The Future of Public Education and the Teaching Profession in Pennsylvania

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The Future of


PUBLIC EDUCATION
and the
TEACHING PROFESSION
in Pennsylvania



Written by
Albert Fondy
President·,. Pennsylvania Federation of Teachers

March-April 1987



THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION AND THE


TEACHING PROFESSION IN, PENNSYLVANIA

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By Albert Fondy, President, Pennsylvania Federation of Teachers

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. This article is written to focus on some
of the current trends in public education in
Pennsylvania and in the nation, as well as
to attempt a forecast of where these
trends will lead in the future.

Any effort to write about the future of
education here in our state and in the
nation is a difficult and uncertain undertaking
at best, but there are some things
which are happening now and which will be
happening in the near future that one can
feel reasonably assured, indeed, will be
sustained and enlarged upon over the long
term.

Top Quality Teachers-the Fundamental

Ingredient for Successful Schoo1s

Certainly, 'in maintaining and striving
to improve the quality and effectiveness
of public education and the support for
public education among the general public,
there can be no question that the place
~o start is by assuring the availability
of top quality, well prepared, competent,
committed teachers. A major thrust
in our state now and in the immediate
fu.ture, and for the foreseeable future,
will be to concentrate on trying to recruit
and hold very competent persons to teach
in our classrooms.

Upcoming Teacher Shortage

It's no secret that the demographics
of the teaching profession indicate that
there is going to be an enormous turnover

'among current teachers over the next
five, to seven, to eight years. The estimates,
and they are accurate, are that
in excess of 50% of all the teachers
currently teaching will be retired or

otherwise out of teaching inside the
next ten years. That's because a great
bulk of current teachers came into the
profession in the 1950's and the early
1960's, and those teachers are now beginning
to near, or are at, retirement age.

Of course, the factors that were
present in the past to fill our teaching
ranks with very many top quality people
have changed. For one thing, there np
longer is a draft. The draft was an
inducement to young men to become
teachers rather than enter military service.
There is a second factor of much greater
si~ificance. The teaching profession'
has historically been one of the most
attractive professions for women because
many other professions that should have
been open to women really weren't open
to them, and, as a consequence, many
women came into teaching. We have
an enormous number of very well qualified,
highly competent women in our profession
today, simply because they had not too
many other choices of professions to
enter. That too has now changed. Women
today have a diversity of attractive

. career choices.

Moreover, teaching now IS In competition
with other professions for top quality
college graduates-males and females,
minorities, and so on. The number of
young adults coming out of our colleges
and universities right now to go into
all kinds of pursuits, not just teaching,
is at a low level in comparison to what
it normally would be, because the "baby
bust" generation is now going through
our high schools and entering our colleges •.
So we have that factor which also influences
how many people are available
to become teachers.

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Over the last ten to fifteen years,
there were' many layoffs in the teaching
profession, and for young people about
to enter college orin college, the perception
was, "Why prepare to be a teacher,
even if one likes the idea, because there
aren't any teaching jobs to be had?"
That perception was correct. However,
that perception is no longer correct.
There will be teaching jobs, so that,
indeed, those who are interested in teaching
would be well advised to consider
it as a career.

Teacher Recruitment Program in Effect

in Pittsburgh

It is interesting to note what the
Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, in
conjunction with the Pittsburgh School
District, is doing in the City of Pittsburgh
right now, in terms of the recruitment
of future teachers for the City School
System. Pittsburgh is engaged in an
effort to recruit teachers for the City
School System from its own high school
student body. Last school year, again
this school year, and next school year
at least, joint presentations---by the
union and by top school administrationhave
been made and will be made to
hbnor roll students in the City's high
schools, as well as to some other students
who may not be on the honor roll but
who are recommended by their teachers
as potentially very good candidates to
be future teachers. Excellent high school
students in Pittsburgh are being informed
about the bright prospects that exist
for jobs in teaching, what the needs
are in teaching, what the importance
of teaching is to our society, and what
the standards and requirements are for
entering teaching. They are virtually
guaranteed a teaching position in Pittsburgh
and they are guaranteed an exc.ellent,
competitive starting salary, rangmg
(in 1990 and 1991) from $23,000 to $27,000,
or higher.

