An Independent Voice That Advocates For The Classroom Educator Without The Corrupting Politics Tied To Our Union And DOE Leadership.
Saturday, December 01, 2012
Is The Union About To Screw Us Again When It Comes To The Teacher Evaluation System?
Up until a few days ago I and many other people believed that before a teacher evaluation system could be put in place, the City and the UFT must negotiate a contract. However, a blogger "Ed the Apple", aka Peter Goodman has stated in Gotham Schools that the UFT does not have to have a new contract in place to implement the teacher evaluation system. According to this retired UFT official with close ties to the existing leadership, the union only has to make it an Amendment to the existing contract by using Article 8-J of the existing contract as the basis for the teacher evaluation Amendment.
I do not believe that Peter Goodman would have commented on this issue the way he did on the Gotham News blog without prior knowledge on what the UFT leadership is planning to do about the teacher evaluation issue. I assume that Mr. Goodman's comments are a strong indication that the union will once again ignore the wishes of its rank and file and negotiate with the City to implement the horrendous teacher evaluation system as an Amendment of the existing contract and not a comprehensive new contract that would include the two 4% retroactive raises owed to us,
I agree with nyc educator that our union should not approve an inferior teacher evaluation system that includes "junk science", a way around tenure, and "due process rights" and will be used by the DOE as a termination program rather than as a teacher improvement program. Furthermore, why will only a mere 13% of the teachers accused of being "ineffective" under the proposed system have real "due process"? Should the other 87% of teachers just resign? Moreover, who selects the lucky 13%? Assuming that the union keeps this in the implemented teacher evaluation system which the DOE objects to. Finally, how will the union protect teachers who are given students who have attendance and academic issues by vindictive administrators to ensure that they test poorly and affect the teacher's evaluation scores?
If this teacher evaluation system comes to pass without a new contract, substantial safeguards against Administrator abuse, and most for all, without rank and file input, the union should be thrown out of the leadership positions as they no longer represent the people who they are supposed to protect. Hear that Michael Mulgrew?