| Why CTA loves seniority It helps them maintain the fiction that all teachers are equally good at their jobs |
| "School leaders hand out the pink slips loyal to the seniority rules -- a result of state law. Even reformers concede state law restricts the district to this automated application of the practice. "That doesn't mean the local teachers union doesn't like the rules. "The teachers union is willing to howl about the pain inflicted by these cuts on single schools like Jackson Elementary, but not willing to shoulder any of the blame for the make up of the rules that cause it to happen. |
| Maura Larkins: Schools need to start evaluating teachers effectively whether or not any teacher is ever laid off. Teachers are leaving schools all the time, and it's often the best teachers who are pushed out or who choose to leave. (Guillermo Gomez and I both left Chula Vista Elementary School District.) An unhealthy teacher culture that fears change and protects mediocre and poor performers causes many good teachers to leave, including some who are simply too disgusted to stay. We can't fire weak teachers because we don't have anyone to replace them, but professional observers should evaluate all teachers, and poor performers should be supported and supervised by good teachers. |
| VOICE OF SAN DIEGO COMMENTARY How to Layoff a Teacher of the Year By Scott Lewis April 10, 2008 When the new grandiose Lincoln High opened to students this year, it attracted too many students. It also attracted a young teacher from Chula Vista, Guillermo Gomez. I met Gomez at the teacher's lounge during lunch at Lincoln High recently. Gomez and his colleagues were planning marches and various ways to get their students to express their displeasure with proposed school budget cuts around the state -- cuts that, if fully implemented as proposed, would mean 913 school teachers would be laid off districtwide. Gomez would be one of them. A year and a half ago, dressed in black formal wear and smiling, the young teacher accepted one of the four awards given each year to the "teachers of the year" in the county. He had been a teacher for 10 years at Vista Square Elementary School in Chula Vista. Despite his success, the opportunity to teach at Lincoln High School's new School of Social Justice intrigued him, and Gomez moved not only into a classroom with older kids but into a new school district -- San Diego Unified. He says he took a $10,000 pay cut for the chance to teach at Lincoln. No doubt, Lincoln is an attractive place. There are tennis courts on top of the parking garage and each classroom has a state-of- the-art multimedia system. The executive principal, Mel Collins, strides around the campus barking instructions at security personnel and haranguing loiterers unsure, or unwilling to say, where they're supposed to be. At the old Lincoln, Collins said, a group of three young men, chatting and looking out over the baseball field during class time would have been overlooked, if seen at all. Not anymore, he says. In 15 minutes, I saw the principal dress down three security guards -- one for sitting down... It feels like good things are happening at Lincoln. Gomez clearly likes it. Not too long ago, though, his new employers repaid this enthusiasm with a pink slip. Now, talk to most anyone in the education world and they'll assure you that Gomez and 912 of his colleagues who have gotten the pink slips probably won't lose their jobs. They'll say the governor and Legislature will come to a compromise and the eventual cuts will probably be small enough that they can be "absorbed." You have to love that term in discussions about government budgets. It usually means that the infection of troubled times is handled not with a shocking amputation of services or fat but with something more like an injection of some kind of calming but lethal poison into the system. The symptoms of the budget's troubles are delayed, but the system's bones rot. "Everybody knows there's not going to be a 10 percent hit to education," said Camille Zombro, the president of the local teachers union, the San Diego Education Association. She added: "One or two percent can be absorbed." ...Gomez is one of 18 certified teachers at Lincoln who got the letter. It's not because the district and school don't value him and the others. They might like them very much. The problem is that Gomez is considered a new teacher in the city of San Diego. His years in Chula Vista mean nothing to the blind bureaucracy of school contracts. And since Lincoln is a new school that recruited a lot of new teachers and transfers from other districts and charter schools, the disruption of layoffs -- if they aren't fictional -- will be exaggerated. If the district must cut, Lincoln will lose 18 teachers. This is compared to seven at Clairemont High School, eight at Mira Mesa, 10 at Morse High and nine at Point Loma High School. The same thing is happening -- though worse -- at Jackson Elementary School, just south of San Diego State in east San Diego, where 24 of the school's 26 teachers received notices that they will be laid off if the budget cuts are as severe as they possibly can be. Sure, they will be replaced. But the people who come in will have gotten bumped down from schools where they wanted to be. They may have done all they could, in fact, to get away from places like Jackson and Lincoln... The old Lincoln was troubled. The new Lincoln is just getting started. If you rotate out a fifth of its teachers after the first year, you're not giving it much of a chance at the beginning. Why would anyone choose to hammer Jackson