Post by momto4 on Apr 14, 2011 8:42:17 GMT -5
A big step forward to improve schools
beaconnews.suntimes.com/news/4814696-418/editorial-a-big-step-forward-to-improve-schools.html
The odds that your child will be taught by a top-flight public schooteacher just went up in Illinois.
On Wednesday, a potentially game-changing education reform bill emerged in the Illinois Senate.
The bill would make it easier to fire bad teachers, make it harder for teachers to earn tenure and force districts to lay off teachers in tough economic times based on their performance, not strictly on years of service.
And there’s more.
The bill also would make it harder for teachers to strike and, in Chicago, it would let the school district lengthen the disgracefully short school day and year without consulting the teachers union, though the economic impact of increased work hours would have to be negotiated with the union.
In the slow-moving, cautious and resistant-to-change world of education, this is tantamount to turning the Titanic.
These reforms won’t transform low-performing schools or solve the social problems that limit student achievement, but they are significant nonetheless. They will create — finally — a system in Illinois that rewards and advances our most talented teachers.
The bill upends a deeply entrenched system that rewards teachers for showing up and accumulating years of service and replaces it with one driven by teacher performance.
Now, teachers get tenure after four years whether they’re any good or not. Under the bill, tenure would only be granted if a teacher earned two strong evaluations over a three-year period.
Now, when money is tight, the newest teachers are fired first. Under the bill, a poorly rated teacher with 15 years of experience would be let go before a non-tenured teacher with excellent evaluations. For teachers with comparable evaluations, seniority would be the tie-breaker.
This makes sense, of course, but school districts for years have operated in their own separate universe where common sense sometimes does not apply.
We do have some concerns. Some districts may be tempted to dump their most experienced — and best-paid — teachers to make their budget numbers. We’re also strong supporters of lengthening the school day in Chicago, but we aren’t convinced this bill would truly opens the door to that happening. It lets Chicago extend its calendar but the union can derail the change by refusing to work longer hours without a major pay increase.
But this is likely the best bill we’ll get. It was crafted over four months with input from the state’s teachers unions and was changed to reflect some of their concerns. The bill, for example, only limited the right to strike in Chicago — requiring, among other things, that 75 percent of the union membership vote in favor of a strike — but did not eliminate it, as an original proposal essentially did. This was a change we supported.
Just five months ago, when these proposals were first floated by advocates for reform, the Chicago Teachers Union dismissed most as unnecessary, and the statewide unions, though more open, expressed serious concerns. It’s amazing what consulting with them, plus a national movement demanding change to an archaic and backward system for hiring, retaining and firing teachers, can accomplish.
After a careful review, we urge the Illinois Senate to pass this landmark bill and for the House to quickly follow.
beaconnews.suntimes.com/news/4814696-418/editorial-a-big-step-forward-to-improve-schools.html
The odds that your child will be taught by a top-flight public schooteacher just went up in Illinois.
On Wednesday, a potentially game-changing education reform bill emerged in the Illinois Senate.
The bill would make it easier to fire bad teachers, make it harder for teachers to earn tenure and force districts to lay off teachers in tough economic times based on their performance, not strictly on years of service.
And there’s more.
The bill also would make it harder for teachers to strike and, in Chicago, it would let the school district lengthen the disgracefully short school day and year without consulting the teachers union, though the economic impact of increased work hours would have to be negotiated with the union.
In the slow-moving, cautious and resistant-to-change world of education, this is tantamount to turning the Titanic.
These reforms won’t transform low-performing schools or solve the social problems that limit student achievement, but they are significant nonetheless. They will create — finally — a system in Illinois that rewards and advances our most talented teachers.
The bill upends a deeply entrenched system that rewards teachers for showing up and accumulating years of service and replaces it with one driven by teacher performance.
Now, teachers get tenure after four years whether they’re any good or not. Under the bill, tenure would only be granted if a teacher earned two strong evaluations over a three-year period.
Now, when money is tight, the newest teachers are fired first. Under the bill, a poorly rated teacher with 15 years of experience would be let go before a non-tenured teacher with excellent evaluations. For teachers with comparable evaluations, seniority would be the tie-breaker.
This makes sense, of course, but school districts for years have operated in their own separate universe where common sense sometimes does not apply.
We do have some concerns. Some districts may be tempted to dump their most experienced — and best-paid — teachers to make their budget numbers. We’re also strong supporters of lengthening the school day in Chicago, but we aren’t convinced this bill would truly opens the door to that happening. It lets Chicago extend its calendar but the union can derail the change by refusing to work longer hours without a major pay increase.
But this is likely the best bill we’ll get. It was crafted over four months with input from the state’s teachers unions and was changed to reflect some of their concerns. The bill, for example, only limited the right to strike in Chicago — requiring, among other things, that 75 percent of the union membership vote in favor of a strike — but did not eliminate it, as an original proposal essentially did. This was a change we supported.
Just five months ago, when these proposals were first floated by advocates for reform, the Chicago Teachers Union dismissed most as unnecessary, and the statewide unions, though more open, expressed serious concerns. It’s amazing what consulting with them, plus a national movement demanding change to an archaic and backward system for hiring, retaining and firing teachers, can accomplish.
After a careful review, we urge the Illinois Senate to pass this landmark bill and for the House to quickly follow.