Tough Entry StandardS .n~

Attract Top Students .!2 Teaching

When such students are talked with
and informed that the standards for
the teaching profession are growing
stronger; that, indeed, it will require
in Pennsylvania a Master's Degree for
permanent certification as a teacher;
that in the future there will be a rigorous
test for various kinds of certification
in teaching; that there already is in our
state (beginning with the 1987-88 school
year) a test for all entering teachers;
that there will be an induction period
for new teachers-when such students
learn of these more rigorous requirements
for the teaching profession and discuss\
stronger standards in the teaching profession,
they are actually more attracted
to consider teaching as one of the alternatives
when they look at a potential career.
If we can assure young people that there
is going to be a job for them, one that
provides a real service to society and
one that will pay a very decent salary,
teaching becomes all the more appealing.
to them as a profession.

Professional Teaching Conditions A~

Iutel! Essential

In order for teaching to be attractive
as a profession,not only do the salaries
have to be satisfactory, obviously, but
conditions in the schools themselves
have to be the kind that will attract
able and talented people into teaching
and keep them in teaching. Teachers
have to be able to function in a professional
way in our schools, which they
have not been able to do at all in the
past. The central thrust today, and in
the immediate future, will be a genuine
and conscious effort to recruit top quality
young people into teaching and, at the
same time, a strong effort to restructure
teaching into a true profession.

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Carnegie Forum Report and Other National

Reports on Education Provide Catalyst

The energy to make that pappen
is coming from teachers themselves
and from their teacher organizationsparticularly
from the American Federation
of Teachers. Certainly the catalyst
for all of this effort to professionalize
the role' of the teacher in the schools
fundamentally has been the various
national reports on education that have
been issued over the last three years.
The most important of these is the report
of the "Task Force on Teaching as a
Profession," a distinguished fourteenmember
body assembled by the "Carnegie
Forum on Education and the Economy."
(AI Shanker, AFT national president,
was one of the members of that Task
Force.) The Carnegie Forum Task Force
report was issued in the spring of 1986,
and the reaction to that report and the
impetus from it are still being felt and
are growing stronger.

National Teacher Certification Board

Recommended ~Carnegie Forum

One of the recommendations of the
Carnegie Forum is that national teacher
certification standards be developed
and that a national teacher certification
board be created. In order to begin to
make teaching into a profession, professional
entry standards that parallel some
of the kinds of procedures that are followed
in the medical profession, in the legal
profession, and in other professions need
to be adopted. For example, even though
one completes the educational requirements
to become a teacher, he or she
still should have to pass an entry examination
to actually qualify to be a teacher.
A national test and related professional
standards will be developed over the
next three to four years. These professional
standards and tests will be available
for individual states to examine and,
hopefully, to adopt. This is all part of
the effort to strengthen the standards
for entry into teaching and to improve
the image and the reality of teaching
as a profession.

Broadening the


Teachers in the Schools

So again, the second thing that we
have to do in assuring that we are going
to get the best people into teaching
and keep them is to strengthen the professional
role of the teacher in the schools.
In this' context, what is happening now,
and will continue to happen. in the
immediate future, is an effort to try
to have teachers assume broader roles
and responsibilities in our schools-not
necessarily to have teachers run the
schools totally on their own, but certainly
to have teachers assume the responsibility
(following agreement with the school
board and top school administration,
as a result of joint meetings and consensu~)
for a host of professional tasks and
functions. Examples of such added teacher
professional responsibilities would be:
conducting staff development programs·
involving teachers, handling the induction
of new teachers, observing their colleagues
in the classroom, having the time to
interact with each other in terms of
ways of improving instruction in the
schools, and providing an opportunity
to discuss problems in the schools and
how these problems might best be solved
by teachers themselves.

With Teacher Power and Influence Comes
Teacher Responsibility

In other words, the objective is to
create an atmosphere in the schools
where teachers really have an opportunity
to have a direct and meaningful influence
on what happens in the school, and, as a
result of having that influence, teachers
are enabled to broaden their perspective
and really begin to acquire major
responsibility for improving the atmosphere
in the schools and the educational
outcomes for students in the schools.
That whole effort is really necessary
if we are ultimately to make teaching

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Teac ers' Teac ers'
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into the kind of attractive profession
that it really should be in our society.
This is not going to be an easy goal to
achieve, but we, have an opportunity
over the next five to ten years, t>erhaps
it will take longer, to make teaching
into one of the top collective employment
professions that exist in our nation, if
not the best of the collective employment
professions.

