On another post Anonymous wrote:
City schools seek to base layoffs on teachers' effectiveness
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
By Eleanor Chute / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
No one disputes that this fall will be a year of unsought change as Pittsburgh Public Schools battles a projected ...
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/city-schools-seek-to-base-layoffs-on-teachers-effectiveness-634712/?p=0
After the May 15th PFT election, will PFT Union elected postions change Senority posturing in June?
25 comments:
This whole initiative to move away from seniority is very sudden. Just recently there were assurances that value added scores would not be used to evaluate teachers. The student surveys being used are also new and not thoroughly vetted.
Suspicion? PPS could not comply with its match for the Gates grant and so Gates wants to get its money worth in some other way- like using Pittsburgh as a testing ground for eliminating seniority. If it is done here then it can be used as justification elsewhere. Pittsburgh with its strong labor history is probably not the best place to test this concept, though, and the whole thing will probably end up being a distraction. Seniority will remain but it will serve as a justification for lower scores.
The Union SO FAR is backing the Seniority stance.
Regarding Faison school,"if only seniority is used, it will stabbilize the school." says Lane. Ha! What. A. Joke. The principal of this school was terrible when she was a Spanish teacher. Fled that to become a terrible tech support person. Fled that through her friendship with Lippert to become a PELA and then the worst principal ever of Langley, where discipline and moral plummeted under her. The "director" is a hotel/restaurant manager from Broad. The "program" they are"designing" is all arts and crafts "integrated" with learning. Trust me, seniority is the least of this school's worries. It is a mess and spinning downward. When is this community going to begin to stand up and say "no" to such shameless exploitation of the poor and minorities by such ridiculous career builders. There is no expertise among the leaders in this school, just a lot of bribery by handing kids toys and coupons. Shocking. Carry Harris is the biggest joke, a former community activist from the west end with no clue. Do not believe for oe second Faison is not out of control. Just because those kids are little and less powerful than h.s. students does not mean the school is better. Ha! Linda lane, get a clue.
Tripods. Kids may tend to exaggerate the jokes they tell but if even a portion of the comments I heard (ok, overheard to be accurate) coming from my kid's friends are true, they better give the surveys over again. Not taken seriously enough for sure.
They have to do furloughs because it is taking too long to rate out the scores of teachers they promised Gates they would roll through so they can be replaced at a lower pay rate by teach for America, troops for teachers, and new teachers for new schools. Pittsburgh schools will no longer be run or "owned" by Pittsburghers. Take back your city now before it is too late. If you care about children at all, act now. The impact this will have on families will be shocking.
My favorite part of the article is that Lane wants the union to agree to a to-be-determined model using effectiveness. To-be-determined like the last teachers' contract! What a joke. And the 3 criteria, especially student surveys and student test scores, is another joke.
It is May and school is out in a month or so. The Board wants to hurry-up and use "effectiveness." They just want to continue to get rid of the older teachers, effective or not effective, to save money. And they are using the media to continue to turn the public against the teachers to get their own way. Hopefully, the union will stand strong.
What kind of procedure is in place for teachers to respond to comments made on Tripod and to go back and resolve competing versions (ie, the student says the teacher said X but the teacher said it was Y). In general there seems to be a real danger of undermining the authority of the teacher. What kind of research has been done on the benefits and dangers of student surveys- or is Pittsburgh the research?
Questioner,
You're right. Student surveys will seriously undermine the teacher.
Few students are mature enough to understand how important a demanding education is. They'll understand when they're 35, but not at 15.
So a teacher who gives a lot of homework WILL get a bad rating from students. And a teacher who makes students work hard to get an "A" WILL get a bad rating.
And a teacher who gives out detentions for tardiness WILL get a bad rating.
So who will get the good student ratings? Teachers who are naturally not very demanding. And teachers who realize that if they don't play the game, they're out.
It is so very odd. This system will end up punishing good teaching practices, and reward bad teaching practices.
Q: I think this initiative isn't that sudden... it is tied to the budget cut and layoff process.
Every time our principal explains the seniority-based layoff scheme to parents (e.g. at PSCC meetings) it invariably leads to a discussion of changing the system to include more than just seniority. We've been having this discussion for months at our PSCC meetings. Parents don't like seniority being the sole factor. The other related thing that gets parents worked up is the idea of teachers getting "bumped" out of the school due to seniority rules. Lots of complaint about that at our PSCC meetings.
The budget cuts and layoffs are bringing this fact to the foreground.
Maybe this post is very generic
I am so tired of the parents blaming the teachers for this or that and ADM utilizing capricious measures to evaluate an effective teacher.
Parents need to get off the Senority factor and the propaganda out there.
What is the basis for this?
What if a parent works in a Union job-and is laid off with 7 years in the position due to budget cuts-is that ok with placing food on their table?
Parents ashamed to admit their child lacks admirable qualities and they deserve to be shining stars.
However, the effective measures they are using are very generic and not enough research-based results for accuracy.
It is like a pharmaceutical medicine that is approved by the FDA with the brochure of the side effects which are rare.
Within 7 years there are class action suits regarding the pharmaceutical medicine with incidents of serious complications.
Not a generic vision of the reality of education.
Dt. Lane is using the Faison Factor to underscore her debacle of Westinghouse in that Pgh Region.
ANON 8:50 AM
Also, how about the Assistant Principal at Faison--Another wanderlust how did they get that job and keep it. A joke at Langley, Greenway, Classical Academy and Linden. Another West End brandied ADM.
