Academic excellence is a union issue

Back in the 1970s, when the Hamburg Teachers Association came to the bargaining table with proposals on class size and teacher training, the administration's response was short: Forget about it.

They "told us that we weren't there at the bargaining table to do anything for the students," recalled Marcella Fugle, then president of the Hamburg TA. "They said that wasn't our role."

How times have changed. Now, as New York State United Teachers celebrates its 25th anniversary, the statewide union has achieved more than just a place at the table: NYSUT is a leader in the push to raise academic standards in New York state.

In the pre-union era, teachers typically were recipients of tons of top-down directives, forced into implementing the educational fad du jour. Now, through their union, teachers have become full participants in shaping academic standards and the standards for their profession. It hasn't been easy.

From practical to ridiculous

Consider a fad that swept through New York state in the 1970s called "competency-based teacher education." (Broach the topic within earshot of a veteran teacher, and you'll elicit groans.) This initiative centered on a college-developed checklist of teaching skills that supervising teachers were told to apply to their teacher education students.

The problem was that "colleges were coming up with these lists of competencies," said Fugle, "and most of them didn't relate to the classroom very well." The checklists ranged "from the practical to the ridiculous," added Antonia Cortese, NYSUT first vice president, "and we knew that the sum of the parts would never equal the whole" - which was to define a capable teacher.

Teacher colleges "didn't really want the classroom teacher to have anything to say about it," Fugle recalled. "We felt we should have something to say."

That was one of NYSUT's early experiences at using the union's strength to weigh in on professional (in addition to bread-and-butter) issues. At NYSUT's urging, local union presidents declined to sign off on the competency-based programs, Cortese said, making it clear that teachers wanted a voice in shaping their profession as well as academic standards for their students. Without support from the teacher unions, the misbegotten checklists were abandoned.

Union advocacy on behalf of students began early. Gloria Weinman of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City noted that in 1967, the UFT made "quite a statement" by going on strike for more Effective Schools. In 1975, concerns over class sizes prompted another UFT strike. The UFT was an early advocate for ending social promotions, a cause that is strongly endorsed by NYSUT and the American Federation of Teachers. "We have always pushed for higher academic standards," said Weinman, who is special assistant for educational services at the UFT. At the national, state and local levels, the union has consistently reminded policymakers that to achieve higher standards, necessary supports must be in place, including staff training, resources, and extra support for students who need it.

Since its inception in 1973, the statewide union has taken the lead on academic issues. At NYSUT's earliest policy-making conventions, delegates called for higher standards and smaller class sizes - "including a cap on special ed class sizes, which was one of our finest hours," said Charles Santelli, director of the union's Division of Research and Educational Services.

In 1983, when many educators went into a defensive crouch at the publication of A Nation at Risk, which highlighted problems with public education, Al Shanker, a co-founder of NYSUT and then AFT president, was among the first to see the need for change.

"Al urged us to acknowledge that standards had slipped and that our students could and should be challenged," Cortese said, "and we had a very vigorous debate within the union about what our position should be." That decision- to consistently support raising standards - "charted the course for the next 15 years," said Cortese, who oversees the union's Division of Research and Educational Services. "Because NYSUT and the AFT embraced it, education reform didn't become a back-burner issue."

A record of accomplishment

Fugle believes early events coalesced to give the union a leadership role in raising standards. "We began to get really organized and be a force out there," said Fugle, who is director of the Southtown Teacher Center in Western New York. "Also, collective bargaining was a factor. We began to talk (at the bargaining table) about getting teachers involved in staff development."

Beginning in the 1970s, the union achieved a host of initiatives aimed at strengthening the profession, including NYSUT's Effective Teaching Program; the Mentor-Teacher Intern Program; and teacher centers, which began in the early 1970s.

Debra Thomas, director of the Rockland Teacher Center, said that NYSUT has never been "about maintaining the status quo. Often the community thinks the union wants to maintain the status quo, and we have to do a better job of demonstrating how we are working to move the agenda of higher standards forward." Toward that goal, the union's regional education conferences "reach out to the business community," said Thomas, for collaboration on improving student achievement.

Throughout its history, NYSUT and its local affiliates have led efforts to raise academic standards, such as:

• participating in State Education Commissioner Ewald Nyquist's Task Force on Teacher Education and Certification from 1975-77;
• supporting the Regents Action Plan in 1984 which, while modest by today's efforts, raised the bar for graduation by requiring passage of minimum competency tests - a "big step forward" at that time, said Cortese;
• taking a leading role in Commissioner Thomas Sobol's 1988 Task Force on the Teaching Profession, which recommended raising standards for teacher preparation;
• developing Multiple Choices, a NYSUT study of student assessments which provided a reasoned perspective in the rush to embrace portfolios and other untested measures of student progress;
• participating, in concert with the AFT, in numerous education reform initiatives at the state and national levels;
• establishing as union policy a commitment to academic rigor, which in turn inspired State Education Commissioner Richard Mills to push for higher standards for all students;
• co-sponsoring an annual statewide inservice conference with the State Education Department, which in 1998 drew an overflow crowd of 800; and
• sponsoring numerous programs for students, such as Regents Review Live, a thrice-a-year exam review broadcast by SUNY Satellite, and cosponsored by NYSUT, SED and the New York State Teacher Center Consortium. Dial-a-Teacher programs, first instituted by the United Federation of Teachers in New York City in the 1970s, and now common throughout the state, give students telephone access to help with homework.

Thomas, who is now working on initiatives to address the needs of children before school age, feels the union's impact has been significant. "People are saying we do have something to contribute to this conversation," she said. "People are listening to us."

Continue to 'Charting the Course'