and Lincoln and leave other schools in more prosperous neighborhoods much less affected? ...In the teachers lounge that day were some of Gomez' colleagues, many of whom had also received notices that their employment was tenuous. There was Edward Moller, an art teacher, who's been a teacher for nine years -- in the San Diego Unified School District. But because his first job was at O'Farrell Community School, a charter school, he's denied seniority under rules devised by the teachers union and district. Moller was let go after cuts from O'Farrell last year. But his colleague, an English teacher named Chris Dier, left O'Farrell just because he wanted to be part of the new Lincoln High. Dier's enthusiasm was also welcomed with a pink slip... But a guy like Moller has to act on his pink slip. He can't rest his financial future on the blind hope that the teachers union president is correct when she scoffs that the governor can't possibly be serious about cutting the budget. Moller is currently applying for other jobs, hoping that the charter school High Tech High, where he once had an opportunity, might be willing to hire when the rest of the district fires. In times of trouble, charter schools have latitude to make budgeting changes that protect teacher jobs... ♦♦♦ School leaders hand out the pink slips loyal to the seniority rules -- a result of state law. Even reformers concede state law restricts the district to this automated application of the practice. That doesn't mean the local teachers union doesn't like the rules. The teachers union is willing to howl about the pain inflicted by these cuts on single schools like Jackson Elementary, but not willing to shoulder any of the blame for the make up of the rules that cause it to happen. Ask union officials about the disproportionate effect the layoffs would have on a place like Lincoln and they will say something like what Zombro told me. "The school board should have known it was going to have this effect when they decided to do this," she said. To do what? The layoffs were coming, we were told, from the governor's recommended cut of the education budget that would result in $80 million in cuts for San Diego Unified. So what could San Diego Unified have done to avoid it? "They could have decided not to lay off teachers," Zombro said. It's sort of like arguing that the Chargers could have avoided losing last year's AFC Championship Game by deciding to score more points than the Patriots. Yes, they could have. But how? Zombro claims the district is top- heavy, and she rattled off some stats. Across the state, the average ratio is one student for every 394 administrators. In San Diego, she said, it is one student for every 282 administrators. It's a good point -- ironically reminiscent, actually, of conservative gripes about the education system. OK, so say they cut administrators at San Diego Unified. There's a bit of a problem: remember what happens to them when you cut their jobs? They don't line up for unemployment, they bounce someone else out of a lower position. And the cascade of doom slides down to the guy at Lincoln. So give me something else. Well, it's simple, the unions contend, the state shouldn't cut education. The district won't have to lay off teachers if the state doesn't cut its budget... ♦♦♦ There are other ironies. Jackson Elementary, the one facing a brutal turnover in the event of the layoffs becoming reality, was just Wednesday listed as one of the "California Distinguished Schools." According to a piece put together recently by the California Department of Education, the school has narrowed the much- fretted-about achievement gap and improved its situation dramatically. Now, again, 24 of the school's 26 teachers could be replaced this year. No manager of a major organization would institute layoffs like this. Even government agencies, like the city of Chula Vista, give their departments a chance to hit budget targets. Collins, the Lincoln principal, says he could meet a target for budget cuts if he were asked. Months ago, he was asked to cut 5 percent of his budget and he got rid of $500,000 of that just by rearranging the school schedule. Without a change in state law, the teachers could never be evaluated by merit when discussing layoffs. The last time the governor tried to change a law like that, he almost ruined his political career. It will be a lot easier for him to layoff teachers... A report from the U.S. Census bureau last week put all the numbers out on the table. California ranked right in the middle when you compare how much the state spends per student on education. No. 25 out of 50. The average state in the country spends $9,138 per year per student. California spends just below that -- $8,486... Reader feedback ... 11. Lee wrote on April 10, 2008 2: 29 PM: "I taught for 35 years and knew several 'Teachers of the Year', and, although many were good teachers, many were also chosen because of their popularity or their ability to promote themselves. The very best teachers I knew were never the most popular, just the most effective. ... 14. Ochoa wrote on April 10, 2008 8:13 PM: "RE: ZOLLNER.... I also teach at Lincoln, two rooms down from Mr. Gomez. This is a great piece and it's an honor to work w/ an extraordinary educator who helps his students in and out of the classroom. In regards to the 10,000 pay-cut and the comments made by "ZOLLNER", districts always make exceptions to their "6 Year" rule and honor all years of service. The SDUSD did this for Guillermo and the reason why he had to take a pay-cut is due to the fact that the SDUSD ranks at the very bottom in salaries for teachers compared to other school districts. A teacher in Chula Vista w/ the exact same number of years makes about 10,000 more than one in the San Diego Unified School district. The move was obviously about contributing to his community, not his own pocket." |
