Chicagoist: Teachers Given Permanent Recess

spook

Wed, 02 May 2007 11:44:54 -0600

Chicago Public School Teacher Tenure for Dummies 101 Don’t: get awards, grants,or any other form of positive recognition. It just makes older teachers/ administrators uncomfortable at best, at worst makes them look lazy and out of touch Do: spend a lot of time watching reality TV and soap operas to bond with fellow institutionalized teachers/ administrators. Don’t: attempt creative ways to empower/engage students by incorporating progressive ideas and cutting edge topics into curriculum. Do: develop a healthy disdain for students especially the poor ones. remember its “US against them” Don’t: Get students to conceptualize and analyze Democracy and Community Do: Get yourself a fancy foreign car either on credit or by marrying somebody rich because it communicates important values to other teachers and students Take a page from Barack O’bama; don’t upset the apple cart challenge the status- que But remember to smile a lot

Lulu

Wed, 02 May 2007 11:12:53 -0600

westie--I don't know of any other job when you can be fired without any sort of HR paper trail, particularly after five years. The fact that a principal can let someone go with absolutely no warning is a problem.

hra

Wed, 02 May 2007 09:06:43 -0600

sure westie, we teachers are also part of the real world. but, when we're doing a "superior" job, termination doesn't really seem right, does it?! it has nothing to do with job performance and everything to do with politics.

westie

Wed, 02 May 2007 08:12:52 -0600

"if one spends the first five years of one's job worrying about being fired, it's going to affect their teaching and working with kids." Yes, just like every other job, you will worry about doing what your supervisors want you to. Are there bad principals? Yes. Are even good principals rewarded/penalized for the wrong things, from time to time? Yes. But don't expect too much sympathy from any non-teachers for "being worried about being fired." It's called the real world.

CC1st

Tue, 01 May 2007 23:29:35 -0600

Lulu, I am sorry to hear about that - for you and many others that are great teachers, but had to leave. I guess I am wondering as a future teacher, (I am in a master's program now), are there other school districts in the area that don't have the 4 year tenure system? When I was growing up, I heard horror stories from suburban school districts and how easily they fire you before you get tenure. I heard that CPS didn't let you go that easily, but I guess things have changed, or I just didn't know what was going on. Navigating school politics is definitely not a class in grad school. I am not looking forward to doing that in my future teaching site.

Lulu

Tue, 01 May 2007 19:02:45 -0600

I was one of those 775 teachers. I have received "excellent" ratings every year and have been active in after school activities, professional development (including being asked to train other teachers at an all area event this past January) I was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Seminar scholarship 2 years ago, and am well respected by my peers, and by parents and students. I know exactly why I was let go, and it has nothing to do with performance and everything to do with politics. Arnie Duncan sent out a press release stating that "the cuts allow principals to build the best teams for their schools, and they are not to solve budget problems or get rid of outspoken teachers." Yeah, right. I know that there are plenty of teachers that need to go, however summarily letting teachers go after four years seems unreasonable. Principals aren't required to give any sort of warning, or provide any sort of reason, whereas in any other sort of job there would have to be a whole documented paper trail before they could act. At least five people in my building were let go; a few were deserved, but the rest were let go for personal reasons, not ones that had anything to do with performance.

teacher named by chicagoist

Tue, 01 May 2007 17:27:34 -0600

oops! sorry for the multiple posts.

teacher named by chicagoist

Tue, 01 May 2007 17:23:37 -0600

sam - 100% of the students scored at or above grade level. do you work for the chicago board of education? your nitpick is a great way to avoid the real issue here!

teacher named by chicagoist

Tue, 01 May 2007 17:21:04 -0600

sam - amanda meant 100% of my students scored at or above grade level in math. that nitpick is a great way to avoid the point of the post. do you work for CPS Board of Education?!?!

teacher named by chicagoist

Tue, 01 May 2007 17:18:20 -0600

sam - amanda meant 100% of my students scored at or above grade level in math. that nitpick is a great way to avoid the point of the post. do you work for CPS Board of Education?!?!

Amanda

Tue, 01 May 2007 17:11:58 -0600

Thanks, Sam. Duly noted.

Sam

Tue, 01 May 2007 16:48:36 -0600

Just a nitpick, you can't be in the 100th percentile of anything. It excludes 100% of the data set - therefore you are better than yourself.

hra

Tue, 01 May 2007 15:50:33 -0600

another teacher at our school bit the dust today. and when she went in to ask for ways that she could be a better teacher or meet the school's new philosophy (teaching to the test and raising test scores), the principal shewed her out of her office and started yelling at her. so much for constructive criticism. it's all politics. the board of education in chicago doesn't care about the students. it's all about numbers....and money....mostly money.

ccc

Tue, 01 May 2007 15:29:38 -0600

when I worked for CPS, I would wait with baited breath every spring for my principal to tell me I was either fired or going to a 1/2 time position - and it freaking sucked. I had no reason to think I wasn't doing a good job, other than the fact that I didn't have tenure. There has to be a better way, and frankly, if one spends the first five years of one's job worrying about being fired, it's going to affect their teaching and working with kids. CPS totally needs a real mentoring/support program for new teachers. Their golden apple crap they've been using is a farce, much like many other things about that school district, but I digress...

Anonymous

Tue, 01 May 2007 15:00:58 -0600

The inverse is even worse - teachers who have passed that five-year window who keep their job simply because it's too much hassle to remove them. The tenure system is deeply flawed. I know several teachers who have been let go at the last possible moment simply because a district is afraid of granting tenured status to a teacher. There is no more loyalty anymore - school districts do too many stupid things like this to erode it.