of AFT and NEA Locals

1. of AFT and NEA Locals

2. Presentation Agenda • What is TURN? • TURN Mission Statement • Members, Supporters • Current Activities & Work in Progress • How will TURN Make a Difference? • Quotes and Provocations

3. of AFT and NEA Locals What is TURN? A union-led effort to restructure the nation’s teachers unions to promote reforms that will lead to better learning and higher achievement for America’s children.

4. What is TURN’s Primary Goal? To create new union models that can take the lead in building and sustaining good schools for all students.

7. Mission Statement 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 union's responsibility to collaborate with other stakeholders in public education and to seek consistently higher levels of student achievement by:

8. Improving continuously the quality of teaching • Promoting in public education and in the union democratic dynamics, fairness, and due process for all • Seeking to expand the scope of collective bargaining to include instructional and professional issues • Improving on an ongoing basis the terms and conditions under which both adults and children work and learn

9. Member Locals • New York, NY (AFT) • Pinellas County, FL (NEA) • Pittsburgh, PA (AFT) • Poway, CA (AFT) • Rochester, NY (AFT) • San Diego, CA (NEA) • San Francisco, CA (AFT /NEA) • San Juan, CA(NEA) • Seattle, WA (NEA) • Syracuse, NY (AFT) • Toledo, OH (AFT) • Westerly, RI (NEA) • Albuquerque, NM (AFT) • Bellevue, WA (NEA) • Boston, MA (AFT) • Cincinnati, OH (AFT) • Columbus, OH (NEA) • Dade County, FL (AFT) • Denver, CO (NEA) • Hammond, IN (AFT) • Los Angeles, CA (NEA/AFT) • Memphis, TN (NEA) • Minneapolis, MN (AFT) • Montgomery Co., MD (NEA)

10. Supporters • National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future • National Education Association (NEA) • NE & I Regional Educational Lab @ Brown University • Pew Charitable Trusts • U.S. Department of Education, OERI • American Federation of Teachers (AFT) • Consortium for Policy Research in Education • Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, UCLA • Mac Arthur Foundation

11. Current Activities • Three meetings per year (Fall, Winter, Spring) • Developing Local Action Plans - actively work on education reform - include information on how efforts impact student achievement - include collaborating partnerships - include communication plan, i.e. member engagement & public engagement - indicate how union is changing to assume new agenda on education reform

12. Initial Work Groups Strengthening Teacher Preparation, Induction & Retention -TURN Liaisons: Merri Mann and John Grossman; NCTAF Liaison: Fred Frelow Group works onidentifying and disseminating information on: • models and best practices in teacher recruitment and mentor programs, • career ladders, and • teacher retention.

13. Initial Work Groups Rethinking Teacher Assessment & Compensation-TURN Liaisons: Roger Erskine and Louise Sundin; CPRE Liaison: Allan Odden Group works onfinding ways to amend teacher compensation systems to include: • school wide incentives, and • pay for knowledge, skills, and service.

14. Initial Work Groups Professional Development & the Union’s Role-TURN Liaisons: Maureen Logan and David Sherman; NE&I Lab Liaison: Charlene Heintz Group works onidentifying and disseminating information on model practices in professional development that is: • job embedded, • teacher driven, and • union owned.

15. Current Work Groups Teaching Quality & Instructional Issues- TURN Liaisons: Susan Goodwin & Don Raczka; NCTAF Liaison: Fred Frelow; CPRE Liaison: Allen Odden Union Change & Local Capacity Building- TURN Liaisons: Bruce Dickinson & Mark Simon; OERI Grant Liaison: Julia Koppich Engagement of Members and the Public- TURN Liaisons: Francine Lawrence & Tom Alves; MacArthur Grant Liaison: Monica Solomon; UCLA Liaison: Wellford Wilms

16. Current Activities • Data and information gathering - basic information on participant locals and districts - contract analysis - history of reform activities - information on status of current reforms - strengths and weaknesses

17. Current Activities • The “TURN exChange” http://www.turnexchange.net • A distributed electronic network intended to enhance communication and collaboration among local teacher unions and other reform partners. • A principal way for TURN members to continue the communication & the work between the meetings.

18. Current Activities The TURN exChange network fosters: • Communication among TURN local leaders. • Communication between TURN local leaders and members. • Communication between TURN local leaders and other reform partners.

19. Current Activities • State Satellites (established in California and Florida, Minnesota, Ohio/Indiana, and Rhode Island; and an international electronic satellite in cooperation with Education International) • Virtual Satellites- networks of teachers discussing education reform, e.g. http://teachers.net/

20. Quotes & Provocations “The question is, how do you maintain traditional union values while behaving in a different way in a different world?” Helen Bernstein “There is no reason to expect that reforming teacher unions would prove any less difficult than reforming schools. And, if we are to succeed in reforming teacher unions, it is more likely to happen from within than from without.” Adam Urbanski

21. Quotes & Provocations “There is no reason why we can’t use the collective bargaining process to build a more genuine profession for teachers.” Dal Lawrence “It is as much the responsibility of teacher unions to preserve public education as it is to negotiate good contracts.” Al Shanker