Welcome to theAFT Teacher Leaders Program

2015-16

Session 1: October 17, 2015

9:00-9:30 Welcome and Introductions

9:30-10:00 Icebreaker and Meeting Norms (sign up for future icebreakers, clean-up duties, and to record meeting minutes)

10:00-10:15 Review: Goals and Purposes, and Program Overview

10:15-10:25 Expectations/Commitments

10:25-10:50 Introduce Website/Register/Film – Teachers on Teaching

http://tinyurl.com/teacherleaderinfo

10:50-11:00 Break

11:00-1:00 Envisioning

1:00-2:00 Lunch

2:00-3:00 Prep for and have conversation with Union President—Teacher’s role in policy making & Focus on a policy

3:00-3:10 Break

3:10-3:30 Debrief/develop talking points

3:30-3:50 Introduce/Discuss ESEA

3:50-4:00 Feedback for Session 1

https://leadernet.aft.org/webform/teacher-leaders-feedback-session-1

Homework Introduce yourself on website Share talking points from union president with colleagues Have conversation with colleague and non-colleague about ESEA data

Icebreaker:

FOOD FOR THOUGHT. . .

Pick a snack out of the bowl that best exemplifies some aspect of you. Share your thoughts with the others about why you selected that snack and how it represents you.

Please sign up for future icebreakers, clean-up duties, and to record our meeting minutes.

Norms

• Be fully present• Assume good intentions• Respect all voices• Equity of voice—watch your air time• Be positive• Be punctual• Use cell phones courteously• What’s said in room, stays in room

Goals and Purposes

• Groom Leaders and Spokespeople• Engage Teachers in Advocacy• Generate Classroom Research to

Provide Evidence to Make the Case• Provide Teacher Voice—Connecting

Policy to Practice• Create Network of Teacher Leaders

and Connect with Community

Program Overview

• Knowledge-building—readings and conversations with . . .

• Skill-building—writing, speaking, presenting, testifying

• Advocacy—what, how, to whom, when, where

• Research—focusing on question, tools, data collection & analysis, policy recommendations

• Networking—website, videoconference, TEACH

Expectations

Teachers selected for the program will:•Increase knowledge of major changes facing the teaching profession through readings and discussions with leading policy experts. •Improve leadership skills.•Participate in conducting research and using it to influence policy.•Be present for all Saturday sessions: •Be awarded a $1400.00 stipend.

Commitments:

• I will be available by email on a regular basis and read and reply to emails promptly.

• I will attend the all full-day Saturday meetings: • 10/17, 11/14, 12/12, 1/9, 2/6, 3/12, 4/16, 5/14. • I will complete and be prepared to discuss the

assigned readings and conversations related to education policymaking.

• I will conduct an action research project, and will summarize my results in a 2-page paper, and will present my findings in a 10 minute presentation during our final May meeting.

Join the Network

AFT Website• http://elearning.aft.org/

You will need to register first at:•http://tinyurl.com/teacherleaderinfo

In 1989, President George H.W. Bush and then Governor Clinton held the first education summit;

not one teacher was invited.

Four typical responses people have to the status quo (Myers et. al., The Power of Teacher Networks, 2009):

1. Those who accept the situation and, in a state of paralysis, opt not to do anything about it; they become victims.

2. Those who will work the system to make it work for them; these are the survivors.

3. Those who embrace the system and, in doing so, perpetuate it; they seek to become the next generation of implementers of the status quo.

4. Finally, there are those who take on the status quo and try to change it; they are the ones envisioning a better world.

“You can’t have voice, if you don’t have vision.”

Ellen Myers, Former director of the Teachers Network Leadership Institute

from

The Process:

Identify Concerns

Verbalize

Create Vision

Prioritize

Identify Concerns: What are your thoughts?Think

Take a moment to reflect on and list your concerns about teaching and education.

Verbalize:Pair and Share

Prioritize: Rank your concerns in order of importance.

How would you “envision a better world” ?

Create and Publish Your Vision: Select the most important aspects of your vision. Summarize and illustrate the significant elements of your vision. Provide enough detail to provide clarity and meaning for others. Sign your name and tape your poster to a wall.

Form Affinity Groups: Gallery Walk – How are your concerns and your vision to address it similar to someone else’s path?

How could you help and support one another in addressing these concerns?

Creating a Shared Vision: 1. Affinity groups form according to commonalities in

individual visions.2. Each participant shares his/her vision.3. Collaborate through dialogue to create a shared

vision poster. 4. Title the vision/concept and add the names of the

members of the group.

Action Planning: Overcoming Barriers to the Vision

Brainstorm potential barriers to shared vision and how you might bypass these obstacles.

Share Visions: Affinity groups share their visions with the group at large.

A conversation with John Kuryla,President, North Syracuse Education Association (NSEA)

Teacher’s role in policymaking & Focus on policy

•Generate questions •Debrief/Develop talking points

ESEA Reauthorization(next session)

aka NCLB/ECAA/SSA

2 bills into 1

• Senate S.1177, aka “Every Child Achieves Act”

• House H.R.5, aka “Student Success Act”• Need to be “reconciled” so they match. • Final bill could be on President’s desk by

January 2016.

AFT priorities

• Fiscal equity• Assessments• Accountability & supports• Maintain programs

Fiscal equity

• A final ESEA should protect the law’s original intent of 50 years ago: to target services to districts and schools serving high concentrations of disadvantaged children. Some of the provisions in the House bill would be devastating to the country’s poorest communities.

Assessments

• Both bills have many improvements to ensure that, under the final law, testing will be one data point that informs instruction, not the be all and end all of the education system.

Accountability & supports

• We support both bills’ move away from a rigid AYP system and the accompanying cascading series of sanctions. Both bills provide states the opportunity to move away from NCLB’s “test and punish” system to a “support and improve” one.

Maintain programs

• The Senate bill includes many critical programs that are eliminated in the House bill.

• We support including these specific programs in a final law: full-service community schools, early learning alignment and improvement grants, 21st-century community learning centers and Promise Neighborhoods.

Accountability and supportsSpecifically, a final bill must:• Allow states some flexibility to design their own accountability systems, which should include measures beyond standardized test scores—measure that consider broad and meaningful indicators of school success and student academic, social and emotional success.• Not repeat the fundamental mistakes of NCLB—that is, over-identifying schools as not measuring up, but under-supporting them. The final law must provide for a robust accountability system that includes non-test measures on equal footing with state standardized tests, and must err on the side of supporting schools that are struggling to do well on all indicators within their system, rather than simply identifying “problem” schools but doing nothing to help states and districts help such schools.

• Have an appropriate school improvement role for districts and schools. We support the provisions in the Senate bill that require districts to develop and implement evidence-based support strategies that are proportional to the identified needs of a school.

• Appropriately consider the needs of English learners, including allowing them to take reading tests in their native language for up to three years; permitting them additional time before being included in accountability calculations; and adopting the Senate language that allows students four years after exiting the English learner subgroup before being included in the English learner subgroup.

• Maintain both bills’ provisions that prohibit school improvement activities from overriding collective bargaining agreements.

Feedback form:Thank you!

Please complete your feedback for thissession by 4:40pm EST.

https://leadernet.aft.org/webform/teacher-leaders-feedback-session-1

Questions?~Kim Linkinhoker (klinkinh@nscsd.org )~John Kuryla (jkuryla@nscsd.org )

Homework

• Register and introduce yourself on the AFT website

• Share talking points from union president with colleagues

• Have conversation with colleague and non-colleague about ESEA information (Tabled until next session).

• See you November 14th!