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Since the midterm elections last Tuesday, we have being hearing a lot about the importance of collaboration, compromise and mutual respect as we move forward in setting policy in all fields.

But I wonder if education officials in New Jersey got the memo. Last week, the state’s acting education commissioner refused an invitation to attend the New Jersey Education Association’s annual convention, claiming the union is “interested in protecting the status quo that continues to fail students” and is not cooperating with the governor’s office on school reforms.

Personally, I am not sure how this stance will help the acting commissioner (who represents New Jersey Governor Christie's administration) help children. The opportunity to present her platform to 40,000 teachers seems like a way to give her ideas a wider audience and allow her to dispel some of the myths about some of them.

And regardless of the administration’s stance on the NJEA, it would be nice if instead of only focusing on the refusal of the commissioner to attend the NJEA meeting, the media would highlight ways in which NJEA proves the commissioner’s statement wrong--the efforts of the union to improve schools.

For example, NJEA founded the New Jersey Center for Teaching and Learning, a non-profit governed by an independent board made up of leaders in education, business and philanthropy. The Center works to empower teachers to be leaders in the transformation of public schools. Among its work is the Progressive Science Initiative, a program that trains current teachers who have the desire to teach physics the skills needed to do so. It has quadrupled the number of new, qualified physics teachers each year in New Jersey. The Center’s new Math Initiative will hopefully have similar results.

Especially in math and science, teacher content knowledge is crucial. And especially at the secondary level, teachers with that knowledge can be hard to find. The Center, supported by the NJEA, identified this need and developed an innovative strategy to meet it.

Certainly, the NJEA does not have all the answers to what ails public education in New Jersey. But it and its members do have good ideas and work to better education every day. And if they could join with other education stakeholders--and I am not just talking about the union and the governor’s administration, but business, philanthropy, school boards, parents and others--the community could really leverage its assets and take a strengths-based approach to school improvement.

The first step in such an endeavor should be learning what others can offer, not dismissing invitations to come together. Hopefully, in New Jersey and elsewhere, stakeholders will do that.

Image from the Library of Congress