Questions about your evaluation?

A number of faculty members have expressed concerns about their most recent evaluation to LNEA teachers' rights' representatives. I had the opportunity to attend a training by Sue Pressler, whom I understand has also trained district and building administrators, and I would like to share some of the information I gleaned from that session. If you were there, please feel free to add your comments!

Just as we design rubrics when we want kids to know what quality work looks like, the rubrics of "Framework for Teaching" (FFT) are designed to show us what quality teaching looks like and aid administrators in discussing our work with us.

Ratings of "basic" are not "bad" ratings. There's nothing wrong (according to the trainer) with being in the basic category. Furthermore, if your teaching assignment or the curriculum changes, you can expect to go back to basic. A 30-yr veteran should have exemplaries but NOT necessarily in everything. Ratings that are "exemplary" across the board should mean you are not only very experienced and accomplished at teaching what you're teaching, but also practically a candidate for canonization!

The professional appraisal system is designed to focus on teacher growth by emphasizing reflection on our teaching and by encouraging discussion among teachers and their supervisors about what constitutes good teaching. Our professional development and PLC or other collaborative work should be intricately meshed with the evaluation process. Evaluation should not feel like a "hoop" that we must jump through, but a natural part of the improvement process--and we all have room to improve.

The LNEA members who participated in the development of the evaluation system were striving to ensure that it met the quality standards described by KNEA at http://www.knea.org/profession/qualitystandards.html. The evaluation system is part of the negotiated agreement, so we would like to hear your suggestions about how to strengthen it and ensure that it is put into practice in a manner that helps teachers improve.

If you are interested in this topic, here are two related resources that you may want to review:

"Improving Student Learning Requires District Learning," by Robert Rothman in Kappan, September 2009, pp 44-50.

"Creating Strong Evaluation Systems," by Peg Dunlap in KNEA Issues, October 2009, pp 4-5.

Ginger Riddle

Collaboration and Negotiations

Greetings! LNEA has entered into a commitment to collaboration with district leadership. Board members, central office staff and LNEA leadership are committed to finding the best possible way to work together toward the common goal of school improvement. Dr. Harris, in her statement regarding the leadership qualities we are looking for in our administration, has said, “It is important to me that our building leaders can build relationships with our staff and students and that their main mission is to help teachers and students grow. We want to build a family and create a culture where our staff and students feel valued. We want our teachers to feel that our leaders are here to help them grow instructionally to improve student achievement.” And, she has asked for further input from staff regarding specific leadership qualities. Additionally, LNEA leadership and Dr. Harris have signed a document, “Commitment to Collaboration,” that states: “We believe the most effective way to improve student achievement in USD #453 is through collaborative efforts. Positive leadership at all levels in the district minimizes conflict and fosters collaboration which in turn improves student achievement and the general health of our district. We wish to collaboratively pursue creative ways to address empowerment and improvement of staff, especially training in collaborative decision making through Partners in Collaboration – Kansas (PICK), a support for interest-based bargaining.” In addition to committing to collaboration in this formal way, the school board recently voted to endorse this training. We see a firm commitment from board members to support interest-based bargaining this spring. We are looking forward to the training in this method of bargaining, which will take place at the board office on Saturday, March 6. We believe this training will allow us to approach negotiations in a collaborative, rather than a potentially divisive, positional posture.

Negotiations: Notice letters for negotiations were exchanged on February 1, as required by law. LNEA opened 4 articles: Duration, Salary, Fringe Benefits, and School Calendar. The board opened 6 articles. In addition to the opening Duration, Salary and School Calendar, they also opened Duty Day and Vertical and Lateral Movement. Obviously both teams feel the need to concentrate on financial issues this year. Please know that we will do our best to secure the most beneficial working conditions and financial situation possible, and we are confident that interest-based bargaining is the best way of achieving this.