DPS AND DCTA REACHED A TENTATIVE AGREEMENT ON MODIFICATIONS TO THE DPS/DCTA AGREEMENT
DPS and DCTA reached a tentative agreement on modifications to the DPS/DCTA Agreement.
To read the complete language click on the link below
DPS_Proposal_10_5_20_at_11_45_FINAL2.docx
Our changes made a bad bill a little better, work shifts to Educator Council
Thanks to the hard work of thousands of teachers, through emails and calls to legislators and testimony in Senate and House hearings, the Legislature amended Senate Bill 191 (SB 191) in numerous ways. CEA views nearly all the amendments as improvements to the bill.
SB 191 aimed for far-reaching changes to teacher and principal evaluation, a system that has historically been the responsibility of school districts with only simple guidelines in state statute. There were more than 200 proposed amendments to the lengthy bill in three weeks.
Our Association views fair, credible teacher-principal evaluation as a pillar of a solid public education system – along with time to teach and plan; parent involvement and support; meaningful mentoring, coaching, and professional development; small classes and adequate facilities; and all education employees working together to support student achievement and school improvement.
So, we have never disagreed with the idea that the current evaluation law, written 25 years ago, needs to be improved. But SB 191 definitely infringed on the role of the brand new Educator Effectiveness Council, established in December by Governor Bill Ritter. We opposed the bill from the outset as we wanted the council to do its work without predetermined outcomes – and the Legislature to set the parameters for a new evaluation system after that. Because SB 191 is not about good teaching, good learning, or good planning, we said, “Not so fast!”
True, the bill passed. But it’s not a well-written bill and it won’t -- bingo! -- make every child succeed in school and graduate from high school. The sponsors are wrong about all the magic changes in student achievement SB 191 will make overnight. We did achieve several gains by working with legislators, however, and they are worth mentioning here:
1. We stopped the bill from going too fast – extending the implementation timeline for by five years, giving the Council for Educator Effectiveness a sensible lenght of time to do its work and for us to test and improve the evaluation system.
2. We codified and protected the Council so that it will make all the recommendations about how we improve the current teacher evaluation system, no matter who the next Governor is.
3. The Council’s recommendations on a laundry list of evaluation system elements goes to the Legislature, not only the State Board of Education. This is a very positive improvement in the bill.
4. A big gain in the bill is portability of nonprobationary status. A teacher who has nonprobationary status has always been penalized when moving to a new school district, being forced back to probationary status. SB 191 ensures that an effective teacher can move without penalty.
5. No probationary teacher will have to start over just because we’re getting a new evaluation system. The law protects probationary teachers who are working to earn nonprobationary status, letting them count their current “satisfactory” evaluations toward the new “effective” rating.
6. We made sure that characteristics of various student populations are considered when using “academic growth” as a measure of effectiveness, including special education and student mobility.
7. We achieved the first statewide guarantee of an appeals right for invalid, unfair evaluations. This can be locally bargained and, even if it’s not, at a minimum teachers have access to a hearing before a third-party neutral who makes a final decision that districts must follow.
The 15-member Educator Effectiveness Council, with three CEA members, has a huge responsibility, beginning next Monday with the job of defining “effectiveness” and how to measure it. The council will determine how a new evaluation system will work; how 178 districts will develop their own systems; what training will be provided to principals and teachers; and more.
Our Association has supported and been involved in every education reform measure in this state – CAP4K, longitudinal growth, accountability, accreditation. We've always supported and been involved in teacher-principal evaluation too, and we will assist the Educator Effectiveness Council so it successfully completes its work.
Peer Observer Pilot Program MOU
DCTA and the Denver Public Schools have worked to jointly develop a Peer Observer Pilot program through the Gates Accelerator Grant which will include the development of a teacher evaluation system. Follow the link below to read the entire Memorandum of Understanding entered by the District and DCTA.
Measures Of Effective Teaching
Denver Public Schools (DPS) and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA) are looking for volunteers to participate in an exciting national research project – the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) – that aims to help educators and policymakers identify and support good teaching by improving the quality of information available about teacher practice.
As you know, current measures of teaching rarely take into account the full range of what teachers do, or the context in which they teach. The MET project is different. The MET Project begins right in the classroom and will explore a broad array of teacher measures: video observations, surveys, and student growth. It will compare these measures to each other, and to nationally recognized standards, and it will look at their inter-relatedness. It goes beyond the exclusive use of student assessments as a proxy for effectiveness and, instead, is geared to developing a set of measures that together serve as an accurate indicator of a teacher's impact on student achievement.
This two-year project will enroll approximately 3700 teachers from a number of school districts around the nation, including 200-300 DPS teachers.
We see the project as an exciting opportunity to contribute significantly to the teaching profession. The findings from this study will be used to help DPS develop its own definition of teacher effectiveness, and a set of multiple measures that are fair, reliable and based on data. It will inform the strategies we put in place over the years to come to identify, develop, support, incent and retain great teachers for our students.
Project Design
The project’s independent researchers will work with participating teachers at enrolled schools to collect six types of data over the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years: (1) four videotaped classroom sessions per content area, each year, (2) teacher reflections on their videotaped lessons, (3) student feedback, (4) a 60-90 minute supplemental student assessment in mathematics and/or literacy/English language arts, and/or Biology (5) an assessment of teachers' recognition and diagnosis of student misperceptions, and (6) teacher surveys focused on working conditions.
To acknowledge their contribution, participating teachers will receive a $1500 stipend over the 18 months of the project.
Finally, let us say clearly at the outset: this is a research project, and it assures full confidentiality to the teachers who volunteer. The data collected will not be used for evaluative purposes. Principals and other DPS employees will not receive copies of your videos without your explicit consent, nor will the district have access to the analysis of individual classroom sessions, survey results, or teacher assessments.
At the end of each year, DPS will receive aggregated analyses, based on both DPS and national data, which will inform our definition of effective teaching, our targeted professional development strategies
and the ways we measure and support quality teaching—key strategies DPS and DCTA agree are essential in our efforts to advance the learning of all students.
Eligibility
The MET project is focused on teachers in grades 4-8 who teach English and/or math, and high school teachers who teach 9th Grade literacy/English language arts, Algebra I, or Biology. This project extends over two school years, so participating teachers must be committed to teaching in the same grade/content area for both 2009-10 and 2010-11.
Due to the complexity of managing the project, participating schools must have at least six (6) teachers eligible and willing to participate in the study. More information, including the list of participating DPS schools, and the design and requirements of the study can be found at metproject.org/DPS.
We will be contacting all eligible teachers next week via their DPS email. To enroll, watch for an email from MET Project Admin, and click on the personalized link or call 720-423-3633.
We hope you will join us in this project; it may turn out to be one of the most meaningful projects of your career. And, thank you, as always, for your work on behalf of our students.
| Tom Boasberg | Henry Roman |
|---|---|
| Superintendent | DCTA President |
