan


ning process.

"Assurances of the voluntary na


ture of this program have been

asked for and received," said IJoyd

R. May, president of the union, as
have assurances that the union's
contract will not be abrogated.
"We've received enough reassur


ance along the way from Mr.

Schlechty to give it our support as

far as it's gone."

But he cautioned that "our con


tract won't permit gerrymandering

of teschers around in order to fit

some prescribed notion, so that all

beginning teachers would begin in a

particular place."

And he added that, in some

schools, at least, principals have

been "overzealous in trying to get

their faculty members to buy into

the concept."

AB for long-term support, Mr. May
concluded, "I guess I am going to
wait and see and make sure that the
planning process really involves
teachers."

State Mandates

Another potential source of trou


ble is whatobservers deocribe as the

state's heavy hand in regulating 10


eal school systems.

"It's a problem, it's a real prob


lem," said SherryK. Je1sma, a mem


ber of the school board. "We have

many, many mandates, much legis


lation."

AB the biggest, most urbancounty

in the state, ''Louisville is viewed as

not part ofKentucky, frequently, by

people from Frankfort; the state

capital, said Laramie L. Leather


man, vice president of the Gheens

Fbundation a~d a member of its

board.

The creation of professiona!-de-.

velopmentschools, however, will in


evitably require closer cooperation

between the county and the state in

order to waive or modify state re


quirements that would prevent ex


perimentation.

Cost Factors

Cost will also be a factor in the

long-term survival oftheprofession


al-development schools. According

to Superintendent lngwerson, the

school system bas "more-· than

matched" in monetary and in-kind

contributions the $4OO,()()().a-year

grant from the Gheens Fbundation.

Other foundations and individual

donors have also given modest

grants to further the academy's

work.

But Mr. Schlechty said that addi


tiona! money from outside sources

would be needed for the first few

years ofplanning. And running the

schools themselves, he said, will not

be cheap.

If the professiona!-development

schools add more than 10 peroent to

form.

fin or 11 years ago, he noted, "all

the existing school-district and uni


of the strife associated with forced

versity budgets, he predicted, thsy I

will cease to be "politically and ec0nomically
viable." In the short run,
he said, they will have to coot much

1....

'Blind 1ilIllh'

Fbr now, people will have to support
the idea "with a lot of blind
faith," according to John M. Size.
more, principal of Lassiter Middle
School, which has applied to become
a planning site.

The concept "sounds good," he
said, "but there's a question: Will it
stand the test oftime?"

"I don't think anybody knows
that, frankly."


Jeftei.Son County Superintendent Donald W. Ingwerson holds"
hallway meeting with teachers.

"I/we've learnedanythingfrom effective
businesses, it is that the investmentyou 11Ulke in
. your new employees pays offin the long run.

It's probably the most high·leverage activity
thatyou can engage in. [Schools have]
essentially treated teachers and teaching as an
expendable product. We haven't invested in
them enough."

Fbr Jefferson County, Mr. Leatherman
said, the professional-development
schools are an opportunity
to prove that the district can be on
the cutting edge of education re


busing really tore the community
apart."

I

"AB a result oftha~ a lot of people I

I pulled theirchildrenoutofthe public
schools,'hesaid. "!heperception was
that the school system was terrible. I
think the general perception today is
that we've come a long way. But
wfive got an awful long way to go."
In 10 more years, Mr. Schlechty
said, "ifyou come toJefferson County,
we're going to have fully oper·
ationa! profesaional-development
schools."
"It's much like whenKennedy announced,
'We're going to the
moon,'" he said. "Nobody had the

-Phillip C. Schlechty

slightest idea of the technology it
would take, but the commitment
was there."

Getting the academy off its feet,
however, illustrates how long it
takes to achieve real reform at the
local level. The school system has
spent more than two years building
a firm foundation for the effort
among university personnel, teach·
ers, administrators, school-board
members, and school-district staff,
and is'just now begiuningtosurface
with a structure that everyone can
see," according to Mr. Ingwerson.

"This Is not a quick fix," said Ms.
Je1sme. "Itis not a Band-Aid. It's attacking
the whole problem. It's attempting
to literally re-think tescher
education and bring it up to the
20th century."

The question now, for many, is
whether the district bas the tenacity.
patience, and commitment it
will take to make that happen.

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Professional Issues: Setting an Agenda for 1987-1990

n

, n

v. Reports on Restructuring Schools
d.
1 -"Boost Teachers' Authority, Mass. Panel Urges", Ed

n

I 'I

Week, 9/23/87

'U

n
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lA-"Go to the Head of the Class: Leadership Critical for
Restructured Schools", Education Commisssion of the
States, Ed Week, 11/17/87

U; 2 -"The Carnegie Report --A Call for Redesigning the
Schools", by Marc Tucker and David Mandel, Phi Delta
Kappan, September, 1986
3 -A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21st Century: An
Overview of the Carnegie Report
4 -"California Commission Calls It Right.. , by Al Shanker,
NY Times column, 11/11/85
5 -'Striking a Better Bargain', Minnesota Federation of
Teachers Task Force on the Future of Education, March,

n:
1986

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12 EDUCATION WEEK'SEPl'EMBER 23, 1987

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STATE CAPITALS

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Boost Teachers' Authority, Mass. Panel Urges


By Robert Rothman

A commission appointed by the

Massachusetts legislature has

adopted a far-ranging proposal to

provide funds and relax regulations

for schools that experiment with

new forms of organization to give

more authority to teachers.

In a report issued this month, the
commission said its proposals, modeled
after the reforms recommended
by the Carnegie Thsk Fbrce on Education
and the Economy in its 1986
report, A Nation Prepared, are
based on the ''principle that the essential
resource for improved education
is already inside the school: determined,
intelligent, and capable

teachers." .
"By recognizing their experience
and commitment," the report con


tinues, "we will allow teachers,
working together, the freedom to exercise
their professionaljudgment to
detemvne the best way to carry out

their lfasic mission-ec:lucating students."


In addition to recommending the
establishment of so-called "Carne-.
gie schools," the panel, known as the
special commission on the conditions
of teaching, also proposed providing
financial rewards to lowachieving
schools that raise students'
test scores and lower dropout
rates. And it urged that extra funds
be provided to districts to raise
teacher salaries to $20,000, from. the
current minimum of $18,000.

