A raft of past programs have failed to substantially improve the reading skills of middle grade and high school students. CPS is trying once again, as part of a federal project that aims to help teens learn how to analyze complex non-fiction.
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For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
Non-tenured teachers who failed to win the backing of their principals
will receive notices by today telling them they will not be renewed at
their current schools. And some will be told they should not bother
reapplying at another school. Under a policy approved last June,
non-tenured teachers with unsatisfactory ratings or who are non-renewed twice will not be eligible to teach in CPS again. Non-tenured teachers who failed to win the backing of their principals will receive notices today telling them they will not be renewed at their current schools. And some will be told they should not bother reapplying at another school. Under a policy approved last June, non-tenured teachers with unsatisfactory ratings or who are non-renewed twice will not be eligible to teach in CPS again.
The Chicago Teachers Union opposes the policy and has filed grievances and a complaint with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, according to the CTU website.
Non-renewals in 2007: 775 of 7,000, or 11 percent
Non-renewals in 2011: 370 of 4,000, or 9 percent
The new policy was approved against the backdrop of a controversy involving tenured teachers. Last year, CEO Ron Huberman’s administration paid Nationally Board Certified Teachers screened teachers applying to teach for personality traits using short-answer essay questions, and then issued a designation of highly recommend, recommend, recommend with reservation or do not recommend. Officials point out that the designation was non-binding, but just an extra piece of information. However, some perceived this as a "do not hire" label.
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
you have been warned.
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
non-renewed teachers come from these last 2 years? THAT would be very interesting and controversial information.
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
It should come as no surprise that CPS is now laying off employees. In FY2010, CPS warned the budget “include[d] several short-term solutions … unsustainable beyond the next two years...†and that CPS expected “a funding cliff within the next two years as its ARRA Title I Part A and ARRA IDEA Part B (federal stimulus) ...expires.†[See FY2010 budget book, PDF page 5] In the FY2011 budget book it was repeated: “CPS expects a funding cliff for FY2012 as its ARRA Title I Part A and ARRA IDEA Part B (federal stimulus) of approximately $250 million in FY2011 expires.†“All of these valuable programs are at risk as these funds expire at the end of FY2011. Continuing to cover these costs beyond FY2011 will contribute further to the district’s fundamental structural deficit.†[Page 9] ARRA funds must be spent by September 30, 2011. So unless there's a revenue replacement, any FTE positions currently funded through these money pots are at risk.
This fiscal year, ARRA Title I Part A amounted to $184 million (page 98 CPS Final Budget FY11), increased to $197,992,439.08 since the original budget was approved. The ARRA IDEA Part B amount was $65.5 million. November 2010, there were ~952 positions and ~948.7 FTEs funded by ARRA IDEA, most located in schools. There were about ~1169 ARRA Title I Part A funded positions and ~1134.3 FTEs positions. Less than 60 positions were outside of schools [Source: CPS].
Even though these numbers have now changed, there are a lot of employees whose positions are going to be eliminated unless additional monies are found or there’s a major redistribution of available funds.
Of course, many more than just these 2000+ jobs are at risk. Lost ARRA funds account for less than half of the projected FY2012 budget deficit.
Judy King
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
Honestly CPS? You hire a CEO who QUIT his job mid year, has complaints against him, your last CEO left MID YEAR ..baiscally abandoding 450k students and 45k teachers....yet you wanna make a no hire rule for a poor new teacher who probabaly lost his job twice because of pettiness and local politics? Really??? Do a follow up....anonymous interview with these teachers and find out what really happend...some of course are incompetent....but ask about the 35kids and the politics and the principal pet teachers...just ask...maybe you won't be so cruel to ruin their spirtit.....
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
No--they get to stay no matter how bad? ANd they get a full time job as if they ae student teaching.
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
NYT: In addition, they note that Mr. (Fabby) Williams worked most of the year without a permanent administrative credential from C.P.S. (at Austin.) Documents show he did not receive the credential until March 14, only two months before he dismissed the teachers.
CPS has VIOLATED their own policy--MAKE them responsible!!
Bet you don't ISBE--shame on you -you allow CPS, OPPD and HR to do this. That's what you get for NOT making them have anyone with a Type 75. A Type 75 knows better and puts their certificate and pension at risk and would have been accountable for this-losing their job. But not the business model at CPS--these lawbreakers and incompetents get to stay.
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
D. The Chief Executive Officer or designee:
(2) shall assign as an interim principal only a person who is a member of the CPS Principal Candidate Pool at the time of assignment, except that the CEO may assign a sitting or former contract or interim principal to another CPS school regardless of whether he or she is a member of the CPS Principal Candidate Pool, if, in the Chief Executive Officer’s judgment, the sitting or former contract or interim CPS principal has a record of performance with the Board that demonstrates that he or she is exceptionally qualified to serve the particular needs of the school to which he or she will be assigned.
