Teacher Leadership in Public Charter Schools
When West Virginians for Education Reform (WVER) began the conversation about public charter schools in our state, our message was quite clear- public charter schools are not a silver bullet, 100% solution for public education. Chartering legislation can, however, create the opportunity for 100 1% solutions to be developed in the areas of curriculum, scheduling, school governance, finances and staffing.
Rather than, as Ms. Hale, current president of the West Virginia unit of the American Federation of Teachers, comments in a recent editorial, “blinding us from our more pressing problems”, a strong public charter school bill can usher in a new way of delivering and thinking about public education, including new structures of governance and accountability. By reserving most authority to the school site, public charter schools can be responsive to the needs of students and families in ways that elude our current, centrally-managed schools.
Further, the traditional one-size-fits-all labor contract is a bad fit for these nimble new enterprises. Not only does it impose common hours, wages, and work rules on all sites, no matter the differences in mission or student population, it also substantially strips the school leader and trustees of the authority needed to manage in the midst of budget uncertainty (our state’s recent $100 million budget shortfall and declining lottery revenues) and public education’s constantly changing needs.
To those bound by traditional thinking, this new model presents a threat to
teachers, rather than an opportunity. In the traditional district structure, teachers
are thought to have a voice in district affairs through a centrally negotiated
agreement between the teacher association and the school district. The contract provides job security, usually based on seniority, with wages reflecting seniority plus
academic credits or coursework. In charter schools, “teacher voice” means that teachers – in partnership with students, parents, administrators, and the school’s board members – actually exert meaningful direction of their own professional lives. On a day-to-day basis, they shape important decisions about working conditions in their buildings – including the mission, curriculum and instruction, programs and services, schedules,
budgeting, and staffing – to advance student results. In many charter schools, teachers even serve as voting members of the fiduciary boards of the schools, actively taking responsibility for the most vital decisions impacting the school sites.
Many charter schools have been started by teachers. Since the inception of the
charter school movement three decades ago, teachers have led the way in deep
collaboration with parents and others. Charter schools should be the kind of places
where talented young teachers feel they can build a fulfilling career, where
exemplary veteran teachers will want to blaze a new path and where the traditional role of teacher-as-employee is turned upside down..
The potential was underscored by the finding from Public Agenda’s survey of teachers in 2003. The question to a national sample of teachers was: "How interested would
you be in working in a charter school run and managed by teachers?" The question asked respondents to affirm an interest in coming into the charter sector in order to express their interest in teacher professional practice. Still, the interest is quite revealing: 58 percent of teachers said they would be somewhat or very interested; 65 percent of the under-five-year teachers and 50 percent of the over-20-year teachers.
http://www.publicagenda.org/files/pdf/stand_by_me.pdf
Since teacher associations are committed to serving the interests of teachers, they should applaud and support these new kinds of work environments in which teachers as leaders and professionals can create their own solutions to teacher recruitment, qualifications and salaries. With public charter schools, we might, at long last try approaching teachers as professionals; leaving it to them, to figure out how the job can best be done.
