A room filled with union leaders, each with a mind of his or her own, can be a formidable audience. But that doesn鈥檛 deter Adam Urbanski.
One recent sunny day here in California鈥檚 Napa Valley, the director of the Teacher Union Reform Network of AFT and NEA Locals, or TURN, declares, 鈥淚 think we should make public schools more like private schools.鈥� His statement is greeted with one loud shout of 鈥淲ait a minute!,鈥� a few gasps, and many raised eyebrows.
The next moment, the room erupts in heated debate. 鈥淭hat is a horrible model. ... It would be like the tail wagging the dog,鈥� retorts A. James Duffy, the president of United Teachers of Los Angeles. 鈥淲e are talking not about cars but about human beings.鈥�
Director: Adam Urbanski Number of member locals when founded: 21
Number of member locals today: 31
Number of satellites: Three, in California, Great Lakes region, and Northeast
Employees: Run entirely by volunteers
Funding: Past grantors include the Pew Charitable Trusts, the MacArthur Foundation, the Broad Foundation, and the U.S. Department of 91制片厂视频. Now self-sustaining. Members pay $100 fee per meeting; meetings are held three times a year.
SOURCE: 91制片厂视频 Week
鈥淲hat about the children who are going to get lost? I am not sure this premise is correct,鈥� maintains Donald S. Raczka, the chief of the Poway Federation of Teachers in California.
An hour later, the debate still going on, Mr. Urbanski shrugs as he sits on a porch overlooking the golf course at the lush Silverado Resort, the venue of TURN鈥檚 latest conference, Jan. 20-21. Mr. Urbanski and the network he leads have built something of a reputation for throwing out provocative ideas that seek to expand the role of teachers鈥� unions in school improvement.
鈥淚 love dissent. What I fear is complacence,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t is impossible to be the reformer of an institution and a darling.鈥�
Created in 1995, TURN was the brainchild of Mr. Urbanski, the president of the Rochester (N.Y.) Teachers Association for the past 25 years, and Helen Bernstein, a past UTLA president, who was killed in an accident just two years later. Like Mr. Urbanski, Ms. Bernstein, a former civil rights activist, was infused with an urge to expand upon the traditional role of teachers鈥� unions and involve them in bettering education.
Now, a decade later, the big question is: Has TURN lived up to the expectations that it set for itself, namely, that teachers鈥� unions should look beyond their traditional role of protecting members鈥� bread-and-butter interests and work to recast themselves with the goal of upgrading student achievement?
It is a question that cannot be easily answered.
鈥淭URN has served the important function of creating a network of leaders for doing work that is traditionally not labor work,鈥� said Linda Kaboolian, a public-policy lecturer at Harvard University and the author of the book Win-Win Labor-Management Collaboration in 91制片厂视频.
But, she added: 鈥淥ne of the things everyone wanted to see was an improvement in student outcomes, and that is something yet to be documented.鈥�
Mr. Urbanski himself describes TURN as 鈥渢herapy鈥� and a 鈥渟afe environment for thinking out loud.鈥� But he turns a critic鈥檚 eye when asked about the network鈥檚 achievements over its 10 years.
鈥淚 would give TURN a C-plus,鈥� he said.
Making Change
TURN has helped guide member locals in fostering improvements in their districts, and has also helped lead to the creation of a leadership-development project that promotes what supporters see as this progressive brand of unionism in schools.
In 2003, the Institute for Teacher Union 91制片厂视频, or ITUL, was born. Although not part of TURN, its director, Mark Simon, a former president of the Montgomery County Teachers Association in Maryland and the director of the Center for Teacher 91制片厂视频 in Washington, says it is an outgrowth of the network and some of the ideas aired during TURN get-togethers. The Washington-based institute is a multiyear project that aims to prepare the next generation of progressive union leaders.
The 13 participating locals are connected to urban districts, including Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis, that are wrestling with high rates of poverty and mobility, and non-English-speaking populations. Participants go through residential summer-immersion experiences, on-the-job fieldwork, self-assessment tools, and a consultation process with experienced union leaders.
Thirty-one teachers鈥� union locals currently make up the network. Some strong union states, such as New York and Ohio, are represented, while locals in others, such as Michigan and New Jersey, are not invovled.
*Click image to enlarge.
The institute seeks to take unions a step further than TURN does. 鈥淭URN meetings are helpful, but it is just a network,鈥� Mr. Simon said. 鈥淭here is a lot of unevenness among TURN locals. ITUL required a critical mass of locals interested in deep reform working among themselves.鈥�
Member locals of TURN have also negotiated other changes they believe will improve teaching and learning.
Along with the Montgomery County local, unions in Cincinnati, Rochester, Columbus, Ohio, and Hart, Calif., have negotiated peer-review plans in which skilled teachers monitor and evaluate their peers. Minneapolis, Denver, and Douglas County, Colo., have implemented teacher performance-pay plans.
