Does the Seattle School District truly want to move forward with historic change?

August 17, 2010

Reminder: Join us at a

SEA Rally
to support our bargaining team
5:30 p.m., August 18
JSCEE
prior to the School Board Meeting

Does the Seattle School District truly want to move forward with historic change, or is its strategy to block progress with an unyielding insistence on unproven, unacceptable testing schemes?

The SEA negotiating team extended a branch today that should make it clear whether the district’s true goal is to use test scores to improve student achievement and quality teaching, or whether it is merely a ruse for some other agenda.

Early in the day, the district’s negotiating team continued stonewalling on the issue of using test scores for teacher evaluations. Finally, when challenged by SEA to identify what parts of their SERVE proposal they were actually willing to negotiate over, their blocking strategy became clear.

The district was not willing to negotiate any proposal that didn’t base teacher evaluations on student test scores. It was their way or no way.

SEA supports moving forward with the historic progress already achieved through the jointly negotiated Professional Growth and Evaluation plan. So SEA’s bargaining team huddled privately to develop a creative solution that would meet the core values of SEA members and the interests of the district.

The result: A proposal from SEA that seeks to carve out middle ground by recognizing the district’s interest in using test data to help recognize teachers who may benefit from additional help, while not misusing test data to evaluate and fire teachers.

District negotiators said they would seriously consider the SEA proposal. We will know how seriously when we meet on Thursday morning for our next bargaining session.

Remember . . .

the Seattle Education Association

General Membership Meeting
Thursday, September 2, 2010, 4:30 p.m.
SPU's Royal Brougham Pavillion
3414 3rd Ave W (at W Nickerson)
Seattle

Are you communicating to your school community?

Here is another sample of what one teacher sent out to the community:

Hello,

I am both a teacher and parent of Seattle Public Schools.

You might be wondering if a strike is looming in Seattle schools... Well, my answer is NO! The only person talking about a strike is Dr. Goodloe-Johnson. Teachers are ready to go back into the classrooms, many already have.

SEA and SPS are much closer to hammering out a contract than Dr. G-J wants us to believe. The only sticking point is the evaluation system. And this is the REAL RUB: half of what Dr. G-J is calling "SERVE" was developed jointly with SEA!!

Let me back up. Over the past two years, a joint committee of SEA and SPS have worked together to develop a new evaluation system. They finished it, agreed to it, and both parties SIGNED OFF on it in April. As far as SEA understood, this part of the contract had been settled.

Then, out of the blue, Dr. G-J adds on the part about teachers' evaluations being linked to student test scores conveniently the week after the school year ended. Not getting anywhere at the bargaining table, she went public with her idea. However, Dr. G-J bundled what the joint SEA SPS committee created with her idea of tying test scores to evaluations and called it SERVE. When Dr. G-J went public at the start of August to gain public favor for her test score idea she failed to give credit for what SEA did. Instead, she's making it sound like SEA doesn't want to change the evaluation system at all. She deceived me, and I think many others have been fooled, too.

SEA wants everyone to understand that teachers support a new evaluation system, and the new eval system called "PG and E- professional growth and evaluation" is going to bring radical change to the district. No longer will a teacher's evaluation be pass/fail, it's going to be unsatisfactory, basic, proficient, and innovative.... and it will not be acceptable to be either unsat or basic. Not to mention the detail and clarity of the PG and E system's rubric. I know from my experience, I want specific feedback that will help me grow as a professional. The PG and E system is a tool that will enable admin to have these constructive conversations with teachers.

Another thing SEA wants everyone to consider, where is the research that says student test scores correlates to teacher quality? We all know there are hundreds of variables teachers do not control that strongly effect students' test scores... so why would we want to stake who is fired based on how well Johnny slept the night before he took his MAP test?

If you have questions or just want to shoot the breeze about what I wrote, feel free to email or call me. And in the meanwhile, there is a school board meeting next week, Wednesday, August 18th. I plan on going to demonstrate my distaste for Dr. G-J's approach to negotiations. Specifically, I want Dr. G-J to honor what the joint SPS and SEA committee created. I hope you will spread the message, too.

Thanks,

July 14, 2010 Bargaining Update

Bargaining Update

July 14, 2010

Two more bargaining sessions were held this week. Although we are not releasing details of proposals due to the confidentiality of the bargain, we do want to let you know the topics of discussion that are still on the table.

District Proposed

• Student growth used as part of a teacher’s evaluation
• Teacher evaluations used in helping to decide who gets displaced from a building or laid off from the district and other changes to the reduction in force language
• Career ladder opportunities based on high quality teaching
• Collaboration time
• Changes to ICS and ELL models
• Changes to the district teacher compensation system
• Incentives to work in low performing schools, based on high quality teaching
• Alternative routes to certification
• Eliminate “classified to cert” program

SEA Proposed

• Reduction in class sizes/caseloads/staff ratios
• Workload reduction ideas
• Our own “reform” ideas to improve student achievement and close the achievement gap that are based on research
• Wraparound services for students
• Fair compensation to be competitive in the future with other school districts in order to attract and retain high quality staff, including a living wage for classified staff
• Use of professional development days for classified staff
• Collaboration time
• Changes to the classified reduction in force language that gives credit for service

Jointly Proposed

• New four level rating system evaluation (consistent with Senate bill 6696 which passed in this year’s legislative session)
• Improvements to the STAR Program