In less than a week the St. Louis Post-Dispatch would be back to enabling Mayor Francis G. Slay’s relentless push for charter schools in the city, but last Thursday St. Louis Public Schools was in an unusual position: at the center of positive national media attention.
“This is a historical moment – savor it for a moment,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
Accompanied by Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers’ national president, Duncan was lauding new initiatives in the district, including new collaborative efforts between administrators and the teachers’ union.
The nation’s education czar and president of the largest teachers’ union spoke at Lexington Elementary School concluding a tour of several schools in the district.
Duncan said that previously disagreements between adults in the city had interfered with children adequately learning, but that St. Louis is now on the right track and its cooperative efforts promise a new national model for reviving urban districts.
“We recognize the progress here – we’re seeing schools improve,” Duncan said, noting that Lexington Elementary School and its Principal Barbara Anderson had reached AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) two consecutive years.
“All students can be successful when we come together,” Duncan said, applauding the collective efforts of state officials, the Special Administrative Board, district administrators, Superintendent Kelvin Adams, union leaders, teachers and the community.
Name-checking Adams – and, no doubt, having been briefed regarding the revolving door for district superintendents – Duncan said, “Please keep him here for a while.”
The SAB hired Adams – the eighth superintendent to lead the district since 2003 – last September.
Duncan also described the local union officials he had met as “compassionate.”
“You have all the ingredients here to be a great school district,” Duncan said, noting that the district will be able to compete for billions of dollars in recently announced Title 1 grant money available for innovative initiatives.
Duncan also advocated for the district’s revived emphasis on outreach efforts to organize full-service community schools, like Clay Elementary, which AFT president Weingarten visited earlier last Thursday. Weingarten and Duncan agreed that all public schools across the country should be full-service community schools.
Weingarten also visited Innovative Concept Academy, a new alternative school for juvenile delinquents in the district, the brainchild of Circuit Judge Jimmie Edwards.
“I can’t tell you how impressed I am with the schools I visited and how great it is to start our back-to-school tour in St. Louis,” Weingarten said.
“The services that community schools like Clay offers show that it works,” Weingarten said, calling the collaborative efforts of the district and the union a renaissance.
Collaborative efforts, she said, helped to make Edwards’ alternative school – which she praised – a reality.
“He needed the superintendent, Mary Armstrong (AFT St. Louis president), the nuns – partnerships – to make it work,” Weingarten said of Edwards.
Special Administrative Board member Richard Gaines joked that the union had written his script at the press event, but acknowledged in all seriousness that the relationship between the board and the union had been combative in the past and would need continual nurturing.
“They had to takes some hits on our collaborative initiative, and we had to take some hits,” Gaines said.
Gaines said that while there will be differences, the board, district and union had agreed to include one another and respect one another.
“We all share the common goal of educating our kids,” Superintendent Adams said.
In a separate interview with The American, AFT St. Louis President Armstrong said, “I’m excited that there is now national and state focus on SLPS, and locally we are glad that someone sees that common sense prevails.”
Five Point Plan
The teachers’ union seized its moment in a positive media light to push again for its Five Point Plan, which it has advocated for years – without much attention, teachers claim, even as they have seen aspects of the plan (such as smaller class sizes) praised when implemented in new charter schools.
That plan for improving the academic outcomes calls for:
* “Zero Tolerance” discipline policy
Increasing the school day, while leaving disruptive students in the classroom, only leads to unsafe conditions and student and/or teacher burnout, the union claims, calling for properly funded alternative programs, including alternative schools like the new academy founded by Judge Edwards.
* Smaller class sizes
Decreasing the number of students within the classroom is essential to improving achievement and discipline, teachers urge.
* Targeted quality professional development
Dismissing “ineffective professional development” at times mandated by the district, the union says teachers should be given more input into identifying those areas in which they need help.
* Educating the whole child
A more holistic approach to education would include more nutritious meals, parenting classes within the high schools and at community centers, and an increased presence of safety officers, counsellors, social workers, teacher assistants and other support staff.
* Full-access pre-school beginning at age 3.