In addition, it suggested that the

"We proposed
removinga number
ofthings that stand
in the way of
teachers'
exercising their
discretion. "

-State Senator Richard A. Kraus

state set aside funds for the establishment
of ''professional-development"
schools to train teachers.

In a related development, a second
commission, also appointed by
the legislature, proposed additional
funding for grants to local school-improvement
councils. The councils,
created in 1985, link parents, teachers,
administrators, and students in
an effort to plan improvements in individual
schools.

Thacher Empowerment

Taken together, the reforms proposed
by the two panels would help
raise the level of professionalism
among teachers and attract new recruits
to the profession, said State
Senator Richard A. Kraus, the cochairman
of the legislature's joint


education committee and cO-chairman
of both study groups.'

'We heard over and over again
that teachers' professional status is
riot taken seriously," Senator Kraus
said. ''Rather than issue an order
saying, 'Treat teachers as professionals,'
we proposed removing a
number of things that stand in the
way of teachers' exercising their discretion."


'We keep hearing about teacher
empowerment," added Nancy Finkelstein,
president ofthe Massachusetts
Teachers Association and a
member of the commission on the
conditions of teaching. "The Carnegie-
schools proposal will do just
that." .

Ms. Finkelstein noted that the
commission was originally formed

in 1985 to examine teacher salarieE
After the Carnegie task force issue«
its report last year, however, th,
panel successfully petitioned th,
legislature to broaden its mandat
to include issues of teacher empow
erment, she noted.

The union president added tha
the commission would have liked 1:;
address the issues of class sizes, rna
terials, and teachers' retiremen
benefits, but did not because it rec
ognized that funding to implemen
recommendations on those topic
would be limited.

Senator Kraus and the panel<
other co-chairman, State Represen
tative Nicholas A. Paleologos, saie
last week that they would introduc,
legislation by the end of this montI
to implement the recommendations

Gov. Michael S. Dukakis has en
dorsed the proposals, and the legis
lature has already agreed to se
aside $15 million for implementa
tion of the commissions' recommen
dations.

That amount is sufficient to fun,
the increases in minimum salarie
and the school-improvement counci
grants, according to Robert B
Schwartz, an aide to Governor Du
kakis. In addition, he said, the fund
would enable the state to aware
planning grants for about 30 Carne
gie schools and 10 professional-de
velopment schools.

The commission will seek "sub
stantially more money" in fisca
1989 to implement the proposals
Senator Kraus said.

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Go to the Head of the Class

Leadership Critical for Restructured Schools


Have you noticed that anyone and everyone who

f.1)UCATION

can spell "leadership" is writing about it? COMMISSION During an age of early experimentation with a
new form ofgovernance, James Madison observed

OF THE STATES

that education is the preparation of a people who


mean to be their own governors. The experiment
was called "democracy," and MadiSQn realized that
even in the most just social order, all men are not
created equal. That is why education emerged as

the most powerful agent of social transft'rmation
then and remains so today.

As early as 1787, the Northwest Ordinance
decreed that "morality and knowledge being
necessary to good government, and the happiness
of mankind, schools and the means of education
shall forever be encouraged." In these past few
yean, in state after sta~, leaders in government,
education and industry have reaffirmed their
commitment to such principles. The problem is,
there are few Madisons among us and not since our
first revolution has the need for individuals ofsuch
vision and character been greater.

Why is it that that age saw ~uch a cluster of
leadership in the likes of Madison, Jefferson,
Washingion or Paine, to name only a few? Why is
it that leadership has emerged now as the issue for
the remainder of the 1980s? What can we learn
from history about the qualities of leadership and
how can education put these leamings to work to
make schools better?

Leadership is quickly replacing literacy as the
new catchphrase in social commentary, But, like
literacy, and its many prefixes, our concept of
leadership -and our efforts to fill a leadership
void -are rooted in yesterday's assumptions and
yesterday's national need. Just as it is time to
identify the literacy needs ofa coming generation,
so too must we recognize the need for a new
understanding and a new appreciation of leadership.

HowcaD broItderparlkJpatioainpoIkydnelopIDtIJt
contribute to make IamiIlR better IUJd
e~/Jtw ItadtnlJlp1

In his book, ", .. the bestofeducations, "a study
of education reform initiatives in seven states,
author William Chance notes that though certain
individuals have assumed ~ritical leadership responsibilities,
collaboration and broad local involvement
have been key to implementing constructive change
at the school and classroom level"

"While charismatic leadership and distinctive
leadership styles were important," Chance writes,
"individuals were unable to accomplish the changes
alone, and political coalitions were necessary in all
of the important change states."

The movers and shakers in American education
have come to the conclusion that it is time to
reinvent the wheel, That's going to require new
inventivenessand tired as it may sound, the way to
get it is "empowerment." A year after the Carnegie
Forum on Education and the Economy issued its
manifestoon restructured schools, at least two states
are taking steps in that direction.

State legislators were so moved by testimony
from a Seattle school principal, who said that state

bureaucrats 'frequently relied on restrictive regulations
to undermine innovative classroom and
schoolwide practices, that they passed a law
limiting bureaucratic meddling in a new restructuring
experiment.

The ftrst step toward the restructuring of the
public schools in Washington was taken with
Governor Booth Gardner's signingofESSB-S479,
waiving state regulations for a pilot project group
of21 school districts. State officials want to gauge
the effects of increased local decision-making
authority on learning.

Key aspects of the law are:

•
A commitment that all parties will work cooperatively
during the term of the pilot study
•
The call for a written agreement ofsupport' from
school boards, admintsttators, parents, business
community and pennission to modify the local
bargaining agreement for project activities
•
The detailing ofan evaluation and accountability
plan to measure both student and s~hool performance
The Legislature has appropriated 52 million for
the project.

Massachusetts

A more ambitious proposal is in the planning
stages for Massachusetts. By the end of June, the
Special Commission on the Conditions ofTeaching,
representing the executive and legislative branches,
administrator and teacher organizations, as well as
the ass ·:iation of state school boards and private
indusu':' , ,,'~tl recommend that the state provide
incentives for school restructuring, In anticipation
of that, staff with the joint House and Senate
Committee on Education are drafllng legislation
that would create what House educallon chair
Representative Nicholas Paleologos calls 50 to 100
"Carnegie schools."

