What is Southwest TURN?
Over the past decade, the Southwest Teacher Union Reform Network (SW TURN) has worked to bring teacher union and school district leaders together to study innovative reforms that can lead to increased achievement for all students. Twice a year, SW TURN meetings are held with these union and school district leaders, as well as, outside experts, and other key stakeholders. Over the past several years, districts participating in SW TURN have represented some of the largest in the southwest region, including Denver, Aurora, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Omaha, and Tulsa. These districts alone serve more than 700,000 students in the region.
Southwest TURN (SW TURN) is part of the Teacher Union Reform Network. It is a union-led effort to promote progressive reforms that will ultimately lead to better learning for all students. SW TURN serves leaders in Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah.
What are the impacts of SW TURN on participating school districts?
In an effort to understand the impacts of SW TURN on participating school districts, the Consortium for Education Change (CEC) in 2017 commissioned an independent study. CEC selected Augenblick, Palaich and Associates (APA) to conduct this study. APA is an independent research firm with more than 30 years of experience providing objective evaluation of education policies and practices. Since a key goal of TURN is to create positive change in school and district practice by promoting innovative ideas among union and district leaders, APA’s evaluation focused on the following target: identifying districts that have implemented substantive changes in schools as a direct result of participating in SW TURN.
This evaluation goal was complicated by two key realities. First, TURN operates primarily by sharing information with district and union leaders through meetings twice a year, supplemented by electronic communications and meeting materials. While these meetings are intensive and offer the opportunity over multiple days for participants to delve deeply into particular topics, TURN does not currently have the resources to provide follow-up technical assistance between meetings to the many representatives from eight different states that participate. Second, districts in the SW TURN region operate within widely differing legal and policy environments. For instance, while collective bargaining for teacher unions is allowed in some states in the region, such as Colorado, such bargaining is prohibited in other states, such as Texas. This means that districts in differing jurisdictions may need to develop their own creative mechanisms in order to implement ideas generated through TURN within their own local contexts.
With these realities in mind, APA worked to identify any districts in the southwest region that directly attributed substantive programmatic changes over the past several years to participation in SW TURN.
A first case study was conducted of the San Antonio Independent School District and the development of its peer assistance and review (PAR) program designed specifically to help support, mentor, and retain new teachers in high need schools. Notably, the San Antonio experience represented a collaborative effort between district leaders and the teacher union in a state where collective bargaining is not allowed under state law. Despite this legal context, both teacher union and district leaders directly attributed the successful creation of the new program to participation in SW TURN.
A second case study conducted by APA focused on the Clark County School District (CCSD) in Las Vegas, Nevada. Similar to San Antonio, CCSD and the Clark County Education Association (CCEA) created a PAR program to support and retain first-year teachers and leaders credited SW TURN with providing key data and support to successfully launch the program.
The third case study, presented in this report, focused on Albuquerque Public Schools (APS). Through participation in SW TURN, APS was able to strengthen both its teacher mentoring and PAR program. As discussed below, these APS programs developed into unique systems of support that differ in significant and interesting ways from the previous case studies.
Methodology
APA conducted a site visit to Albuquerque in January 2018 to better understand the evolution of the district’s PAR and mentoring programs. Although both programs were initially created over a decade ago, both union and district leaders agree that participation in SW TURN was instrumental in refining and rearranging the programs into their current form. During its site visit, APA:
1) Conducted interviews with leaders from the Albuquerque Teachers Federation (ATF);
2) Conducted interviews with APS leaders (including the superintendent);
3) Observed a PAR panel meeting;
4) Conducted focus groups of new teacher mentees at both the
elementary and secondary school levels;
5) Conducted a focus group of lead mentors;
6) Gathered data from a survey of principals across the district that participated in the PAR process.
Findings from these data gathering activities are reported below.
Albuquerque Public Schools is the 31st largest school district in the nation. 70% of students in the district receive free and reduced priced lunch. 66% of students are Hispanic.
The Challenge: Providing Comprehensive Support and Feedback to New and Veteran Teachers
APS has a total enrollment of 84,200 students (31st largest in the U.S.), employs 14,811 people, and serves a student population where 70 percent of students receive free and reduced-price lunch.1 Additionally, 66 percent of students are Hispanic and 15 percent are English language learners. District and union leaders agree that maintaining teacher quality is of paramount importance in meeting the needs of these students. In this regard, the district has two key priorities to ensure the overall quality of its teaching workforce:
1) Attracting, retaining, and supporting new teachers; and
2) Ensuring that veteran teachers maintain consistency and quality of teaching over time.
