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ST. LOUIS AMERICAN (2012-13 ARCHIVES)
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: STL Aerospace Institute to hold information session ... - July 29, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: COMTO mentors students - June 20, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: The American, public schools and Wash U. collaborate on STEM ... - June 6, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Dr. Dorothea King-James to be inducted into Vashon HOF June 9 - June 4, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Fighting bullying with the Bard - May 29, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Black superintendents by the numbers - May 23, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: JJK salutes SLPS student athletes - May 16, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: SLPS senior wins Oral Advocacy Competition - May 16, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Spotlight on student athletes - May 9, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: PGA outreaches to public schools - May 9, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Regions Bank empowers SLPS students through web-based program - April 26, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Home-grown physician, St. Louis-style - April 25, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Dance St. Louis grants Career Awards - March 21, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Roosevelt Grad Pursues Nursing Career - March 20, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: SLPS Student 'SCORES' with Poetry - February 20, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: SLPS Students Win Creative Challenge - February 20, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Walgreens Honors Teen Health Community Leaders - February 5, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: History Museum Hosts Walgreens Expression Challenge WInners - January 28, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Put Down The Pistol Leader Visits Yeatman - January 18, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: 2012 SLPS Secondary Science Teacher of the Year Award - January 10, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Congregations Donate Winter Clothes - January 3, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Congregations donate winter clothes - January 3, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: SLPS Educator Publishes Teaching Series - January 3, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: STL Student Elected National President - December 20, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Gateway MST Teacher Given Golden Apple - December 20, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Gateway MST Teacher Given Golden Apple - December 20, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Rhea Willis Is Special Ed Teacher of the Year - December 20, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: African Americans on St. Louis Magazine’s ‘Power List’ - December 20, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: SLPS Honors PE Teachers of the Year - December 13, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Trevonte Brock Wins MVP Award - December 13, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Brittany Packnett Comes Home to ... - December 13, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: United Way Introduces Mentoring Program - December 6, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Editorial "Major Step Forward For SLPS" - October 18, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Public School Guitar Initiative Gives Again - October 4, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: In The News, Paula Knight Appointed To Governor's Board - October 4, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Doretta Walker Profile - September 13, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Nicole Williams Profile - September 6, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: SLPS Awarded $2.2 Million P.E. Grant - September 6, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Boeing Sponsors Roosevelt Health Clinic - September 6, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Guest Columnist Says Accredit SLPS - August 30, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: SLPS Dedicates Gateway Athletic Field - August 30, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: SLPS Offers Parent Guidebooks - August 30, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Excellent Educators - August 30, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Vashon Counselor Saluted By SEMO - August 23, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Newspapers In Education Story - August 23, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Accreditation Editorial - August 22, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Accreditation Story - August 16, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Columbia School Named School of Excellence Winner - August 16, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Back To School Festival - August 2, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: SLPS PROP S Projects At 39% MBE - August 2, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Much To Be Excited About In SLPS - August 2, 2012
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Judge Edwards Named Stellar Perfomer - August 2, 2012
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ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH (2012-13 ARCHIVES)
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: St. Louis Public Schools eyes new elementary school - July 28, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Letter to the Editor: School districts, cultural ... - July 28, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: St. Louis forges unique partnership with KIPP - July 19, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Editorial: New schools collaboration offers hope ... - July 22, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Summer jobs program targets St. Louis neighborhoods - July 12, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Hoops coach Lee finds landing spot at Miller Career - July 12, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Vashon coach Davis balances basketball, police work - July 7, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: In St. Louis, teachers union plays role ... - June 30, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST DISPATCH: Only a Few Students Defy St. Louis School's High Turnover .. - May 24, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Strauss: Senior PGA arrives as more than a golf thing - May 20, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: St. Louis school's valedictorian debates ... Princeton - May 17, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Ladue tops one high school ranking; Metro another - May 13, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: St. Louis Schools Are Full of Success Stories - May 11, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Metro, Clayton, Kirkwood high schools top rankings - April 23, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Gov. Nixon Lauds Program for College Credits, Job Training - April 23, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Clinton initiative volunteers paint ... at magnet school - April 8, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Clinton initiative seeks to help students make global ... - April 3, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Retired City Teachers Concerned About Stagnant Pensions - March 25, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Cleveland NJROTC High To Remain Open - March 21, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Madison Prep Wins State Basketball Championship - March 9, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Three St. Louis Schools, 134 Jobs Face Budget Ax - February 27, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Women In Military Debate At Cleveland NJROTC - January 26, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST DISPATCH: Announcement on Women in Combat Opens ... - January 26, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST DISPATCH: Editorial: More Early Childhood Education ... - January 19, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST DISPATCH: $4.2 Million Grant Targets Children in Two St. Louis ... - January 15, 2013
