Reflections of Union Teacher turn Administrator

Reflections of Union Teacher turn Administrator

Human Resources Management, Mills College Education Leadership Program

EDUC 407 Final Paper

Sunny Dawn

May 6, 2013

‘Are you on crack?’ I asked. Weingarten stormed out. ‘I’m done negotiating,’ I said…..’I think we can you give you both what you need, though,’ he said…It was brilliant. I could implement pay for performance, but because it wasn’t going to be defined specifically in the contract, the union was free to rebuke it, since it had not actually agreed to it. No one said a word, but we all knew it would work. –Excerpts from Michelle Rhee autobiography, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First,  2013.

            I share this very recent 2008 collective bargaining story from a newly released book to show the national issues surrounding human resources in education.  Throughout the semester of this class I have been reading many texts on human capital and how it plays out in the educational setting and the workplace of educational institutions.  In this paper I will address conflicting theories I have been engaging in around teaching and learning in school leadership.  I will also demonstrate my understanding of the course work in Human Resources Management with an emphasis on the polarity of Teacher Unions versus District Administration philosophies and how the two political agendas are impeding student success.

            I would like to emphasize the term ‘political agenda’ when looking at the philosophies of administration versus teacher organizations.  Although both groups would say they have teaching and learning at the center of their concerns I have found, (through the course work in this class my work experience as a union leader, as well a parent) that both parties have long and complicated political and cultural history.  I think it is important for me to share my insight as I have been heavily involved with my union in my urban district at the same time I have been enrolled in a year long program at Mills College to receive my Administrative Credential for a future principalship.  The two conflicting interests have shaped how I will deliver administrative decisions as well as how I will communicate with teachers at a site level.    I pose that districts and teacher unions are asking the same questions but no one is willing to really sit down together (beyond collective bargaining) and answer these questions around curriculum delivery and seek out positive strategies to implementation especially with the new common core standards. 
 

            Throughout this course when we were learning about AI and FRISK.  I was thinking three things;

1.     Too bad AI and FRISK is not listened to by unions and teachers as a serious threat (it can take up to 3 years and sometime longer to get a bad teacher out of a classroom).

2.     Where is FRISK for some of these ineffective Central Office Administrators or mediocre to “F” rated principals?

3.     Why do Unions take on teacher evaluation as its main battle? 

The only real answer I could come up with was “political or cultural agendas”.  When I first started teaching in the public school system I tried to shut my door, keep quiet with internal issues, and just do good teaching.  I didn’t care about political or cultural agendas, I wanted to just be a hard working educator.  As an educator with a child in the same school I quickly realized that was going to be impossible.  I’m glad I didn’t become that “type of teacher” who just tunnel visions on their class because now I am faced with what “type of principal” will I be as I move forward.  I wish I could say I’m just  going to shut my door, keep quiet with internal issues, and just do good administration but that is not the type of good leadership I have displayed in the past nor will it be the type I will display in the future. The beginning of my union leadership came when I saw the horrible teaching that my daughter received at my “low income school”.  I started working with my union and the principal to get this teacher support and then out of the educational system.

Everyone can skew the research to their point of view of why a person deserves to keep their job.  However I must admit that while I have a serious distaste for the way in which Michelle Rhee went about her time as Chancellor in DCPS, I must say her firing of over 400 total educators(including principals and Central office employees) in that failing system seems about right to me.

            I believe that with the wave of education reformers including Michelle Rhee and Arne Duncan, public education is under a mirocscope in a new and critical way.  Not just on the East Coast but all over the country even here in the Bay area.  Obama’s Post NCLB administration is openly putting money and support into charter schools and have created a public education which is now test obsessed pedagogically. And if public schools do not show they can teach to the test the entire school might be shut down. 

My principalship will keep these issues at the forefront: teachers will know that I am very aware of teacher unions philosophies and that I came to educational leadership through my union leadership.   However my teachers will also know that I became a principal because I felt colleagues of mine were failing their students and that I felt the best way to advocate for children beyond being a good teacher and great parent was to be an amazing administrator.

            As I stated before I believe the only common denominator that will glue unions and administration together is to focus on positive outcomes, so I use the words “amazing administrator” with complete consciousness.  What I have learned from this human resources management class from the panels, the required text, as well my own additional inquiry on professional capital (Fullan, 2012) is that at the heart of difficult situations or conversations are feelings.  You ever heard that joke, “So a teacher walks into a party….” No? Yeah, neither have I.  Joke, Party and Teacher are not words people put together too often because we all have deep feelings about teachers for a variety of reasons.  Why is that?  Teachers are supposed to be are “angels” on earth.  They are here for us right? They are in the job for the children, right?

Wrong!  We can not say all teachers are in it for the children.  Maybe they all tried to start out for that but anyone who has tried to teach in a classroom for longer than a year will tell you it so much more than a job that is just about playing with children.  But the Elaine K. McEwan Text: How to Deal With Teachers Who Are Angry, Troubled, Exhausted, or Just Plain Confused has helped me understand challenging teachers and focus on myself as a “character builder”.  Or as she states, “You don’t have to figure out what’s wrong with your troubled teachers. Your only job is to confront their inappropriate behavior when you become aware of it, present options and opportunities for moving forward positively, support them in their efforts to change if they are willing and able, and take steps to protect the students in their classrooms if they can’t.” (p.74)

            If I become an administrator I will also take a keen awareness that not all administrators are “in it for the children” either.  Many administrators were burnt out teachers who knew the system well enough to float easily into an administrative roll.  I will remember that Central Office is actually a very small world and politics are very transparent and no matter who interacts with me they too will know that I was a parent first, teacher second, administrator by default to a calling of conscious leadership.

            I will bring to this “political table” a deep commitment to teaching and learning and open discussions about how true teacher evaluations should be learning conversations.  I do not agree we can fire our way out of the achievement gap as Rhee did in D.C. or as top down administration would have you believe.  However I do believe administrators need to be to become more competent on evaluation practices.  My administration inquiry will be focused on the topics found in the Daresh text: Leading and Supervising Instruction, for the next year before I start to apply to schools as Principal. Specifically issues on a local, state and national  level discussed in Chapter 7: Exploring the How and Why of Teacher Evaluations.
 

            Lastly I want to thank you, Ms. Forrester, for this highly engaging class.  The role plays of difficult conversations were very hands on and reminded me of how easy it is to play or be the angry teacher. However to be on the other end or a diplomatic leader takes a different kind of commitment to goals of communication and problem solving.  I am proud to have taken this class from Mills College and learned these skills from a social justice centered university, thank you for reading and your time.