The Professional Educator: Pittsburgh's Winning Partnership

American Federation of Teachers. 555 New Jersey Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20001. Tel: 202-879-4400; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://www.aft.org/newspubs/periodicals/ae

N

7

Unions; Teachers; Partnerships in Education; Public Schools; Cooperation; School Districts; Professional Development; Evaluation

0148-432X

Professional educators--whether in the classroom, library, counseling center, or anywhere in between--share one overarching goal: seeing all students succeed in school and life. In this regular feature, the work of professional educators is explored--not just their accomplishments, but also their challenges--so that the lessons they have learned can benefit students across the country. After all, listening to the professionals who do this work every day is a blueprint for success. This story of the partnership between the Pittsburgh Public Schools and the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers offers a powerful counterpoint to the current rhetoric about district-union relations. At its core, the story is deceptively simple. District and union leadership modeled a new way of partnering. Successive, successful collaborations on issues that grew in complexity built trust, capacity, and a sense of possibility. A commitment to focus on vision and problem solving created space for creativity. And engaging teachers at every step in the work built ownership, leveraged expertise, and led to better results for teachers, the system, the union, and, most importantly, for students and their learning. There are important lessons to be learned from Pittsburgh's transformation from traditional, adversarial management-labor relations to the productive partnership that exists today.

ERIC

2011

EJ943721