Union blasts Chicago Public Schools' tenure attack

[proud2BlibKansan]

Chicago School Board members Wednesday went on the attack against teacher tenure, agreeing to lay off the worst-rated teachers first -- regardless of seniority -- amid moves to raise class size and shrink a record budget deficit.

Chicago Teachers Union President-elect Karen Lewis immediately blasted the action as "very belligerent'' and "very confrontational.'' Union attorneys will examine its legality, she said.

Experts called the system's new layoff rules unusual but part of a "growing drumbeat'' to allow districts to use something other than seniority and tenure in determining who should be laid off, especially in tough economic times.

"It's quite unusual. It's controversial,'' said education consultant Julia Koppich, co-author of United Mind Workers, a book on teacher union reform. "But it's part of a growing trend -- not for school districts to do this, but to want to do this.''

Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman said the new policy, approved by a unanimous vote Wednesday, affects about 200 teachers, both tenured and untenured, rated "unsatisfactory'' by their principals. It allows CPS to lay off even the most senior, tenured teachers with more than four years of experience who are rated as "unsatisfactory'' before dropping newer, higher-rated teachers.

The policy would be invoked if CPS raises class size to 35 to fill its budget hole. Officials also hope to use it during annual layoffs of teachers because of decreases in student enrollment, said Rachel Resnick, head of CPS labor relations.

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Lewis, who takes office July 1 as CTU president, said teacher evaluations are too "subjective'' to be used as a basis for layoffs and the evaluation system is "flawed.''

"People are being evaluated based on personality issues, based on things that have nothing to do with what's going on in a classroom,'' Lewis said.

more . . . http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/2427570,CST-NWS-tenure24.article

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. Obvious this was coming...

And equally obvious that the leadership and other reality deniers in our educational unions stuck their head in the sand rather than get out ahead of it and protect the membership. Shrill protests now will not stop that train from steamrolling us. Our leadership failed us.

[Hannah Bell]

2. "shrill" protests, eh?

[Hannah Bell]

3. there sure are a lot of folks at du who think protest & push-back are useless.

i wonder why?

i guess we should just bow to the will of our masters & betters.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. My point is that we/they should have been proactive and out front

on this issue. Protesting after the fact is never as good as preventing it from happening.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. They take office tomorrow

Just how far out in front do you expect them to be?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. No holding the new team accountable...where was prior leadership, where are today's national leaders

[LWolf]

4. Once a precedence is set, I predict that the number of

veteran teachers rated "unsatisfactory" will increase sharply, including teachers who have NEVER been rated "unsatisfactory" until the upcoming year.