News
Raising the Stakes in the Bay State

Knowing there's a better way, Massachusetts NEA members draft their own blueprint for education reform.

Educators in Hanover, Massachusetts, know they're doing quality work. The student dropout rate in this district, just south of Boston, is extremely low and most graduates go on to college.

"Better yet," says sixth grade teacher Anne Wass, "recent graduates tell Hanover High teachers and counselors that it was harder in high school than in their first year of college!"

And Hanover isn't unique. Statewide, Massachusetts students tend to stay in school and score high on standardized tests. They rank fourth nationally in reading and sixth in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and last year 31 percent of them scored in the advanced category of the Iowa Third Grade Reading Test.

Yet, curiously, last year 0 percent scored in the advanced category of the Bay State's own Grade 4 English Language Arts test, part of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS)--a 13-hour, pencil-and-paper test administered each year to fourth, eighth, and tenth graders.

Something just isn't adding up.

The roots of the current situation go back to the 1993 passage of the Massachusetts Educa-tion Reform Act. Since then, teachers in districts like Hanover have been working overtime to implement the law.

Teachers are taking part in more professional development activities in order to recertify. They're creating curricula to match new state learning standards and preparing their students for the tough new MCAS tests.

Yet, with teachers working harder than ever and student performance on national exams rising, poor results on the MCAS tests have led some public officials to question teacher competence and to label public schools as "failing."

Massachusetts teachers, for their part, have mounting concerns about the MCAS tests themselves. They charge that some of the exams are not age-appropriate and that all of them take up too much instructional time.

In many districts, teachers point out, field trips and innovative programs are being swapped for test preparation.

But the biggest problem may be the negative impact the MCAS high school exit exam will soon have on children, especially low-income, minority, special needs, and voc ed students.

As of 2003, students who fail the Grade 10 math and English tests will not be able to graduate, even if they have good grades, excellent attendance, and decent scores on other standardized tests.

The impact could be huge--last year, more than half of all tenth graders failed the math test alone.

Because of these concerns, the Massachusetts Teachers Association recently came out against using the MCAS tests to determine which students may graduate from high school.

MTA also opposes "rating" schools based solely on test scores. Instead, the state NEA affiliate supports multiple measures of achievement for both students and schools.

Student testing isn't the only battle NEA members are facing in Massa-chusetts. Governor Paul Cellucci is demanding that veteran teachers be required to pass a literacy and subject matter test--or lose their jobs.

Most recently, the governor proposed to test all math teachers in schools with low MCAS scores, a sure-fire way to discourage good math teachers from applying for jobs in inner-city schools.

What's heightening conflict in Massachusetts is a widespread sense that the governor and his state Board of Education are more interested in running a fiercely ideological agenda than talking with real classroom teachers.

None of the nine state board members is a K-12 teacher or administrator and, worse, a majority of board members vocally support a strong privatization agenda that is well served by a "manufactured crisis" in public education.

Four of the board members are directly affiliated with the Pioneer Institute, a pro-privatization think tank. State Board of Ed Chairman James Peyser doubles as executive director of the Pioneer Institute, where he works diligently to advance the spread of for-profit charter schools.

"We have political leaders far removed from the classroom imposing their ideas on public schools, with little genuine input from teachers," charges Massachusetts Teachers Association President Stephen E. Gorrie.

But NEA members in Massachusetts are fighting back. More than a year ago--under the slogan: "Ask a teacher how to make public schools work better"--MTA launched an ambitious new program to improve education.

Besides aggressive media outreach on issues like class size reduction and school modernization, the "Ask a Teacher" campaign features:

• Grassroots mobilization, through local Ask a Teacher coordinating committees and issue training for MTA members at local and regional meetings.

• Large-scale in-district lobbying meetings with lawmakers. "In my town, Hanover, we've decided that we'll keep going in to talk to our legislators, even when there isn't a crisis," says Anne Wass, an MTA executive board member.

• A mass "Ask a Teacher Rally" on Boston Common last June, that drew 20,000 NEA and AFT members.

  Ralliers, many ringing handbells, carried signs publicizing the importance of smaller class sizes and special programs for disruptive students.

  "Our younger members were just in awe of this display of solidarity," notes Wass, "and legislators were surprised so many people turned out. They're more respectful of teachers now!"

• A member-driven Teachers' Blueprint for Educational Excellence, a seven-point program for real education reform that was recently distributed to legislators and organizations like the state PTA. This working manual spotlights pressing educational needs like curbing the "institutional hazing" of new teachers and "centrally involving" teachers in shaping educational practices in their schools through collective bargaining and other means.

  The Blueprint will serve as a basis for both legislative proposals and local bargaining demands. MTA members see it as a "living document," says Wass, that "will be revised and updated every three to four years."

For more information, go to www.massteacher.org.

In Their Own Words

"The people in charge of Massachusetts public schools are the same ones who have been saying the system should be replaced by some vague combination of charter schools and vouchers. It seems to me that these people have a dramatic conflict of interest because, in essence, they have a stake in the reform effort failing. If it fails, it will vindicate their viewpoint and give them the opportunity to input their privatization agenda."

--Comments in the Boston Globe from Jack Rennie, president of the Massachusetts Business Education Alliance and an architect of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993.

Basics for Beginners
Dealing With Disruptive Behavior

To reduce minor behavior problems in class, the British Columbia (Canada) Federation of Teachers' Beginning Teachers' Handbook suggests these strategies for "dealing with behavior in the least amount of time, with the least disruption and negative feeling":

• Proximity. Continuing your lesson while you move about the room, and pausing near "trouble spots," can let the students know that even though they aren't near the teacher's desk, they are still expected to demonstrate appropriate behavior. Your getting "boxed in" behind your desk or podium encourages misbehavior in far corners of the room.

• Pauses. Continuous teacher talk may give students a noise screen for their own conversations. An occasional pause--just a few seconds of silence--brings an off-task student back in focus.

• Asking for a Response. Hearing your own name can be an attention-getter, even if you're a student not paying attention. Working an off-task student's name into a question can often bring the student back into the lesson.

  Say the student's name first in order to allow that student to hear the question to be answered. The purpose is to get the student back into the lesson, not to embarrass.

• Active Participation. Having the student respond to a question or become involved in an activity can eliminate the undesired behavior. Asking for a show of hands, having students perform a physical activity, or having each student write a quick answer to a question can make all students accountable for an immediate response. (For more advice, go to www.bctf.bc.ca/beginning/handbook.)