| Interviewing to keep your job Voice of San Diego June 12, 2008 "...All vice principals underwent a new interview to compete for a shifting pool of jobs. The interview is modeled on the teachings of University of Wisconsin Milwaukee professor Martin Haberman, who studies disadvantaged students and the educators who help them best. Principals applying for new jobs were interviewed as well. "San Diego Unified signed a $23,000 contract with the Haberman Educational Foundation to train staffers in the interview process, which includes problem-solving scenarios and is meant to reveal the applicants' core values. Two people ask open-ended questions during a tape-recorded interview and score the answers. "It's a different kind of interview. You can't really bone up. Nobody really knows how they did," said Bruce McGirr, president of the Administrators Association and principal at Grant School in Mission Hills. "They walk out shaking their heads." "The Haberman Educational Foundation declined to release interview questions, but Grier offered examples of scenarios: How might a principal evaluate their school's achievement? How would they improve it? And who would they involve in that process? "You're posed with a situation you'd find pretty typical in any school, but especially in an urban school district. It could be a very simple question, but the answer itself reflects what you value," said human resources director Sam Wong. "What guides your actions, if not your values?" If their eyes glaze over, Grier said they aren't likely to succeed. |
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| SDEA President Camille Zombro Defends Union Voice of San Diego August 21, 2008 The San Diego Education Association is proud of our 90 year history. We are a union of over 8,000 talented and dedicated professionals who chose our dedication to children as a career. We work hard to provide great schools for the children of San Diego, and we do so despite huge challenges. Whenever we see ourselves reduced to personal attacks, like Mr. Bowers', it makes us wonder whose agenda is really at play. Most of us in leadership, staff and hundreds members of SDEA have been working 12-18 hour days since January trying to save the jobs of 900+ educators. We still have about 200 teacher layoffs, with school starting in just over one week -- and we haven't stopped working. We didn't choose this to be our priority, but we were put here by San Diego Unified leadership. It's both self-serving and false to say that the school bond for San Diego Unified is something we oppose. As we clearly stated in a letter to the Superintendent earlier this year, we have other priorities (fighting the layoffs) and would revisit our involvement once an initiative was finalized. SDEA was formally asked just today to support the bond, and our internal discussions are just beginning. Our members will decide what, if any, position we take on Proposition S. As for concepts like "merit pay," and "battle pay," abhorrent is an accurate description. What proponents of merit pay are really about is "pay for test scores." Anyone who has been forced to subject a child to the stress of high-stakes tests know what an inaccurate measure they really are. Our children are more than test scores and our work in San Diego's classrooms simply cannot be measured by any fill-in-the-bubble test. Differential pay for working in high-need schools or "battle pay" is an insult to our children and our profession. Paying a teacher more to work in a particular school is essentially saying that we'd rather pay teachers more to work in an unsafe, under-equipped and understaffed school than spend that money on reducing class sizes and providing a quality environment for children to learn and educators to teach. There is a long line of misinformed people who bash our teachers unions based on presumptions and a total disconnect from what we actually do each day. Unfortunately, there is a short line of leaders in San Diego Unified who are willing to roll up their sleeves and work with us to improve conditions for our schools. We make no apologies for organizing to better the working conditions of San Diego's educators: Our working conditions are the children's learning environment. --CAMILLE ZOMBRO Editor´s Choice The reader comments you won't want to miss. (Editor's Choice selection do not represent the views of the editors. They are comments that seem to add to the discussion as opposed to less productive insults or arguments.) Our children are more than test scores. Yet, their cost-free suggestions to improve achievement fall on deaf ears. I read the school newspapers. Adults should listen to them. Some ideas include: 1. Eliminate the Senior Exhibition - a time-consuming and outdated project. Based on this ONE project, a senior can be denied a diploma and participation in graduation ceremony. It is not implemented uniformly or fairly. The Sweetwater School District has a 12% drop-out rate. It eliminated the senior portfolio/exhibition years ago. 2. Seniors should be informed of the shortened schedule available to seniors when they enter high school(provided they have enough graduation credits). Thousands of 12th graders sit in classes they don't want or need. Those teachers could be freed up to teach 9th, 10th and 11th grade classes decreasing class