GLOBE EDITORIAL

Correcting pilot error

February 17, 2006

A DRY SPELL for education reform in Boston ended this week with the announcement that the city's teachers union and the Menino administration had reached an agreement on expanding the number of autonomous pilot schools in the city. All of the parties should be congratulated for ending the enervating standoff that had dragged on for almost two years.

The three-year agreement allows for the creation of at least seven new pilot schools. Like the 19 pilot schools now in place, the new schools will enjoy flexibility on hiring, budgets, schedules, and class size. There had been no movement on the pilot school front since June 2004, when teachers union president Richard Stutman vetoed an attempt by faculty at the Gardner School in Allston to adopt pilot school status. Union leaders objected to the growing number of hours that members were working without additional pay, despite the teachers' prior knowledge of such working conditions. The new agreement limits the number of unpaid teacher hours to roughly 100 per year and provides for a system of payment thereafter.

Now the focus should switch to how best to utilize the additional hours, modest as they are. Stutman says that most existing pilot schools use the extra hours to expand professional development activities for teachers. It might be more fruitful if some of the extra time is used to lengthen the school day or provide special tutorials, allowing more contact between teachers and students. New pilot school proposals that focus on extra classroom time would be especially welcome.

Much more needs to be known about the effectiveness of pilot schools. A recent study by the Center for Collaborative Education, an education reform advocacy group with a vested interest in promoting the model, found that more than twice as many pilot school students scored well on the 10th grade MCAS English test than their regular school counterparts. But the study did not control for differences such as family support and school admission requirements. The expansion of pilot schools in Boston should be the occasion for a broader, independent study.

The agreement, however, is already creating buzz. After months of fuming that the union had blocked the pilot school initiative, the nonprofit Boston Foundation announced yesterday that it would provide $1.5 million in grants to expand the program.

And the teachers union stepped up and said it is prepared to administer one of the schools itself.

Labor attorney Thomas Birmingham, the former president of the state Senate, mediated the difficult agreement pro bono. It was an important public service.