The House ha~ already approved $20 million for
the project in which every school in the state will
be invited to submit a restructuring proposal, Senate
education chair Richard Kraus is pushong for similar
budget appropriations from his colleagues,

"We want schools in which teachers and
principals are empowered beyond anything we've
dreamed in this state or any other state." says
Paleologos.

As part of the state/school conttact. the state and
co!lective bargaining interests agree to "back off'
from local, school-building decision making over
such issues as curriculum, teacher and slUdent
assignments, textbooks, even the length of the
school day, forthe duration ofthe three-to-four year
experiment.

"We've got to loosen up those bureaucratic
shackles and introduce changes -not that make
classrooms more miserable, but more engaging for
students and teachers," he explains. "Key people
in Massachusetts are beginning to see the move for
better schools as an opportunity to do some interesting
things th~teducators have always wanted to do,"

Initial calls for restructuring Massachusetts
public schools were not greeted with enthusiasm by
school administtators.

"Principals had seen Carnegie as threatening,
but the more they get into it the more they realize
that they are as frusttated as teachers because the

authority they have is over'small things. When it
comes to the big issues -how to make the schools
run better for kids -they're as powerless as the
tt:achen. They realize that the problems are systemi~
and that by sharing power, they gain power. They
gain a faculty and staff that are more excited about
what they are doing, and they buy in because they
had a voice in crafting the proposals. Directly and
indirectly, the Carnegie approach will have a
profound impact on school leadership."

Later this summer, state education officials will
meet with staff from the federal Northeast regional
education laboratory to develop a new S$ ofweights
and measures to determine how the restructured
schools compare against those that choose to remain
in the more ttaditional m<><le,

"We've got to be bold enough to step back from
the way we've been doing things for the past 200
years and ask ifthat's really the best way to organize
a school," concludes Paleologos. "We've-got to
pose that question to the professionals in the
classroom. We have a hunch that when we lay the
challenge down and ask the principals and the
teachers, How would you run this school? we'll
receive a flood of very interesting proposals."

The CUnton Report on Leadushlp

Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton's interest in
leadership as a distinct and essential aspect of
education reform has been well documented, not
only in his home srate, but nationally as chairma~
this year ofboth the Edu~ationCommission ofthe
States and the National Governors' Association.
Last year he chaired the NGA task force on school
leadership and management. offering 10 recommendations
for state action in Time for Results: The
Governors' 1991 Report on &lucation.

This year, as outgoing ECS chairman, Clinton
will deliver a major national address on school
leadership at the ECS National Forum and Annual
Meeting, July 8 through I I in Denver.

The annual meeting will also see the release of
his published report and IS-minute video documentary
on instructional leadership.

The findings and recommendations presented by
Clinton in his report and documentary are different
from any other study on leadership to date for
several reasons. '

•
They represent a new generation of thinking o~
leadership.
•
His investigation was carried out with one
purpose in mind and one purpose only: How can
leadership make schools better places for learn
ing?
•
His work reflects 0,1 a new willingness from
incumbent leadership to redi~tribute the wealth
-the hidden weahh of untapped leadership
potential,
Information about the ECS annual meeting and
the Clinto" report on leadership is available from
ECS Communications, 1860 Lincoln Stteet, Suite
300, Denver, Colorado 80295-0301,

E. Patrick Mc:QuaId
SeaIor Projects Editor
Edueatloa COIIUIIiSIioa 01 the Slates
Th~ content ofFORUM matnials is prepared by the partil'ipatinR organizations.

EDUCATION WEEK does not endOl's~ and i. not respmuible for the <,ontent ofthe statements and/or any views or opinions expressed thnein.

REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION

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The Carnegie Report
[] A Call for Redesigning
(' The Schools

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Fundamental changes in the

internal life ofthe school hold

the greatest promise for

transforming teaching into a

rewarding and anractive career,

say the authors ofthe Carnegie

r I
i Repon. Their proposals aim to
l " make the schools both more
productive and more engaging
l J places in which to work.

:

i 7
BY MARC TUCKER AND
DAVID MANDEL

S
S
INCE THE release of A Na


r

l ,
tion Prepared: Teachers for
the 2l!;t Cenlurv late last
spring. the public has seized

on the most dramatic recommendations
of the report: the establishment
of a National Board for Professional
Teaching Standards. greatly increased
pay for tea~hers. the abolition

\ ,

of the undergraduate major in edu~ation.
and the I.:reation of Master in
Teal.:hing degree programs for professional
teacher education. Largely over


i, ,

looked in the furor surrounding the Carnegie
Report is the recommendation to
restructure the ~chools. But if U.S.
schools are not re!.tructured. then the

\ , other Carnegie recorrunendations will
make little difference.
Much has changed as a result of the
education reform movement of the past

L I

three years. States
and local school

MARC TUCKER js e.Ae(ulil·e direc/(Jr and
DAVID MANDEL is assvdUIt' direc/(Jr vflhe
Carnegie Forum vn Educalion and the EconVIII)'.
WushinglvlI. D. C.

~4 PHI [)ELTA KAPPAN

boards have raised standards for students
and teachers alike. substantially
raised teal:her salaries in many locales.
created career ladders. and instituted
merit pay plans. But little has changed
in the way ~I:hools operate -huw time
is spent. how decisions are made. how
professional educators relate to each
other and to their charges. A tew notable
exceptions to this rule exist. but
these exceptions are otten of a marginal
nature and have little effect on instructional
practice or edul:ational outcomes.

The Carnegie proposab that have
captured the spotlight share a common
property with the tirst wave of education
reflo)rms that have swept across the
United States: they exert their major effect.
on .school inputs. If the nation is to
reap the full benefit of such changes.
however. things will have to change illside
the school. For it is fundamental
change in the internal life of the school
that holds the greatest promise for transforming
teaching into a rewarding and
attractive career and creating learning
environments that promise to provide
students with the capaCity for mdependent
thought and action.

Why is this so? Because the current
!ltructure and organization of schooling
not only make extraordinarily inefticient
use of those able teachers we are
lucky enough to attract to and retain in
the schools. but they also create a host
of dbincentives that drive many of our
be~t teachers out of the schools.

