By Tom
Last winter, Nick Hanauer famously called Washington State “an education reform backwater.” It’s a curious insult. Strictly speaking, a backwater is a stretch of river that moves slowly, due to a dam or other obstruction. It’s water that’s “backed up.” Washington’s geography, of course, is dominated by the Columbia River, which winds its way slowly from the Canadian border to the Pacific, through 11 hydroelectric dams, which render it, for all intents and purposes, a 745-mile “backwater,” a label that belies the fact that it provides power and irrigation for most of the northwest.
But that’s not what Hanauer had in mind with his insult. He was complaining that education reform tends to move slowly here in Washington State, due mostly to the obstruction of the Washington Education Association. If only he could have seen what I saw this summer.
What I saw was hundreds of teachers attending two four-day professional development seminars, presented by teachers and for teachers. There was an academy for experienced teachers pursuing National Board Certification. An academy for younger teachers pursuing their Washington Professional Certificate. And another one for teachers of every stripe who simply want to become better at working with the English language learners in their classrooms. These seminars were presented at great cost by the Washington Education Association simply because they want their members to be more effective teachers. Obstruction, indeed.
There is no shortage of education reform groups willing to lend their expertise to the cause of Washington State’s education. We’ve got Democrats for Education Reform, StudentsFirst, The Center for Reinventing Public Education, just to name a few. I’m certainly not going to sit here and question their motivation or second-guess their intentions, but I’m quite certain that none of these groups has done anything for public education in Washington State that compares in scale with what I saw this summer.
You can talk about policy till the cows come home. You can conduct research and release reports all you want. There's definitely a need for all of that important work. But there's also a need for high-quality, job-embedded professional development, which is exactly what the WEA puts on every summer.
This work is too important for the workers to pick fights with each other. Let the advocates advocate, let the researchers research.
And let's remember that those dams are doing much, much more than merely blocking the river.
Point taken.
Kristin-
First of all, I didn’t mock Nick’s understanding of the word. I respect the man and I think he chose the word “backwater” very deliberately.
Secondly, you’re absolutely right; education advocacy groups, and people like Nick Hanauer in particular, play a very important role. However, if you look at his original statement last winter, he singled out the WEA as the main reason why education reform was moving slowly in our state.
My point is that while reformers love to criticize the union for stalling reform efforts, the WEA spends an enormous amount of money, time and talent doing exactly what its critics want done.
I don’t think “who are the real reformers” is a question that needs to be answered. Educating kids is a big job, and I’m happy to have all hands on deck. I’m not interested in labels, or posturing, or asking questions like, “Well, what have you done?”
As someone who’s both a union rep and involved in reform efforts, I can tell you that everyone’s working toward the same goal. Some people choose to throw insults, but not everyone.
The fight isn’t about where we’re going, it’s about how we’re going to get there. What you saw this summer happens all the time – teachers getting together to improve their practice. If people in the ed-reform world who aren’t and have never been teachers are unaware of passion and commitment like you saw this summer, then spread the word without volleying the attack back. Nick Hanauer is an extremely nice man, who is trying to change society in the most efficient way he knows how, by improving public education. Mocking his understanding of a word’s meaning isn’t going to heal the rift we’re experiencing in our state.
Education advocacy groups that fight for changes to policy aren’t in opposition to what you saw this summer. How many of those passionate pro-cert teachers are at risk for getting laid off simply because they lack seniority? How many teachers are at the top of the payscale and would never, ever attend a summer institute to strengthen their teaching? Most of what I hear from those who are working to change policy – whether it’s principal evaluations, teacher evaluations, lay-off procedure or compensation – are working to protect and reward exactly those teachers you worked with this summer. They are rooting for you.
The strength of this post is that you’ve shared something positive. There are efforts being made on both sides of the table to find common ground and start celebrating education. I’m sorry Hanauer called Washington a backwater, but maybe those of us who know great things are happening can choose to ignore the barbs and celebrate what we do, and appreciate the efforts others make.
“When one teacher goes throught the National Board process, it’s certification. When many teachers do it together, it’s education reform.” Someone told me this at a training a few years ago and it has stuck with me ever since–I think it’s true, and JumpStart embodies this idea.
Eight teachers from my district attended either the first time or renewal National Board Jump Start seminars this week. We only have 64 certificated staff, so 8 is a significant percentage of our total faculty. Classroom instruction will be improved, and student learning positively impacted, because of this!