With regard to new teachers, APS Superintendent Raquel Reedy summed up the district’s major challenge which has been escalating since 2000: perennial teacher shortages fueled by the fact that “fewer and fewer individuals are choosing education as a career.†This challenge, according to Reedy, makes it more imperative than ever for school, district, and union leaders to “take time to support new teachers, explain the culture of each school, and help keep new teachers from being overwhelmed.†The need for such support means Reedy and her human resources team must prioritize effective policies and practices that promote new teacher development and retention. Having an approach that is cost effective, supported by research, and supported by teachers is of paramount importance.
With regard to veteran teachers, Reedy indicated that for many years APS has faced a series of challenges associated with the provision of effective teacher evaluation, feedback, and support. First, evaluation of teacher performance tended to fall on the shoulders of school principals who were already at capacity with their other duties and responsibilities. Second, when evaluations did occur, there was a lack of adequate documentation on how principals both reviewed teacher performance and provided appropriate supports linked to those performance reviews. Without such documentation, clashes between school and district administrators and union leaders were more likely to occur if a veteran teacher was brought under performance scrutiny. Third, no established committee or group existed to support principals that identified teachers who might be struggling to meet performance expectations, or to align resources and coaching to help those teachers improve. As a result, few teacher evaluations took place to identify struggling teachers, there was minimal support provided for those few who were actually identified as struggling, and no teachers in the district were placed on improvement plans designed to support and enhance their instruction. This gap in support for veteran teachers led to a pressing need for greater clarity and greater accountability in order to improve teaching quality across the district.
Albuquerque faced a series of challenges associated with the provision of effective teacher evaluation, feedback, and support... as a result, few teacher evaluations took place to identify struggling teachers, and there was minimal support provided for those few who were actually identified as struggling.
Addressing the Challenges: The Role of TURN
The Albuquerque Public School District’s first attempts to address the needs of both new and veteran teachers took place in the early 2000s, and were influenced heavily by discussions and presentations made at national TURN meetings. These meetings focused on highlighting district and union leader collaboration to improve existing policies and practices. In particular, TURN participants learned about success stories across the country where district and union leaders worked in unison to improve support for new and veteran teachers through Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) programs. Ellen Bernstein, president of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation (ATF), participated in these TURN meetings, and invited Albuquerque’s district leaders to join her in visiting the Rochester School District in New York to learn about that district’s effort to collaborate with union leaders to create an innovative PAR program.
The resulting effect on both Bernstein and the Albuquerque district leaders was powerful. In fact, the site visit and exposure to an example of successful collaboration in another state planted an important seed that quickly grew in Albuquerque, with the union and district collaborating to more effectively meet the needs of both new and veteran teachers. The fruits of this planted seed continue to grow even today.
For instance, the exposure to TURN sparked ATF and district’s collaborative effort to create the mentoring and PAR programs described later in this case study. Furthermore, the success of these programs inspired Bernstein and current APS district leaders to follow the TURN example and pass on the knowledge and experience they had gained to other district and union leaders in the southwest region of the country. According to Bernstein, SW TURN provided the perfect vehicle for this regional sharing. As a co-director of SW TURN, Bernstein regularly attended both regional and national TURN meetings. She invited Karen Rudys – the district’s Executive Director for Labor Relations and Staffing – to attend SW TURN meetings. In an era of tight district budgets, the fact that the cost of attending these meetings was subsidized by TURN facilitated Rudys’ participation. Since Rudys has served as the district’s chief negotiator with the union over the past decade, her attendance was particularly meaningful and valuable.
“My colleagues and I were honored to have the opportunity to share our experiences with our counterparts in other southwest states and to help them learn from our experiences. This was greatly facilitated by SW TURN.†--Ellen Bernstein, President, Albuquerque Teachers Federation.
The SW TURN meetings provided an important forum for Bernstein, Rudys, and other Albuquerque leaders to share their experiences with other union and district leaders from across the region who were
interested in collaborating to implement their own mentoring and PAR programs for new and veteran teachers. With regard to these meetings, Bernstein says, “my colleagues and I were honored to have the opportunity to share our experiences with our counterparts in other southwest states and to help them learn from our experiences. This was greatly facilitated by SW TURN.â€
One key indicator of the impact this sharing had through SW TURN was that other union and district leaders in the region began to follow Albuquerque’s example. The San Antonio Independent School District in Texas is one such district. In fact, union and district leaders in San Antonio participated actively in SW TURN, and used the lessons learned from Albuquerque to build their own impressive culture of union and district collaboration. This collaboration produced in San Antonio yet another successful union and district-led collaborative program to enhance teacher supports.2
Implementing Change: Redesigning Albuquerque’s Mentoring and PAR Programs
Albuquerque’s goal was not only to redesign teacher supports, but to also promote shared leadership between both the district and the union. Informed by the experiences of other districts sharing lessons learned through TURN convenings, APS and ATF modified the district’s old mentoring program in several important ways, including:
1) Providing first-year teachers with a mentor that inspired trust and who could offer one-on-one, support in the classroom.