sizes. I pass their ideas to you from students who have no clout in the system. Posted by Sally Smith | reply to this comment August 21, 2008 8:41 pm Hello, Ms Zombro! While we obviously disagree on a number of issues, we do have common ground. For example, there are a number of parents lined up to improve the working conditions for BOTH teachers and children. I just returned from our school (9:00pm) , where a team of parents and teachers have completed the second of several work parties doing just that- with our own hands, on our own time, at the end of our workday. I also agree with you that using test scores is a clearly unfair way to base a teacher's salary. Teachers face too many challenges to a student's success that are beyond their sphere of influence- poor home conditions, unsafe neighborhoods and general lack of support from outside the school. Pay for test scores? Absolutely not, we are in total agreement. Posted by Paul M Bowers | reply to this comment August 21, 2008 8:46 pm Ms. Zombro has captured the most important issue of all when she ended her comment by saying, "Our working conditions are the children's learning environment." Nothing establishes the need for parents, community and union to work together more powerfully than that fact. And I continue to believe that we must establish meaningful measures of teacher performance that are not limited to test scores. Let's get with it! Posted by Richard Lawrence | reply to this comment August 22, 2008 7:24 am 11 Comments so far on this story... I'm not an educator, so I don't know if the Senior Exhibition should be heavily weighed relative to graduation. I'll happily leave that decision to those qualified to make it. I had the privilege of spending the better part of a day this year volunteering on a panel at one high school's exhibition day. If you ever have the opportunity to participate on one of these, I cannot recommend it highly enough. The benefits to both students and our community were obvious and exciting. And the students that presented before our panel earned our respect and admiration. Posted by Paul M Bowers | reply to this comment August 22, 2008 7:57 am Ms. Smith, the only way schools could follow your #2 is to free school funding from Average Daily Attendance, or to revert to the way ADA used to be calculated. If a 12th grader could attend for only 4 hours and have it count as a full day for ADA purposes, such might work. Of course, master schedule issues may still interfere with implementation of your idea - ask any high school principal. Posted by Mr. Middleton | reply to this comment August 22, 2008 5:22 pm Ms. Zombro creates a straw man and then knocks him down in this sentence: "Differential pay for working in high-need schools or "battle pay" is an insult to our children and our profession. Paying a teacher more to work in a particular school is essentially saying that we'd rather pay teachers more to work in an unsafe, under-equipped and understaffed school..." Not all understaffed schools are unsafe or under-equipped. Many of them are simply in areas where poor minorities live, and too many teachers are reluctant to work in them. These reluctant teachers prefer to teach middle class English-speaking students. Differential pay is the best method so far offered to get experienced teachers to poor minority schools. Maybe it should be called "All kids are equal" pay or "Something's got to be done or we're all going to pay" pay. Posted by Maura Larkins | reply to this comment August 21, 2008 8:58 pm Mr. Lawrence got it exactly right when he said: "...[W]e must establish meaningful measures of teacher performance that are not limited to test scores." I have never seen a good teacher evaluation system in any school I have taught at. I think such a system would have to involve observations by teachers from other school districts. This time would be well spent, since observing others is a great way for teachers to get new ideas, and to evaluate themselves. I would also like to see standardized testing of teachers, not to find out if grade school teachers can do calculus, but to find out if they truly understand grade school math and have good basic skills, including thinking skills. Posted by Maura Larkins | reply to this comment August 22, 2008 9:47 pm " I would also like to see standardized testing of teachers, not to find out if grade school teachers can do calculus, but to find out if they truly understand grade school math and have good basic skills, including thinking skills... I have never seen a good teacher evaluation system in any school I have taught at." Are you also calling for standardized tests of basic grammar rules? Posted by Deep Thinker | reply to this comment March 11, 2009 9:15 pm |
| Why is school reform happening so slowly? Because those is control aren't thinkers and explorers; they have a clerk mentality Every day, everyone and everything should be in the same place it was in the day before. That's the philosophy of most teachers and administrators. The problem with most educators is that they are not in a learning mode. They like to have their system controlled, wrapped -up, routine, smooth, always the same. They don't like uncertainty, experimentation, open discussion, exploration. They like hierarchy and top-down decision-making, and uniformity. This is true of most union leaders as well as most administrators. They don't believe in democracy. They think students and parents should be required to jump through their idiosyncratic hoops before the kids are considered worthy of educating. |
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