This dilerruna can be seen most starkly
in the undifferentiated stamng model
that characterizes most schools. The
roles. responsibilities. and expectations
that the school holds for rookie teachers
are no different from those it holds for
experienced master teachers who know
what will engage students and what will
frustrate them. who know how to help

students over the humps. who kn0'f
how to diagnose the learning problems
that make bright children appear slow to
the novice teacher. and on and on.

lt is immensely wasteful to assign
identical responsibilities to two teachers
of very different capacities. and it is
counterproductive from the standpoint
of personnel management. as well. The
intluence of the experienced teacher on
the 'school is no greater than that of the
novice: and the capable novice. unlike
beginning professionals in other fields.
cannot look forward to increasing responsibility
that matches corresponding
increases in capacity arid performance.

Of course. it doesn't have to be this
way. and. at the .margins. some schools
are beginning to experimerlt with differentiated
stafting schemes. These are
usually confined to senior staff members
serving as mentors for junior staff
members and very little else. What is
absent is what is typically found in the
practice of other professions: the roles
of prufes~ionals are sharply di!.tinguished
by virtue of their expertise.
responsibilit). and productivity; their
statu!> and compensation are likewise
differentiated.

Contrast the life of teachers with that
of accountants. attorneys. or architects
who practice their craft in a protessional
partnership. In the case of accountants.
attorneys. and architects. real rewards
in status. remuneration. and responsibility
depend on acquiring national certitlcation.
Teaching has no national assessment
worthy of !.uch recognition.
Successfully I.:ompleting assignments.
cases. or projects for clients not only
translates into increased earning power
for most professionals but in time leads
to greater responsibility and more challenging
clients. In teaching we reward
time in the seat and the aC4uisition of


[1 J

graduate credit irrespective of whether
anything is learned -much less applied
in a manner that is beneticial to children.


The professional practice model
wnrks hecause -unlike teachers -accountants.
attornevs. and architects continue
to practice their trade even as they
gain experience and assume greater rer
1 sponsibility. It seems that such an obvious
progression in the life of a professional
would not he worth noting. until
one realizes that a teacher's career does
not fit this mold. As a result. there IS
tremendous satisfaction among those in
other professions as they move up in
the organization. and. consequently. the

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hest practitioners generally choose to

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stay in their profession.

I
I
T IS NOT just better salaries that
hold the best people in a profession.
They also take responsibility and
manage the toughest and most challenging
cases both hecause these are the
assignments that promise to yield the
greatest returns for their firm and be


I 1

cause they are marks of status and acl
complishment. Such people are provid


J

ed enough support staff and facilities to
insure that their time is spent in the most

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produ<.:tive
manner possible. Tasks that

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can be done bv those with little experience
or expertise are routinely
farmed nut to junior professionals or to
technical and clerical personnel. The

, j

tasks of administration are often delegated
tn a nonprofessional. and life is
arranged so as not to distance senior
partners from their clients but to keep

\ , them engaged to the fullest in their
practice.
The Carnegie Task Force believed
that there was much in the professional

l j
practice model that commended itself to
the schools and that could be adapted to
great effect. A Nation Prepared. there


\ ,
fore. called for a more diverse staffing
structure for the schools. one that
is designed to capitalize on the knowledge.
skill. and accumulated wisdom of
our most able teachers. Such a staffing
structure would be headed by "Iead
teachers" -ideally. those professionals
who held advanced certificates from the
National Certification Board and who.
after a number of years in practice.
were regarded hy their peers as especially
well-qualified to take on leadership
positions in the school. Lead
teachers would coordinate the work of

\. J

the school's entire instructional staff.

including
the assignments of other

teachers.
instructional specialists. and

tutors. They would be invested with

much greater responsihility and authori


ty for students' learning experiences.

and they would be held accountable for

the performance of the entire school.

This plan would involve a trade hetween
teachers -who more often than
not regard themselves as the victims
rather than the beneficiaries of education
reform -and state and local
authorities. who must simultaneouslv
guard and promote the public interest.
In return for offering teachers the responsIbility
and authority befitting true
professionals. the state would require
that lead teachers demonstrate their
competence by sitting for the' National
Boards and that regular and equitable
assessment practices be adopted to
measure the performance of the entire
school as a means of holding lead teachers
accountable.

For such a system to work. teachers
will have to be involved in establishing
the performance criteria. which would
presumably be much broader than those
to which we have grown accustomed.
This will be no easy task. but it seems
that there are few .dternatives. If all the
rhetoric about fOl:IJsing on excellence
and quality is to have any meaning. the
energies and attention of the' entire
school must be directed toward these
goals. This means aligning the incentive
and reward structure for teachers and
administrators with the broad directions
and purposes that state and local authorities
set for the schools.

Such an alignment would mark a major
change in policy. for all too often it
is not the pursuit of knowledge but the
pursuit of tranquillity that energizes the
schools. Principals are commended and
promoted. and teachers are valued for
their capacity to maintain order. At the
same time. there are no special incentives
for bringing low-achieving students
up to grade level or for doing
more than merely insuring that the statemandated
curriculum is covered. As a
consequence. we have a system that
encourages principals to hire low-cost
teachers rather than especially effective
teachers. This is not to say that lowsalaried
teachers cannot be highly effective
-just that the emphasis is placed
on the wrong factors. often to ill effect.
Moreover. the current system provides
no incentive for the careful allocation

We must invest

teachers with a

much greater degree

of trust and

responsibility to

render professional

judgments about the

most appropriateI educational treatments.

IL-________________________

~

of inservice training funds in ways thal
might improve teacher productivity and
student progress. Fundamentally. our
system of schooling provides little motivation
to redirect resources from administration
to instruction.

Reorienting the energy and direction
of the schools will occur only when two
things happen. First. a rational and fair
incentive structure must be put in place
to direct the attention of the entire
school toward th; educational outcomes
that are judged by the state and the community
to be in the public interest. Second.
\\c: must invest teachers with a
much greater degree of trust and responsibility
to render professional judgments
about the most appropriate educational
treatments for their students. By
doing these things. we could transform
teaching into a career worth pursuing;
insure that the schools become much
more productive and engaging places in
which to work. and. most important. direct
the energy and attention of professional
educators toward mobilizing all
available resources to produce the
greatest possible gains for all students.

E
E
ARLIER generations saw work
as no more than a means of putting
bread on the table. However.
today's young people are
not only looking for jobs with decent
financial rewards: they are also looking
for jobs in which they can make their
presence felt. in which they can contribute
to the success of the enterprise.
and in which they can use their imagination.
creativity. and analytic capacity.
Judged according to these terms. teaching
is not now a career that is very satisfying.
But it could become so. .

