The Key to Impactful Instruction: “Ownership of Practice”

From the mayor: I changed my mind, I no longer oppose mayoral control and an appointment, a new chancellor, a long time superintendent.

Over his first few weeks the mayor’s team has skillfully rolled out his public relations machine The “machine” placed “puff pieces” in NY Times and Chalkbeat, snippets of the new chancellor’s accomplishments and how he intends to move these accomplishments across the city.

What’s missing is teacher voice.

Schools are not factories, teaching is not tightening bolts on an assembly line. 
The “shiny new thing” must pass parents and teacher scrutiny.

I was at the theatre with a friend and a woman greeted me, a teacher from a school in the district I served, 

Me: You haven’t retired?

Teacher: I love it, I wake up anxious to meet my kids

Me: You were preK?

Her: Yup, twenty years

Me: How’s the school?

Her: Great, except for the principals, the last one called me in, told me he was moving me to the first grade, told him I knew nothing about the first grade, would be a disservice to the children.

Me: What happened?

Her: He screamed at me, “Stop calling parents, all day angry parents”

Me: What happened?

Her: Told him I only called one parent, he didn’t last too long.

 The research on personal and organizational change is clear.

* Change is perceived as punishment.

* Collaboration reduces resistance 

Schools are cultures, they evolve over time, Venn Diagrams of school staffs tells us a lot about a school.

I taught in a large high school, one of APs always had hot coffee and comestibles, a few of the senior staff would drop by and the AP would ask, “The principal’s thinking about xxxx is it a good idea?”

He was trying to build consensus, beginning with the witch doctors, the untitled leadership in the school.

Instead of flipping on mayoral control Mamdani could have said he’s asking for a year extension of the current law to allow us to come up with a plan which includes parents and teachers.

The chancellor could have traveled to a school with Mary Vaccaro, the UFT VP for Education Issues and leads the 160 Teacher Centers and is on the Mayor’s Education Transition team, the Teacher Center leads professional development across the school system: a sign to teachers that the union is in the loop.

The chancellor could have dropped by last weeks UFT Executive Board meeting 

Our new chancellor is the seventh chancellor over the last dozen years. 

Mayor Adams jumped on the phonics bandwagon, the next shiny “new thing,” the Department spent millions, and a long list of researchers question the phonics only approach See here 

Our new chancellor questions gifted kindergarten classes, isn’t this a district decision?

He praises the decision of the District 15 CEC, they removed screens in middle schools, an equity decision, a Black parent asked “Why does my child have to go to a white school to get a good education?”

It’s only been a few weeks, the chancellor is putting a staff in place beginning with deputy chancellors.

Will he thin the ranks at Tweed?

Ask superintendents to reapply for their jobs?

Many questions: to what extent will teachers and parents be engaged in asking the questions and participate in creating the answers?

For the last dozen years the mayoral appointee, the chancellor, has moved from one “shiny new thing” to the next, a glowing press release and on to the next project.

Decisions impacting classrooms, impacting children and families should be made by those the closest, teachers, school leaders and parents, and, the role of the chancellor to facilitate the local decisions.

I was the union rep in a district with a superintendent totally committed to school/based management and shared decision-making. A few schools created sub schools within the school, an “open classroom” model and traditional classes, a very large elementary school treated each grade as a school with a budget, one school based on science, filled with plants and animals and the kids, tracking growth with charts using math and journals. I asked the superintendent whether he was going to publish anything about the various approaches, he told me it’s not the project it’s the teacher engagement, it’s the “ownership of practice,” a total commitment to make their “shiny thing” work, an understanding that each student has role, a joie de vivre, we’re not tightening bolts on an assembly line we’re designing a project, we’re doing it together and we’re going to make it work.
In one school the UFT Chapter Leader created a science-based classroom, including a 6×6 foot cage and an iguana. The kids weighed the food and water consumption, kept careful records, invited a veterinarian to work with the class, the principal was petrified of the iguana, and never entered the classroom.  An idea?

A new chancellor, it’s only been a few weeks, hopefully he has a fast learning curve