National policymakers continue to show keen interest in how New Haven is pioneering school reform — especially the role played by the teachers union. New Haven teachers union President David Cicarella accepted an invitation Wednesday to testify before a Congressional committee about his local’s participation in the city school system’s experiments.
Following is the testimony Cicarella gave to the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce:
My name is David Cicarella, and I am the president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers. On behalf of the NHFT, and its national organization the American Federation of Teachers I want to thank you for this opportunity to speak about our collective efforts to improve student learning and strengthen the teaching profession in New Haven.
Our schools were facing the same challenges as many school districts in the country. This included the need for more meaningful parental involvement, comprehensive wraparound services for the most at-risk students and, yes, a better way of evaluating teachers and providing them with the ongoing supports they need to do the best for their students.
The situation in New Haven was exacerbated because the relationship between the mayor and superintendent and our local union was often acrimonious. Teachers certainly were not satisfied with a system that failed to provide any meaningful supports or feedback to help them develop their expertise and maximize their capacity to improve student learning.
We knew there was no way to improve our lowest-performing schools without involving teachers. Districts nationwide were looking at how best to improve teaching and learning by incorporating a more robust teacher evaluation system. In New Haven, the mayor, superintendent and our local union made a decision to work collaboratively — through the existing collective bargaining process.
We were ultimately were able to negotiate a contract that, in addition to wages and benefits, would lay the groundwork for a breakout model of urban school reform — one that values and welcomes teacher voice in all key decisions. It is incredibly significant that both the national and state representatives from AFT were active partners and completely welcomed by the New Haven school district. The contract was hailed in the local media as “a first-in-the-nation agreement between a city and a teachers union to work together to change the way public schools work.”
I think it was significant to note that the contract was ratified overwhelmingly by our members by a vote of 855 – 42. The new contract was ushered in with strong support because the process that led up to its passage was very collaborative and valued input from the teachers about the district’s reform plans. Because the district involved the teachers in such a meaningful way there was a tremendous amount of buy in from the teachers.
One of the reform initiatives we adopted was a new system for evaluating our teachers. The plan included multiple measures of professional performance and real supports tied to professional development. What is key here is that we did not just build a teacher evaluation plan that acts as a sorting mechanism to tell us who is doing a good job and who is facing difficulty. Instead, we created a system that focuses on the continuous support and development of all teachers — those struggling and those doing a good job.
All teachers benefit from a goal-setting conference in the beginning of the year and at least two evaluation and development conferences over the course of the year, with additional conferences provided for teachers identified as needing improvement.
The annual goals that are drawn up in these conferences center on the 3 components of our teacher evaluation system:
Student performance outcomes;
Teacher instructional practice; and
Teacher professional values.
Every element in the evaluation is mutually agreed upon, and when it comes to indicators of student progress, teachers and evaluators are encouraged to use multiple measures of assessment that include standardized state tests, district assessments (many of which are administered quarterly as opposed to annually), student portfolio work, and teacher-developed assessments..
Instead of instituting “top-down” reforms, with no teacher input, we were able to utilize the collective bargaining process to ensure that teachers are heard and respected. Collective bargaining is much more than a process to ensure workplace fairness and give workers a voice in their jobs. It is a process that teachers and school districts can use to drive real reforms aimed at improving both teaching and learning.
We are just finishing the first year of implementation of our new plan. From the onset, we have collaborated on everything. The commitment to work together has led to many positive outcomes, not the least of which is increased community support. Under the New Haven Promise Program – funded by Yale University – eligible students graduating from every New Haven public high school will receive full tuition to attend a public college or university in Connecticut.
In New Haven, teachers have no problem being held accountable or sharing responsibility, as long as all are provided with an agreed-upon, transparent set of standards and a process for evaluation that includes student achievement, classroom practice, and teacher professional values.
Our collaborative work in New Haven has created a professional culture whereby teachers and administrators work side-by-side channeling their energies to create a system that puts student learning front and center.
Thank you. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.