Council of Local Presidents

Linda Alder of the State Office of Education came to speak on the Educator Effectiveness Project.  The standards are on a continuum of professional teaching practice and are tied to the Common Core.  The Project is now working on aligning Teacher Preparation Programs and preparing an evaluation system for university preparation programs.  This will not be a full-on accreditation program, but it will require a yearly report.  This would look at the part of the program that recommends teachers for licensure.  Another committee will develop support tools for teachers.  See Educator Effectiveness Project website for more information.  See UEN for professional standards. 

The Joint Educator Evaluation Committee  needs to review JPAS and communicate with stakeholders.  Districts should "recognize" great teaching and have "consequences" for poor teaching.  Concern about districts only using a summative evaluation (JPAS observation) and not following through with the formative evaluation (JPAS interim) to help support teachers who need help.  There must also be an annual rating (federal requirement) of Highly Effective, Effective, or Ineffective.  Linda hopes an interview part can be added.  Research shows that having a third party evaluator can provide a more valid evaluation.

Three pieces in annual rating include measures of instructional quality (i.e. JPAS), evidence of student growth (i.e. benchmark tests), and parent and student input (i.e. unknown survey).  Districts can define other factors to add to the annual rating.  There is also an administrator version.  The State Board requires all licensed professionals receive a rating, except for superintendents.  The next couple of years are going to be hard as we make this transition.

Educator Day on the Hill will be held on Fridays throughout the Legislative Session. 

In the upcoming legislative battles, we will need all members to do ONE thing they have never done before.  See this video on the difference one degree can make.  You can make the difference.  Key issues in education include:

• attacks on collective bargaining
• eliminate payroll deduction for association dues
• public education employment reform
• orderly termination
• TABOR (taxpayer bill of rights)
• tuition tax credits (vouchers)
• merit pay
• tenure
• evaluation
• school board governance
• public education funding
• parent trigger (majority of parents could vote to change school into a charter)

One way to help the association be proactive in breaking the view that UEA protects bad teacher is to start a Peer Assistance Review (PAR) program.  The UEA Board will look at sending a bill to the legislature about PAR in an effort to police our own teaching ranks, raising the bar on professionalism.

E-Z pay dues transition from payroll deduction to electronic fund transfer (EFT) for payment of dues.  AR's will be trained on how to "flip" to E-Z pay at the meeting on November 16.  Another option will be to pay by credit card.  E-Z pay will come out of your account on the third of the month starting in October 2012.  This program will force JEA to go from 12 payment to 10 payments, causing an increase in the monthly amount from October to July with no dues withdrawl in  August or September.