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
Pricncipals who dismiss PATS without following procedure need to be held accountable, especially if it is a 3rd year PAT with a satisfactory rating.
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
Many PAT teachers (specifically elementary art and music) lost their jobs last year due to program reduction. Does this two strikes and you're out apply to these teachers as well. Many of these teachers are excellent teacher and are very highly qualified, but just happen to teach in an unvalued content area. I just went to a gallery of terminated art teachers (http://coreteachers.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/ATR_Flyer-May201...) and at least two of the artist-teachers were nationally board certified and all had wonderful credentials. This policy seems unfair, short-sighted, and not in the interests of students.
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
of positions for this year against how many teachers were non-renewed in that amount of positions. Sure, HC is going to play ot that there were less teachers let go. Remember, Huberman pretended that the class sizes would go to 35, so the number last year will skew results this year.
There were more schools in 2007--there were more students in 2007. Dig deeper in the data please and thaks for doing it. Any interest on what colleges these non-renewed come from?
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
CPS says that the rate of non-renewed PATs this year was approx 9.3% of the total PAT pool. Last year it was 9.2%. -- Hardly a bloodbath, though i understand the disappointment and the possibility of miscategorization. Still waiting on DNH numbers.
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
CPS is once again making up rules as they see fit. There needs to be a class-action suit filed on them! They have a binding contract until June of 2012, so how can they add additional "rulings" in between that?
Anyone else who breached their contract would be headed straight to a civil court!
Come on, teachers! File a class-action suit in civil court on CPS! It only takes a few people to file on behalf of the class. They are violating state labor and constitutional laws here. You still have rights as a citizen of the State of Illinois and the United States of America!
Put CPS in their rightful place!
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
There are so many wonderful career changers who want into CPS. We come from law, the arts, commerce, college teaching, journalism, commincations, and the military. However, when we student teach, the "unioned-up" lifers, those tenured-dead losers making 85K a year at a school that has been on probation for 20 years, do whatever they can to smear us before administration. They are a terrified cabal who simply show-up, hand out worksheets, and let the students run the classroom for their paycheck. I have recently completed student teaching at such a school and the new teachers are not the problem. We all know the lifers are the problem. If CPS doesn't cut from the top, force some retirements, and follow something called "common sense," it risks losing many high-energy people who might help redefine the rotten system. God save you all.
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
at many schools 1/4 to 1/3 per year! Some committments!
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
in response to 9:47, most of the career changers at my school arrived with little training in discipline, methodolgy or community relations. They had the content knowledge, but not the basic background in teaching and learning. They also do not stay in the profession The lifers are still here teaching . The career changers transfeer, go to private schools, or go back to their previous lives.The lifers are what keep a school strong so stop bashing us as dead wait. We bring up test scores, keep the peace, and get the job done.
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
I too was a career changer .....started when I was 33. I understand what you are saying...but any well educated person knows not to label any one group with a blanket statement. You must have a bad school..lets not forget 1/4 of the problems stem from the teachers, 1/4 from the principal, 1/4 from CPS, and 1/4 from the students and their parents. I think you need a little more experience before you can start being "all knowing". Teaching is complex. People do get burned out. Just wait until you experience the CPS experience of changed policies, changed principals, changed salaries, changed hours.....sometimes the only thing consistent is that "worksheet teacher".......I agree with what you are saying...there is dead wieght....but if every experienced teacher is dead weight.....I would have to say that the new teachers are not heavy enough to balast from the storm.....but i dont make generalizations like you!!! I speak from a second career standpoint....
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
The question raises also what it has done wrong. In many ways since the members have voted out President Stewart it is a far more democratic union in terms of the functioning of the House of Delegates. It has worked hard to forge relationships in the community, but largely with groups that have a level of hostility to the existing power structure of the city and school system. Larger established organizations like Operation Push, the Urban League, etc, were heavily co-opted during the Daley years and are not much of a social force in the city. The Black Church leadership in Chicago also benefited from relationships with the Daley power structure and is a very limited fighting force in this town now.
The CTU made a real and serious attempt to educate its members over the implications of what took place in Wisconsin to almost all public sector workers. Unfortunately, that educational process was far from complete by the time the entire issue of SB7 was facing the union and the mayoral campaign took place. Many members did not grasp the code that was being spoken in that campaign and the massive level of privatization that will now take place.
The bulk of the CTU membership is not actively engaged in the big issues facing the union and all public sector workers. Teaching is an incredibly isolating job; the time teachers have during the school day to interact is very limited. Many CTU teachers have become very fatalistic about the long-term prospects of their profession and are hoping against hope they will have a job over the next few years, a pension, and some sort of health care once they leave teaching.
The youngest teachers in the system are often completely overwhelmed by college debt. One year ago the US Department of Education issued a report showing the default rate on federally backed college loans was 6.9%, a week ago DOE issued a new report showing the number jumped to 8.9%. People who really study the issue of young college graduates and debt believe that there are so many loan recipients that are on extended repayment plans, graduated repayment plans, and income-contingent repayment plans that the real default rate is hidden. There is a desperate pool of college graduates that will teach on the cheap and this presents a real challenge in getting to the 75% strike vote required to contain moves by CPS that will drive down the effective wages of teachers.