Growing Status and Respect for Teaching
Profession

We've made some real headway in
terms of salaries for teachers. Certainly,
with the rights that we have now under
collective bargaining, teachers are no
longer a powerless group at all. Teachers
have strong national teacher organizations,
state organizations, local bargaining
organizations, and so on. The whole
collective bargaining process has given
teachers the power within their own
school districts, and within the states
and nationally as well, to have a truly
strong influence on what is said about
teaching, on what is said about public
education, and on what various national
reports recommend for education. The
fact that teachers are in a powerful
P9sition means that those who would
make recommendations and formulations
for the future in public education have
to consult with teachers and their representatives
about what kinds of things
ought to be done to safeguard public
education and to strengthen public education
in our state and in the nation.

Young college and university graduates
are going to find, if they go into teaching,
that teaching will be a much stronger
and, hopefully, a much more respected
profession in the future than, unfortunately,
it is at present and has been
in the immediate past.

Focus !!! Entry Salaries ~

Certainly the area of salary is a key
concern-especially the entering salaries
for teachers. One of the trends in our
state, and nationally as well, is a recognition
that one cannot succeed in trying
to draw people into any profession or
into any occupation unless the salaries
that are paid are competitive. There
is a recognition that the entering' salaries
for teachers, which, in particular, have
always been low and which are still low,
have to be greatly strengthened, if, indeed,
we're going to be in a position to attract
the numbers and the quality of people
we have to draw into teaching. Therefore,
another current and continuing trend
will be the drive to strengthen starting
salaries for new teachers entering the
profession.

Career Teacher Salaries Always an

Emphasis

There is always a need, and that
surely must and will continue, for career
teacher salaries to be strengthened as
well. That effort, through collective
bargaining, will continue. That is a
primary responsibility that organizations
which represent teachers have and it's
a responsibility that will be met. If
entering salaries are improved, that
certainly helps to build the pressure
for increasing the salaries for career
teachers at the same time.

Summary of Article to this Point

This completes the first major area
being dealt with in this article-the
area of who teachers will be, what their
professional roles and status will be,
and how they will be compensated. This
is one overall major area which is changing
dramatically and which is critical to
the future of public education in Pennsylvania
and the nation.

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Emphasis ~ Educational Quality and

Student Achievement

There is a second major area on which
this article must concentrate.· That
area, of course, is that schools exist-and
teachers are employed in schools-because
of the needs and interests of the students
in our schools. Clearly, maintaining
and improving the quality of education
is a major concern for the public and
for parents. If we're going to have public
support, i.e., taxpayer support, for our
schools, we have to attain educational
results in the schools that are satisfactory
to the public and that warrant, in the
eyes of the public and the parents of
school children, the continuation and
expansion of the substantial expenditures
of money that must go into the operation
of effective and successful schools.

What is happening, and what will
continue to happen, is that there is a
strengthening of standards for students
in the schools. We now have in our own
state, as Pennsylvania teachers know,
more credits required for high school
graduation, more rigorous academic
programs, more testing, and so on in
the schools. That development al1d that
tr,end really are essential components
of the whole effort to try to maintain
and strengthen public education. This
area is parallel in significance to the
makeup of the teaching staff itself.

Winning Public Support for the Sehools

There is no question that, to the
extent that the schools are effective,
to the extent that students achieve in
the schools, and to the extent that teachers
are given the kind of support they need
to make those things happen, a majority
of the public will support our schools
in the future.

So the second major thing that is
happening today is a strengthening of
standards in our schools, more insistence
that the reason why children are in schools,
and why teachers are there, is so that
students learn and progress. Effective

learni~g cannot occur withou orous
academic program and without satisfactory
discipline conditions in the schools.
There's no question that this combined
factor is a key one-in where we are
in education today and in where we are
going. This is true in the minds of teachers
and in the view of parents and the public.

Critical Need to Pund Education Ade


guate1y

Clearly, in order to operate the schools
it is absolutely necessary to have adequate
financing of education. Notwithstanding
the dismal climate at the present time
with regard to support for public education
at the national level, emanating from
the White House, the fact is that noiv
and over the upcoming years-particularly
if we're successful in the goal of professionalizing
the role of teachers in the
schools and if we're successful in strength-'
ening educational standards and student
achievement-there will be the political
thrust and the public and business commitment
that are necessary to maintain
and to improve the levels of funding
for our schools.

