Scroll down to read our full January 12 piece on the negotiations.
Also, please read the AFL-CIO statement in support of the school bus drivers who have called for a strike on Wednesday to protect the right to have experienced, well trained drivers transporting our kids to school. Here is a link to their petition.
Dear colleagues,
Monday marks the third straight day and night of
intensive talks with the Department of Education over a new teacher development
and evaluation plan. Although our negotiating team has been able to make
progress on some matters, there are still many key issues that remain unsolved.
We will continue to negotiate around the clock in an
effort to break the stalemate and reach an agreement that gives you the support
and time you need to give students a great education. As of now, the DOE will
not commit to such a plan and is once again putting politics above children.
However, we will persevere.
We continue to plan for two possible scenarios. If we are
not able to reach an agreement, we will have to quickly engage with parents and
the community. We will need to make sure New Yorkers understand that it was the
mayor and his disrespect for teachers and the work that you do that undermined
negotiations.
However, if we are able to reach an agreement and the
Delegate Assembly approves it, our priority will be getting clear information
out to all of you so that we can combat the fear and misinformation that are
bound to come with a new teacher development and evaluation system.
We will keep you updated.
Meanwhile, I personally want to thank the thousands of
members who participated in Monday's leafleting to parents and commuters across
the city as we continue to put pressure on the mayor to do the right thing.
School-based efforts like these are critical to the work that we do.
Sincerely,
Michael Mulgrew
1 comment:
Invalid student testing is not a fair evaluation of teachers. I am a high school teacher, and there are far too many varibles involved that make "so-called testing" an invalid means of holding teachers accountable for their students' performance and outcome on state tests. Teachers are assigned random students who they have no role in choosing, and often these students have many issues which can include behavorial, language barriers, as well as other issues that can negatively affect test scores.
Neither middle school nor high school teachers should be held liable for testing results based on the new common core standards that have just begun to be implemented. These common core standards need to be introduced from the elementary grades and work up to the higher grades before a fair and just evaluation can even begin to be considered at the higher grade levels.
Just say NO!!! to attaching a 40% weight on holding teachers responsible for test evaluations using tainted data. This is merely a political ploy to take away teachers' careers, to push teachers out of their profession, and to weqaken our union. If politicians dangle money as a reward to coerce the union to vote on their side, this is selling out our teachers and will ultimately result in harming our children.
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