Speaking of West End brandied ADM.
At Phillips Elementary, my children are stuck with the Primary Principal from Schaffer Elementary. He has about zilch seniority. Why isn’t he laid off?
Many parents state hey another Board jokester-he headhunts kindergarten teachers and likes his staff to be young teachers. Thus, he gets Brownie points for his ridding of so-called ineffective teachers.
Well, thank heavens the teachers at Phillips will run the school.
Then, this half-baked Principal will have it so easy-he will think he died and made it to ADM cushion pasture.
We as parents are very disappointed-with this selection.
Dt. Lane is using the Faison Factor to underscore her debacle of Westinghouse in that Pgh Region.
ANON 8:50 AM
Also, how about the Assistant Principal at Faison--Another wanderlust how did they get that job and keep it.
A joke at Langley, Greenway, Classical Academy and Linden. Another West End brandied ADM.
Speaking of West End brandied ADM—at Phillips Elementary, my children are stuck with the Primary Principal from Schaffer Elementary. He has about zilch seniority. Why isn’t he laid off?
Many parents state-what a joke-he head hunts kindergarten teachers and likes his staff to be young teachers. Thus, he gets Brownie points for his ridding of so- called ineffective teachers.
Well, thank heavens the teachers at Phillips will run the school.
Then, this half-baked Principal will have it so easy-he will think he died and made it to ADM cushion pasture.
We as parents are very disappointed-with this selection
*Do not believe for oe second Faison is not out of control. Just because those kids are little and less powerful than h.s. students does not mean the school is better. Ha! *
Actually, the school does look better this year. There is some coordination, there are ongoing attempts to improve (that is, they didn't just throw up their hands a week in and give up), etc.
Compared to Westinghouse? Faison has improved at least a bit, while Westinghouse was made worse by the changes. Is it good yet? Well...that might be a stretch.
Moves against seniority are being made in Broad/Gates districts all over. Moves in this direction have been in the works for years in most urban districts.
However, most data still shows that new teachers are NOT as effective as more experienced teachers.
If the PPS had real data, data that would stand up to scrutiny that their youngest teachers are better than their older teachers, don't you think we'd be seeing charts and graphs in the papers?
Instead we have their word for it. And we should know by now how much that is worth.
How about the PPS District administer twice a year--a similar Tripod Teacher perception survey to all K-12 classroom teachers evaluating their individual school ADMINISTRATORS- Principal, Vice Principal, Director?
Not computerized.
Why we can all be rich-if, we would create this research-based teacher perception survey with evaluative answers as measures of educational leadership and student education for PPS school administrators.
They can collect the data and utilize it for promotions and demotions.
Dean Lesgold of Pitt from the article and other teacher colleges should not be wasting their time on worrying about the teachers and seniority-they should be creating a value added measurement for individual school leaders and their effective practices.
Tripods-you have to be kidding. The 5,6,7,8 year old students who took the survey had no idea what they were doing. The choices were yes,no,maybe! Even the kids said it should say sometimes! The first question was "Are you happy in this class?" You can pretty much bet that the student who just got lunch detention put no! We are going to be judged by "happy"?
How about the PPS District administer twice a year-- a similar Tripod Teacher perception survey to all K-12 classroom teachers evaluating their individual school ADMINISTRATORS- Principal, Vice Principal, Director? Not computerized.
Why we can all be rich-if, we would create this research-based teacher perception survey with evaluative answers as measures of educational leadership and student education for PPS school administrators.
They can collect the data and utilize it for promotions and demotions.
Dean Lesgold of Pitt from the article and other teacher colleges should not be wasting their time on worrying about the teachers and seniority-they should be creating a value added measurement for individual school leaders and their effective practices.
*Also, how about the Assistant Principal at Faison*
That is a fine question. Is this person ever actually seen in the building? Would the students there know who the mystery adult was?
The PPS is to top heavy at this point and Administrators aren't union protected employees, wouldn't it make more since to eliminate these positions first. You have Administrators who never have contact with students and make more money than teachers, paras, clerical and custodians.
The same few people keep posting on this blog.
And there are few if any of them who go past the posting.
Venting is not getting anyone anywhere.
This is union busted at its finest. Linda lane needs to go she is does not understand the needs of a urban school district.
There are more than a few posting and most are not just venting.
When the last union contract was passed, many veteran teachers voted against it as they felt that it would not adequately protect our young colleagues! The contract divided the teachers into two groups with different pay scales and language that was so vague it seemed as if anything and everything could be added to it whenever the district presented new demands. Guess what-they are trying to turn the two groups against each other once again. We were truly set up for this. And the people who set it up have left (run for cover) Anyone losing their job is awful but at least you will know that it was done fairly and not just because an administrator didn't like you or had a friend/relative that they wanted. There is a process in place to remove ineffective teachers and it is used all the time. The district is pandering to the foundations.
Besides the change of teachers, be very aware of the projected class numbers in most schools-- now including large CAS classes, and I've heard numbers like 37 in 4th grades-- and that is NOW before everyone movesd about. Both union and admin have signed off on this.
As a concerned parent what are the maximum number of students for classrooms at each individual elementary, middle and secondary academic level as a probable question.
I can remember s recent Post-Gazette article quote; “When paraprofessionals, secretaries and other school-based staff are considered, the number is "north of 500," said Jody Spolar, district executive director of human resources. The contract allows any limit above the present-47 is very high.
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