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<div class="timestamp">February 15, 2012</div>
<h1>The New Haven Experiment</h1>
<span><h6 class="byline">By <a rel="author" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/nicholasdkristof/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More Articles by Nicholas D. Kristof" class="meta-per">NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF</a></h6>
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<p>
NEW HAVEN </p>
<p>
I lost patience with teachers’ unions when union officials in New York City defended a teacher <a title="A New Yorker article" href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/31/090831fa_fact_brill">who had passed out in class</a>, reeking of alcohol, with even the principal unable to rouse her. </p>
<p>
Not to mention when union officials in Los Angeles <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-teachers3-2009may03,0,5765040,full.story">helped a teacher keep his job after he allegedly mocked a student</a> who had tried to commit suicide, suggesting that the boy slash his wrists more deeply the next time. </p>
<p>
In many cities, teachers’ unions ensured no one was removed for mere
incompetence. If a teacher stole or abused a student, yes, but school
boards didn’t even try to remove teachers who couldn’t teach. </p>
<p>
“Before, you had to go smack the mayor in order to get fired,” Reggie Mayo, <a href="http://www.nhps.net/DirectorofAdministration">the schools superintendent here</a> in New Haven, told me. </p>
<p>
That’s what makes an experiment under way here so jaw-dropping. New
Haven has arguably become ground zero for school reform in America
because it is transforming the system with the full cooperation of the
union. </p>
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One of America’s greatest challenges in the coming years will be to turn
around troubled schools, especially in inner cities. It’s the civil
rights issue of our age, and teachers’ unions have mostly been an
exasperating obstacle. </p>
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Yet reformers like myself face a conundrum. Teachers’ unions are here to
stay, and the only way to achieve systematic improvement is with their
buy-in. Moreover, the United States critically needs to attract talented
young people into teaching. And that’s less likely when we’re whacking
teachers’ unions in ways that leave many teachers feeling insulted and
demoralized. </p>
<p>
The breakthrough experiment in New Haven offers a glimpse of an
education future that is less rancorous. It’s a tribute to the savvy of <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/randi_weingarten/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Randi Weingarten." class="meta-per">Randi Weingarten</a>, <a href="http://www.aft.org/about/leadership/president.cfm">the president of the American Federation of Teachers</a>
and as shrewd a union leader as any I’ve seen. She realized that the
unions were alienating their allies, and she is trying to change the
narrative. </p>
<p>
New Haven may be home to Yale University, but this is a gritty,
low-income school district in which four out of five kids qualify for
free or reduced-price lunches. Eighty-four percent of students are black
or Hispanic, and graduation rates have been low. </p>
<p>
A couple of years ago, the school district reached a revolutionary
contract with teachers. Pay and benefits would rise, but teachers would
embrace reform — including sacrificing job security. With a stronger
evaluation system, tenure no longer mattered and weak teachers could be
pushed out. </p>
<p>
Roughly half of a teacher’s evaluation would depend on the performance
of his or her students — including on standardized tests and other
measures of learning. </p>
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Teachers were protected by a transparent process, and by accountability
for principals. But if outside evaluators agreed with administrators
that a teacher was failing, the teacher would be out at the end of the
school year. </p>
<p>
Last year, <a href="http://www.nhps.net/">the school district</a> pushed
out 34 teachers, about 2 percent of the total in the district. The
union not only didn’t object, but acknowledged that many of them didn’t
really belong in the classroom. </p>
<p>
“We all use the same litmus test: Would we want our kid in that room?” says David Cicarella, president of <a href="http://ct.aft.org/nhft/index.cfm?action=cat&categoryID=559E3C78-738E-42A6-9DCD-C174522891BA">the New Haven Federation of Teachers</a>,
the local union. “We all recognize that we need to do something.
Tenured teachers who are ineffective — that is an issue. We want to do
something about it. But it’s not fair either to blame all teachers.”
</p>
<p>
Cicarella says that teachers accept that the world has changed.
Accountability and feedback are welcome if they are fair, he says,
adding: “It’s not O.K. any more to spray and pray.” </p>
<p>
So far this year, administrators have warned about 50 more teachers that
their jobs are in jeopardy because of weak teaching. That’s out of
1,800 teachers in the district. </p>
<p>
Mayor John DeStefano Jr. of New Haven says that the breakthrough isn’t
so much that poor teachers are being eased out, but that feedback is
making everyone perform better — principals included. “Most everybody
picked up their game in the district,” he said. </p>
<p>
It’ll take years to verify that students themselves are benefiting, but
it’s striking that teachers and administrators alike seem happy with the
new system. They even say nice things about each other. In many tough
school districts, teachers are demoralized and wilted; that feels less
true in New Haven. </p>
<p>
The New Haven model still doesn’t go as far as I would like, but it does
represent enormous progress. And it’s a glimpse of a world in which
“school reform” is an agenda and not just a term that sets off a brawl.
</p>
<p>
If the American Federation of Teachers continues down this path, I’ll revisit <a title="A 2009 column" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/opinion/15kristof.html">my criticisms of teachers’ unions</a>. Maybe even give them a hug for daring to become part of the solution. </p>
<br clear="all"></div><br>-- <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a><br>