Can We Hope?

"It's all about the teaching," Allen said. "You can build a beautiful new building, buy all the fancy computers you want and institute the best math and reading program. But if you don't have good, quality teachers, you are not likely to succeed."

Those are the words of Lionel Allen, newly minted principal of Sherman Elementary and whose story was featured on the front page of today's Chicago Tribune (article here).

In keeping with full disclosure, let me state that I know Mr. Allen and I am familiar with the doctoral program he is in at UIC. That said, his quote that I placed at the top of this post, both intrigues and worries me.

It intrigues me that there exists the possibility that there are members of the administration that get it, that really understand that "what a teacher knows and can do" is the single greatest factor affecting student achievement. That is thrilling.

It worries me that in service of the goal to have a staff of excellent teachers as the Tribune story lays out, Sherman Elementary fired everyone but the students.

There is a disconnect somewhere along the line here. Why not intensive professional development? Why not make bad teachers good, good teachers great, and great teachers outstanding? Why is no one, save the CTU Quest center, focused on improving what I like to call "instructional capacity"?

I've said it before and I will say it again, the best professional development I ever had came from my union, not my employer. CPS professional development, although better than it use to be, has been a joke. It was the union that gave us real challenges (ask anyone who went through the Nurturing Teacher Leadership Program or has worked with Dr. Bearden).

Can Mr. Allen turn things around at Sherman? I hope so. I would love to have the concept of effective teachers proven in the most challenging circumstances.

Do I wish they could have reached this point without firing the entire staff? You bet. But I can take solace in that the former staff of Sherman, including the administration, were CPS employees, hired and trained by CPS. If the union had more to say about teacher quality, maybe the firings would have been unnecessary.

That's why I support PACT. Their agenda is more closely aligned with improving teaching than the UPC is. Remember, it was Ms. Stewart who said "we are a union, not a university".

That sentence alone is why I will work day and night to remove the UPC from power.

I believe that teachers can be better and the only entity that has made any progress for the children of Chicago is the CTU, certainly not CPS. Now we need to make the next election about where the union should place its priorities, and the PACT caucus best represents my educational philosophy.