The secret is to provide teachers with
much greater discretion than they now

SEPTEMBER 1986


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til make thelllsl'ht'\ di!!lbk (llr a pnl

dUl'tlvJtv nllnus. Suddeniv there would

he an i~l'entl\e tor tl'a~'h~rs to seek ~'X'

pcrtlse on the school staff wherever it

might be found. In such schools, prin


cipals would be leaders as well as prin


cipal teachcrs.

* * * * * * *

If teachers were to be given such discretion,
then establishing a rational
model of accountability would provide
those entrusted with the public interest
with some greater assurance that teachers'
energies would be turned in the appropriate
direction. At the same time,
for state and local authorities it would
mean abandoning a set of prescriptive
measures that contine professional judg-I
ment to very narrow bounds in favor of
much greater clarity about the goals of
education.

Such a change is likely to be healthy
for both parties. A professional environment
for teachers would be created
that would enable the schools to compete
with greater success for. especially
able people in a much more open labor
market than thev have ever confronted
before. At the same time. refocusing the
attention of officials on the ends of education
would not only move the authorities
away from the deadening activity of
trying to tighten the screws on the system
(an exercise that appears to be mo\'ing
us toward political gridlock), but
would also draw their attention toward
the larger questions with which they
ought to be grappling.

We do not believe that there is one
best wav to restructure the schools. But
a number of principles that we have
touched on above deserve attention.

A central idea in the restructuring that
we propose is a break with the ~eggcrate"
school. in which teachers are
isolated. In this antiquated model. students
who are fortunate enough to come
into contact with a great teacher have
the benetit of that teacher's knowledge
and skill. but no one else does -not the
other students in the school and not the
other teachers. This is a huge waste of
talent of a sort that most professional
partnerships would not tolerate. Ignoring
differences of skill and capacity inevitably
means that real talent goes unrewarded
and that too much is asked of
the neophyte. Because appropriate rewards
are denied to the most skilled.
prevailing inccntives drive many such
people out of teaching but are sufficient
to keep in teaching people .... ho perceive

command, to treat them as professionals,
to recognize that the best teaching is
custom tailored by a constant process of
feedback, analysis, and judgment ahout
student progress and understanding.
This can only happen when teachers
have the freedom to organize the school
day and the school's resources in ways
that best suit the immediate educational
needs of their students.

Yet we structure our schools as if we
had no need for the sort of flexibility
that such an environment demands. Assuming
that we already had a system
that assured administrators and school
boards that teachers met high pro


fessional standards of competence,
wouldn't it make sense to allow practitioners
to exercise professional judgment
in allocating the school's resources
and to provide them with a much greater
voice in operating these local institutions
-not unlike the role played by
other professionals in marshaling the
knowledge and expertise of their partnership
to meet the needs of their
clients?

* * * * * * *

Imagine what such a school might
look like. Groups of teachers would
gather periodically to determine how
best to cluster and distribute among the
staff those students for whom they were
respc;msible. Class times and sizes might
be varied across the school day, and
teachers might not be confined to a single
classroom. Students as well as
teachers might be encouraged to move
about -the former to master an assigned
lesson or to search for an engag


ing learlling experience, the latter to
consult with a colleague or to monJlor a
particular group of studentc; in need of
periodic oversight.

Teachers who were especially adept
at helping students who were having
trouble with a particular subject would
be so acknowledged and would be made
accessible to all students. Similarly,
some schools might designate student
tutors for this role or even a scientist on
loan for a few days from a local firm.

Early in the school year, those teachers
with lead responsibilities might meet
to distribute their school's discretionary
budget. That budget would be larger
than in times past because, with key instructional
decisions pushed down to the
building level. there would be less need
for a large central administrative staff to
make decisions and issue orders that
would now be the province of the individual
school.

The principal, who might at first have
been anxious about sharing authority
with the teachers, would come to appreciate
the new arrangements once he
or she realized that this was no zerosum
game. Because decisions are made
at the school level, principals would
have much more power than before: because
teachers are fully involved in decision
making, the principal's decisions
would be much more likely to be carried
out as intended.

Leadership would be far more rewarding
in schools in which the entire
staff worked toward a common goal:
helping students to achieve at much
higher levels than ever before in order

1'


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¥/'m here to address you aboUlthe pressing shonage ofstudent parking.

26

PHI DELTA KAPPAN


[1



themselves as having les~ 'appealing alternatives
elsewhere.

The Carnegie Forum Task Force proposed
the creation of a career progression
for teachers that would culminate
in a lead teacher position. This proposal
is not designed to generate a new stratum
of assistant principals but to find
ways of making the skill. wisdom. and
knowledge of the school's best teachers
available both to the principal and to
other teachers.

Lead teachers would play a key role
in setting a school's instructional policy
and in involving other teachers in
the decisions that affect instructional
policy. Lead teachers would continue to
teach. but they would also work with

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other teachers. provide direct super


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vision to new instructors not vet fully
licensed by the state to teach. train
student tutors. head curriculum revi


r0

sion teams. serve as consultants to otherl J teachers in their areas of specialization.
and analyze the sources of probr
' lems faced by students with unusuallyl perplexing learning difficulties. Lead
teachers would work to find ways to
share their own insights and the creative
r ' approaches of other teachers and to elici
l j it the insights of their colleagues. They
would play the key role in the school of
involving all teachers in a collective effort
to analyze the school's performance
i and to find ways of improving it. They

, J

would devote themselves to creating
the kind of collegial environment that
I teachers say they want but rarely find.
l j This proposal is not intended to provide
management without leadership.
as some seem to have interpreted the
suggestion that a committee of lead
teachers might govern the school. The
existing model of the nonteaching principal
might work perfectly well in
bringing about the kind of school envi


l ,

sioned here. But like a professional
partnership. which is overseen by a
committee of senior partners and
chaired by a managing partner. so the
school might have a ~managing~ teacher
or ~principal" teacher and return us to
the original conception of the principal
as instructional leader.

Other models of leadership might also
work. depending on the skills. talents.
and interests of those who take responsi


, !
bi ity for the instructional leadership of
the school. It is essential. though. not to
be led astray in the quest for the unassaitably
perfect model of leadership. but
instead to find ways to tap and reward

\ I

the kMwledge and talent that already

exist in our teaching force (and that are

departing
from it at an alarminl! rate).