Inadequate Level of Federal SUpPOrt

for Education

Certainly there has to be a greater
federal effort toward funding our schools.
Right now, roughly speaking,6% or so
of all of the funds for operating our
elementary and secondary schools come
from the federal government. That,
of course, is truly a very low and dismal
level of federal support. That low level
of support, frankly, has been the case,
not just in this national administration
but in the past as well. This administration,
however, has really sought to go
backward. Fortunately, its efforts to
reduce drastically the already inadequate
level of federal aid were resisted by
others more wise than the administration,
i.e., the Congress, and the situation
is not as bad as it actually could have
been had the President succeeded in
his damaging intent.

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The recent enactment of a broad-based
federai tax reform, again despite the
position of the President, includes the
continued full deductibility of state
and local income· and wage taxes and
property taxes. As a consequence, the
means for state and local governments,
i.e., the political means, to continue
to support public schools at least have
been held in place, again despite the
opposition of the national administration.
Had the deductibility of state and local
income and wage taxes and property
taxes been eliminated, not only would
that have eliminated the greatest level
of federal support that exists right now,
but it would have made it very difficult,
if not impossible, for state governments
and local governments to maintain the
taxes that they currently levy which
go to support our public schools-i.e.,
the state income tax, local wage taxes,
and, particularly, the local property tax.
If those taxes were no longer deductible,
then, obviously, the political ability
to maintain those taxes and, especially,
to increase those taxes when it is essential
to do so would be next to nil.

An underlying sentiment of public
support already exists to increase the
level of federal aid to public education.
That support can be marshalled, if we
can get someone to head the next national
administration who is cognizant of the
critical nature of public education in
terms of the future of our nation, our
society, and our economy.

States Continue .!:! Key Source of Financial
Support for Schools

For now, the key area for financial
support for our schools will have to come
from the state, and there is a trend nationally
for states to assume an increasing
share of the funding support that's necessary
for our schools. In our state, somewhere
around 40% to 41 %, or so, of local
school district budgets, on the average,
comes from the state. That, in part,
is a result of an inadequate level of state
support for our schools, but it's also
a result of the fact that in our state
we have a reasonably high per pupil
expenditure. If there is a higher level

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of per pupil expenditure, then it la-i/es
more money from the state to reach
a 50% level of funding. So, we're not
well off, but we're not disastrously off
in that whole regard. There's absolutely
no question, however, that there will
be a need in Pennsylvania for a much
greater measure of financial effort from
the state in the upcoming years.

Local Support for Schools in Pennsylvania

The principal level of support for
our schools across the state, because
the state is not at 50% state funding
for education, is the local level of
support-which is primarily the local
property tax. That tax is not a very
popular tax, as all teachers are well
aware. But it is absolutely essential
for the maintenance of our public schools!

Again, using the City of Pittsburgh
as an example, the Pittsburgh School
District has substantial property taxes,
as do all other school districts, that
go to support the public schools. There
are City and County property taxes as
well. Also in effect in the City of Pittsburgh
is a 4% wage tax; 1 7/8% of that
wage 'tax goes to the schools and 2 1/8%
goes to the City of Pittsburgh. The
wage tax in the City of Pittsburgh is
paid only by those persons who work
in the City and who are also residents
of the City (as-well as by City residents
who work outside the City). Consequently,
there exists a rather narrow population
base from which to collect the wage
tax.

Obviously, if there are already fairly
considerable property taxes a t the local
level, and if there is a large number
of senior citizens at the local level,
and if local wage taxes are already in
place, it is difficult at the local level
to achieve the size of revenues that
is necessary to operate our public schools.
Local revenue increases, for the same
reasons, are extremely tough to achieve.
That's why the real solution to the problem
of adequately funding our public schools
has to be found primarily at the state
level, but also at the national level~
in the future.

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Summary of Need for Adequate F1Dlding

Any institution or enterprise requires
a number of critical ingredients in order
to succeed. It requires competent people
to work in it; it requires public support;
but it also requires adequate funding.
That clearly is an area that has always
been a problem in public education and
that right now is a serious problem.
Hopefully, given the nature of the various
national reports referred to earlier in
this article and given the kind of support
that's coming from the business community
now for our public schools, the climate
seems to be improving, at least to some
extent, in terms of having the broad
base of political support that is needed
to provide and assure the revenues that
are necessary to run the schools.

