Teachers Union head talks school changes

Brian Mickelson

On the heels of new superintendent Carol R. Johnson’s appointment, the Boston Public Schools and Boston Teachers Union enter the 2007-2008 school year with a new collective bargaining agreement.

Richard Stutman, president of the Boston Teachers Union, recently sat down with the Banner to discuss the new agreement, the adverse effects of MCAS testing and the union’s other goals for the upcoming school year.

The new agreement, ratified in March 2007, opens with a vision for transforming all of Boston’s underperforming schools “through a comprehensive slate of supports, incentives, collaborations, resources, flexibilities, structural improvements, and accountability measures,” and aims to eliminate “gaps in achievement defined by race, income, language and/or program.”

Under the advisement of the Boston Teachers Union, Johnson has selected 10 “Superintendent’s Schools” as part of the first year of the agreement. Eligible schools must meet one of two criteria: The school is on track to become, or already has been, designated “Chronically Under Performing” by the Massachusetts Department of Education; or the school is on track to become, or has been, designated as “Restructuring” under the federal No Child Left Behind regulations.

The superintendent’s program has been allocated approximately $1.2 million per school in additional resources and support. Each school will have school days extended by one hour, smaller class sizes and a full-time Family and Community Outreach Coordinator (FCOC) to foster stronger communication between the school and students’ families.

Furthermore, all teachers are to participate in at least 20 hours of professional development in addition to the requisite 30 hours, bringing their total to 50 hours, and principals must take part in a rigorous training program through the National Institute for School Leadership.

Teachers may use the extra hour of school time for training, meetings or class time in whichever subjects are not sufficiently covered during regular school hours. The specific allocation, scheduling and content of this additional time will be predetermined in the School Reform Plan (SRP) and must be approved by the superintendent. In all likelihood, teachers will utilize the additional school time to make up for all of the time spent focusing on the MCAS.

The 10 Superintendent’s Schools include the following: Louis Agassiz Elementary School, Jamaica Plain; Curley K-8 School, Jamaica Plain; The English High School, Jamaica Plain; Elihu Greenwood Elementary School, Hyde Park; Solomon Lewenberg Middle School, Mattapan; John Marshall Elementary School, Dorchester; Michael J. Perkins Elementary School, South Boston; William E. Russell Elementary School, Dorchester; William Monroe Trotter Elementary School, Dorchester; and John Winthrop Elementary School, Dorchester.

The agreement allows up to 10 more schools to receive designation as a Superintendent’s School within the next three years.

Overall, Stutman is satisfied with the way the agreement panned out, especially as it pertains to the Superintendent’s Schools, which he hopes will bypass the protracted state takeover process that afflicted Boston’s English High School this past year.

Could you talk a bit about the Superintendent’s Schools?

With the school department, we created “Superintendent’s Schools,” which are schools that are about to be earmarked for state takeover. By working in a joint initiative with the school department on these schools, we hope to avoid more [situations] like English High School, which was taken over by the state this past season. In order to avoid getting into that mess again where we have schools threatened with takeover — under No Child Left Behind, they will become commonplace over the next few years — we decided to work with the school department to earmark 10 to 20 schools to see if we can come up with a better way of doing business and prevent the schools from becoming noncompliant.

What is the plan for dealing with the inordinate amount of time studying for and taking the MCAS tests in the Boston Public Schools?

The MCAS basically consumes the school day from February to May, and the curriculum from September to June. In most schools in Boston, the kids spend half their day in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics. The problem with spending half your day in two subjects is that it precludes you from doing as much as you would like in peripheral subjects like art, music, science and history. And schools now have to make a [difficult] choice: whether to fulfill what some folks think students need in English and math, or to provide a more well-rounded curriculum. We think that it’s already gone too far, and yet the state just endorsed a plan to increase the number of MCAS [tests] from two to four, to include science and social studies. That’s a doubling of the time that must be spent now on test-taking. Once the test comes, we call it an “MCAS lockdown,” where everything in the building is directed towards taking those tests, which run weeks and months on end. That’s a major problem in our schools. It isn’t that the subjects aren’t important, it’s a matter of there being only so many hours in a day. To do this all proportionally would require a school day of eight to 12 hours, which I think is excessive.

Do you think the preponderance of preparing for MCAS testing has had a negative impact on the dropout rate?

The dropout rate has increased, not so much because of the failure to pass the MCAS, though I think that contributes to it. I think school is just not as much fun. I disagree with those who say school shouldn’t be fun. It should be fun, it should be attractive. You have to offer a variety of activities to this generation. When I went to school, you could get away with saying, “Sit down, shut up and do your math.” But you can’t say that anymore. You have to offer a variety of subjects, but there’s no time to do that now. And the kids that I talk to absolutely agree. School’s just not as much fun. It would be fine to extend the school day a bit, and it would be fine to increase concentration in certain areas, but not while sacrificing the other subject areas. If you live in the suburbs, your parents can afford to give you music and art lessons, soccer lessons, swimming, etc. Those things are not easy to come by in the city, and we rely on schools even more so than in the suburban towns to do that. What happens, however, is the opposite. The kids don’t have enough time to do those things.

Do you think that some students drop out because their parents or guardians are not putting in a sufficient commitment to their child’s education?

That’s not it at all. It’s more of an economic factor. People are very busy and work multiple jobs, and it’s extremely difficult to survive today economically. If a kid’s parents are working two or three jobs, of course they’re going to have less time to spend with their kids.

What are your thoughts on the new superintendent, and what do you hope the Boston Teachers Union can accomplish with her at the helm of city education?

We are hopeful and look forward to working with her. She appears to be very collegial and seems willing to give teachers a role in helping improve our schools, which is really all we want. I would love to see urban schools and superintendents in Massachusetts be a lightning rod for change away from the MCAS and away from the drudgery of four months of testing. The new superintendent is an aficionado of the visual and performing arts. She’s done a lot of work with, and believes very strongly in, those subject areas. My hope is that, given her belief in the need to have a well-rounded education, she will be a spokesperson for maintaining a full scope of educational offerings for [Boston] kids and kids in other areas.