鈥淥ur participation in TURN really laid the groundwork for the association to take up the performance-pay plan,鈥� said Bruce Dickinson, the executive director of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association.
TURN has also helped network members link up with Allen Odden, a professor of educational administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert on teacher compensation.
鈥淏esides the idea exchange, we get resources,鈥� Mr. Dickinson said.
In New York鈥檚 Rochester district, among other measures, the union now conducts year-round negotiations with the school district under a 鈥渓iving contract.鈥� In the San Juan, Calif., district, the union last year negotiated an agreement that gives the union and the school system shared responsibility and accountability for student results.
The Poway union in California, meanwhile, started a cooperative that focuses on improving instruction and curriculum to achieve the district鈥檚 goals, encourages teachers to take responsibility for their professional growth, and compensates those who take part in the initiative with an extra 1.5 percent salary increase.
鈥淲e wouldn鈥檛 have done this as well and as quickly if we were not with TURN,鈥� said Don Raczka, the president of the Poway Federation of Teachers. 鈥淏eing here gives you an attitude that sets you in the direction of making a change.鈥�
Tom Alves, the president of the San Juan Teachers Association, calls the TURN meetings a 鈥渞ehearsal.鈥�
鈥淵ou hear what some of the reactions to your ideas can be, and then you have less fear when you go back to your locals with those ideas,鈥� he said.
Rumors circulated when TURN was launched that it would emerge as a third union, but Tom Blanford, an associate director for education policy at the NEA, said he did not perceive any desire on the part of TURN members for that to happen, 鈥渁s long as the national unions continue to be receptive to ideas and supportive of the direction locals are going in.鈥�
He views TURN鈥檚 existence as having a positive effect on his organization.
鈥淎 lot of the locals that are participating in TURN are on the cutting edge of a lot of education reform issues and are really exploring ways in which the union can be a partner in promoting quality education. That is very valuable to us,鈥� Mr. Blanford said.
Satellites for the Future
Some ideas tossed out at TURN, such as making public schools more like private ones and embracing vouchers for public schools, might appear shocking initially, according to Mr. Urbanski. But, he asserted, 鈥淸public] school systems are on their way out and systems of schools are on their way in.
鈥淵ou put some controls in to ensure fairness, keep school boards and public control of schools, but you don鈥檛 keep out the market dynamics and competition. You make standards stick,鈥� Mr. Urbanski said, outlining his vision. In such a system, he said, schools would franchise themselves, and schools that were not performing well would disappear.
Teacher unions must provide leadership for the collective voice of their members. Teacher unions have a responsibility to students, their families, and to the broader society. Teacher unions are committed to public education as a vital element of our democracy. What unites these responsibilities is our commitment to help all children learn.
We affirm the unions鈥� responsibility to collaborate with other stakeholders in public education and to seek consistently higher levels of student achievement by:
鈥� Improving continuously the quailty of teaching;
鈥� Promoting in public education and in the union democratic dynamics, fairness, and due process for all;
鈥� Seeking to expand the scope of collective bargaining to include instructional and professional issues;
鈥� Improving on an ongoing basis the terms and conditions under which both adults and children work and learn.
SOURCE: Teacher Union Reform Network
鈥淭he design has to be honed. It ought to come from an unlikely source,鈥� said Mr. Urbanski, who has led TURN since it was created and is a national vice president of the AFT. 鈥淯nions must start doing what they are 鈥榰nsupposed鈥� to do.鈥�
While Mr. Urbanski gives the network some credit for sustaining conversations on reform, he regrets that it has not yet found a way to affect the majority of teachers鈥� unions. Only 31 NEA and AFT locals are members, up from 21 when turn started. 鈥淲e will have to figure that out,鈥� Mr. Urbanski said.
The answer could lie in setting up satellites of TURN such as the ones that are already active in the Great Lakes region, California, and in the Northeast. Attempts are under way to establish others.
David A. Schutten, the president of the Organization of DeKalb Educators, in DeKalb County, Ga., said a satellite in his state would help locals take up such causes as advancing high-quality classroom teaching.
鈥淚 hope that within the next few years, we will have a TURN satellite within driving distance of every local,鈥� Mr. Urbanski said.
Further, he added, 鈥渨e will have to go to different levels and challenge conventional thinking a lot more. We will have to challenge the national conversation on education reform.鈥�
The network鈥檚 most outstanding success, Mr. Urbanski said, is that it鈥檚 survived.
鈥淲e are still at it. The general public realizes that unions can be part of the solution,鈥� he said, 鈥渁nd that sometimes reforms fare best if spearheaded by unions, and that strong and tough don鈥檛 necessarily mean adversarial.鈥�
