CORE co-chair criticizes Sun-Times 'Fire the teachers' editorial
July 7, 2010 In the editorial “Teachers’ performance counts more than years,” [June 27] the Sun-Times weighs in on the controversial topic of teacher evaluations. Unfortunately, the piece is very one-sided. The paper accepts without question the district’s contention that the 200 unsatisfactory teachers deserve to be fired immediately. It is never questioned who put these people in that category, whether a struggling teacher can improve with compassion and mentoring, or what is really behind the Board of Education’s new policy.
It turns out that there are quite a few abusive principals in the system who degrade the ratings of teachers who stand up for their students, themselves and their colleagues.
What happens if a teacher blows the whistle on an administration for stealing from a school budget or misappropriating funds? Are we setting the stage to allow that administration to retaliate against that person?
In addition, the district has a financial incentive to get rid of veteran teachers who cost more in terms of base salary and benefits. With a budget crisis looming, these cuts look increasingly like cost-saving measures.
Teaching is extremely hard work. I would like to invite the editorial staff of the Sun-Times to teach at a CPS school for a week and see how they do. Not one beginning teacher I have ever known feels like they do a satisfactory job; it is an occupation that takes years to master. A slash-and-burn approach to teacher ratings without due process, without an attempt to help professionals improve instruction, is an approach doomed to fail.
Jackson Potter, co-chair, Caucus of Rank and File Educators.
Comments:
By: Sarah Loftus
Firing teachers
This is exactly why we have a UNION! Regrettably The CTU (and AFT and IFT) seem to have forgotten that they exist to serve the members. Hopefully the new leadership of the CTU will do the job they were elected to do. And this action by Huberman is the test that will determine the future of the Union.
By: Jim Vail
Published?
Was this the letter published in the Sun Times? I remember Jackson making it stronger using the incredible teachers at Prescott who are being victimized by a principal who wants to destroy their careers just so he can clean house and have his own suck up team.
By: Tavis Smiley fan
remove the worst first?
President Lewis' comments on the Tavis Smiley show were "spot on". My "superior" is as equally valueless as an "unsatisfactory" rating unless a less politically tainted means of evaluating teachers is created. When "pink and green" ceases to be the most significant attribute for a principal or a lead teacher, then rating can be used as a sound measure of a teacher's competence. CPS principals/administrators are emulating City Hall when connections and perceived loyalty to the boss trump actual skills, aptitude and commitment . Milton Rakove is nodding his head in heaven right now!
By: Margaret Wilson
Veteran Teachers
I agree with the comments above. CPS is an extremely political system and the more power principals get, the more political it becomes.
Older teacher/experienced teachers are discriminated against because they cost more and because they are not intimated as easily. One school I taught at went from a staff of mostly experienced teachers (average 10+ years experience) to a staff of mostly first and second year teachers in a period of a little over a year. Teachers need to be protected from principals that want to flex their muscles.