High marks for turnaround
National teachers union leader hails progress at Lowell schools
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| MAKING THE GRADE: American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten watches fourth-graders Gabriel Rodriguez, rear, and Connor Mills, both 9, work at Pawtucketville Memorial Elementary School in Lowell Thursday. She praised performance improvements made there and at the Murkland Elementary School. See a video at lowellsun.com. SUN / JULIA MALAKIE |
LOWELL -- Trust, collaboration and safety in risk-taking that benefits both students and staff.
These were among the qualities of Lowell schools celebrated by Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, a national teachers union, during her visit to Pawtucketville Elementary School Thursday.
To Weingarten, Lowell is a successful model for a district that has "transformed opportunities for children in an enduring way."
"They've done reform in the right way," she said.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and United Teachers of Lowell President Paul Georges visit a fourth-grade classroom at Pawtucketville Memorial Elementary School Thursday. "They've done reform in the right way," she said of the district. SUN / JULIA MALAKIE
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The last time Weingarten came to Lowell was two years ago when she visited Murkland Elementary School. Over the past four years, both schools have experienced remarkable turnarounds, catapulting to Level 1 accountability status based on MCAS scores.
"It starts with changing the culture so that people feel that it is a place where educators want to teach, where parents want to send their children, and where kids want to be," Weingarten said.
Under the Achievement Gap Act of 2010, administrators were given more authority to hire staff and make curriculum changes at low-performing Level 4 schools. A recent bill approved by the House would have kept in place many of those changes that have assisted in turning around schools, but it was subsequently defeated in the Senate.
According to teachers union President Paul Georges, however, while those increased authorities -- which he called disrespectful and demeaning to teachers -- were available for administrators to use, they chose not to exercise them at schools like Murkland. Unlike some other districts, principals did not fire staff members or make them reapply for their jobs, he said, and any program changes made were done in a collaborative effort between staff and administration.
"When teachers are empowered to create the plan, to be part of the plan, they own the results," Georges said.
He said the union "could have negotiated very easily what we did at the Murkland without any intervention by the state," but the federal School Redesign Grant that came along with it helped immensely.
With the $250,000 the district received over three years, Superintendent of Schools Jean Franco said a behavioral specialist and an English as a Second Language coach were hired. Teachers were also given additional planning time to work together to make their hours of instruction as constructive and effective as possible.
Franco said the district chose to invest in the knowledge base of its staff in order to achieve sustainable results.
"We're left with a new evaluation system, and a different way to look at data," she said.
The money that hired the additional employees will run out, but Franco said she expects the district
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