2) Emphasizing, as much as possible, site-based mentoring where mentors did not have large caseloads. Ideally, mentors are located in every school.
3) Ensuring mentors are of high quality by having candidates apply for the mentor positions, and by conducting interviews of applicants by APS staff.
4) Establishing clear expectations for mentors, including the expectation that mentors conduct three assessments of the mentee’s instruction and have weekly contact with mentees.
5) Providing adequate compensation to recognize mentors’ time by providing each mentor with a $2,000 stipend for one mentee and $4,000 for two mentees.
6) Ensuring mentors have adequate bandwidth to work with mentees by limiting mentors to a maximum of two mentees.
7) Providing ongoing coaching and training to mentors by establishing “lead mentors†who not only support new teachers, but who are experienced, successful educators who teach monthly classes that mentors attend after the duty day.
As the modifications to the program were implemented, the number of mentors and supported teachers quickly grew. Indeed by 2007, there were already 341 mentors across APS serving 453 first- year teachers.3
Similar to the mentoring program, participation in TURN influenced efforts by APS and ATF to redesign the district’s existing PAR program. Much of Albuquerque’s PAR program redesign aligned with the core TURN philosophy that emphasizes education policy and program changes that are led collaboratively by district and union leaders. For instance, the PAR program’s redesign focused on the creation and refinement of a “PAR Panel†that includes not only district leaders, but union leaders as well. This panel reviews and oversees all principal requests for added support for veteran teachers identified as struggling or underperforming.
A truly innovative feature of the Albuquerque PAR panel is that it is co- led and co-chaired by the teacher union president and the district’s Executive Director for Labor Relations and Staffing.
A truly innovative feature of the Albuquerque PAR panel is that it is co-led and co-chaired by Bernstein (the teacher union president), and Rudys (the district’s Executive Director for Labor Relations and Staffing). Overall, the panel includes three district representatives, three union representatives and four consulting teachers (CTs) who are identified by the panel as highly effective district educators. This balance – and the fact that all decisions are made by consensus – ensures the district and union work collaboratively to oversee support for struggling teachers, and to make ultimate recommendations about whether those teachers improved and whether they should be retained.
School leaders identify teachers who need support in order to improve performance, and these teachers are then placed into the PAR program. Once placed in the program, teachers receive 90 days of direct support from one of the four full-time CTs. Cases are reviewed at the midpoint and end of the 90-day period. The PAR panel meets to hear evidence by the principal and CT regarding the teacher’s progress, and also receives a written statement from the teacher. At the conclusion of the process, the panel makes a recommendation regarding the teacher’s future employment.
Impacts and Outcomes: Mentoring for New Teachers
Focus groups conducted by APA for this case study provided context to the mentoring program and the impacts it has had on first year teachers. APA spoke to eight first-year teachers who were all receiving mentoring support. First-year teachers were, first-of-all, grateful for the support they are receiving. In fact, all eight teachers unanimously agreed that the mentoring support improved their practice as teachers. They credited the program with keeping them on track and with familiarizing them regarding APS’ structures, expectations, and policies. Even more importantly, as one of the new teachers indicated, this mentoring offered crucial instructional guidance that new teachers need during their first year in order to properly support their students.
The mentoring program is also improving the teaching practice of the mentors themselves. According to a survey administered by the district, 98 percent of mentors indicated they thought being a mentor improved their own classroom teaching skills.4 This was corroborated during APA’s focus groups, in that mentors indicated that participation in the program helped to “reinvigorate†their own instruction. Additionally, district survey data indicate that almost all (96 percent) mentors agree that they grew professionally due to the program, and the vast majority (88 percent) further indicate that serving as a mentor exposed them to new ideas and curricula that improved their practice. Viewed in light of this input received from mentors, there is evidence that the redesigned mentoring program is not only supporting first-year teachers, but that it is also developing mentors into teacher leaders. Although this program only lasts one year, many mentors reported relationships with mentees continuing to the present day.
APA also conducted a focus group with seven lead mentors. These leaders are identified by the district and have anywhere from 3-10 years of experience with Albuquerque’s mentoring program. They are tasked with supporting mentors across the district through coaching and professional development. All the lead mentors indicated that the mentors’ support was a necessity for first-year teachers. One lead mentor said, “our mentors help every new teacher get up to speed on the full continuum of their teaching responsibilities. This includes mastering the nuts and bolts of classroom management and school routines at the beginning of the year, and refining pedagogy and the art of teaching through the end of the school year.â€
“We are now leveraging the positive relationship with the union to apply what we learn to other areas, and this has reverberated positively throughout the district.†--Karen Rudys, APS Executive Director for Labor Relations and Staffing
Impacts and Outcomes: PAR for Veteran Teachers
Out of 130 schools across the district, there were 77 PAR “client teachers†in 60 schools during the 2016- 2017 school year. Of the 53 cases completed that year, roughly 23% improved, 45% resigned or retired, and 25% were recommended for termination. These results were considered an important success for two key reasons. First, the fact that union leaders were closely involved throughout the process meant that termination decisions did not trigger conflicts between the district and the union. Second, the results represent a significant departure from the district’s traditional evaluation system, where teachers were rarely observed and where evaluation planning and impacts were viewed as either weak or inconsequential.
