Rising test scores in school districts around the nation are proving what teachers have known for a long time: Parent and community involvement helps children succeed in school—and unions are reaching out to these partners in new and innovative ways to help students flourish

Why would grown-ups voluntarily ride a school bus? Wouldn't that just bring back memories of sticking to vinyl seats and that sinking feeling from knowing you hadn't finished all of your homework? Not if the school bus is the Hartford Federation of Teachers' eye-catching blue and white HFT “Education Express." The Connecticut AFT affiliate bought the bus, painted it union colors and invited community allies to get on board and travel to the state capitol and school board meetings to prod lawmakers into making vital improvements in education.

When teachers in the struggling district sought to implement new programs to help students learn to read, they first built community support for the reform effort. Union leaders invited parents and community allies onto the bus for “field trips" to schools in other states, such as New York, to see two successful reading initiatives in action: Success for All and Direct Instruction.

	Communicating: Schools improve when there is good communication and a regular exchange of ideas between teachers, families, business and community leaders, says AFT President Sandra Feldman.

“We wanted them to learn about proven programs, so we took them and showed them models," says Edwin Vargas, the local's president. “We were able to create momentum for the school board to adopt these programs—and give us professional development funds we needed to implement them."

Union activists know communities that support schools are better places for children as well as grown-ups to learn, work and live. In a report released last fall, Doing What Works, AFT showed that students in some of the most troubled school districts are making—and sustaining—strong progress in reading and math. And when the community joins forces with teachers and their unions to focus on helping students read and write and grow and develop, they help children flourish.

“Recent studies have proved that schools improve in places where there is good communication and a regular exchange of ideas between teachers, families, business and community leaders," says AFT President Sandra Feldman. Neighborhoods grow stronger when the children grow up to be productive workers and knowledgeable voters—a vision only possible if kids get a good education. “It's in everyone's interest for students to do well in school," says Feldman.

Whether community activists are boarding the union bus in Hartford, walking precincts in New Orleans in support of education funding or collecting books for home libraries in Cleveland, communities are important allies in making sure the children of working families get the education they need to be successful, engaged citizens and workers.

Hartford, Connecticut

Egged on by teachers, parents and community advocates, Hartford's school board adopted the two reading programs community activists visited, Success for All and Direct Instruction. Students' scores on state reading and math tests went up, improving more in 1999 than they had in the previous four years combined. In the once-beleaguered school district, which for years languished as the lowest-performing district in the state, the teachers union played a critical role in boosting performance and supporting initiatives for better reading programs, summer school and after-school help. Working with community allies was part of building support for these successful strategies.

	On the move: Community members and the Hartford Federation of Teachers travel on the HFT "Education Express" to talk with lawmakers and school board members about needed education improvements.

In getting the community on board, the Hartford Federation of Teachers also worked with a grassroots neighborhood group, Hartford Areas Rallied Together, to advocate passage of a school bond measure in November. “The schools are overcrowded and kids are eating lunch in the auditorium," says Hyacinth Yennie, chair of HART's education committee. She encouraged members of her group to pack public hearings and also highlighted the cause on a local TV talk show she hosts.

Both HART's Yennie and the union's Vargas say it is not difficult for community groups to play a role in improving local schools. “If the community members want to get involved, they have to get to know the issues and connect with other organizations working on them," she says. “Community groups need to know they don't have to reinvent the wheel," adds Vargas. “They can plug into what is already going on in their districts."

Fairfax County, Virginia

Students in such urban districts as Hartford are not the only ones who benefit from community involvement. Members of the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers, another AFT affliliate, became alarmed when reading scores started dropping in the affluent suburb of Fairfax County, Va., across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Since 1993, the union had been lobbying local officials for a better reading curriculum, but their efforts gained momentum in 1999 after they reached out to the community. Before school board elections in October 1999, union members leafleted Metro subway stops, hanging out fliers depicting the slide in scores. The result: Voters rejected the school board member least supportive of reform and overwhelmingly voted for his opponent. Today, some schools in the district are using the revamped curriculum and student scores are improving. At Crestwood Elementary School, standardized test scores are up in all classes since last year—in some first-grade classrooms, as many as half of the students are reading at fifth-grade level. The progress is leading other board members to look more favorably on the program.

Shannon, North Carolina

		From America@work, May 2001.

In rural Shannon, 20 miles southwest of Fayetteville in southeastern North Carolina, teachers at Rex Rennert Elementary School reached out to parents in 1998 after their school was declared “low performing" under a new state accountability law. Fully 59 percent of students didn't perform at grade level. A state assistance team fired and reassigned teachers, which made the educators feel mistreated and disrespected. The members of the North Carolina Association of Educators, a National Education Association affiliate, met the challenges in part by reaching out to parents and community members as partners in their efforts to turn the school around. They set up after-school tutoring and encouraged parents to volunteer their time to work with children and give them the opportunity to read aloud. The union held a “parent academy" to train parents how to be involved in schools and published a companion handbook.

