This blog has been created to add a supplemental source of information for Seattle Education Association members and any interested community members and allies.
Much progress has been made at the negotiation table this week. As you know, Monday was added this week and the teams met for a half of a day. Both Tuesday and Wednesday, the teams met for full days and intense discussions.
The teams will again meet on Thursday for another full day that may even extend into the evening. There has even been talk of adding more days if tomorrow does not provide enough time.
Despite the continued progress, there is still significant tension on some key issues that have great importance to the members. The Seattle EA team continues to follow the guidance that members have shared through surveys, focus groups, building meetings and individual emails.
Another communication will be sent out Thursday evening with an update on bargaining and upcoming activities.
In the meantime, start spreading the word that Seattle EA members will be wearing blue on Tuesday, August 31 as a united symbol of what we can achieve for our schools and students through collaboration and innovation. SEA members are ready!
General Membership Meeting
Thursday, September 2
4:30 p.m.
SPU’s Royal Brougham Pavilion
3414 3rd Ave W (at W. Nickerson)
For more information about basis for the jointly recommended proposal that has been discussed, please follow this link: http://www.seattlewea.org/index.php/component/content/article/252-the-basis-for-the-joint-proposal
The SEA and SPS bargaining teams met for a total of four hours today. Your bargaining team believes there are signs of progress, as the District negotiators begin to consider our proposals with a degree of seriousness not seen recently.
There are significant issues yet to be resolved. We will meet again at the bargaining table tomorrow (Tuesday) and Wednesday, with the hope that the progress seen today will continue. Our next bargaining update will be sent to you following the end of bargaining on Wednesday, unless significant news emerges in the next 24 hours
In the meantime, site coordinators will also meet tomorrow to continue providing support for our bargaining team.
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
Join Seattle Education Association peers and community
members at Wednesday’s Seattle School Board meeting. Meet at 5:20 p.m. Aug. 18 at the District’s John Stanford Center for
Educational Excellence, 2445 3rd Avenue S. in Seattle.
Attend the SEA general membership meeting, 4:30 p.m., Sept. 2
at Seattle Pacific University, Royal Brougham Pavillion
3414 Third Ave. West, Seattle
For the past two years, Seattle educators have worked hand in hand with top district administrators to create a new model for growth and evaluation that focuses on helping Seattle’s students succeed. Now our superintendent is attempting a last-minute end-run around that collaborative process by demanding that teacher evaluations be tied to student test scores. So what’s in the Professional Growth and Evaluation plan (PG&E) that was developed jointly by SEA and the district? Why is it a historic change, how does it benefit students and help close the achievement gap?
It makes student progress the foundation of teachers’ professional growth
·All certificated teachers will set annual student achievement goals which are specific and measurable.
·Using the Professional Practice Standards as a guide, teachers will set professional growth goals to help obtain student achievement goals.
·Recognizes clearly that "Student growth data shall be relevant to the teacher and subject matter, and must be based on multiple measures that may include classroom based, district based, and state based assessments as well as, attendance, discipline data, mobility and completion (course or year) rates of students. Student growth means the change in student achievement between two points in time."
·The joint PG&E plan focuses on student achievement goals AND linking Professional goals that enhance our professional teaching practice. SERVE sets student achievement goals without accountability for enhancing professional practice.
It helps take the guesswork and bias out of educators’ evaluations
·Uses clear standards based on four domains from the research of Charlotte Danielson that have been tried and tested in other districts where improvement has been documented. The four domains are: Planning and Preparation, Classroom Environment, Instructional Skill and Professional Responsibility.
·Sets clear indicators of acceptable performance based on standards within each domain.
·Culturally relevant practices are integrated in all four domains.
·Establishes a four-level rating system: Innovative, Proficient, Basic and Unsatisfactory.
It increases the level of accountability for educators with a focus on great teachers in every classroom
·For newer educators, it increases the number of required observations and conferences by administrators.
·Requires any teachers not in the top two levels in any domain – Proficient or Innovative – to be on a Plan of Support.
·Improvement plans are clearly defined for administrators and educators.
·Establishes a support system in the form of Human Resource Consulting Teachers to assist educators who are on Performance Improvement Plans.
·Maintains probationary process for either improvement or dismissal for those deemed Unsatisfactory in any of the four domains.
·PG & E would be phased in beginning this year to replace the current evaluation system while ensuring that it is implemented with fidelity. It would be fully implemented by 2013-2014.
·All teachers will participate in collaborative groups called Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s).
·Enhances collaborative work amongst educators focused on the academic achievement of students with an emphasis on culturally relevant practice.
It uses student test data for teacher growth, not punishment
·Educators are professionals and believe in accountability. The joint plan negotiated with the district mirrors the state’s goals to use test data correctly to improve teaching, and it has the support of Seattle’s educators.
·The big difference? The state plan means teachers will be evaluated on their ability to use the student data to modify their instruction (which happens every day in the classroom) and, unlike SERVE, would not misuse student assessment results to deem teachers “good or bad.”
·In addition to test data, SERVE would also rely on student surveys at the high school level. This ignores that some students may lack the sophistication to provide detailed qualitative feedback on instructional techniques. For instance, is a teacher “mean” or does that teacher simply set high standards and hold students accountable? In an era of instant communications, students could easily organize a negative evaluation for even great teachers whom they simply don’t like. The likely outcome of SERVE is skewed data that would not be reliable for high-stakes personnel decisions.
From the National Education Association Representative Assembly
New Business Item 90 (Adopted)
The NEA will create an action plan using existing committee structure that will designate long and short term goals for the purpose of developing policy recommendations to support broad-based organizing efforts of local & state affiliates with other labor, non-profit & faith-based organizations.
Seattle Education Association President, Olga Addae speaking on July 6, 2010, in support of NBI 90
Olga Addae speaking on behalf of the delegation, I move New Business Item 90.
Mr. President, Van Roekel, in your key note speech you spoke of the deep and long economic crisis and its devastating impact on our students, our members, and our schools.
I agree with you; the future of America is uncertain and intolerable consequences await not only our students and our members; but every American who is among the working middle class, the unemployed, and those living in poverty.
It is time for all of us unite; whether we live in a Right-to-Work state or a Fair-Share state;Whether we are NEA or AFT, whether we are Democrats, Republicans, or Independents;Whether we are upper middle class or lower middle class.We need to reach out through broad-based organizing efforts to build relations with other non-profits, faith based groups and most importantly other unions.
It is time to take back America from the strangle hold of the financial elite and for-profit corporations.
The real education reform we seek requires real resources that are sustainable.
We must learn from history; the last time so few held so much of the wealth in America was right before the Depression… from that crisis the opportunity to build a strong middle class, with strong unions, strong non-profits (such as the PTA) and strong faith based organizations.The zenith for all these civil sector organizations was in the mid 1950’s.
It only took 60 years for the financial elite to dismantle the civil sector that so many unsung heroes fought and died for.Let us not wait for another Depression.
We must reach out to our brethren and build better relations and “Act” for the common good.Broad-based organizing is not about forming another union, not about a temporary coalition.It is about a process of continuous efforts to build relations with other unions, non-profits and faith based groups to “Act” for the common good, which is determined locally.Please support NBI 90