At the same time. new structures
of compensation should be developed
that are connected to the new staffing
structure. This would mean providing
significant pay differentials to teachers
with greater responsibilities and to
teachers who demonstrate their competence
by receiving certification from the
National Board. Seniority would also
deserve to be recognized in teacher salary
scales. but the accumulation of educational
credits would not. This provision
is not meant to discourage the continuing
education of teachers but to emphasize
those kinds of continuing education
that translate into increased capacity.
as represented by National Board assessments
and by expanded responsibility.


Such a compensation structure.
pegged at levels that are competitive
with other occupations that demand a
college degree. would provide teachers
WIth real prospects for personal growth
and reward over the long term. This
would stand in sharp contrast to current
practice. which typically elevates
teachers to a fairly low plateau after
10 or 12 years and holds no prospect
for advancement. save through leaving
teaching for an administrative position.

T
T
HE PROPOSALS of the Carnegie
Task Force are made at a
time of true crisis in U. S.
schools. Demand for teachers
is rising fast. and supply shows no sign
of following that demand. If we were
speaking of medicine. architecture. or
accounting. then the economists would
tell us that professional salaries in the
affected field would rise until the supply
of applicants willing to work at the
higher salaries matched the demand.
Unfortunately. in education we do
things differently. We lower the qualifications
for entrance to the field until
there are enough people available who
will work at the unchanged salary.

If. this time around. we settle for any
warm body who will teach. we will be
in grave trouble for two reasons. First.
college-educated men and women have
a much wider range of careers open to
them than ever before. so the pool of
able college graduates available for
teaching careers at the prevailing salaries
is much smaller than it was in the

USED '-lITH PERHISSION

Lead teachers

would play a key

role in setting the

instructional policy

of a school and 'in

involving other

teachers in decisions
that affect
instructional policy.

\ i
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past. Second. the highly technical nature
of the world economy makes it imperative
that we produc~ high school
graduates who are far better educated'
than ever before. The performance of
the entire elementary and secondary
system of schooling must be radically
upgraded at the very time that we
are experiencing a severe shortage of
teachers. That is the nature of the crisis
we face.

When placed against both the demographic
challenges that confront us and
the need to develop greater capacity in
students by the time they graduate from
high school. the .case for structural reform
becomes all the more compelling.
If the education that was once reserved
for an elite is now to be provided for all
(or nearly all). then we have a productivity
pro~lem of major proportions. if
we are not to bankrupt the country in
llur search for educational excellence.

Even if tinancing were not a consideration.
we would stili be forced to restructure
the schools SImply because the
schools will get no more than their fair
share of the best and the brightest college
graduates. Teachers are obviously
the most important resource in the
educational lives of our -:htldren. It IS
imperative that we make the most effi<':
Ient use possible of all lJUr available
resources. especially llur teachers: it is
even more important that we make the
most efficient use of pur verv best
teachers. .

The propl1sals of the Carnegie Task
Force promise to make the sl'hools hoth
more productive and more engaging
places in which to ","ork. The tca(hers.
our children. and the public l'an only
win if these proposals are enacted. K

SEPTE~BER 1~1!6


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--
To break out of this impasse, we propose a major program of
coordinated changes in the schools, in teacher education, in
professional standards, in: systems of compensation.: and in
the compact between communities and education leaders in
their schools.

Any serious proposal for improvement must tirst contend

with sobering demographic patterns.

The children of the postwar 'baby boom' are now swelling
the number of children entering school. Yet we face a growing
teacher shortage, a shortage exacerbated by the attractiveness
of other career opportunities for college educated
people.

Recent years have seen a dramatic improvement in the career
opportunities available to college educated women. So. too.
for minorities.

It is hardly surprising that, as careers in many professions
open to well educated women, many fewer elect teaching.
And. just as the percentage of minority children is rising. the
percentage of new teachers from minority groups is falling.

If we continue as we are today. school districts will lower
standards, states will issue temporary licenses. and growing
numbers of teachers will teach out of subject.

The best teachers now in the schools will be increasingly
dispirited and will leave in increasing numbers. and the more

(
academically accomplished students entering college will vote
with their feet to avoid teaching.

The quality of education offered our children will decline at
an accelerating rate, and the ranks of teachers will be filled
by drawing on an ever larger fraction of the least qualified
candidates from the pool of applicants.

But we will only be deceiving ourselves if communities succeed
in populating their classrooms with adults who go
through the motions but are not effecth'e teachers.

The only way to attract a sufficient number of qualified people
into teaching is to alter the professional environment in
the schools to make a teaching career attractive, and to open
entry into the profession to all college arts and sciences
graduates.

Our strategy is admittedly bold. but it can work. We would
begin by:

• Raising the standards for teachers.
• Strengthening their educational preparation.
• Revamping their compensation system.
• Restructuring the schools to make teaching more effective.
productive and rewarding.
• Encouraging communities to set goals for school performance.
to which teachers can commit themselves. and fM
which they are willing to be held accountable.
• ~lobilizing the nation's resources to prepare minority
youngsters for teaching careers.
We propose that a ;-Iational Board for Professional Teaching
Standards be created to est;lblish and maintain high standards
for teaching. It would develop new methods of assessment,
both for suhject matter competence and the demonstrated
ability to teach.

I
The Board \\'ould issue certificates attesting to two levels of
competence ..\ majority of the Board would be elected by
other teachers who have alreadv been Board-certified.
Teachers \\'()uld seek Board certification voluntarily: licensure
\\'ould continue to be the responsibility of the states.

(

But we believe that school hoards \\'ill be eager to recognize
the \'alue lit Board-certified teachers in their recruiting, and
teachers \\·ill be eager to achie\'e this objective recognition of

"


their profes.slunal competence.

Restructuril1~ of the schools is needed to make the best use
of those \\·cLl qualified. certified teachers.



-



We envision two levels of responsibility within the school

faculty: teachers and lead teachers.

Supporting them would be a variety of other staff, inclucing
instructors with subject matter competence but requiring
supervision, a variety of technical and administrative staff,

and student tutors.

It makes little sense to staff all the tasks in a school with people
of identical responsibility. Yet this is the pattern in our
schools todav. Restructuring would enable schools to make
much more efficient use of a very important resourceteaching
professionals.