The normal reaction of the CTU membership is - throw the bums out -if the union leadership did not deliver for us. Well that attitude presumes that the union is basically a service provider for its members. That idea has been drilled into the heads of union members in our country for a long time now, there is a name for it: bread and butter unionism. When you are faced with extinction from powerful forces attempting to contain costs in the public sector that idea clearly has its limits. Maybe teacher unionism will need to build itself back up after a serious period of setbacks looking back to a time when teachers in Chicago had very few labor rights and fundamentally conspired against the Board using what would be called today wildcat strikes and other unauthorized types of actions. Maybe these teachers of the future will not even work directly for a public school system but instead for basically private entities, either not for profit or for profit that will receive over time fewer and fewer inflation adjusted dollars to educate urban children. For sure times are changing fast and the future will be very different than things have been for a long time.
Rod Estvan
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
Oh to be young and know everything. To be unsuccessful in one area and fall back into teaching -- then criticize those in the profession! Ignorance, how I love thee.
I plan to be a "lifer" in education. You won't find me passing out worksheets and letting the inmates run the asylum. I keep up to date on research, politics, content knowledge, and of course, the lives of our students (their neighborhoods, the gang relations, trends and sayings, and so forth). I've been at my school longer than most of the teachers. We see extensive turn over in the new teachers. The newbies run themselves out by constantly reinventing the wheel. They run around like dogs chasing their tails. They are always quick to criticize and say what they would do, but how well do they teach? How effective are they? How do they students respond to someone who is a know-it-all? I'll give you a hint: they aren't as great as they think they are.
Students absolutely need stability. My school has high turn over for various reasons: administration, low pay, lack of support.. the list goes on and on. It is sad to see graduates come back to visit and hear them ask where is Mr. So-and-so, and is Mrs. What's-her-name still here? They can visit 2 or 3 teachers tops, as they rest have left the profession or the school. The new students come in and quickly understand that they don't have to listen because their teachers aren't committed to the school or the students' learning. Why listen to someone who'll move on in a year or two? Why respect someone that doesn't care enough to stay?
By all means, there are crummy teachers out there. There are also crummy doctors, lawyers, cashiers, waitresses, airline pilots, etc. Teaching isn't the only profession that has slackers or lazies employed. All fields should remove employees that are hurtful and negligent. Unfortunately, in education, it appears that experience is becoming to mean "bad" and what administrators really mean to say is, experienced teachers cost money. Why pay a 20 year skilled professional $80,000 when you can hire 2 newbies for $40,000 a piece? If you were going to get surgery, would you want the new doctor that just got hired or the experienced person who has years of good results? WHY do we treat teachers like they are expendable and disposable?
I want to be a teacher for life. Unfortunately, the high and mighty attitudes that attack my profession make me want to leave. I am tired of being told I am bad at my job because I get a higher salary or because I am not 22. I am tired of people telling me I am not committed because, god forbid, I have to go home and cook dinner for my family. Teachers are treated like dirt, and it wouldn't be quite so bad if it was just non-educators who did the trash talking. But when wet behind the ears rookies come in and start talking like they know what is going on, it really yanks my chain. When you can tell the difference between your hind end and a hole in the ground, then we can talk. Until then, zip your lip and learn. Learn what it means to be a teacher. Learn what it means to be dedicated to a school and to a community of learners. Learn what it takes to handle the stress of teaching. Learn how to balance out your personal life with your professional life, without sacrificing either. LEARN before you speak.
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
I agree with you 100 percent lifer. In my opinion new and old can both teacher each other A LOT....we need to be on the same team..not like that other guy. Sadly, what comes around goes around. Treating teachers like Hugh Hefner treats his wives (dump them after 25) has no place in education. Education is learning but it is also experience and giving children hope!4
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
BRAVO!!!!
For the Record: Probationary teacher non-renewals
Thank you, Lifer. Since when is it a horrible thing to want teaching as a career and to love it for life? It used to be that one studied or apprenticed for a job to practice the rest of one's healthy life. The comment that "lifers are the problem" smacks of prejudice. To equate incompetence with age is as bad as negating new teachers for enthusiasm. Most of the lifers I know are as enthusiastic as they are devoted and learned; most of the new (and not necessarily young) teachers I know are trying to get what the lifers have been fighting for in the profession, including with the unions.
So your comments hating on lifers are rude, misinformed, and exactly the cause of contention that prevent teachers from collaborating on behalf of the students and improving learning. Children are priceless, but that doesn't stop the anti-union, anti-public-school teacher crowd from wanting to line children up in a computerized row on a shelf and slap a pricetag on them so the corporations can claim "Best bang for the buck."
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