By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

ST. LOUIS – Conditions are finally improving in St. Louis’ beleaguered public schools, and the local teachers union is being praised for its role in helping the district turn the corner.

StlToday.com reports that leaders of American Federation of Teachers Local 420 are actively working with school officials to identify struggling educators and help them either improve their performance or leave the profession.

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That’s resulted in more than 100 teachers being removed “from classrooms – through being fired, pushed to retire or resign – after they were deemed ineffective by their principals,” reports StlToday.com. “Forty of those teachers had tenure … a status designed to protect arbitrators from arbitrary firings.”

AFT Local 420 Vice President Ray Cummings said union members are focused on “raising the profession, making sure the working environment is such (that) we can improve our craft.”

“Remember, this isn’t the union of our mothers,” Cummings said.

According to StlToday.com, when an ineffective teacher is identified, she is provided with peer counseling designed to help address her deficiencies. If the teacher doesn’t show signs of improvement at the end of 18 weeks, she can have a statement of charges brought against her, which could result in her termination.

However, if that struggling teacher agrees to waive her tenure rights, the district will provide her with a year’s worth of additional coaching. If she doesn’t show improvements after that, “a nine-member review panel may recommend termination,” reports StlToday.com.

Both U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and AFT President Randi Weingarten have praised the union’s active role in improving teacher performance and cited St. Louis schools’ turnaround as an example of how “collaboration” between school and union leaders can lead to substantive reform.

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Fair enough.

However, before anyone starts singing “Kumbaya” or suggesting that similar results could occur in America’s other troubled school districts, there’s one little detail that needs to be mentioned: The St. Louis school district has been under state control since 2007.

That means powerful and no-nonsense state officials have been calling the shots in the district, not the union. AFT leaders have little choice but to play nicely with them.

It’s questionable whether Cummings and other union leaders would be as eager to weed out underperforming teachers if the district was still being managed by board members they helped elect.

That will only be known once the state returns control of the district to local officials.

Still, St. Louis schools are proving to be a pretty good success story, and the union deserves kudos for cooperating with efforts to help clamp down on bad teachers.

Such minor miracles are always welcome, even if their origins are a bit dubious.