Isn’t it ironic? When Andres Alonso moved to Baltimore City two years ago to turn around a failing public school system, the Baltimore Teachers Union fought him over practically everything except which color tie he should wear.
Forget about radical items like merit pay. Marietta English, BTU president, called for his resignation because the union didn’t want teachers to give up some individual planning time for group planning. Neither was the union enthused by his decision to move 300 people from school headquarters to schools or out of the system — or to give more power to principals.
But earlier this week English and a host of other “dignitaries” and a packed house of principals, teachers and other onlookers celebrated what was previously unthinkable two years ago: Students learning in Baltimore City schools.
The latest test results show that Baltimore City elementary school students are outperforming peers in some suburban districts on Maryland School Assessments. Students made big gains in math and every grade but one improved in reading. And Alonso said that twice the number of city students are scoring “advanced” on the tests as two years ago.
Alonso and the others, which included U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Gov. Martin O’Malley and State School Superintendent Nancy Grasmick, announced the results at Abbottston Elementary in Northeast Baltimore, where 100 percent of the children at the school, 87 percent of whom qualify for free and reduced lunch, passed the reading portion of the test.
As Alonso said, “If one school can do it, every school can do it.”
His comment brings up another irony. At the same time city schools are making big gains, one of those leading the way is being punished by the union.
KIPP Ujima Village Academy, (KUVA) the highest performing public middle school in the city, has to lay off teachers and staff this upcoming year and cut its hours to meet the demands of the union.
BTU said that KIPP, a charter school that is part of the national Knowledge Is Power Program, must pay its teachers 33 percent more because they work 9.25 hours per day, some Saturdays, and three weeks in the summer as opposed to 7 hours per day at other public schools.
The union for years allowed the school to negotiate with its teachers, but is now forcing it to abide by contract rules. As the school’s track record shows, the longer hours and longer school year are paying off for the school’s 330 students, 97 percent of whom are African American and 86 percent of whom qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. In 2006 and 2007 KIPP’s students earned the highest eighth grade math scores in Maryland on state tests.
As KIPP’s success shows and a new study by Tom Neumark for the Maryland Public Policy Institute, “Teachers as Entrepreneurs,” highlights, teachers should be given more autonomy to negotiate with schools for their satisfaction and the good of the students.
KIPP is not an anomaly. If principals at other schools were allowed to negotiate longer hours without being bound by union pay rules, learning could only improve. Teachers who do not want those hours could leave.
Jason Botel, executive director of KIPP Baltimore, said even after cutting hours and staff, it’s costing the school $440,000 more next year to comply with union rules. To restore Saturday classes and lengthen school hours, both of which are tenets of the KIPP program, would cost another $260,000, he said.
And while the original plan was to grow KIPP to six schools in Baltimore, whether or not KUVA can survive past the next school year is in doubt. KIPP will open an elementary school, Harmony Academy, in August.
Botel said that the charter law in Maryland must be amended to give public schools the ability to negotiate their schedules and compensation package with teachers in order for KIPP to “be viable long-term” in Maryland.
For the sake of KIPP’s students and to give Baltimore City and all of Maryland’s public schools the tools to keep boosting student learning, legislators should listen to Botel. If student performance is the top priority, there is no other option. Innovation should not be squashed when the will exists and the results overwhelmingly support it.
Examiner columnist Marta Mossburg is a senior fellow with the Maryland Public Policy Institute and lives in Baltimore