If, in addition, teachers are encouraged to work together in a
collegial manner, making creative use of all the resources in
the school in the best interest of all the students, it is verv
likely they would begin to break away from the traditional
classroom compartmentalization of the school and the isolation
of teachers from one another.

Finally, professional teachers, working within a context of
clear goals for students set by the state and the district.
should have a much greater voice in deciding how those
goals are to be met. If professional teachers, who meet high
standards, are allowed to work like professionals, they are
more likely to deliver the quality of education of which they.
and their support staff, are capable.

If we expect a lot more from the professional teacher, we
must provide a lot stronger educational system to educate
our teachers.

We recommend phasing out the undergraduate baccalaureate
degree in education, requiring instead that all teachers-'including
those who teach elementary school-have an arts
and sciences baccalaureate.

AMaster in Teaching degree would be introduced, with a
strong focus on learning how to teach in real life situations.
Internship and supervised residency conducted in participating
local public schools are the core of this concept.

~
§
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rnder this arrangement, any college graduate in arts and
sciences-including mature people in other industries interested
in taking up teaching-could take the ~laster in
Teaching program or enter teaching by an apprO\'ed
alternate path.

The potential pool of well educated people for future
teachers would be greatly expanded.

Even so. higher standards. a professional enrironment for
teaching, and stronger education for teachers will not attract
to teaching careers the more than 200.000 college graduates
needed per year by 1992 unless the compensation system for
teachers is restructured tOo.


We fa\"Of abolishing the current system of paying teachers
more for taking continuing education courses. and instead
hasing compensation on four elements:

• Level of Board certification attained. ~
-~ :=
-<

• Le\'e1 of responsibility in the school.
~

~

• Experience (or seniority). -0
""

• Performance of the students in the entire school against :d
~

agreed objectives. :=

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The pay scale that reflects these elements must have an ade0
quate starting salarv and will have to rise, on the average. ~
Salary range. from top to bottom, would also be increased
substantially to retlect the same four elements.

To attract able college graduates to teaching. they will have
to be paid competitively with other careers requiring a comparable
education-accountants. for example.

Teachers also need ()pp()rtunities tilr career ad\'ancement
when their professional attainment and job responsibilities
justify it.

Todar's teachers 'tor ,)ut' in salary after In or 12 years. except
for annual cost (It' li\'ing raises. '\0 wonder that half the
people who enter tead1ing lean: by their seventh year.


5

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Clearly. if higher performance is expected of teachers, there

must be incentives that justify their commitment. and they.

in turn must accept accountability for the achic\·eme.nt of
agreed upon goals.

This is what we mean by the performance·based element of
compensation.

We visualize a school district discussing \\'ith the community.
and with the educational leaders in the community's schools.
the potential for progress of all the students in each school.
Each year's goals are agreed to by the teachers. who are
rewarded collectively if the goal is overachieved.
Our schools have very little experience with such incentive
systems; a great deal of discu~sion with teachers and school
officials will no doubt be required to find satisfactory
methods.

But citizens in the community must be able to measure
whether their investments in reform are producing the
desired results.

Teachers should have incentives !O \\'ork together creatively
to address the needs of all the children in the school.

Finally, it must be said that the most serious challenge may
be to make sure that the teaching force is broadly represen·
tative of the whole population while higher standards are
imposed.

:--Jo one-especially no minority parent-would want differen·
tial standards. with minoritr teachers held to a lower stan·
dard. ~Iinoritv children-in'deed all children-need the very
6est teachers: representing all races and ethnic backgrounds
in America.

Higher standards are most important to insure that those
children from poor families are given every chance to break
out of the cycle of poverty. But to insure their motivation
and self confidence. these children must encounter teachers
from their own background from time to time.

Improving the compensation system for all teachers and making
their work more attractive will. of course. equally attract
minority as well as white teachers.

But so many minority students are lost from leaks in the
educational pipeline. that the pool of minority college
graduates is too small to provide teachers in numbers
anywhere near approaching the mix of the student\

In this area. partnerships of community·based organizations.
businesses. higher education institutions and schools fund(:d
from state and federal sources will have to address the educa·
tion of disadvantaged students starting at precollege lerels. in
order to produce more minority teachers.

The program juSt described will be expensive. So too will
continuing on present course and speed.

But there is every reason to believe that these reforms will
increase the productivity of the most qualified teachers. and
will eventually reduce the cost of teacher education by
reducing teacher turno\·er.

Substantial savings in other sectors would also follow-for
example. by reducing the need for remedial courses in the
freshman year of college.

But. if communities want these kinds of schools. additional
im'estment will be needed.

Fortunately. we estimate the total cost. if spread over a ten .
year period. could be met by increasing public school invest·
ments at the same rate of growth as the economy as a whole.

t

\\,ill .\mericans make this im'estment'

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I believe they \\·ill. once they understand what is at stake. If
our standard of li\'ing is to be maintained. if the growth of a

C

permanent underclass is to be averted. if democracy is to
function effectivel\' into the next century. our schools must

I

graduate the vast majority of students with achievement

(j

heIs long thought possible only for a pri\'ileged few.

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MEMBERS OF THE TASK FORCE

Lewis ~1. Branscomb. Chairman
Chief Scientist Jnd Vice·President
International Business ~[achines Corporation


Alan K. Campbell
Vice·Chairman of the Board and Executi\'e \·ice·President
ARA Services

~[ary Hatwood Futrell I
President
:-Iational Education :\.ssociation


John W. Gardner
Writer and Consultant

Fred ~!. Hechinger
President
The :-iew York Times Compan\' Foundation

Bill Honig
Superintendent of Public Instruction
State of California

James B. Hunt
Atturney
Poyner & Spruill

Vera Katz
Speaker of the Oregon House of Repre,entJti\'cs

Thomas H. Kean
Go\'ernor of :-lew Jersey

Judith E. Lanier
Dean. College of Education
\!ichigan State L'ni\,ersity

Arturo ~adrid
President
The Tomas Ri\'era Center

Shirley ~. Malcom
Program Head
Office of Opportunities in Science
:\.merican :\.ssociation for the :\.dl'allcement of Science

Ruth E. Randall
Commissioner of Education
State of \!innesota

Albert Shanker
President
:\.merican Federation of Teachers

1.\'jRlled tbe Report u'itb reSerl'(lil()IlS.

