'Huge Changes' for Schools

This is the title of a Chicago Sun Times article from Thursday's, April 14 edition. The article outlines various changes to CPS and non-CPS schools that the Illinois State Legislature is ready to vote on.

One of the noteworthy points is the fact that the items in the legislation were arrived at by including teachers, union officials, reform groups, business personnel, school boards and legislators. That is wise as any agreement must necessarily include all of the stakeholders.

Here are some general points (and some specific ones) included in the legislation. The plan would reduce the period of time it would take school boards to dismiss poor performing tenured teachers. The legislation also enables the state school superintendent new power to rescind the teaching certificate of a poor teacher.

The proposed legislation calls for the CPS to lengthen its school day or school year. This is something I have proposed for some period of time. If the day or school year is extended then the collective bargaining process would be engaged in if there is to be additional pay or benefits for the added time of teaching. As it should be!!

One of the last items contained in the package deals with the sticky issue of tenure. It would be granted to new staff only if the teacher has positive evaluations in two of three years during the four year probationary cycle. I see no reason why it can't be upped to include three years.

In general, it is a pretty solid piece of legislation however, some questions remain such as the evaluation process (who decides its make-up and who does the evaluation?), who determines the added length of the school day or year and what is an appropriate amount to pay teachers for the added instruction time? These are but a few of the important questions that need to be answered in order for there to be a reasonable chance of success.

Thanks,
Dick