Union blasts Chicago Public Schools' tenure attack :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Education

Union blasts Chicago Public Schools' tenure attack :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Education

Union blasts Chicago Public Schools' tenure attack

Layoffs of worst-rated teachers OKd despite seniority

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June 24, 2010

BY ROSALIND ROSSI Education Reporter

Chicago School Board members Wednesday went on the attack against teacher tenure, agreeing to lay off the worst-rated teachers first -- regardless of seniority -- amid moves to raise class size and shrink a record budget deficit.
Chicago Teachers Union President-elect Karen Lewis immediately blasted the action as "very belligerent'' and "very confrontational.'' Union attorneys will examine its legality, she said.

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Mayor Daley watches as Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman announces new teacher layoff rules Wednesday.
(Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)

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TENURE VS. PROBATION

Tenure: A job status that gives teachers certain rights and benefits, particularly when their jobs are threatened. Statewide, public school teachers receive tenure after completing four consecutive, full-time years of satisfactory or better service. In Chicago, teachers rated at least "satisfactory'' receive the benefits of tenure after their third year, including the right to a due-process hearing.
Probation: A job status usually reflecting less experience. It's essentially the lack of tenure and the rights it confers.

Experts called the system's new layoff rules unusual but part of a "growing drumbeat'' to allow districts to use something other than seniority and tenure in determining who should be laid off, especially in tough economic times.
"It's quite unusual. It's controversial,'' said education consultant Julia Koppich, co-author of United Mind Workers, a book on teacher union reform. "But it's part of a growing trend -- not for school districts to do this, but to want to do this.''
Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman said the new policy, approved by a unanimous vote Wednesday, affects about 200 teachers, both tenured and untenured, rated "unsatisfactory'' by their principals. It allows CPS to lay off even the most senior, tenured teachers with more than four years of experience who are rated as "unsatisfactory'' before dropping newer, higher-rated teachers.
The policy would be invoked if CPS raises class size to 35 to fill its budget hole. Officials also hope to use it during annual layoffs of teachers because of decreases in student enrollment, said Rachel Resnick, head of CPS labor relations.
Under the current CPS evaluation system, principals annually rate teachers as superior, excellent, satisfactory or unsatisfactory, based on classroom observations of their teaching and a checklist covering everything from lesson plans to punctuality, Resnick said.
Unsatisfactory teachers are given a chance to "remediate'' their