As a city teacher I feel it would be premature to comment before hearing all the facts and just how the new pay system will work.

It does sort of seem like the details should have been shared with the teachers who will be voting on it before trying to turn it into a PR frenzy by bringing in the head of the AFT and the mayor to make an announcement later today.

It seems like they are setting up the members of the union by saying this contract is groundbreaking and everyone who is anyone likes it, so you should just rubber stamp it. And if teachers don't approve it, the teachers somehow look like the bad guys?

Nothing but rumors to speak of. The buzz words are removing step increases, removing bonus pay for degrees, and removing tuition reimbursement for a paid performance system. It's all speculation, but there's a nervous tension in school today.

No matter what the changes, I expect it's radical rash change to the way we do things without fielding in house testing or experimentation to collect positive (or negative) data on whether these changes will work.

People are a bit tentative in my building as well. Everyone is in wait-and-see mode.

I'm not teaching in a system that rewards cheating and short cuts, and cuts down a collaborative system by supposing that students are only taught by one teacher, as opposed to being a product of every teacher they've had.

I am not a teacher but I am curious as to how many veteran teachers will leave because BCPSS is the only system to do this.

Also they are being asked to agree to a compensation system based on a yet to be determined measurement system...it that the deaf leading the blind?

I wonder if we'll all start making the same amount at first. If they're getting rid of steps do teachers at the top come back down?!?

"a PR frenzy"

That's exactly what it was. It seemed like a lot of back-patting and not much of anything substantial. It started late and ran long, so I wasn't able to stay for the public comments, but I felt like I knew very little more than I did when it started. I was hoping they would distribute copies of the contract so we could read it for ourselves.

I'm a little ticked off that I sat through the two hour meeting when there were more details provided in the Baltimore Sun article. What a waste of my time.

Typical Solution:

Solve one problem while creating two more. Don't know the details, but I can only imagine the problems.

1. Cronyism within schools whereby principal's friend get's the raise.

2. God forbid that a school have 2 excellent teachers.

3. What happens to people who spent an extra 5 years/money doing a doctorate. Gone.

4. What about schools with good passing rates already?

5. One can only imagine how "easy" it will be to evaluate a teacher fairly.

An easier solution: provide modest, across the board raises and make it easier for bad teachers to be fired.

I think I might have just read there was a $1500 bribe for ratifying the contract? Isn't this buying votes?

I hope the Sun can get a copy of the full "agreement" (not a contract until ratified) soon and provide some details - like how many of the "achievement units" does it take to get any sort of pay increase? How many achievement units are earned for various activities? And finally, how is student learning really going to be measured and then linked to an evaluation? These all seem like essential questions in deciding whether the contract really is good for teachers.

A lot of the teachers are walking around my halls angry today grumbling, "how could the union agree to this" and other "the union did..." statements.

Teachers who read this blog. Please remember YOU are the union, not the goons on Metro Drive. YOU can get involved in union meetings, YOU can organize your staff and discuss how to vote on the ratification, and YOU can organize into a cohesive force and demand better representation in the future.

WE are the BTU, not Marietta and her best friends.

The PR blitz is fluff. BTU sells us down the river and then tries to make it sound like one of their dinner cruises. I will vote no until I see the full contract, as I'm concerned about the linking to the evaluation system.

I also feel like I wasted my time sitting through the meeting, when the only specifics I have are from this article. At least specifics were reported though.

What kind of deal can it be for teachers when The Sun, Nancy Grasmick, AAA, and others think it is so great? When it happened in DC, teachers were in an uproar. If the union cannot protect teachers, then join the other 93% of working Americans and get out of the union. Save your money and hire your own attorney if needed!

A parents view No-Child-Left-Inside. We under stand the importance of the need for teacher monetary, salary, compensation, contacts have its place in education reform.

With that aside some of us as BCPSS stakeholders, parents and guardians of district school children feel cheated because we have not been informed about the-how-too's and more...

•Growth in student academic achievement outcomes in core academic courses?
•Flexibility it gives to individual schools academic curriculum models?
•How schools tailor teaching and learning, on-line blended teaching and learning, their structures to students' needs?

I think one of the most interesting thing about all this extra money for teachers and how BCPSS now has the highest starting salary in MD was published in this article. BCPSS will ending spending about the same amount of money with these new salaries as with the old system.

I am not a teacher, but if I were, this proposed contract would give me pause. And certainly for experienced teachers, this sounds like a career-ender. People who go into education and accept manipulation like this are either stupendously heroic or fools.

So the 150 TFA teachers who were coming anyway get an additional $1500 at the start of their 2 yr stay. I'm all for paying teachers but this is a comical addition. Why not give the $1500 sign on to new teachers who are fully certified, instead of giving it to the TFA folks who the system already pays for?

Every teacher needs to go to Poly on October 14 between 12:00 and 3:00 and vote against this contract. We do not want our pay raises dependent on an evaluation system that has not even been developed yet.