Collective Bargaining Remains the Base;

Need to Go beyond Collective Bargaining

The final point that should be made
in this article is that collective bargaining,
very definitely in our state but in other
states as well, has been the keystone
for why teacher organizations have become
stronger and for why teachers are probably
the best organized and the most organized
professional occupation in our nation

-today. It is also the reason why teachers
have made considerable personal progress,
economic and otherwise, over the last
twenty years or so. That's not going
to change. However, in our relationships
with school districts, while collective
bargaining will certainly be maintained
and built on, most of the professional
and educational progress that we as
teachers are going to need to accomplish
in the schools will have to be achieved
by going beyond collective bargaining-in
terms of our continuing relationships
with school boards and school administrations.


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Pittsburgh "Teacher Professionans~
ject" Exemplifies Cooperative Working
Relationship

Again, an example from Pittsburgh
illustrates the need to go beyond collective
bargaining in the effort to professionalize
teaching and to improve public education.
In the summer of 1985 a contra.ct settlement,
through collective bargaining,
was reached in Pittsburgh. It was a
two-year extension of ~n existing agreement.
The existing agreement was
supposed to run through August of 1986.
Instead, in August of 1985, a settlement
was reached in Pittsburgh-a whole
year early-on a two-year extension
of the existing contract.

That contract extension included
salary increases, fringe benefit improvements,
and some language on. variou.s
items of concern to teachers and their
union and to the school district. But,
what was most important of all, it was
mutually agreed to start what was called
a "Teacher Professionalism Project,"
that would involve a large number of
teachers in the school system, the
administration, and the school board.
In this "Project," the many participants
would talk about a host of issues that
go far beyond what had ever been able
to be achieved in the collective bargaining
process before, issues designed to improve
the schools, to broaden the role of teachers
in the schools, to change the nature
of the teaching profession in the schools,
and so on. This would all be done through
a cooperative, non-adversarial series
of meetings-distinct from collective
bargaining but set in motion by the Pittsburgh
Collective Bargaining Agreement
and relationship.

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•


SUPPlanting the Historical Adversarial ~Pitts"!nll!! Approa~e1"


Relationship between Labor and Manag~

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There is an emerging trend in the
fJ public education union movement, and

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it's only now starting to grow nationally,
to advance beyond the adversarial relationship
between labor and management
and between employer and employee.
This trend, to some extent, already has

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been underway in some segments of

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the private sector union movement as
l J well. An adversarial relationship is not
always a healthy way in which to maintain
or to strengthen an enterprise or an
institution, be it public sector or private
sector.

Sometimes, adversarial relations
are unavoidable and necessary, but many
r 1 times they are counterproductive. Indeed,

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when we as teachers and as a teacher

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organization get into a strong position,

as we have through unionization and
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I collective bargaining, we assume a large
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of education in our schools. If we haver' such a responsibility, and we do, for

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the success and effectIVeness of our
schools, then many .of the things that
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profession and for our students will have
to be sought in mutual consultation and
cooperation with school boards and school
i administrations. If we are to succeed,
l J we must strive to reach general accord

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. on the agenda and the extent of the
matters that should be addressed and
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improved in our schools. This is not
any limited or confrontational collective
bargaining agenda, but a broad professional
and education~ agenda.

sarial Relationship between Union and

School District

In Pittsburgh, as alluded to earlier
in this article, the union and teachers
began during the 1985-86 school year
and continued this school year a wideranging,
open examination of a host
of subjects affecting the professIon and
practice of teaching. Some of these
subjects are the following: a much broader
professional role for teachers in the
schools; the establishment of school
instructional cabinets at each school,
wherein teachers would meet on a consistent
basis with the school administration,
jointly deal with problems, anc
mutually decide on how the school ought
to be operated; a program for recruiting
new teachers for the school system;
an approach to having teachers be
responsible for staff development; and
instituting and increasing teacher leader
positions in the schools.

The basic approach in Pittsburgh,
through agreement of the school board
and the school administration with the
union, was that the parties should cooperate
to try to make meaningful changes
in the schools, with the full involvement
of several hundred teaGhers, not just
a few teachers who are on the union
negotiating committee. The involvement
of a broad group of teachers and administrators
is the surest and best approach
to finding ways to expand the professional
role of teachers in the schools, to engender
teacher and administrator understanding
and support for such changes, and to
create opportunities for teachers to
advance in their profession without having
to leave the classroom.

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Primary Pittsburgh Thrust-opportu


nities for Teachers, but without Leaving

the Classroom

That is the primary, thrust in the
whole Pittsburgh Teacher Professionalism
Project-to find added responsibilities
for teachers, some of them promotional
and some of them professional in nature,
but with the overriding, central requirement
being that while various professional
opportunities and responsibilities would
be introduced and expanded for teachers,
the affected teachers would still continue
to teach, in some cases full-time, in
other cases part-time.

