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By Kim Ursetta

Anyone who has been involved in education for even a short time knows that “education reform” is truly in the eye of the beholder.

Open classrooms? An education reform cooked up by experts. New math? An education reform cooked up by experts. New testing regimes — put in place before changes in curriculum or purchasing books and materials aligned with the standards of the test? An education reform cooked up by experts.

The problem with too many education reforms is that they are not thought through or are underfunded. It’s usually a combination. But too much of the discussion about “new” and “promising” reform fails to take into account what teachers and parents know will make a difference.

It’s gotten so far out of whack that teachers are often discounted — or denigrated — as incapable of reforming their own operations. It’s perplexing why the teacher’s voice (and the voices of parents as well) is so little regarded when we think about what education reform ought to be. If we listened to them, we might hear some of the same things that are revealed in national polls, such as the annual Gallup Poll on the condition of education conducted each year for Phi Delta Kappan magazine.

Consistently, parents and teachers (when asked) say that class size, teacher quality and high standards — matched with the resources, including books and materials aligned with the resources and qualified teachers — will make the difference.

If it were just the uninformed opinion of the masses of people (the 99 percent or so who are not education experts), that would be one thing. But the fact is that teacher quality and class size have consistently proven by research to make a difference in student achievement.

The Denver Classroom Teachers Association supports education reforms. But the reforms we continue to support are those that take into account the human factor, not just the mechanics of school structure (schools within a school, charter schools and open enrollment, pay schedules, procedures, guided instruction, etc.) Every teacher knows what too many experts miss: Schools are communities of people, and we must take human factors in consideration.

Do teachers and parents have the opportunity (including time) to communicate on an ongoing basis about the progress of students?

Do teachers have opportunities (including paid time) to share information and strategies about how to help specific students?

Are classes small enough to allow the type of individual attention that every student deserves?
Are teachers empowered to do what they know how to do — to teach students? Or are they consumed by a constant barrage of new time conflicts and pressure to perform before our community has dealt with some fundamentals?

It’s not that we ignore the mechanics. It’s just that we think they need to be considered in the real world — our day and age, our classrooms, our community — not what somebody else thinks worked better in 1957 or what somebody else thinks works in India.

The Denver Classroom Teachers Association has a well-deserved reputation for being an innovative union when it comes to considering new ideas. When the district proposed a “merit pay” plan, we worked for years to analyze the impact and develop a system that would not be fraught with favoritism and unintended consequences. We have proposed improvements and supported improvements proposed by others regarding some tough issues — consistently, thoughtfully and with the best interests of students in mind.

We will continue to work to have our voices heard. We believe that when we advocate for things like compensation that will attract and keep good teachers, we are saying the same thing as the vast majority of parents and others who care about children and our future.

Kim Ursetta is the president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association.

READER COMMENTS

Kathy,
Thank you for your comments.
As long as we have public "servants" unionized there will be no improvement.

The unions, which once stood for employee rights, have lost their way with employee "benefits".

Our economy is distorted because of it. We now have a Romanoff in our State Senate that wants to extend the school year to all year. It's coming up. You might want to get involved. I am.

In the 1950's we had the number 1 public school system in the world, now we are #19.
We did this without "new math", we did this without year-round schools, we did this without charter schools or "vouchers". We did this without the kids getting 28 days off a year because of "teacher's days". They have 3 months to get their "teacher's days" over with. We did this before we allowed teachers to tell us endlessly about the "new and improved" way of doing things.

We had a populace that knew no better.

More of us know better now.

Since the 60's we've been promised "new and improved". I've home- schooled my oldest now 38 and 35. They loved it. They returned to public schools starting their junior year. They'd come home telling me how easy it was because they had already learned it with dad. They both are college graduates and own their own business.

Oh, I taught them basic economics and creating wealth rules, which seems to be lacking even with a "liberal arts" education from Harvard. The basic precepts of capitalism is never taught. This should be taught in middle school and "High School" and continued in college as part of mandatory basic diploma requirements.

I am sending my 9 and 5 year old through public shcools now. I will wind up home schooling these two also within 3 years.

My nine year old daughter knows about Martin Luther King, but draws a blank on Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams or even Paul Revere....You know the guy that took the "credit" for warning us about the British...

In Kindergarten, Martin Luther King for two weeks, in First Grade, Martin Luther King for two weeks, in Second Grade, Martin Luther King for two weeks...

Then she comes home and asks me if White People are mean.

I tell her, "No meaner than anybody else sweetpea."

And that's exactly what she'll get in home schooling. Plus she'll learn what to be proud of in America by learning of Thomas Jefferson and all his interests. They'll know Benjamin Franklin, his travels and his weaknesses. They'll learn of John Adams and even that fraud Paul Revere...

They'll learn that our founders had the vision to believe in self- determination being the foundation for a superb culture. They will learn how right our founders were...

Good reply to our educators.

I would only add in a message to them, we're not buying what you're selling... anymore..we now know better....

We've been hearing about the "if only" line for 40 years. "If only we had this and if only we had that.....tis getting old lads and lasses, tis getting old.

May God Bless,

Father O'Malley

You have all the questions. No answers. The problem is you and your collective bargaining union and the golden parachute PERA retirement plan that you or any of your union lap dogs will not arbitrate for one second. The problem is in the mirror.

Alas, there is no way to reform this school district. Its funds are used to support administrative salaries, benefits and retirements. It is totally unregulated by any state or federal entity and is therefore rife with "favoritism" in every department.

Just glancing at the "want ads" in the DPS human resource section demonstrates why it never has any money. It's currently searching for:
HR supervisor, $45-60K
Director of Instructional Networks, $112,000
Associate in Strategy: $65,000
Director of School Choice, $68,000
Executive Director Facilities, $78-104,000
Deputy Chief Academic Officer, no $ limit

The results of Denver's, Colorado's and America's failures to rein in this local and VERY undemocratic entity are apparent: it sucks up money and doesn't educate children. Now many of its schools will be closed this year, so kids can pay for selfish, greedy decisions made by past admins who were not properly guided by Board members and will spend decades in leisurely retirement, just as if test scores were something to be proud of.

Watching this school district die over the course of my own lifetime has been agonizing. It would rather put funds into legal defense strategies than attempt to heal its many community wounds. No matter how we slice it, this is a failed, corrupt, rogue governmental entity which should be closed outright.

Teachers and other workers who gave their lives to the District's children were tricked into signing up, not realizing the pension was not as good as PERA or that their years of hard effort would or even could be wasted by people who were supposedly in the "education" business themselves. This is a group of very naive individuals who sought to give of themselves to children -- not realizing they were giving of themselves to hard-nosed business executives instead, and throwing their labor into the evil, bottomless pit that has become Denver Public Schools. Nothing about that entity works the way it should, nothing it says can be trusted, and it is not above any amount of manipulative scheming to make White look like Black or the other way around.

Union members should just accept what the District has offered, and go back to work. DPS will just find some way to rip them off anyway, if they continue to "negotiate" like David with Goliath. Alternatively, the union should negotiate for two elements it has never sought: a requirement that all DPS administrators educate their children at their nearest District school; and a published accounting of what every single worker at that District earned in the last year.

Well said. You missed one point important to tax payers: more tax money is spent outside the classroom than in the classroom. Too much is spent on not teaching.

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