- ST. LOUIS POST DISPATCH: Helping Hands For Sandy Hook - December 21, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: AT&T Shows Support For BBBSEMO - December 20, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST DISPATCH: Educators in St. Louis Area Ask What More Can Be Done ... December 14, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: SLPS is a Finalist for Race to the Top Grant - November 29, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: St. Louis Area Boosts Graduation Rates - November 27, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: SLPS Honors P.E. Teachers - November 14, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST DISPATCH: School Lunches Get an A - October 23, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Opinion "Fair or Foul, Good News For SLPS" - October 18, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: St. Louis Schools Relish Upgrade - October 16, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: State Board Gives Provisional Accreditation to SLPS - October 16, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: State Board Considers Provisional Accreditation For SLPS - October 15, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Education Digest, SLPS Receives $710,097 Literacy Grant - October 1, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Union And SLPS Pledge Unity - September 20, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Editorial: State Should Honor SLPS Request - September 16, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: State Board to Review SLPS Accreditation Status - September 15, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: SLPS Petitions State For Accreditation - September 11, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Program Helps Refugee Students Adjust To America - September 4, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Roosevelt High School Health Clinic Opens - August 30, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: SLPS Wins Lawsuit Against Former District Leader - August 30, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: P.E. Grant Story - August 21, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Editorial - August 16, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: From the Pulpit, a Plug for School Attendance - August 13, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Imagine Charter School Exiles Swell SLPS Enrollment - August 13, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Back To School Festival Story - August 6, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: SLPS Awarded Health Careers Grant - July 25, 2012
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: SLPS Sells Gardenville School - July 24, 2012
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ST. LOUIS AMERICAN (2013-14 ARCHIVES)
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: SLPS and Missouri Humanities Council partner ... - April 21, 2014
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Education commissioner Nicastro talks ... - April 18, 2014
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN - Sumner remembers students lost to gun violence - April 10, 2014
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: SLPS plan could bring in nonprofit operators - March 20, 2014
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Shout out to SLPS Parents - March 19, 2014
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN - Health clinic integrates into school culture - Feb. 27, 2014
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Adams’ contract extended - February 13, 2014
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN - Two year contract extension for SLPS superintendent - February 7, 2014
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: SLPS announces two make-up days - February 6, 2014
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Taking the teacher home - January, 30, 2014
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: SLPS honors Kindergarten Teacher of the Year - January 2, 2014
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: SLPS honors Preschool Teachers of the Year - January 1, 2014
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: SLPS names STEM Teacher of the Year - December 11, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: SLPS names Reading Teacher of the Year - December 5, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Judge Jimmie Edwards receives 2013 Rehnquist Award ... - Nov. 26, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: SLPS names Special Education Teacher of the Year - November 20, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: District champs crowned - November 14, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: SLPS names Music Teachers of the Year - November 13, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Wells Fargo partners with SLPS - Oct. 30, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: The new Vashon - October 23, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Supporting new teachers at SLPS - Sept. 26, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Chat Leonard, SEMO Counselor of the Year - Sept. 12, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Wanda Patrice LeFlore, Excellence in Education Awardee - Sept. 12, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Nathalie D. Means Henderson, Excellence in Education Awardee - Sept. 12, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: A store that pampers your pet - September 5, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Eight excellent educators to be recognized Sept. 13 - September 5, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: 'College geek' is SEMO Counselor of the Year - August 22, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: American’s NIE program named best in nation - August 15, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: SLPS and teachers union get $130K early childhood grant - August 8, 2013
- ST. LOUIS AMERICAN: Lynn Beckwith Jr., 2013 Lifetime Achiever in Education - Aug. 1, 2013
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In St. Louis, teachers union plays role in getting rid of bad teachers
June 30, 2013 12:05 am • By Elisa Crouch ecrouch@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8119
ST. LOUIS • Critics of tenure say it creates an untouchable class of teachers who can become an impediment to improving public schools.
