All Articles Tagged "teacher evaluations"
Follow Up: Chicago Teachers Strike Appears To Be Nearing An End
Image: AP Photo/Sitthixay Ditthavong
As we move into the fifth day of the strike involving Chicago’s public school teachers, an end may be in sight. Chicago Public Schools and the city’s teachers union say they have some “number crunching” to do, but so much progress has been made that teachers and students could be back in classrooms on Monday. The Chicago Tribune reports that the union has asked supporters to come out for a final protest tomorrow at noon.
There is a proposal for resolving the big issue — how teachers will be evaluated — that will put a tiered system in place, in addition to weighing student test scores. Those exam results will count for 30 to 35 percent of the evaluation process with student surveys and principal observations also put into consideration. Tenured teachers won’t be fired during the first year as the new system works itself out. All teachers will be given a chance to improve if they receive an unsatisfactory evaluation.
As we reported the other day, the strike has wide-reaching implications for the black community. The number of minority teachers in Chicago has dropped. Parents and students have been inconvenienced by the strike, with some parents having to change their work schedules or pay for other child care arrangements. There was concern that the relationship between President Obama and unions could be negatively impacted if the strike dragged on. And the questions of education reform came to the forefront.
This resolution will by no means resolve the public education issues that the country faces. But trying a new system could put us one step closer to improving a system that’s responsible for educating millions of kids, our next generation of leaders and thinkers.
*Update: A tentative deal has been reached.
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D.C. Relaxes Teacher Evaluation Rules
(Washington Post) — D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson, prodded by the Washington Teachers’ Union, has relaxed teacher evaluation rules so that some veterans who receive two consecutive poor appraisals can keep their jobs. Under original guidelines for the evaluation system known as IMPACT, teachers judged “minimally effective” two years in a row were subject to dismissal. About 550 received that rating last year, out of nearly 4,200 teachers citywide. Henderson said that she is unsure how many will be affected by the change but that it was likely to be no more than “a handful.” Dismissal notices based on 2011 evaluations are expected to go out soon, possibly Friday.
Board OKs $758K Contract on Teacher, Leader Evals
(AJC) — The state Board of Education voted Thursday to spend $758,000 to hire a team of experts to help develop a system for evaluating teachers and administrators based on how their students perform academically. The state committed to developing new teacher/leader evaluations and a pay-for-performance system when it applied for and was awarded $400 million through President Barack Obama’s education reform initiative, Race to the Top. The team, headed by James Stronge, a professor of educational policy, planning and leadership at the College of William & Mary, will retool the state’s current teacher and leader evaluation systems.
