If you are a teacher in any other district and think you have it rough, take a look at this...ridiculous and never ending! Received this through an email today! In just a few short weeks we will begin a new school year in Pittsburgh, and I want to take this opportunity to tell you about some important developments that will impact us all this fall. This year will indeed be a trying year for supporters of public education in our city. First, PPS has stated that they will be pursuing a new round of school closures to take effect in the fall of 2014. This will be the sixth round of school closures in Pittsburgh in the last few years. Closing schools unequivocally hurts students. Research clearly shows that when schools close, and students are moved to new buildings with new people and in new parts of the city, truancy rates increase, rates of suspension increase, and drop out rates increase. Additionally, closing schools almost always results in larger class sizes, which hurts student learning. In fact, research shows that committing to smaller class sizes can close up to 56% of the racial achievement gap. Second, PPS has decided to apply severe cut scores over the objections of PFT400. Cut scores are the cut-off points for deciding which educators should receive support for improvement and which educators should be fired. As you know, we have worked with PPS to develop a cutting edge teacher evaluation system that we intended to be used to build positive, collaborative, and meaningful teacher supports in our schools. Instead, PPS has decided to use this system to institute a plan that would put 15% of our teachers on employee improvement plans, and potentially put them on a track toward termination. The cut scores put forth by PPS do not follow best practices. They were set using a flawed method and over the prevailing view of experts in the field. And worst of all, it will only work to destabilize learning environments, increase instances of teacher turnover and attrition, and ultimately hurt student learning and achievement. Simply put, you cannot fire your way to better schools. PPS has also announced a round of paraprofessional furloughs this year, totaling 48 employees. There are some schools that will lose almost all of their paraprofessionals, which means students won’t have support to help them learn to read, to do basic math, or to help develop the skills they need to keep up with their classmates. Our children deserve high quality schools and the best opportunities to achieve. But you will never help a child to learn by investing less in their education. We stand firmly by the principle that we should be building the best public schools we can for all of our kids, not retreating from our commitment to them. We need to build communities of learning, with supports for both students and teachers to improve. We need to finally come to terms with the fact that what happens to a child outside of the classroom is just as important as what happens inside of the classroom, and that we will never close the racial achievement gap or improve student learning if we ignore the role that poverty and income inequality play in a child’s education. PFT400 will continue to stand for building quality schools, providing meaningful support for teachers, and for improving student learning.These are our top priorities because our children and our educators deserve nothing less.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 21:27:17 +0000
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