Robert Archer:

By Robert Archer

Ahhh, yes. The triennial tradition of publicly bashing the newest contractual bargaining agreement between Spokane Public Schools and the Spokane Education Association is in full, radiant bloom as we begin the 2022-23 school year. And the Washington Policy Center seems to relish taking the lead on this media evisceration with the myriad social-media warriors who champion the cause in tow. And even though the main naysayers have never been classroom teachers and were not in those rooms where hundreds of teachers and administrators volunteered thousands of man hours to hammer out all the minutiae of what Spokane Public Schools will be doing for its roughly 30,000 students over the next several school years, these arm-chair policy makers somehow feel entitled to rail against the new contracts.

In doing so, they perpetuate the “money-grubbing-selfish-teachers” trope that is disingenuous, ignorant and inflammatory. That trope is based solidly on nothing more than straw man arguments, ones that are made either without context or in bad faith. So, please allow this veteran, 26-year teacher to address the ill-informed misrepresentations currently floating out in the ether.

First, with the late-start Mondays, many are concerned that students will receive even less class time with teachers this year even in the midst of many failing test scores. Technically, this point is correct, at least from a singular perspective. If we look at the actual numbers, this argument holds little to no weight.

Last year, for example, a student at Shadle Park High School was scheduled in a typical week to be in a single class for 265 minutes. This year, even with the late-start Mondays, that number does drop, but only to 255 minutes. Therefore, teachers will have a total of 10 fewer minutes per week with their students, a negligible 2 minutes per day.

Those numbers aren’t even the full story, however, for they do not include the time scheduled during the school week for all high school students to attend an advisory period. In that advisory is where students work on community building, interpersonal skills, future planning and even financial literacy. Advisory is a time in the day for teenagers to learn real-world skills about what it means to be a conscientious young adult who can contribute positively to and within a society, something they all desperately need after the emotional and educational disaster that was COVID.

Here’s the rub: Last year, Shadle Park students were scheduled for 60 minutes per week in advisory; this year, that number has jumped to 75 minutes. Therefore, for those who aren’t paying attention, that means the total number of minutes that students are assigned to a classroom teacher has actually increased from last year by a net total of 5 minutes per week.

Now, and possibly more important, to address the reason that SPS and SEA agreed to late-start Mondays this school year, I wish to cite some actual educational research, something the social-media minions refuse to do. According to a comprehensive 2007 study, the Danielson Group found there are nine shared traits of “high-performing schools.” Out of those nine, allow me to highlight five (with an emphasis on the first of the five): “high levels of collaboration and communication; clear and shared focus; high standards and expectations for all students; curriculum, instruction, and assessments aligned with state standards; focused professional development.” All of these will be the exact foci of those Monday collaboration times. Every. Single. One. Our district administration and teachers have carved out specific weekly time (75 minutes per week, every week) for these exact characteristics to be manifested for the sake of improving our schools. To emphasize: Every. Single. Week.

So when Spokanites become particularly indignant over our district’s low test scores and our dropping enrollment numbers (two traits that are evident throughout the entire country, by the way), then they should pause and attempt to understand the purpose behind our newly scheduled collaboration times. Every educator in SPS wants those scores and that enrollment to increase. Every. Single. One.

We simply need the time to create the plans to achieve our goals, collaboratively. This new schedule grants us exactly that.

Robert Archer is an English teacher at Shadle Park High School.