Another Alternative Teachers Group, Plus Who Will Speak For Rural Schools? Jennifer Cohen Will!

3 Replies to “Another Alternative Teachers Group, Plus Who Will Speak For Rural Schools? Jennifer Cohen Will!”

1. The heroism of the teachers in the Chardon tragedy reminds us that the most significant change is brought about daily by the people who are actually WITH the students.

2. And an even better comment to the LIFO suction:

   Mr. Eide, you and Mr. Green write in the plural “as teachers, our primary goal is to ensure that we put our students on a track…”

   Yet you, Mr. Eide, are not a teacher. You quit after just a couple of years. Since you once WERE a teacher, surely you know that misrepresentation is one of the cardinal sins of any sort of persuasive piece.

   Regarding seniority and evaluation – Soo….if evaluations are effective, then teachers in need of improvement will be on that track, teachers who are sufficient will be on that track, teachers who are being moved towards exiting will be on THAT track….This is all separate from the seniority system, which is a fair system that assumes administrators have been doing their jobs and taking care of evaluations, and when, heaven forbid, layoffs are required, all teachers are, in that sense, co-equal.

   Mr. Eide (and Mr. Green, who is an actual, practicing teacher and should know this), seniority and evaluation are two different things and you know it. Evaluation is an on-going process over time, continually evaluating teachers and exiting those not performing and who have been given a chance to pull it together. Seniority, on the other hand, only happens when the district has to lay off staff, then seniority assumes evaluations have already been done and thus seniority is the fairest way to lay people off.

   NO ONE should be laid off…did I see that in your argument? I don’t think so…but if they should, then seniority, assuming evaluation has been doing its job, is the fairest way. If evaluation HASN’T been doing its job, then it can’t be used for laying off (in lieu of seniority), now can it?

   Money point:
   NO ONE should be laid off…did I see that in your argument? I don’t think so…but if they should, then seniority, assuming evaluation has been doing its job, is the fairest way. If evaluation HASN’T been doing its job, then it can’t be used for laying off (in lieu of seniority), now can it?

3. The obvious compromise on the LIFO issue would be to implement LIFO policies on a school-by-school basis rather than a district-wide basis. That way every school takes the same hit.

   In a city with declining enrollments that would provide a powerful incentive for veteran teachers to chose to work in the more “challenging” schools where they will likely have more seniority than they would have at more popular schools.