On January 1, Newton inaugurated its new government. The Newton Teachers Association extends a warm welcome to our new partners in working for schools that serve our children’s academic and social-emotional needs—schools that appropriately challenge each student to grow while providing the supports they need to do so successfully.

We have been encouraged by the proactivity of several School Committee members in seeking out the perspectives of Newton’s educators. Our members know our schools, with all their strengths and challenges, best. We hope that these School Committee members will continue to regularly solicit and amplify the expert voices of educators. We also invite those members who have not yet reached out to do so. Only by carefully considering the vast knowledge and experience of our membership might you make decisions that are fully informed and truly in the best interest of the Newton Public Schools.

To all our newly elected officials, we offer this counsel: Work with us, hear our voices, visit us in our workplaces, and see what we do every day.
Without consistent, honest communication between elected leaders and those who understand firsthand the impacts of policies and initiatives on our students, the School Committee risks drawing erroneous conclusions from incomplete information. The perspective of educators is essential not only because we see the effects of district-wide policy, but also because we have the training to understand why those effects happen. Neglecting educator input is a surefire way to build a district that is data-rich, but insight-poor, leading to the misidentification of problems, and corresponding “solutions” that are ineffective at best and damaging at worst.

It is from this perspective that the educators of the NTA advocate. When change is worthwhile for our students, you will not find another group so willing to work hard to effect it. When we express concerns about a change, it is not because we—whose jobs require adaptability, agility and modifications on a daily and yearly basis for the students in front of us—are broadly opposed to change.

It is never so simple as “change is hard.” When we say that new initiatives are too numerous, too far-reaching, and too fast, it is not because we are uncommitted to our students—it is because, as well-intentioned as these initiatives are, the fatal flaws in both substance and process are all too obvious to us. And we are also aware of long-standing problems that district leaders fail to discuss and so remain unaddressed.

The pressures of working under three-year contracts incentivize district leaders to change things quickly, and to argue to the school committee that improvements during their tenure are causally linked to their initiatives. The educators who comprise the NTA are here for the long haul. We have committed our lives’ works to the Newton Public Schools. The School Committee has the responsibility to recognize that real, sustainable improvements in schools tend to occur on time scales longer than three-year increments. School systems—particularly those as large as Newton—are sufficiently complex to justify skepticism toward assertions of causality for all but the most highly controlled experiments.

And so we invite Newton’s elected officials not only to build a complete understanding of NPS via regular communication with educators, but to embrace a healthy skepticism when faced with claims—of both problems and solutions—by district leaders who are steps removed from the classrooms and school buildings in which we work daily with the city’s children.

Otherwise, you risk exacerbating the very problems you try to solve. While it is worthwhile to ensure that any two students at any two schools cover the same standards—something which has long been the practice in Newton—the zeal for standardization must not go so far as to restrict educators from doing what is best for the students in front of them. Ensuring consistent standards is vital, but our educators were hired for their expertise. Forcing them to adopt boxed curricula and teach from scripts under the critical appraisal of central administrators on “fidelity walks” erodes the quality of our students’ education by preventing professionals from using the skills for which they were hired to meet the diverse needs of those they’re teaching.

Much like every student is unique, so too is each school community in Newton. Attempts to solve disparities among school outcomes by treating them all the same, and trying to force them all into the same rigid, ill-fitting mold, is destined to do the opposite. Different schools—and different students—need different things. To acknowledge that is not to oppose lifting up every school and student to the same high bar—it is to recognize the reality that the path for each is different.

We have listened over the years to many elected officials claim that the Newton Public Schools are their top priority. A decade of underfunding and years of budget crises are evidence that few have taken actions consistent with these promises.

We implore you to be different.

Ryan Normandin, NTA Second Officer
Mike Zilles, NTA President