By CTA President Dean E. Vogel

Labor Day is the one day of the year when we celebrate the historical achievements of the labor movement and honor those who contributed to the social and economic achievement of workers and the middle class. For me, though, this Labor Day is not only a chance to acknowledge what the labor movement has done in the past, but to reflect on what it can do in the present.

Last year at this time, teachers, firefighters, nurses and public servants came together to do something that had been unthinkable for 20 years. We persuaded voters to pass Proposition 30, a temporary tax increase to prevent drastic budget cuts to students and public schools and to keep our economy strong.

That vote was no fluke, because in the same election, voters also rejected Proposition 32, a third try at a ballot proposal that would have silenced middle-class workers and immobilized unions while strengthening the power of billionaire businessmen.

Working families may not have the billions of dollars and deep pockets of big tobacco, oil companies or Wall Street brokers, but last November, we showed that Californians want to invest in public education, their communities and their future. They want to see our economy restored so that more can work their way into the middle class, not fall out of it.

As an educator I know that reinvesting in our state means reinvesting in the education of our students. I’ve seen on a personal level what a quality public education can do. As the son of a farmhand and a waitress who moved around the state a lot, I was able to make that leap into the Middle Class because I had access to a quality education. I’ve seen that happen to the students whom I’ve taught as well.

This state’s prosperity goes hand-in-hand with the guarantee of free quality education for every student, and in 2013 that includes the children of immigrants.  In fact, it has always included children of immigrants. California, after all, is a state built by immigrants.  Providing all students equal access to quality public schools and colleges is why the California Teachers Association supports a pathway to citizenship for children of immigrants – the “Dreamers.” It would be disingenuous not to.

CTA’s commitment to the principle of educating all children goes back to our founding 150 years ago by John Swett, California’s fourth superintendent of public instruction. When leaving office in 1867, Swett said, “If one state in the union needs a system of free schools more than any other, that state is California. Her population is drawn from all nations… Nothing can Americanize these chaotic elements and breathe into them the spirit of our institutions but the public schools.” How prophetic was that?

One can look at Proposition 30 solely as a temporary tax increase, but I see it as so much more.  The passage of Prop. 30 opens the door, at least a little, to the possibility of restoring California’s  great middle class and expanding it to a new generation, of renewing our commitment to tax fairness and of taking a step toward achieving economic justice for all.

Dean Vogel is president of the 325,000-member California Teachers Association.

By Theresa Montaño

The “Teacher Prep Review” by the National Council on Teacher Quality was only out for a few days before it was debunked for its inaccuracy and methodology by most respected education research experts.

Aside from the fact that we must consider the source – the National Council on Teacher Quality is a partisan organization founded by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation which promotes school vouchers and privatization – the report is badly flawed and in no way truly measures the effectiveness of teacher prep programs in California or nationally.

Last week, Stanford education professor Linda Darling Hammond, chair of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, noted most schools of education nationally declined to participate in the study once they learned about the organization’s methods, which involved “a paper review of published course requirements against a checklist that does not consider the actual quality of instruction that the programs offer.”  

While the NCTQ checklist is based largely on the design of undergraduate programs, California moved long ago to strengthen teacher education by requiring graduate level programs, which require subject matter competency before entering preparation. California has also moved toward accountability based on stronger evidence of outcomes, including rigorous tests of basic skills, content knowledge, and pedagogy. These include California’s Teacher Performance Assessments, required under SB 2042, that have made the state the first in the nation to judge teachers’ skills and abilities in real K-12 classrooms with real students.

The NCTQ report failed to recognize the importance of adapting teacher preparation to meet the changing student demographics and the reality of the social conditions where our teachers teach. Both UCLA and Loyola Marymount University, which were heavily criticized in the report, have highly respected teacher training programs. Students in both programs spend countless hours in subject matter preparation, literacy development, assessing student learning and clinical practice, providing the best in university field supervision and in developing genuine partnerships with local school districts.

I also question the report’s assertion that graduate training programs in California are more likely to accept “lower achieving students.” Grade Point Averages and tests scores do not necessarily make the best teachers, although GPA is considered when accepting students into the program. There are myriad tests teacher candidates take both to get into and out of a teacher education  program. It does a disservice to these candidates and to the schools to be labeled “low achieving. Furthermore, California’s diverse student population only serves to strengthen our teaching pool. Our teacher prep programs are drawing on these strengths to provide teachers that truly understand the unique characteristics of our students to bring out the best in them.

This is not to say that teacher preparation programs in California are perfect. We do need to focus on improving them, but in a thorough, thoughtful way that uses accurate data as well as evidence.  The California Teachers Association has convened a representative group of educators, CSU faculty and students to engage in discussion and research on the topic. Working with education experts like Boston College Professor Andy Hargreaves, an internationally renowned leader on education reform, we will develop a set of comprehensive recommendations. Because we put the best interest of our diverse student population at the center of our union work, our recommendations will be not be at the expense of an authentic focus on closing the educational opportunity gap or culturally responsive teaching. And, these recommendations most definitely will include multiple measures for program evaluation – far beyond what was included in the NCTQ.

Theresa Montaño is a professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). She serves as a CTA board member representing higher education faculty.