~QriJ


THE CARNEGIE FORUM ON EDUCATION AND THE
ECONOMY

The Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy. a Pro·
gram of Carnegie Corporation of :-lew York, was established
in January 1985. The Forum was created to draw America's
attention to the link between economic growth and the skills
and abilities of the people who contribute to that growth.
and to help develop education policies to meet the economic
challenges ahead.

Carnegie Corporation of :';Jew York is a philanthropic founda·
tion created by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote the ad·
vancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.

Advisory Council

David A. Hamburg. Chairman
William O. Baker
Lewis ~. Branscomb
Henry Cisneros
John W. Gardner
Fred ~. Hechinger
James B. Hunt
Donald Kennedy
~argaret L. A. ~acVicar
Shirley M. Malcom
Ray Marshall
Shirley M. ~cBay
~lichael O'Keefe
~ary Louise Petersen
Ruth E. Randall
Peter Smith
John C. Taylor. 3rd
Robert ~. White
William S. Woodside

Staff

~Iarc S. Tucker

ExecutiL'e Director

(
David R. ~Iandel

Associate Director

Betsv S. Brown

Stafi Associate

Catherine J. Combs

Administrative Assistant


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ADVERTISEMENT

'WhereWeStand.

tJy-Albert~PreSldem American ~ro"anofkoehers


Revolutionary Report Professionalizes Teaching

California Commission Calls It Right

Still another education report? Yes, and this one's a blockbuster.

"Who Will Teach our Children?: A Strategy for Improving California's
Schools" is the report of the California Commission on the
Teaching Profession. The commission was appointed by three public
officials-the chairs of the Senate and Assembly EdJ.lcation Committees
and the State Commissioner of Public Instruction~acting in their private
capacities. The commission was funded privately by the Hewlett
Foundation. While it dealt specifically with California, the problems
the commission addressed and the solutions it recommends have clear

national significance.

In the last few years states have passed laws and issued regulations
requiring students to take math, English, science, social studies. In
many states students can't graduate without passing competency tests
in these areas. But it's easier to pass laws and issue regulations than to
implement them. How will the students master these subjects unless
there are teachers who can teach them? The warning signals are everywhere.
In spite of talk about tougher and higher standards, more and
more uncertified and unqualified teachers are being hired across the
country. New York City has employed 13,000 teachers who haven't
met the minimum standards. Baltimore schools gave a test to prospec


tive teachers, then hired those who failed the examination, because
there were more job openings than applicants who passed. Tens of
thousands of classes are taught by misassigned teachers-teachers qualified
in one subject teaching a different subject in which they are not

qualified.

I have traveled across the country over the last two years attending
conferences on the question of how we can attract and retain qualified
teachers. I haven't heard of any similar conferences on how to attract
and retain qualified doctors, dentists, engineers or lawyers. In each of
these and other fields it's understood that ours is a free market economy.
Shortages are not remedied by holding conferences but by improving
incentives. Of course, the reason for all these conferences on
how to attract and retain qualified teachers is that there's a desire to do
it without changing current incentives, and that just can't be done.

Unless there are major changes schools across the country will
employ more. and Qlore teachers who cannot pass minimum competency
tests themselves. Once hired, such teachers will have to be carefully
watched and supervised. thus making the job even less attractive
to the competent. All the hope for reforms and improvements will go

down the drain.

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The California Commission report is revolutionary. While it calls
for major improvements in teacher salaries and working conditions. it
goes far beyond: It calls for turning teaching into a true profession by
making it self-governing in the same way other professions are. It
would create a California Teaching Standards Board, with a majority
of teachers, which would establish standards for entry and advancement
in the profession, develop a code of etlrlcs for the teaching profession
and establish requirements for creating new categories of
teachers such as mentors. peer evaluators and staff developers as part
of a career ladder plan. It would also establish standards for suspending
or revoking teaching credentials. In addition


• It calls for a radical alteration of teacher preparation and·
training by reqUiring all teachers to have a four-year liberal arts education
with subject matter majors and minors. followed by a year of
graduate study in professional education and a one-year residency.
• It creates a "board-certified" classification, so that teachers
with added study and outstanding demonstrated skills can gain recognition
and earn more on the basis of objective statewide procedures.
• Teachers would get full salary credit if they moved from one
district to another, giving them the same opportunity as other professionals-
or anyone else-to move within a career from one location to
another. •
• It calls on the legislature and school boards to establish a widespread
system of sabbaticals.
The report restructures the teaching career, since under the plan
teachers would not only perform their usual classroom functions but
would also help train new teachers and have sufficient time to conduct
research and to share ideas with colleagues. Teachers would not
be mere hired hands doing what they're told by supervisors. They'd be
more like senior partners in a law firm. In a recommendation on how
to "involve teachers in school decision-making," the commission said
teachers should be involved in "a range of responsibilities," -including
selection of new teachers, evaluation of teachers' performance, helping
establish goals for the school, development and coordination' of CJ.lfriculum
across grade levels and within· departments, design and conduct
of inservice education at the school Site, and the organization of
the school for effective instruction, among other items,


Another major .change called for is that schools would be required
to publish an index to inform the public at least every two years of. the
conditions for learning and teaching in every school in the state.
Among the items that would be reported on in such an index, the
commission said. should be "class size, teacher assignments outside the·
area of competence, time spent by teachers on non-teaching tasks,
availability of qualified personnel to provide counseling and other
special services for students, availability of well qualified, adequately
compensated SUbstitutes" and "teachers' assessment. of the quality of
school leadership," among other items.

. Other major aspects of this revolutionary document will be covered
in a subsequent column. The California commission had the

·courage to state that there's a high pricetag for what it recommends,
but it believes that the alternative-failing to educate youngsters well or
even adequately because the state has not been able to attract and keep
good teachers-will be even more costly in the lortg run. What is true
in California is also true for the rest of the country.

Mr. ShiRker's comments appear in this ~·ecti;n·;v~;;-sUnd-;y. ~nder th~ ;usp~~s of the Unite"cS Fide-ration of TIICh.rs, )
the Ne. Yor' Slate United Teacher. and the American Federation of Teachers. Re.der corre~e.c. II i"i!ld.
Address your lette.. to Mr. Shanker at JiG Park A.enu. S ...II1. Ne. York. N.Y. 10010. ~ 1. br Albert Slllftlltr.

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