Teachers often feel helpless when trying to reform their own schools, but they may not be as powerless as they think. That’s the message that Rick Hess, the Director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, tries to empower teachers with in his book, The Cage-Busting Teacher.
Cage-busting isn’t when teachers meet with policymakers or sit on a new committee, Hess said at an book event on Wednesday. “It’s cage-busting when teachers identify the things that stop them from doing their best work, come up with better solutions that they can share with colleagues, or administrators or policymakers, and find constructive ways to push those solutions so that they have more time, passion and energy to do the stuff that they’re in the classroom to do.”
A common theme at the event was turning complaints into solutions. “Teachers ought to focus on identifying problems,” Hess, a former high school social studies teacher, said. “They ought to focus not just on complaining about them, but on offering solutions, alternatives, ways to do it better.”
The event highlighted teachers who took education reform into their own hands and helped better their schools.
That reform often requires principals who are open to changing the system and new ideas. Within that parameter, a lot can be accomplished if teachers just ask.
Jason Karmas taught math for eight years at John Philip Sousa Middle School in Washington, D.C. He was struggling to teach his students three years of math in one year, but told his principal that, with double the class time, it might be possible. His principal was open to the idea and told Karmas they could move forward if he found a way to make it work with the schedule.
“That humility and that openness was so powerful,” Karmas said of his principal. Now the chief of human capital for the District of Columbia Public Schools, Karmas works with principals to make sure they’re open to teachers ideas. “That is very explicitly something that we talk to principals about, train them on, and focus on to allow this to happen.”
The stories weren’t just limited to changing school policies or schedules. Relationships in a school are important in ensuring a positive learning environment.
Marilyn Rhames has worked in Chicago schools for 11 years and founded the Christian nonprofit Teachers Who Pray. Rhames talked of one Chicago school she worked in where violence was a daily experience and teachers frequently broke out in tears. Rhames decided to start asking teachers every day if she could pray for them. She actually checked with lawyers to make sure she wasn’t crossing any boundaries between church and state. “There’s a lot of things you can do, if you just ask,” Rhames said. “Your passion, and your voice, and your relationships will take you to help your school in ways you didn’t even imagine.”
Sometimes, cage-busting doesn’t work out. Evan Stone taught sixth grade in the Bronx, N.Y., where individual teachers taught every subject to their class. Stone and other teachers wanted to departmentalize the sixth grade, so teachers could focus on whatever subject they specialize in. They developed a plan and presented it to their principal, who ultimately declined the plan because it would change too many things in the building.
“Teachers often say ‘trust me to teach, trust me to lead,'” Stone said. “We also need to trust our leaders — they need to earn that trust and maintain it — but we need to trust them that they are trying to do the right thing.” Even though Stone’s plan didn’t work out, it is another example of the positive change teachers in other schools could try to do. It also shows the importance of trusting that principals care about students and are capable of making the right decisions.
Despite the conservative leanings of the American Enterprise Institute, the book was hailed across the ideological spectrum. Lily Eskelsen Garcia, the president of the National Education Association, was on the event’s panel and said she enjoyed reading Hess’ book.
Teachers may often feel like the only way they can help their school is to join bureaucratic committees or lobby legislators. Hess’ book shows teachers can create positive change by taking matters into their own hands and simply asking what they are allowed to reform.
