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.