The full agreement is on the BTU website now (http://tinyurl.com/BTU2010). While I am skeptical of the work-in-progress evaluation system, there seems to be an out at the end of the contract that if there is not evidence that this new contact produced higher student learning and more opportunities for teacher advancement, the pay scale will go back to the old step system. Seems like it could be a worthwhile risk...especially since this year will use the old evaluation. Next year will most likely be a pilot of new system and the third year might be full implementation?

I, for one, want to see and read a copy of the agreement and make up my own mind. Cutting edge agreement it may be but I think that we need to see it --in print--before making any type of judgment.

I think it's a little sad, and a reminder of what Inside Ed used to be and what it isn't anymore, that there hasn't been a new posting in about 36 hours on this blog, and none since the announcement of the contract. This blog used to be a living, breathing community where we could have talked about the issues the contract raises. Not anymore.

Basically, I'm kind of excited about the contract, though I don't trust anyone who has made up their mind yet. For a long time, I've been really disappointed with our broken salary structure that saw the largest-salaried employees be the ones with the least to do with student learning. There is plenty to be nervous about in the contract, but plenty to be excited about, too. I look forward to continued debate and forums about it until the ratification. I hope no one is swayed by the $1500 bonus and, instead, looks at how the contract will reward good teaching while, hopefully, fending off the cronyism and disparity that seemingly could result. I'm interested in hearing more about the tools for determining achievement as well as the guards against cronyism, but excited about possible rewards for proving your effectiveness and commitment.

Maybe I am missing something but if this "plan" cost $60,000,000, where is the funding coming from? How many teachers are going to be let go to pay for this. The company I work for did this a couple a years ago. They laid-off about 15% of the professional staff and then gave the survivors 5% raises. Now we get more money but work longer days.
So will AAA close more schools, increase class size and outsource more services to pay for this?

Also, am I the only one to think that the expansion of Mt Washington was a bride to keep SRB quiet during this process? BCPSS is spending money to improve a building that they are RENTING.

The Tenative Agreement of the new contract is now on the BTU website. Copies are also being delivered to the schools for BTU members to review. This should give everyone a chance to review it before the Ratification meeting on October 14, 2010 at Poly/Western.

No person in any field should vote for a contract that bases your pay raises on an evaluation system that has yet to be created. Every teacher needs to go to Poly and vote on Thursday, October 14 from 12:00 to 3:00.

I agree with the comments some of the other posters have made about the problems with the current evaluation system but I don't think that it is in the best interest of the membership to support an evaluation system that is being called a "work in progress."

I can just see this becoming a very unfair system where, as one comment said, teachers shmooze up to principals to get better evaulations and everything is based on politics. As a poor test-taker myself, I am very hesitant to label a child and their ability based on their test scores. I also would like to know who will hold parents accountable? I feel sorry for the teachers who teach in ghetto schools in the city and have no parental support and a lack of resources. Children who have more supportive parents will no doubt make greater gains within any given school year. There are too many extraneous variables involved with education and children. I really feel that they are trying to sugarcoat this new contract to gain teacher's approval. I am very wary of it all, and I definitely want a chance to vote and hear the details before anything is set in stone.

I'm not interested in taking a leap of faith when it comes to my livelihood.

I know that I couldn't come up with a way to identify excellent teachers (although I might say "I know one when I see one"). On the other hand, I do know that an attitude of "that's something I've never done before - I don't want to take the risk" - is a pretty good indication of a poor teacher. And I have experience with that attitude before when it comes to special needs students.

If you're not interested in a leap of faith or a challenge or an opportunity to grow it seems like your job is just that - a job. A passion or something that drives you? It's hard to reconcile that with not wanting to shake up a system that is so obviously failing so many students.

I've read the blogs and have found them very interesting. If the contract isn't ratified (as some have suggested), then what do you think would happen? Why do people feel that the yet-to-be announced evaluation is wedded to the new contract? The 12 AU's for a proficient is just one part of it, I think. There are still many other options, as I understand it.
I have looked at the tentative agreement on baltu.org and I know that we members will all be receiving a copy of it. I've also heard from others that the field reps are happy to hold meetings and answer questions. Change is always difficult but the system isn't working the way it is supposed to be! And this is the first time I've seen an escape clause so we can go back to traditional contracts if this doesn't work either. As far as I'm concerned, I don't want to be a complete naysayer!

Are there any meetings scheduled to fully explain the contract and answer ALL questions before the day we are supposed to vote? Where? When? There need to be meetings all over town at all hours of the day. There are plenty of BTU staff members to run these meetings. The meetings need to be very soon! How can we seriously vote with no cnace to ask questions? I called the union today and there was no one who could answer my questions. My administrator is equallY in the dark.

The information I've heard from the union is largely that many things have not been determined yet. But as others have said, the evaluation tool is largely determined by MSDE, and regardless of the contract it will be 50% about student achievement. The methods of measuring student achievement have also not been determine. Again, all totally separate from the contract. My concerns are much more about this; the actual contract seems fine to me. Delaying it a month or whatever won't be enough time to have the new evaluation ready.