Finally!

Well, check for cows jumping over the moon and pigs with wings and maybe people playing hockey in hell . . . because the Washington DC teacher union has finally settled their pay for performance enhanced contract with school chancellor Michelle Rhee.

Here is a quick article on it. This gets into some of the finer details.

This is from the former article -

Starting teachers will potentially be able to earn more than $72,000, as compared to the current $45,000. Teachers will be able to earn as much as $146,000, up from the current max of $87,000.

Wow!

Rhee initially introduce a "Red" and "Green" initiative. If you chose the red tier, you could keep tenure and make up to a 40 percent raise. If you chose the green tier, you had to give up tenure but you could make up to a 60 percent raise.

That was dropped. But that doesn't mean they didn't address the sticky situation of tenure.

. . . the contract takes a clever, less-confrontational tack on tenure and seniority. Unlike under the old "red-green" proposal, teachers aren't asked to give up tenure to get the big dollars. Instead, tenure is "redefined." DCPS documents explain, "This contract clarifies tenure to ensure due process rights for teachers without guaranteeing them a job for life" and that the "system must have 'just cause' before it can dismiss a tenured employee." Dismissed employees will still be able to fight terminations if they believe DCPS "did not follow the evaluation process." DCPS officials tell me the result is school leaders have dramatically more freedom; but only time will tell whether this language amounts to a velvet revolution, or something less substantial.

Another interesting aspect of the contract, is how they deal with seniority - and what we call 'stranding.' For those who don't know - seniority protects the veteran teachers (regardless if they are effective or not. If there's a math teacher who has been in the district 25 years (and has not taught anyone anything for the past 10 years) and if there's a math teacher who has been in the district for 5 years (and has been teaching the heck out of the kids for the past four years), according to seniority, the teacher with less experience is cut.

This would make Rhee's blood boil as the DC district is full of ineffective teachers (how else do you explain the dire straits they were in prior to Rhee's arrival? Certainly, there are contributing factors, but put an effective teacher in front of kids and watch them learn and grow. Period).

'Stranding' is a bit different. As I understand it, 'stranding' is a formula that seeks to protect other veteran employees. Let's say that the math teacher who has been in the district for 5 years also happens to have her middle school licensure. Then she could then bump out any teacher at the middle school with less experience than she.

But Rhee has found a way around this. In the new contract, the formula used for retaining teachers who are cut only allows seniority to account for 10% of how they determine who to keep. The bottom line is they look at effectiveness.

Now, though I love this, I have to question how they define 'effectiveness.' If they simply say test scores, then I shudder. That might be just as ineffective as the previous system.

Many believe this new contract will have ramification for the rest of the country. Many fear that means the end of tenure and the arrival of pay for performance.

Time will tell, but it certainly is an interesting time to be in the profession.

Here is one final editorial on the contract.