Saturday, November 17, 2012

Council of Local Presidents

We had a presentation on UEN and the services they provide.  You can follow them in several places.  UEN website, UEN Channel on YouTube, UEN Professional Development on Twitter, UEN Professional Development Facebook Page, and through twice weekly (Monday and Thursday) text updates by texting UEN to 91011 to subscribe.

New UEA Membership cards are being mailed to your homes on Monday, November 19. Please watch for your card within the next week. When you login at myUEA.org to activate your card, you will be asked to create a password for your account. The new Access discounts website will be easier to search. You will be able to purchase some items from that website and have them sent directly to you.

UEA is looking for additional minorities to run for NEA-RA Delegate-At-Large and NEA-RA Successor Delegate-At-Large.  Both are three year terms where you attend the NEA Representative Assembly for three years from approximately June 28 to July 6. The next 3 NEA-RA's will be held in Atlanta (2013), Denver (2014) and Miami Beach (2015).  All expenses are paid for you to attend and represent Utah at the annual business meeting to direct NEA.  Please let me know if you are minority and interested in running, and I will assist you with filing a declaration of candidacy.  The deadline is Thursday, January 10, 2013.

Senate Bill 64 evaluation pilot is happening this year in a handful of schools.  The initial version of the bill outlined in this post ended in the much improved SB 64, which was supported and collaborated on by UEA.

Only 30% of subjects/grades in Utah are tested.  Difficult to measure student growth for evaluation purpose.  Student Learning Objectives (SLO) are going to be used to look at growth in non-tested subjects/grades, and possibly some that are tested would be optional.  Looking at teachers setting goals/learning objectives with administrators that shows learning outcomes by students.  Many teachers do this in an informal way already.  You would do this for a limited number of students (2-4).  Tested subjects/grades are going to use Student Growth Percentiles (SGP) in relationship to their academic peers.  SGP's would look at what we expect a student to do when compared to other students like them.   Even in tested subjects, teachers may want to use SLO's, because it gives an additional line of evidence in a teacher evaluation.  This is scheduled to be implemented in the 2014-2015 year.

In 2008, 47 members voted by mail.  In 2012, 2214 members voted by mail.  This is a great success!  It helps people who often haven't voted regularly in the past.  Please be prepared this coming legislative session to contact your representatives to tell your stories.  Public education is not a partisan issue.  We build relationships with those who were elected no matter the party to do what is best for public education.  Statewide, we were able to move the majority of elected officials more to the center.

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