Changing Teaching ~a Pull, Career
Profession

The developing thrust within the
teaching profession, and what appears
to be the trend for the future in our
state and nationally, is to find ways
to redefine teaching into a genuine
profession-by creating opportunities
for career teachers that do not require
the participating teachers to leave the
classroom. The greatest shortcoming
of all in the current structure of the
teaching profession-in terms of the
public's image of teaching as a career,
students' image of teaching as a career,
and teachers' own personal perception
of teaching as a career-is that the
ultimate way today for one to succeed
as a teacher is to get out of teaching.
That is what we as teachers must change!
This is what our union, at the local, state,
and national levels, must change! And
that is what we are trying to change!
If we look at all of the various national
reports on education, and at the Carnegie
Report in particular, that really is the
central theme-that· teaching must
become, within itself, a true profession,
with professional recognition, professional
responsibili ty, and prof essional opportunities
for career teachers!

~p-/D

We must find ways to create more
career advancements for teachers that
enable them to continue teaching. In
short, we must transform teaching into
a genuine professional career. In doing
this, we must redesign the teaching profession
so that teachers really feel that
they have a fundamental role and a shared
responsibility in assuring the success
of our schools. That is what is being
attempted in Pittsburgh. That is what
the thrust will be in Pennsylvania in
the next five to ten years. The Pennsylvania
Federation of Teachers intends
to continue to work very hard to achieve
these ends-for teachers, present and
future, for the profession of teaching,
and for the more successful education
of all of our students throughout future
years.

Albert Fondy
PaFT President,
March-April 1987

* * * * * * * * *

[Supplement to this article appears on
pages 10 and 11.J

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-9



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What Are Teachers, the PaFT, and the AFT Seeking for the Teaching Profession?

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The following points constitute a supplement
and summary to the preceding
article. They should be viewed as an
optimistic, long-range overview of the
future of the teaching profession:

•
Teaching will become a more attractive
profession, a profession that is truly
competitive with other major professions.
•
Talented and able college and university
students will be drawn to the teaching
profession. The ranks of talented
future teachers will include a sound
balance between male and. female
teachers and a solid and growing proportion
of minority teachers.
•
Teachers will be receiving attractive
and professionally competitive salaries
and fringe benefits, including pension
entitlements, for their services. Professionally
competitive salary parameters
will apply to both entry salaries and
to career salaries.
•
Comprehensive examinations will be required
for teachers to enter the teach-
i'ing profession following
their graduation
from colleges and universities. (This
element has already been implemented
in Pennsylvania, with the first tests required
for all newly certified teachers
commencing with June of 1987.)

•
Teacher internships will be served
prior to a teacher's formal entry into
the profession. Induction of new teachers
will be under the direction and
evaluation of especially competent,
experienced, practicing classroom
teachers. (Teacher induction programs
in each school district are mandated
in Pennsylvania, beginning with the
1987-88 school year.)
•
Master's Degrees or other similar
academic and experience qualifications
will be required for permanent teaching
certification. (This is already the
case in Pennsylvania, with an earned
Master's Degree being required for
permanent certification beginning with
June of 1987.)
•
A national teaching standards and
teacher certification board will develop
. standards,
tests, and certification
requirements for future teachers,
which, in time, will be adopted by
various states. These certification
requirements will include various
specialty certifications and credentials
for especially able and/or highly
qualified teachers. (The development
of this board and the accompanying
standards and procedures is underway
right now, under the sponsorship and
financing of the Carnegie Corporation.
The majority of those engaged in this
salutary and, it is to be hoped, historic \
process are outstanding, experienced,
practicing classroom teachers.)

•
Promotional and advancement opportunities
will be available within the
framework of teaching and the teaching
profession. Advancement for teachers
will not primarily be through the route
of leaving teaching for administrative
positions •
•
Excellent teachers, while continuing
to teach either full-time or part-time,
will achieve positions as the instructional
leaders in their schools, serving· as
lead teachers, department chairpersons,
and in similar capacities as leaders
of instruction. Such positions will
be part of the faculty makeup at all
school levels-elementary schools,
middle schools, and high schools.
These positions, when fully developed,
will include some professional responsibilities
previously reserved to nonteaching,
supervisory personnel. This
will be necessary if teachers are to
achieve real responsibility for the
delivery and quality of instruction and
truly are to be the instructional leaders
in the schools.
• The
number of administrative and nonteaching,
supervisory positions within
public education will be reduced, with
teachers and principals working more
closely and cooperatively and with
greater autonomy and decision-making
authority for teachers and for principals
at the school level.
-10



•
Paraprofessionals, secretarial/clerical If many, or all, of the prece In Jecpersonnel,
and security personnel will tions are to become reality, they will not
be available in schools in sufficient be achieved on a wide scale in any short
(1
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numbers to handle non-professional,

semi-professional, and clerical. tasks
in the schools. This will assure that
teachers will be used efficiently and
solely to teach and otherwise function
in professional areas of responsibility.