But in St. Louis, that protection hasn’t been enough to spare several dozen teachers from losing their jobs.
Since 2010, more than 100 teachers have been removed from classrooms — through being fired, pushed to retire or resign — after they were deemed ineffective by their principals. Forty of those teachers had tenure, according to the district, a status designed to protect educators from arbitrary firings.
Though the removals constitute a small percentage of the 1,934 teachers districtwide, they mark a monumental shift in the St. Louis Public Schools, where decades of bad record keeping made firing tenured teachers nearly impossible. They also reflect a broader effort by school district officials to elevate the level of teaching in the city’s 72 public schools and five alternative education sites.
An unlikely partner in the process is the teachers union.
“Remember, this isn’t the union of our mothers,” said Ray Cummings, vice president of the American Federation of Teachers Local 420.
Several times a week, Cummings accompanies Jeff Spiegel, a human resources director for the St. Louis district, to schools where they help principals document teacher performance. They meet with teachers who struggle with such skills as classroom management and connecting with students. Some are on the verge of burnout.
They put them on an improvement plan.
Spiegel, the former superintendent of Ferguson-Florissant schools, came to St. Louis in 2011 to work solely on improving teaching in the district. Since his arrival, 340 teachers have received ratings on their evaluations poor enough to put them on professional improvement plans, according to the district. After 18 weeks, 181 of those teachers showed significant improvement. The rest, for the most part, were let go.
“You know what? Mediocre is not good enough,” Spiegel said. “We have to have high performing teachers in every classroom.”
Cummings agrees.
Rather than fighting the school district on this, he and other union leaders are in full support. In fact, union representatives make up five of the nine members of the administrative panel that has recommended the dismissal of tenured teachers to human resources.
“At one point, the union was just there to take care of salaries, benefits and to monitor the contract,” Cummings said. “Most members feel we should be raising the profession, making sure the working environment is such we can improve our craft.”
THE ST. LOUIS PLAN
Steps to remove ineffective teachers in St. Louis were unheard of five years ago, when Superintendent Kelvin Adams arrived at a school system recently stripped of accreditation. The task of removing an underperforming teacher was a time-consuming one filled with bureaucracy, so principals didn’t bother.
“The district was unaccredited, but a large number of teachers were rated satisfactory,” Adams said. “The two don’t align themselves well.”
Together, the Special Administrative Board, union leaders and district staff began crafting a teacher evaluation system similar to one they’d observed in Toledo, Ohio. It provides peer counseling for deficient teachers who are flagged by their principals and express the will to improve. It pairs newly hired teachers with mentors who help them navigate the urban classroom.
The intent, union and district leaders say, is to improve teaching — not to get rid of teachers. In fact, they say, it’s to reduce the number of teachers who leave the district after the first year out of frustration. And it’s also to throw a lifeline to struggling teachers who want to be better.
“We do better if we can salvage teachers than construct a plan to get rid of them,” said Richard Gaines, vice president of the Special Administrative Board that took over the district in 2008. “If they could not be salvaged, then help them transfer to other areas.”