According to both Bernstein and Rudys, the district and union both prioritized creation of a system where teachers with two or more years of experience had “a real opportunity to get the support they need,†and where there was sufficient accountability to appropriately counsel consistently underperforming teachers out of the profession. Both sides agree this is in the best interest of all students.
Another success is that, from the one-on-one support provided through PAR, the district is learning about a variety of other areas where veteran teachers need support. APS is using this information to help shape their professional development and mentoring programs across a variety of topics. According to Rudys, “while PAR was initially created to support struggling teachers, we are now leveraging the positive relationship with the union to apply what we learn to other areas, and this has reverberated positively throughout the district.†For instance, Rudys says, “we have seen a number of special education teachers in the PAR program, and this is an indicator that these teachers really need more support.†The union and district are now working together to review how services are provided to students in special education as well as other high need students, including English language learners.
“Joint efforts bring the district and union together to provide collaborative support for our teaching professionals, so that the focus can be on the bottom line: what is best for kids.†--Raquel Reedy, APS Superintendent
Overall Rudys says that the PAR panel, “has positively impacted the relationship of the district and union. It also fosters better relationships between teachers and principals, because they both have representatives on the panel.†APS superintendent Reedy agrees, and adds that “joint efforts bring the district and union together to provide collaborative support for our teaching professionals, so that the focus can be on the bottom line: what is best for kids.â€
As part of this case study, APA conducted an online survey of all 44 principals who were involved with the PAR process over the past two years. All these principals had at least one teacher who went through the PAR process. As shown in the figures below, principal support for the program is consistently strong.
The surveyed principals overwhelmingly believe the PAR program is beneficial. In fact, as seen in Figure 1, 93 percent of principals either agreed or strongly agreed that the PAR program was beneficial.
Additionally, 95 percent of principals indicate CT’s provide effective support and that they are responsive and professional.
Not only does the PAR panel serve struggling teachers, it also provides valuable support for principals. For instance, prior to the district’s redesigned program, all evaluation responsibilities fell on the shoulders of school principals. According to Rudys, principals needed more training and support to execute this responsibility effectively, particularly with regard to evaluating veteran teachers.
As APA’s survey of principals shows in Figure 2, principals greatly appreciate the support that PAR provides in the evaluation process. For instance, principals nearly unanimously “agreed†or “strongly agreed†that PAR supports their responsibility in writing targeted improvement plans for teachers. Principals therefore not only see PAR as a way to directly support teachers, it also allows them to devote more energy to longer term improvement planning.
One additional success of the district and union’s work is that principals view the PAR program not as a means of punishing teachers, but as an important tool to support them. In fact, when surveyed by APA about what the primary purpose of the PAR program was, principals overwhelmingly (93 percent) responded that the primary purpose is “to provide direct support to struggling teachers.†Principals also value that the program allows for, “direct support for the teacher from someone who is not an employee of the school and allows for open discussion and another perspective.†By offering one-on- one outside support, principals therefore believe struggling teachers are getting an opportunity to improve without being under pressure from their own evaluator.
Conclusion
Albuquerque Public School’s PAR and mentoring programs offer strong examples of innovative, impactful programming. The effective redesign of these two programs would not have been possible without the close collaboration of district and education association leaders. Both district and union leaders attest to the impact which TURN had in improving the programs, and in providing a safe forum for their leaders to collaborate successfully around a common goal: to support and improve teachers.
The district clearly values both programs. In a chronically tight budgetary environment, the superintendent has never wavered in making the necessary financial commitments. This includes dedicating operational funding to consistently support two full time positions (one to oversee each program) as well as funding the PAR program’s four consulting teachers, and $2,000 stipends for the hundreds of mentors that participate in the mentoring program each year.
As the mentoring and PAR programs evolve, they continue to receive strong, positive reviews. Both show promise as impressive successes in not only their execution, but in bringing district and union leaders together to find a mutually beneficial solution to common challenges.
2 The San Antonio story is documented in a case study conducted in 2017, which can be found here: https://www.cecweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/SAISD-SW-TURN-Report.pdf
3 The Mentor Program: An APS/ATF Partnership. 2016/2017 Mentor Teacher Data.
4 The Mentor Program: An APS/ATF Partnership. 2016/2017 Mentor Teacher Data