The Power of Collective Voice
Teaching is our heart. Our students are our soul. And the union is our spine.
I heard that sentiment over and over again this past week during the American Federation of Teachers' biennial TEACH conference, one of the largest professional development conferences for educators in the nation. That's right, a conference on teaching and learning, sponsored by the union.
The conference included sessions on a wide range of topics, as well as a daylong summit with an organization called EdSurge, where educators had the opportunity to give feedback on classroom technology products, and a town hall meeting with theAFT's three officers, where members could ask or share anything.
Two-thousand educators descended on Washington, D.C., to learn from experts and one another, and once there, the theme was resounding: The voices of educators matter. Especially in an era of toxic debates and top-down dictates, the voices of educators matter.
Where educators are raising and combining their voices, the seeds of positive change have emerged. Collective voice, exercised through the union, is power--the power to drive real change for our kids, families and communities. The stories we heard this week speak for themselves.
Betty Nieves, a teacher at the School of Integrated Learning in Brooklyn, N.Y., discussed what it's like to be part of a New York City program known as PROSE (Progressive Redesign Opportunity Schools for Excellence). This year, there were 62 PROSE schools in New York City. Next year, there will be 126, which means there will be about as many PROSE schools as there are charter schools. These schools, which were negotiated in the union's first contract with Mayor Bill de Blasio'sadministration, enable school staffs to change contract terms at the school level if they believe different terms will work better for their students.
"At the PROSE schools, teachers stay in the classroom and do the jobs that we love and also have leadership roles that allow our voices to be heard," Nieves said. "The collaborative piece--it's not just a buzzword. It does work. I honestly believe the more voices in that room, the better our chances of answering that question, of finding that solution, of better meeting the needs of our students."
Afra Khan and Lily Holland, two Boston teachers, are part of the AFT's Teacher Leaders Program. The AFT launched this program three years ago to empower teachers to help shape education policies governing our schools.
When Boston Public Schools reworked how it counted the number of students in poverty, whole neighborhoods were dropped from the free and reduced-price lunch program--a program that is a literal lifeline for so many children. So, today, Khan and The Power of Collective Voice | Randi Weingarten:
