That is not the case - there will be no up or down vote on the agreement.
Whatever Mulgrew agrees to with the NYCDOE will become the new evaluation system that you will work under.
The MORE caucus is demanding Mulgrew and the UFT put the agreement to a membership-wide referendum.
They have created a petition here that you can sign if you think the membership ought to get a say on the new evaluation agreement.
Here is the text of that petition:
A controversial new teacher evaluation system is under negotiation that will include the use of student test scores to evaluate teachers.One expression of the controversy is that one out of every three principals in New York State has gone on record opposing the state law that provided the framework for the negotiations.Once negotiated, the new system will be the largest change to our working lives in years, greater than the changes in many union contracts. Yet, there are no plans for a ratification vote by the membership.Therefore, we request a membership-wide referendum on whether to accept the new evaluation system once it is negotiated with the city, after a broad and democratic discussion about the new system within our union.
I urge you to sign that petition and send it to all your colleagues.
It may too late to stop the impending UFT sell-out on evaluations, but if thousands of teachers sign a petition calling for a membership-wide referendum, it will give Mulgrew and the leadership around him pause.
Just signed the online petition. Every single UFT chapter leader should be generating a hard copy/paper version of this petition. (Too bad that will never happen)
ReplyDeleteI teach a class of 32 with 24 current & 4 former ELLs. I am not a certified ESL/TESOL teacher and only 4 students are being pulled-out for ESL services.
ReplyDeleteTo use last year's state test as the baseline against the upcoming Common Core stadards-based test to calculate my value-added is insane. The email sent to teachers from Shael about the anticipation of drops in scores tells me all I need to know about how many points I am likely to earn.
At work I continue to try my hardest every school day. At home I find myself wondering if I should be finding a lawyer asap or if there is any chance this school year will remain S/U?????
I teach juniors who are taking the Regents exam in January. They haven't taken a state test since 8th grade. If they use the 8th grade ELA exams as the baseline for my VAM, that means they're using scores that are three years old. In that time, these students have had six different teachers, minus the handful that I taught as freshmen. (those have had five teachers, myself twice.) In what world would that be a fair way to evaluate my performance as a teacher?
DeleteYou can bet the newspapers will not report the truth about this. They will simply report the up or down scores as if they're Gospel truth.
I suggest learning everything you can about the VAM, protecting yourself with that information and, if need by, lawyering up and suing them.
You can be certain the UFT will not protect you.
Not unless by some miracle the membership votes the current leadership out come March and votes in real leadership.
When agreement is reached the evaluation system will expedite the termination of many teachers unfairly to say the least. Politically the Julie Cabanagh led CORE should be able to use this act by the UFT leadership to gain a larger percentage of teachers to vote against UNITY and begin a process of gaining suppoprt in chapters and gaining numbers of chapter leaders and delegates to try to undo the lopsided percentage of retirees and day care providers who vote for the UFT leadership and should have no say in the outcome for UFT presdient. Please dry home the point that no other union in the city allows retiree's and other titles to vote for their leadership.
ReplyDeleteTired of Unity
Just want to point out the NYC caucus is MORE while the Chicago group is CORE -- so vote MORE.
ReplyDeleteIt is not enough for individuals who read this to sign. It will be much more powerful if you school holds a chapter meeting and votes it up. They also should ALL sign the petition. Let MORE know if your school votes for it. The more schools that sign on the greater the impact. If MORE can show up on Weds with some backing behind it at the DA it could shake loose some people who can go back to their schools and rally around the idea of a vote.
My guess is Unity will not hold a vote and expect not enough people will notice. Show they are wrong.