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FORUM 2005
EQUITY MATTERS in Chattanooga
To increase achievement for all students, district and community leaders need to find ways to improve the equitable distribution of resources across the district. Presenters from Hamilton County (greater Chattanooga), Tennessee, described the collaborative efforts of the district, teachers union, community leaders, and several local and national foundations to close the achievement gap in their district.
Participants in this session then explored policies that encourage more equitable teacher-recruitment and teacher-placement practices, college-readiness curricula, and financial resources across the district. The discussion included indicators of improvement in teaching and learning, such as student-achievement data, college entrance and persistence rates, and teacher surveys. Participants also addressed the role of strategic messaging in building the political will to sustain local reform efforts.
Session Focus:
- How do we know that equitable distribution of available assets (people, extended learning opportunities, time, money) is improving teaching?
- What are levers for equitable recruitment, hiring, and assignment of high-quality teachers?
- How do we build a local constituency to sustain efforts to reduce educational inequities?
Key Points from the Discussion:
> Discussion Summary
- Teacher hiring, transfer, and seniority systems should be equitable – making sure that good teachers are in high-needs schools where kids need them most. Policies should convey a strong, central message that "good teaching matters" and give support and expect accountability.
- Strong relationships with teacher unions and collaborative bargaining are valuable when changing systems to focus on and improve instruction.
- Strategic plans should be based on cornerstones: quality teachers every year for every child, instructional expertise and leadership through quality professional development, and a system of accountability that relies on the use of data.
- Ongoing and consistent development of people – teachers and school leaders – is essential to creating equitable systems.
- Don't underestimate the critical role of data in decision making, messaging, and advocating. Data can be used to convey urgency and as a call to action. Both quantitative data (student achievement, college persistence, ACT taking rates and scores, etc.) and qualitative data (public opinion surveys from various stakeholders – teachers, students, parents, community leaders, etc.) should be collected and used.
- Building capacity within the district to create and develop good principals/instructional leaders is key.
- Develop an advocacy agenda that includes "communities" (folks that are constituencies in schools) at the front end of the work rather than at the back end.
- Reconstitution of low-performing schools, transfers, and recruitment policies that create incentives to bring good teachers and school leaders to low-performing schools can promote equity.
- Use messages strategically to make the case for investments in education to a variety of constituents and create political will to make change. Make it a moral issue (faith-based or social justice oriented), couch it in terms of economic development and workforce development, make it a community development issue, and/or make it a quality of life issue. For example:
- the need for more education to compete in a global economy, global education
- the need to reform outmoded high schools
- the need for postsecondary education or training
- The creation of plans should be decentralized (educators feel ownership when schools create plans), but approval of plans and curriculum should be centralized.
- Indicators of excellence, such as quantitative data on student achievement and teacher progress, are critical.
- It comes down to not just changing a system but, in many ways, also changing a mindset and belief structure that support that system.
Background/Presentation:
- Equity Matters in Chattanooga
PDF [3 pp., 132 KB]
- "When We Decide to Do Something, We Can Work Together to Get It Done: Collaborating In Chattanooga to Close the Achievement Gap," in Philanthropy's Role in Fostering Partnerships: Collaborating with Unions, School Districts and Communities, Grantmakers for Education (2005).
PDF [11 pp., 129 KB]
- "Parents Air School Concerns," Beverly A. Carroll, Chattanooga Times Free Press (March 1, 2005, Metro/Region section).
- "Initial Pay below Region: Hamilton County Teachers' Salaries Less Than Surrounding Rural School Districts," Beverly A. Carroll, Chattanooga Times Free Press (March 1, 2005, front page).
Link to Web site
Presenters:
Facilitator:
Further Resources:
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