The system they developed is the St. Louis Plan, now administered jointly by the school district and the union. Teachers flagged as deficient have 18 weeks to improve or face being issued a statement of charges and a hearing in front of a hearing officer, which can lead to termination. (A bill passed by the Legislature this year would reduce that time period to 30 days if signed by Gov. Jay Nixon.)
Teachers who waive tenure rights enter the St. Louis Plan. They receive coaching for up to one year. But if they don’t show improvement, a nine-member review panel may recommend termination.
The collaborative approach between union leaders and district administrators provides a glimpse into the role teachers unions may eventually play on a national level, after years of attacks from reformers determined to eliminate tenure and open more union-free charter schools.
In 2008, the American Federation of Teachers surveyed a sample of its members and found that a majority preferred their union to tackle teacher quality. Sixty-six percent wanted their union to prioritize good teaching over job rights, and 22 percent felt the opposite. The rest were either unsure or wanted both priorities to be equal.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has highlighted the St. Louis Plan at conferences on labor-management collaboration.
Partnerships similar to the one in St. Louis are beginning to appear in a few places, such as Hillsboro County, Fla., and New Haven, Conn. In Missouri, the teachers union in North Kansas City has contacted St. Louis officials about the collaboration.
But by and large, the partnership is unique.
“If this is happening in St. Louis, that’s unusual,” said Terry Moe, professor of political science at Stanford University, and an expert on teacher unions.
THE PLAN AT WORK
Terrance Howell, a first-year teacher at Hamilton Elementary, said the mentoring he received through the St. Louis Plan gave him feedback he needed to improve his reading instruction, classroom management and navigation of the school district’s bureaucracy.
Without a mentor, “It would have been chaotic,” Howell said. “I really wasn’t prepared for my first year here.”
But the partnership isn’t without detractors. Some teachers complain that they now pay dues to a union that has failed to stand up for them. They say union leaders are enabling school administrators to use performance as an excuse to get rid of teachers for arbitrary reasons.
“They’ve created the stigma that the older teachers need to be fired,” said Velma Bailey, a special education teacher who lost her job last year at Yeatman Middle School.
Cummings says this isn’t true.
“Older members might expect an adversarial relationship with management,” he said.
Some teachers flagged as deficient say they ultimately benefited from the St. Louis Plan, but that they were treated unfairly by principals with whom they didn’t get along.
MaryBeth Chavez was considering a career change in 2011 while teaching high school math at Clyde C. Miller Career Academy.
“I had been beat down so bad thinking I was not worth anything as a teacher anymore,” Chavez said. But spending a year with the consultant teacher revived her.
“She made me see that I had it in me to give and see where my weak points were and help me through those weak points.” Chavez now teaches math at a different school. “I’ve never been happier teaching.”
But Chavez and others are nevertheless uncomfortable with union leaders working closely with principals and district administrators on teacher performance issues. The union has a fiduciary responsibility to have their backs, they say.
And sometimes personality conflicts between principals and teachers can get in the way of a fair evaluation.
“I do think it’s a good thing, but how teachers are forced into it can be very problematic,” said LaTosha Hayes, hired in 2006 as a fourth-grade teacher at Mallinckrodt Academy of Gifted Instruction.
In 2011, her principal gave her a bad review — the first in her career, Hayes said. The principal had previously led her son’s school, where she and Hayes had their first disagreements.
“It became I could do no right and everything wrong,” Hayes said. “I knew it was personal.”
The amount she learned working with the consultant teacher was invaluable, Hayes said. Having successfully completed the St. Louis Plan, she now works at Gateway Elementary.
The St. Louis Plan does have a cost. To provide first-year and struggling teachers with mentors and consultants, 15 teachers leave their classrooms for three years to work in this role. This will cost $1.65 million for the 2013-14 school year.
Funding comes from a 2012 agreement that gave the district a windfall in desegregation funds. One of the players who forged the agreement was Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis chapter of the NAACP.
“It was a very reasonable investment for a very critical need,” he said of the St. Louis Plan. “Whenever we can take teachers within the district and improve their ability to teach our kids, it is smart and humane to give them the help they need.”