08/19/08 Greenwich Time Newslinks For Tuesday

The Best Teachers Get The Most Pay.

Is This The First Step Towards Merit Based Pay
In The Greenwich Public Schools?

Apparently Teachers in Greenwich have put their support behind a merit-based pay scheme,

Perhaps the teachers union now realizes that their members would stop leaving the profession or job-hopping between schools if their pay reflected their competence and qualifications.

HEADLINES:

Is This The First Steps Towards Merit Pay For Greenwich Teachers

The "Teacher Evaluation and Professional Learning,"program is slated to be enacted as a mandatory district-wide program in 2009-10

QUOTES:

"We performed horribly," Bonnie Butera, principal of North Mianus School recalled. "It was a real wake-up call."

"The idea is to improve the classroom for kids by helping teachers," said Ellen Flanagan, the district administration's human resources director, who helped create the new system." Principals are saying, clearly and concisely, 'This is what we expect of you, and these are the tools we can give to help you achieve that.'"

"Getting feedback from other teachers and having the principal come in and see exactly how you're doing - it's invaluable," said Kathleen Ramirez of North Mianus, who participated in the pilot program last year. "I think my kids became more active learners because of this."

THE STORY:

Students' test scores become part of teachers' evaluations

By Colin Gustafson/Staff writer
(colin.gustafson@scni.com or at (203) 625-4428)

Article Launched: 08/19/2008 12:23:35 PM

Alarm bells started sounding for Bonnie Butera, principal of North Mianus School, two summers ago as soon as she saw her students' standardized exam scores in reading and writing.

In spring 2007, less than half of her students performed at satisfactory levels in one of the Connecticut Mastery Test's four reading comprehension and reader-response sections; in another section, just under a third of her students passed, she said.....

...The benefits of the program were unmistakable, she said. By the end of the year, scores on the most troublesome section of the CMT section had jumped to 74 percent, from 32 percent, the prior year....

...This year, every principal in the district will participate in the program, the "Teacher Evaluation and Professional Learning," which encourages school administrators to take a more hands-on role in advising teachers and evaluating their performance...

....Critics say the new evaluation system, with its emphasis on regular meetings and classroom observations, is too labor-intensive and will make it difficult for principals to complete other administrative tasks. Some teachers, too, have said they worry about the time demands....

...Also this school year, the district will implement a pilot program for evaluating guidance counselors, school psychologists and speech and language pathologists, among other support staff.

Please Read The Full Greenwich Time Story

Comment:

Why didn't reporter Colin Gustafson interview and properly cover the critics who say the new evaluation system, with its emphasis on regular meetings and classroom observations, is too labor-intensive and will make it difficult for principals to complete other administrative tasks.

Mr. Gustafson also should have quoted disedent teachers, who have said they worry about the time demands.

This article looks like Gustafson got a Greenwich Public School press release that said

"Ellen Flanagan's program worked wonders for Bonnie Butera" and Ms. Butrea's favorite teacher, "Kathleen Ramirez confirms it"

Would it have been too hard to for Gustafson to pick up the phone and talk to the school teacher's union Representatives.

What do the guidance counselors, school psychologists and speech and language pathologists, among other support staff think of this program they are being mandated to participate in?

Update Wed. 20, 2008

Colin Gustafson has reposted the article here;

Teachers judged on

By Colin Gustafson
Staff Writer

Article Launched: 08/20/2008 02:30:24 AM EDT

....Under the old system, principals typically spent several days observing teachers in the classroom before writing evaluations, which ranged widely in length and detail, and did not use standardized benchmarks.

If a teacher was pursuing a specific goal - say, to become better at managing poorly behaved students - he or she was graded pass/fail. And there was no accounting for student performance - educators were largely rated on how well they appeared to be teaching during the observations....

Greenwich Time News Links Continue....

Sen. Lieberman leaving for Georgia visit

From A Wire report

Article Launched: 08/19/2008 01:01:27 PM

WASHINGTON - Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman is traveling to the Republic of Georgia this week as talk continues about his being on Republican John McCain's list of vice presidential prospects. Lieberman is an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats.

He said he was leaving Tuesday with Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham....

Pointing finger at the right target

To the editor:

For those town officials and Board of Education members who like to point the finger at the construction company for all the problems at Hamilton Avenue School and never accept any responsibility for their own actions, I would like to make some things clear:

The YMCA: complete; the Greenwich public safety complex: ahead of schedule and just below budget; Hamilton Avenue School: a year-and-a-half delay and $7 million over budget and counting.

Worth Construction had all three projects. What's the difference?

The difference with the YMCA and police station projects is that the school building committee and Board of Education did not have their hands on them. Those projects went smoothly and continue to go smoothly. Ask yourselves why. If they're looking to point fingers, they should be pointing the finger at themselves.

Mina Bibeault

Greenwich

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