• Teachers will be provided the facilities,
assistance, and time to operate as
professionals. This includes such
fundamental necessities as clerical
aid, paraprofessional help, office space,
work and conference areas, telephones,
r J duplication equipment, and so on.

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•
Computer, as well as video, audio,
and other technical assistance to
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contributor to effective teaching,
P learning, and schools.

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• Talented and high quality teachers,
1 , through the medium of their professional
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earn responsibility for and control
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• Teaching will become a more genuine
i
' profession, with teachers achieving
the degree of responsibility and
professional autonomy that they have
long been denied.

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• Aspirants to enter the teaching profession
will come to regard teaching
r • as a desirable and secure profession,
one that contributes profoundly and
\
; vitally to the well being of society
and the economy, and one that is
rewarded significantly by society in
terms of its economic compensation
and its status.

•
The teaching profession will become
more recognized and respected by
the general public as a critically
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essential and worthy profession. The
image of teachers, to themselves and
to the public, will be considerably
enhanced over what has historically

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been the case.

period of time. Rather, these changes
will arise in single school districts, perhaps
even, at first, only in individual schools.
But these kinds of goals should be our
ultimate aim as teachers and our primary
objective as a professional union.

Albert Fondy
PaFT President
March-April 1987

AF:as
opeiu457
afl-cio

**********

This article and the supplement
to it were adapted and
expanded by PaFT President'
Albert Fondy from a speech
which he delivered on Saturday,
October 25, 1986, to a symposium
on education held at Indiana
Universi ty of Pennsylvania.

-11



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8 BOSTON UNION TEACHER -JANUARY 1986


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Walter Wood

Schenley School Project Features Sabbaticals

themselves. They become responpresented
a workshop on what
Three visitors from Pittsburgh

sible for all classes and duties
their district is dding to revitalize

while the teachers are visiting the
the teaching profession at the

Schenley Teacher Center.
high school level.

The visiting teachers plan their
Dr. John Young, the principal


eight-week stay at Schenley with
of Schenley 'High School, Vir-'

a clinical resident teacher who
ginia NorkiIs an administrative

has a reduced teaching load of
assistant to Dr. Young, and John

three classes a day, but is asTarka,
a representative of the

signed two visiting teachers for
Western Pennsylvania Federation

each eight-week cycle. of
Teachers made a two hour pre


A collegial relationship besentation
to about 40 Boston per


tween visiting teachers and the
sonnel at the November 20 Pro-

clinical resident teachers is an
fessional Day. '

important factor in the success of
the Schenley Center. Observa


From the very beginning of the

tions and discussions are carried

Schenley Teacher Center Pro


out in a non-threatening atmo


gram, there was a great deal of

sphere where teachers can learn

cooperation between Superinten


from each other.

dent of Schools Richard Wallace,

By working with clinical resi


and the Pittsburgh Federation of

dent teachers, visiting teachers ~

Teachers president, Al Fondy. In

can observe new techniques, ~

his segment of the presentation,

recieve up-dated information 0 ~

John Tarka credited Al Fonday

curriculum, and refine skill" 'II\:.

with being a major force in en


Also, the visiting teacher has t ...'J

couraging teachers to become in


opportunity to develop a skill, 0 N

volved' with the program.

I'lJolo by Hob Janso study an area that would not \l ~
Because of this cooperation and teachers for teachers. While teachers are released available under an ordinary st"f ~
commitment from both the superThe
program at the Schenley from their home schools, replacedevelopment
program. 't1\


I

intendent and the Union, over Teacher Center is unusual and ment teachers take over. It was Pittsburgh intends to have all 0 £.-\

,
200 teachers spent a year working unique in that teachers are re'
made clear that these teachers ,its high., school personnel g ~

i

on committees planning the leased from their school and were not substitute teachers but through the program in a four j..
Schenley Teacher Center. Pittsclassroom
responsibilities for a fully· qualified experienced

year period. They are currently

1"'",.1.

burgh is very proud that Schenley period of eight weeks to particiteachers
who had already gone into their third year of the pro-'::
Teacher Center was planned by pate in the program. through the Schenley Program gram at Schenley. :',!

