Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

"The School Committee countered with its own unfair-labor-practice filings and in January, the board unilaterally made significant teacher salary and benefit reductions that are currently being contested in Superior Court."

The teachers union charged the SC with an unfair labor practice at the SLRB. The SC countered by taking the teachers union to Superior Court, saying that the court had jurisdiction not the SLRB.

NUMBER OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS ACHIEVING PROFICIENCY IN E PROV . 54% READING AND 14% MATH. TAKEN A CLOSER LOOK AT MATH. YES, 86% OF THE E PROV STUDENTS CANN'T PASS A BASIC MATH TEST.
ISN'T WONDERFUL THAT CASH REGISTERS DO THE SUBTRACTION FOR THEM. COUNT YOU CHANGE AND THANK A TEACHER/UNION. PARENTS, THEIR YOUR CHILDREN AND OUR FUTURE. DEMAND MORE.

Little Johnny comes into the 4th grade class with "failing" math grades.

His aggregate score is say a 20...at the end of the year Mrs. Smith

has worked with Johnny...his aggregate score is now a 50!

BUT he is still failing, so she is given a "poor" performance rating.

Statisticaly Johnny has improved 150%, THATS TEACHING!!!

But the district sees only the "50", he is failing and she is rated "poor"
Mr. Jones teaches in a class where the children are more affluent, they come to school prepared and well fed.

Little Suzy enters his 4th grade class with excellent math skills, she scores an aggregate 85 on the tests. At the end of the year she scores a 90 on the tests.

Is Mr. Jones a good teacher or a bad teacher???

Statistically Suzy has only improved less than 10% compared to Johhny who improved 150%. BUT Suzy is "Highly profecient" and johnny is still "Not prefecient"

NOW CLASS... PAY FOR PERFORMANCE

WHICH TEACHER SHOULD EARN MORE AND WHY????

Here is Step Three: ..... All teachers’ performance shall be appraised by their principals with review and approval by the Superintendent or his/her designee. Based on the results of the appraisals, teachers shall be placed into four categories: Pre-Basic Teacher (automatic for non tenured teachers), Basic Teacher, Pre-Master Teacher, and Master Teacher.

No where does it list what the appraisals shall be based on. It could be that the principal likes or doesn't like the teacher. This step is in part already a part of the formula. If the principals did their job you wouldn't have to worry about teachers with tenure who aren't good. You can still get rid of tenured teachers if it was decided they aren't doing a good job by having them meet requirements that are not being met.

How will the principals decide which math, phys. ed., art, music, etc. teachers are doing a "masters" level job? How many observations will it take for the principal do decide this? When will that principal have time to run the school when they would need to spend so much time in each classroom to do a fair analysis of the teacher.

Union what union HA HA HA Good going Anthony !

You guys are going down. Welcome to reality. You've been on the gravy train for so long. Look what you've accomplished with you students. Very low test scores. Barely literate some of them. But yet you still protect the bad teachers. Now you are paying the piper.

From the outside, for non-teachers, this idea seems - I'm sure - like a valid one, but those of us in the trenches know that there is far too much corruption within the individual school systems for many of us to get a fair shot at pay increases. Many teachers across the state are living in an environment of fear and paranoia since these rumblings about merit pay began. Many could argue that in private industry, all raises are performance-based. I worked in private industry for a number of years before becoming a teacher 8 years ago. The difference is, in private industry, at least in the job I had, my boss saw me all the time, my work was evaluated on a daily basis, so I had constant opportunities to discuss my progress with my boss. In teaching, this is not the case. Individual teachers are evaluated by their department heads and pricipals only a few times a year, and sometimes every three years at that. Most of us know, you have one off day or off-lesson, and you are cooked. Most of us know, if your administration is corrupt, and you are not a "favorite", you are cooked. As for pay increases based upon students' test scores, let's get real. I work hard, much harder than I worked in private industry, and I have students with A+'s and students with F-'s. Should I be following these kids home like Michelle Pfeiffer in "Dangerous Minds"? What would you like for me to do besides teach, teach, teach and reteach only for some to fail? If this passes in my district at some point, I will be actively looking for employment in private industry. Personally, I don't need the constant stress of the job itself coupled with the fear that I might not be able to pay the bills in the coming year.