Commentary: What BCG “Collective Bargaining Reform” would mean for teachers | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Commentary: What BCG “Collective Bargaining Reform” would mean for teachers | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Commentary: What BCG “Collective Bargaining Reform” would mean for teachers

by Ron Whitehorne on Sep 04 2012 Posted in Blogger commentary

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Tags:

• ACTIVISM/ORGANIZING
 
• budget cuts
 
• teacher evaluation
• teacher quality
 
• teachers
 
• site selection
 
• Philadelphia Federation of Teachers
 
• School Reform Commission
 
• school closing
• teachers' contract

Among the recommendations in the recently released Boston Consulting Group report is a call that the District “undertake comprehensive collective bargaining reform” with the PFT and, simultaneously, “pursue legislative changes” in the school code.  Taken together the “reforms” advocated in this document would roll back important protections that are afforded teachers under the school code and union contract.

Some of the language in the report, or to be more precise, the District’s summary of the report, is deliberately vague, but what is consistent is the extension of the authority of the administration and the erosion of traditional union rights that provide a degree of job security for teachers.   Here are recommendations:

• Leveraging the new state teacher evaluation framework to design multiple points of feedback to evaluate and develop teachers, such as principal and peer observations, student achievement data, and student feedback
• Rolling out full "site selection" for all school vacancies for instructional and non-instructional staff, enabling principals to choose which staff will fill all vacant positions