catalyst-chicago.org

What makes a teacher effective in the classroom?

This past school year, 80 Chicago elementary and high schools “field-tested” a potential new framework that would help answer that question, now one of the hottest in the education world. Called Teaching for Learning, the framework could become one part of a revamped evaluation system — mandated by the January 2010 Performance Evaluation Reform Act — that CPS is to have in place in 300 schools by 2012 and the rest of the district by 2013.

Negotiations among CPS officials and union members whose raises were voted down last week will likely begin in early July, CTU staff coordinator Jackson Potter said.

Legislation has emerged in the Illinois Senate to address objections by the Chicago Teachers Union to a bill curbing tenure and strike rights. The original bill, Senate Bill 7, is on Gov. Quinn’s desk and he has said he is prepared to sign it.

However, negotiations on amendments continued after the CTU took issue with provisions that it said were inserted at the last minute without its knowledge and further eroded its contract bargaining and strike rights.