Waiting for Superman

Gail Collins has a great column in the NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/)
today talking about the movie "Waiting for Superman" that follows five urban students in their quest to find a better education. NBC and MSNBC have been discussing education all week and there has been a lot of "union bashing". The column is worth reading.


Rick

Jordan School Board ratifies agreement with teachers for lanes and steps

The Jordan School District has ratified the agreement with the Jordan Education Association that resulted from negotiations, mediation and finally a fact-finding hearing. Jordan teachers will receive their lanes and steps for this year, but will not receive them next year unless funding increases to pay for them. JEA went to impasse early in the process and mediation did not solve anything. A fact-finder was hired by the district and JEA (final cost to JEA was several thousand dollars). The JEA leadership and staff prepared extensive material that was presented to the fact-finder in a hearing. The fact-finder recommended that the school district pay the lanes and steps. Jordan did not receive steps last year, but took a one-time 1% bonus instead.

Weber resumes their mediation meetings with the district and our mediator, Lynn Trenbeath, next Monday, Oct. 4.

Ogden has not scheduled any further mediation meetings until we have more information about the federal money coming to our state. Our best information (from legislators) is that we probably will be able to use half of the federal money for salaries and benefits, because the legislature will cut the districts funding for this fiscal year because of the lack of tax revenues. The new tax revenue numbers will be here in November and the legislators tell us that they will meet in special session in November to discuss the money.

Rick

President Obama wants longer school year, fewer bad teachers

Erica Werner writes in an AP story found in the Standard-Examiner today: "Barely into the new school year, President Barack Obama issued a tough-love message to students and teachers on Monday: Their year in the classroom should be longer, and poorly performing teachers should get out."

Read the entire article at www.standard.net

rick

Herbert, Corroon agree education is priority

We can all sleep better tonight knowing that both candidates for Governor "understand educaton is a top priority for voters". Now if our schools had a $1000 for each time a politician had made that statement. I was glad that in their first televised debate that they were both asked the question about education being held "harmless" in the last legislature. What a joke... Corroon said "We have almost 24,00 new students coming into our education system, whether it's public or higher education, yet our budget was cut again. That's not holding education harmless, that's hurting our education system." The truth hurts doesn't it....

The Governor countered by pointing out huge funding increases to education over the past five years. He said, "Public education was facing a $400 million cut. They took a $10 million knick is all"...What BS.. Weber lost that much alone...Davis and Jordan lost twice that much...what is he talking about???

Again, our politicians speak "with forked tongue" when it comes to funding. The Utah Foundation shows that our effort to fund education has declined not increased. Anyone who has seen their pay cut and their class sizes increase realizes this.

Rick

Elementary Prep time for Weber elementary teachers

The W.E.A. has been working hard in negotiations the past several years to give Weber elementary teachers more planning time. We are happy to hear that starting in January each teacher at each building will have a weekly 30 minute prep time. The district is using the last of their PE grant to pay for specialists who will provide instruction to each class once a week. We appreciate the support of Supt. Jacobsen and Mike Skeen in working to help our teachers.

Rick

WEA Mediation to resume Oct. 4

WEA, Weber district and our mediator, Lynn Trenbeath, will resume mediation on Monday, Oct. 4. We will be discussing policy matters and also how we can utilize the Federal "jobs bill" money. Our legislators have informed us that they will probably meet in November for a special session to discuss the money. UEA is pushing for an October meeting. Please contact your legislators and encourage them to meet sooner than later and allow the money to flow to districts for local decision making.

Rick

Report: Teacher bonuses have no effect on scores

Read the AP story in today's Salt Lake Tribune at www.sltrib.com

Dorie Turner writes "Offering big bonuses to teachers failed to raise students' test scores in a three-year study released Tuesday that calls into question the Obama administration's push for merit pay to improve education. The report, conducted in the metropolitan Nashville school system by Vanderbilt University's National Center on Performance Incentives, was described by the researchers as the nations's first scientifically rigorous look at merit pay for teachers. It indicated that students whose teachers were offered up to $15,000 a year for improved test scores registered the same gains on standardized exams as those whose teachers were given no such incentives."

UEA has scheduled a meeting tomorrow with members of schools around the state who are involved either in the pilot merit pay program or SIG (School Improvemen Grant) schools who are offering bonuses based on assessments. Ogden's Madison, Dee and Odyssey are using the MAP assessment for a pre and post test to demonstrate growth that will allow their teachers to receive a $1000.00 bonus this year. We will discuss the programs at the state level.

Rick