•


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[1 \j Teachets vote 1« Weekly lEd Issues' Meetings


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A new kind of w('ekly staff meeting
to be introduced this fall in Pittsburgh's
high schools may serve as a model for
excellence in teaching around the
country.

Thanks to an innovative idea proposed
by the Pittsburgh AFT affiliate,
teachers there will begin a new
schedule that sets aside time each
week just for discussing education and
instructional issues.

The decision by Pittsburgh teachers
to change their schedules slightly to
permit a one-hour and IS-minute
departmental meeting each week marks
a growing interest by AFT affiliates in
tackling a major complaint teachers
have about their jobs-isolation and
lack of contact with peers. The absence
of a collegial atmosphere in which
teachers can meet during the regular
school day to talk about instructional
or academic problems has been a ma


(Cof1tinlled from page I)

The Georgia policy is less specific
ahout how school personnel suspected
of h.a\'ing AIDS are identified. It says
onh' that "if a school principal or the
superintendent...has reasonable cause
to believe a student or an employee is
an inf£'ct£'d student or employee," that
person shall be requested to "present
evid£'nce indicatill~ Ill'/she has reliable
negatin' rl'slilts on testing for the
serum antibody to H[V [Human
[mmunodt'fidt'llc~' Virus]," A refusal to
comply is considered grounds for

removal "for neglect of duty."

The Florida Education Association/
l 'nited has al~t'ady formed a task
force on A[DS testing and other aspects
of the dist'Clse and will encourage

jor focus of both the report from the
Carnegie Task Force on Teaching as a
Profession as well as the AFT's own
policy statement, "The Revolution that
is Overdue," released at last year's
convention.

The special contract amendment,
negotiated by the Pittsburgh Federation
of Teachers, was approved 61 percent
to 39 percent by a secret ballot vote of
the PFT membership. [t shortens slightly
(by 10 minutes) the school day four
days a week and adds the 7S-minute
period on Wednesdays to permit what
the union calls a "teacher interaction/
department planning period" in
which teachers would meet within
departments or between departments.

PFT leaders say the sessions, designed
and run by the teachers
themselves, will tackle everything from
planning instruction and rescheduling
classes to dealing with problems of in-

EmpiDyees May Face AIDS Tests


Florida school districts to back down
from policies involving dismissal of
school employees who are AIDSinfected.
FEA/United media coordinator
Frank Ciarlo emphasizes that
the union supports education and training
for all school employees on A[DS.

"There is a serious problem because
once you've got it [A[DS], that's it,"
savs Ciarlo. "We want to protect
students and, at the same time, make
sure teachers' rights are protected.
There are serious ramifications of a
wrong policy, so we want to be
careful,"

AFT leaders who know of state or
local AIDS testing policies involving
school employees are encouraged to
contact Lou Nayman at AFT.

dividual students and coordinating efforts
between departments. The PFT
agreement specifies that the meetings
will not involve additional paperwork
or reporting requirements, and the
agendas will be set by department
chairs "without interference from central
administration," notes the PFT.

These meetings are part of the PFT's
ongoing Teacher Professionalism Project,
an outgrowth of the local's early
contract settlement in 1985 that set up
a joint union/management process to
improve teaching and student achievE'.f
ment in the city's schools.

So far, the TPP project has involved
hundreds of teachers and administrators
and already has resulted in selection
of instructional teacher leaders
(with direct involvement of teachers in
the selection process); formation of
school/instructional "cabinets;" an induction
program of new teachers using
experienced, practicing classroom
teachers; recruitment of honor students
to choose teaching as a career.

This latest PFT project demonstrates

that the union recognizes the impor


tance of collegial activities in profes


sionalizing teaching, notes Marilyn

Rauth, assistant to the AFT president

for educational issues. "Schools need to

find ways for people to get together, to

create built-in time for teachers to

engage in their own problem solving,"

she says. "This kind of teacher-to


teacher discussion is far more effective

in improving how we teach or how we

solve school problems than being 'talked

at' by an outside expert."

Pittsburgh local president AI Fondy

echoed that sentiment, noting that "the

only people who are going to solve the

problems in the profession are teachers

themselves. "

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