Straight Talk from ISTA
Dec. 16th, 2010 11:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
possumcowboyStraight Talk from ISTA
Recently I have received several questions about ISTA’s position on various education issues that affect you as an educator.
I’m Nate Schnellenberger, president of the Indiana State Teachers Association and I want to clarify ISTA’s position on a few important issues like collective bargaining, teacher evaluation, merit pay and teacher tenure and seniority.
Let me begin with collective bargaining: collective bargaining is an orderly process that provides an effective and professional framework for teachers and school districts to meet, discuss and negotiate labor agreements and reconcile differences.
Since 1973, through collective bargaining and discussion, administrators have utilized the professional experiences of teachers to address relevant issues.
Teachers are uniquely qualified to engage in discussions about the working conditions that are most beneficial to improved student learning.
To deny discussion and bargaining on any facet of the education process is a missed opportunity to utilize the vast wealth of expertise possessed by Indiana’s teachers.
Opponents of collective bargaining claim that it is a large part of student achievement problems.
However data from the National Assessment of Education Progress show otherwise.
States in which there are no teachers covered under binding agreements score lower than states that have them.
Reports show that those states are among the lowest in the nation. In Indiana many of the best performing school districts are those which have had collective bargaining rights for educators for years.
The 20 top performing schools based on last year’s ISTEP results are all in school systems where teachers and administrators collectively work together under the guidance of PL 217.
So it should be clear that collective bargaining is not an impediment to student achievement. Needless to say ISTA supports collective bargaining as it currently exists.
Next, let’s look at tenure.
It’s a myth that K-12 teachers in Indiana have tenure.
What we do have is a due process procedure.
Due process is simply a means to provide a teacher who is facing dismissal with the relevant accusations concerning his or her performance and gives the teacher an opportunity to be defended before the local school board.
ISTA does not support keeping ineffective teachers in the classroom.
In fact we support the current practice that allows any teacher, regardless of seniority, to be dismissed for just cause.
No locally negotiated contract, or any state law, forbids the firing of a teacher who has been determined, through a fair evaluation system, to have performed poorly.
Seniority is a system that provides an orderly process to reduce staffing when necessary and that protects against arbitrary decisions by administrators to replace more experienced--and therefore, more expensive teachers--with less expensive ones. Seniority is not a performance issue and does not protect ineffective teachers.
We’ve also recently heard much about the “merits” of merit pay.
It is important to remember that there are many kinds of merit pay plans including merit pay for an individual teacher to merit pay for an entire school community for its good work.
ISTA opposes singling out individuals for merit pay bonuses because it fails to recognize the collaborative and professional nature of teaching.
ISTA is much more supportive of building-wide bonuses that might be provided to all staff or for schools that show outstanding improvement over time.
ISTA also questions how merit pay programs will be funded.
Especially during these difficult economic times, offering merit pay bonuses to select individuals means a reduction in resources for student learning or the reduction of educator compensation. ISTA does not support either of those funding options.
And, finally, where does ISTA stand on teacher evaluation?
ISTA strongly supports teacher evaluation.
ISTA believes that the teacher evaluation process should be fair, rigorous, consistently applied, realistic of the rigors of the teaching profession and should be based on multiple measures of evaluation.
ISTA does not support using a single criterion, like student test scores, as the sole measure of evaluation because ISTA does not believe that would provide a comprehensive nor defensible evaluation.
ISTA also believes that all teacher evaluation systems should have a clear focus on improving teaching practice to improve student learning.
I hope this brief explanation will help you better understand how your organization supports your interests on these important issues and I thank you for your work and dedication to the more than one million public school students in the state of Indiana.
Recently I have received several questions about ISTA’s position on various education issues that affect you as an educator.
I’m Nate Schnellenberger, president of the Indiana State Teachers Association and I want to clarify ISTA’s position on a few important issues like collective bargaining, teacher evaluation, merit pay and teacher tenure and seniority.
Let me begin with collective bargaining: collective bargaining is an orderly process that provides an effective and professional framework for teachers and school districts to meet, discuss and negotiate labor agreements and reconcile differences.
Since 1973, through collective bargaining and discussion, administrators have utilized the professional experiences of teachers to address relevant issues.
Teachers are uniquely qualified to engage in discussions about the working conditions that are most beneficial to improved student learning.
To deny discussion and bargaining on any facet of the education process is a missed opportunity to utilize the vast wealth of expertise possessed by Indiana’s teachers.
Opponents of collective bargaining claim that it is a large part of student achievement problems.
However data from the National Assessment of Education Progress show otherwise.
States in which there are no teachers covered under binding agreements score lower than states that have them.
Reports show that those states are among the lowest in the nation. In Indiana many of the best performing school districts are those which have had collective bargaining rights for educators for years.
The 20 top performing schools based on last year’s ISTEP results are all in school systems where teachers and administrators collectively work together under the guidance of PL 217.
So it should be clear that collective bargaining is not an impediment to student achievement. Needless to say ISTA supports collective bargaining as it currently exists.
Next, let’s look at tenure.
It’s a myth that K-12 teachers in Indiana have tenure.
What we do have is a due process procedure.
Due process is simply a means to provide a teacher who is facing dismissal with the relevant accusations concerning his or her performance and gives the teacher an opportunity to be defended before the local school board.
ISTA does not support keeping ineffective teachers in the classroom.
In fact we support the current practice that allows any teacher, regardless of seniority, to be dismissed for just cause.
No locally negotiated contract, or any state law, forbids the firing of a teacher who has been determined, through a fair evaluation system, to have performed poorly.
Seniority is a system that provides an orderly process to reduce staffing when necessary and that protects against arbitrary decisions by administrators to replace more experienced--and therefore, more expensive teachers--with less expensive ones. Seniority is not a performance issue and does not protect ineffective teachers.
We’ve also recently heard much about the “merits” of merit pay.
It is important to remember that there are many kinds of merit pay plans including merit pay for an individual teacher to merit pay for an entire school community for its good work.
ISTA opposes singling out individuals for merit pay bonuses because it fails to recognize the collaborative and professional nature of teaching.
ISTA is much more supportive of building-wide bonuses that might be provided to all staff or for schools that show outstanding improvement over time.
ISTA also questions how merit pay programs will be funded.
Especially during these difficult economic times, offering merit pay bonuses to select individuals means a reduction in resources for student learning or the reduction of educator compensation. ISTA does not support either of those funding options.
And, finally, where does ISTA stand on teacher evaluation?
ISTA strongly supports teacher evaluation.
ISTA believes that the teacher evaluation process should be fair, rigorous, consistently applied, realistic of the rigors of the teaching profession and should be based on multiple measures of evaluation.
ISTA does not support using a single criterion, like student test scores, as the sole measure of evaluation because ISTA does not believe that would provide a comprehensive nor defensible evaluation.
ISTA also believes that all teacher evaluation systems should have a clear focus on improving teaching practice to improve student learning.
I hope this brief explanation will help you better understand how your organization supports your interests on these important issues and I thank you for your work and dedication to the more than one million public school students in the state of Indiana.