After the students took the next round of standardized tests in May 1998—which showed 50 percent of students performing at or above grade level in math, reading and writing, up from 41 percent the year before—union members threw a huge celebration, attracting 600 parents to a daylong fair featuring carnival games, clowns, trampolines and face painting. “It ended the school year on a high note," says Marie Evans, NCAE representative. “There was a major change the following year. Parents felt more connected to the school." Ever since the after-school tutoring and increased parental involvement began and the fair was held, students' scores at Rex Rennert Elementary School have improved sufficiently to move the school from the point where the campus no longer is in the low-performing category.

“While teachers are instrumental in turning around schools, they can't do it alone," says John Wilson, NEA executive director, who has worked in North Carolina with Rex Rennert School. “Teachers and schools need community involvement." Because unions must help “create opportunities to show how the school can be the hub of a community," says Wilson, NEA provides training on creating partnerships between homes, schools and parents.

	Partners: Children and parents work together in after-school math and reading programs as a result of efforts by the United Teachers of New Orleans.

New Orleans

Keeping parents and the community informed and engaged has worked for schools in New Orleans, where the number of schools on the state's original “unacceptable" list has dropped from 50 to 37. Faced with a new state law that prevents third- and seventh-graders from being promoted to the next grade if they don't pass standardized tests, United Teachers of New Orleans, an AFT affiliate, reached out to parents. For middle school students, they distributed the AFT manual Hard Work Pays, which focuses on the skills young teens need to develop to be successful in high school. The teachers' union distributed a regular newsletter, ParentLinks, to 50,000 families.

“We have expanded our mission to be more of a player in our community," says local President Brenda Mitchell.

UTNO also mobilized community allies for a political campaign championing a state tax-reform measure to raise teacher salaries, currently ranked a dismal 44th in the nation. About 20 members of Community Labor United—a coalition of unions and such progressive groups as the National Organization for Women, ACORN and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference—talked to voters in key precincts about the measure on the ballot last November. “A lot of our concerns have to do with poverty and low-wage work," says Jim Randels, a member of the coalition's coordinating committee. “When we talk about improving education, it's really about improving the quality of lives of the students in our schools." The coalition benefits from its partnership with the teachers union, says Randels, “because we get the opportunity to hear union people talk about economic issues from the workers' perspective." While voters statewide rejected the ballot measure, a majority of voters in New Orleans supported it—thanks in part to the union-community campaign. In March, the state legislature passed a measure raising teacher salaries.

	Page turner: Children at Tremont Elementary School are starting home libraries through a program begun by the Cleveland Teachers Union in partnership with the community.

Cleveland

Like their counterparts in Fairfax County, members of the Cleveland Teachers Union mobilize politically to improve education, backing state legislation that would provide funds for families to build home libraries for students. But before heading to the state capitol in Columbus, union members also are laying the groundwork with a community project promoting early childhood literacy. “CTU members believe that unless kids become independent readers by age 9, they won't be able to succeed in the rest of school," say Michael Charney, CTU professional issues director. “And unions' goal is to ensure students succeed."

CTU reached out to social service agencies, religious congregations, military groups and small businesses to collect books so children at Tremont Elementary School could begin home libraries. The coalition collected more than 4,500 books for 900 children and expanded the program to the entire state legislative district. Today, many owners of McDonald's franchises have set up drop-off boxes to collect books in restaurants across northeastern Ohio. The Cleveland AFL-CIO Federation of Labor has adopted a school, as have several affiliate unions. The effort is part of a larger reform campaign in which CTU has worked with the school district to improve professional development, strengthen discipline and start a summer school program, all in anticipation of a state-imposed deadline next year mandating that all fourth graders must meet state reading standards to advance to the next grade. Since 1998, fourth-grade reading scores have gone up 44 percent.

Gail Long, executive director of Merrick House, a community center, says she enjoys working on projects with unions because they are adept at mobilizing their members and capitalizing on partnerships with other groups. “Educating children is a community process," Long says. And Charney adds that it's up to teachers' unions to maximize community involvement. “The community now sees the difference between a strategy to help schools, rather than random, ad hoc help," he says. “The community can target its support to focus on academic achievement." He says any union or community group can replicate Cleveland's literacy campaign. His advice: “Pick one school. Focus on children's books and reading between parents and children. Educate your members. Then get a core group to spearhead a project."

Rising test scores in school districts around the nation are proving what teachers have known for a long time: Parent and community involvement helps children succeed in school. Unions are reaching out to these partners in new and innovative ways, riding buses to state capitols, collecting books and spreading encouragement. They are seeing that community involvement solidifies the public's bond with teachers and the unions that represent them. As Hartford's Edwin Vargas puts it: “People see that the union is part of the solution because we are leaders in reform efforts."