The document discusses the concept of "Trusting Teachers" and giving teachers more autonomy and leadership roles in schools. It provides endorsements from education experts who argue that empowering teachers can lead to innovation and improved student outcomes. The book "Trusting Teachers with School Success" examines schools that have implemented teacher-led models and the positive impacts it can have. While challenging, the document argues that collective teacher wisdom is key to school improvement and that teacher-run schools should become the norm.
2. While many school systems push
authority upwards to administration and
accountability for results downwards
onto individual teachers, Trusting
Teachers shows us what can happen
when authority and accountability are
brought together and teachers have a
seat at every table.
Linda Darling-Hammond
Professor at Stanford University School of Education
3. Trusting Teachers with School Success:
What Happens When Teachers Call the
Shots offers a compelling look at the
breakthrough possibilities of teacher
leadership. The next generation of
schools can be places of real innovation
and creativity if we will truly trust
teachers.
Dennis Van Roekel
President
National Education Association
4. This lively account of what it looks
like in schools that have tried
Trusting Teachers is a must read.
Deborah Meier
Senior Scholar at NYU’s Steinhardt School,
and 45-year educator in K-12 public schools in New York City
(East Harlem) and Boston (Roxbury)
5. Trusting Teachers is a fantastic
contribution. We need ways to press
the case for reform without alienating
our great teachers, without turning
them into the enemy, the problem,
and the object of our disdain. This
book describes one way to
celebrate, engage and empower them.
Michael Petrilli
Executive Vice President
Thomas B. Fordham Institute
6. Unleashing the collective wisdom of
teachers is the best hope for improving
our public schools. This provocative,
sensible and practical book offers concrete
evidence that it can be done and, in fact,
is being done. And now that we have
already tried virtually everything else, let's
do the right thing and turn teacher-run
schools from the exception into the norm.
Adam Urbanski
President of the Rochester (NY) Teachers Association
Vice President of the American Federation of Teachers,
and Founding Director of the Teacher Union Reform Network
12. Selecting colleagues
Transferring and/or terminating colleagues
Evaluating colleagues
Setting staff pattern
Selecting leaders
Determining budget
Determining the salaries and benefits of
colleagues, including leaders
Determining learning program and learning
materials
Setting the schedule
Setting school-level policies
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16. What would teachers do if
they had the autonomy not
just to make classroom
decisions but to collectively—
with their colleagues—make
the decisions influencing
whole school success?
Can we trust autonomous
teachers to make good
decisions?
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Essential Questions
17. Characteristics of High Performing Organizations
• Accept Ownership
• Innovate
• Share Purpose
• Collaborate
• Lead Effectively
• Function as Learners
• Avoid Insularity
• Motivate
• Assess Performance
18. • Innovate
• Share Purpose
• Collaborate
• Lead Effectively
• Function as Learners
• Avoid Insularity
• Motivate
• Assess Performance
• Accept Ownership
Teachers’ decisions are driven by:
Authority / Autonomy + Accountability
19. Share purpose,
which always
focuses on
students as
individuals, and
use it as the
basis of decisions
aimed at school
improvement.
PRACTICE #1
20. PRACTICE #1#2
Participate in collaboration and
leadership for the good of the
whole school, not just a classroom.
21. PRACTICE #2#3
Encourage colleagues and students
to be active, ongoing learners in
an effort to nurture everyone’s
engagement and motivation.
31. Assumptions
• Contract negotiations
No Assumptions
• …with who? —OR—
• …Yes, for autonomy and
accountability only. —OR—
• …Yes, for salaries and benefits.
But we’ll handle
evaluation, tenure, and work
hours.
Context
Current framework
Evolving Union Role
Context
Teachers call the shots
32. Assumptions No Assumptions
Context
Current framework
Evolving Union Role
Context
Teachers call the shots
• Grievance handling
• Insurance and benefits
• …But we handle conflicts
at our school, in context
of our culture
• …Professional liability! Let’s
talk…
33. What do teachers who call the shots need?
• Assistance to develop/pitch school proposals to district or
authorizer
• Help developing/negotiating agreements with district or authorizer
• Negotiated leave to plan new schools/conversions where teachers
call the shots
• Policy advocacy for teacher autonomy and funding for public
education
• Research/advocacy for teacher autonomy and the choices
teachers make
• Professional development: distributed leadership, peer evaluation
Ask them!
34. • Connections: other teachers calling shots; others using chosen
learning program
• Options for students at lower cost/less work: food, transport,
community service, art
• Options for teachers at lower cost: legal, professional insurance
• Organizing community support/better branding for teachers
− outreach programs, communications/marketing
• Ability to select from array of services. Different dues structure?
Ask them!
What do teachers who call the shots need?
