After they fire all the teachers responsible for teaching the low achievers, they will then be free to hire those super-special magical teachers that are hiding right out in the magic woods! Do you see them? Look, there's one right now!! Sssshh!! You'll scare her away...there she is again...

Dear Boston Globe, Please stop using the phrase "student achievement" and just say "student test scores." Despite your chronic desire to conflate these two things, try to be more accurate and precise. Thanks.

Yes! I see them!...The newer, better, younger, innovative, creative and CHEAPER ones! Look! Up ahead there's a flock of preening "Teach for America" and "Boston Teacher Residency!" In the distance, could it possibly be, a few "Match Fellows!" It is! Hard to tell though, if they are going to, or escaping from, Lawrence!

I've worked in a toxic, under-performing, turnaround school and I know that good teachers need protection. Especially in school systems like Boston Public Schools where teachers have been demonized, and where traditional public schools have been set up to fail, so they can be turned into in-district pilot, charter, and now "innovation" schools. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ What is currently happening on the school level, I can see happening on the classroom level. The classroom of that veteran teacher who makes too much, or doesn't brownie up, will be saturated with poor performers, discipline problems and kids who have never received SPED services, because a high sped referral rate reflects on a principals evaluation, and the evaluation of the school. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Administrators will create toxic classrooms, and assign teachers they want to get rid of, to them. If a teacher voices their concerns, they will be told to "differentiate their instruction" and assigned even more students that are problematic. Those toxic classrooms will have the added benefit of keeping problematic students out of other classrooms, but will also send the message to teachers that this could happen to them. Everyone will walk on glass. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Then there is the problem of closing schools where the system has contracts with programs like Teach for America (TFA) and Boston Teacher Residency (BTR). In my turnaround school our third year provisional teachers, on the eve of being made permanent, were let go and replaced with 38 new to teaching and the system TFA and BTR people! It happened again the following year! I can imagine what will happen to veteran teachers when the BPS has this new evaluation "tool!" _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ The headmaster, at my turnaround school, assigned an inordinate number of students to elective teachers. These classes went on for months! Over 100 students to a gym class, 89 students to an ROTC class, 47 students to a computer class with 22, ten year old computers, and music classes of thirty students,each, that overlapped in an auditorium with one teacher. Students would be filing, out and in, in the middle of other classes! If these teachers were to be evaluated under the new evaluation system, how would they fair? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Boston Teachers expect to be evaluated, but given the threats Mayor Menino made in the Boston Globe and media, and the teacher demonization in the press, for the past two years, by Dr. Johnson and her administration, our union is trying to make sure evaluations are done fai

When MA teacher evaluations are being discussed, we must not ignore the epidemiological crisis poor districts face. One such crisis has, for far too long, been both ignored and not properly dealt with. If a student were to take a writing test without a pencil people would think that were ludicrous. Yet, in classrooms which are "underperforming", the vast majority of kids who need glasses to see/read are not wearing them to school. Is it fair to evaluate teachers on student test scores when a disproportionate number of kids can't see properly? This dilemma is especially prevalent in elementary schools, when students are building a foundation of reading. In the army we give kids glasses so that they can shoot straight. In our schools its time we make sure kids have glasses in school so that they can read, write, and see the board. Seemingly, with the rhetoric and charlatan reforms, common sense is lost. Nationally, we pay billions to publishing companies so that we have testing accountability. It's high time we have child welfare accountability.

Colum try contacting the Lions Club people below, they should agree to pilot an eyeglass program, at least, for your school. Boston University and New England College of Optometry can get a "community service credit" of up to 50% of the 25%, Mayor Menino's PILOT (Payment In Lieu of Taxes) Program is asking for municipal services. The Lions Club even has a traveling eye van, so they could do the eye exams at your school. ______________________________________________________________________________ BOSTON UNIVERSITY EYE ASSOCIATES (110708) - District 33 K - MA 2012-2013 Lions Club President HOWARD LEIBOWITZ WESTON MA 02493 2478 _____________________________________________________________________________ NEW ENGLAND COLLEGE OF OPTOMETRY (088541) - District 33 K - MA 2012-2013 Lions Club President Ms. Hilary L. Gaiser Boston MA 02135 (617) 266-2030 ____________________________________________________________________________ The New England College of Optometry's total value is $25,065,500.00! In 2011, they paid nothing toward municipal services! This concerns me, if they were a for profit they would be paying $778,033 in taxes, the Mayor was supposed to be asking for 25%, so their fair share would be $194,508, but for some reason the Mayor is only asking them to contribute $7,811.00 TOTAL in 2012! To date, The New England College of Optometry has only paid $3, 905.00! Heck, I pay more in taxes than that! Here is a chance for The New England College of Optometry to step-up! ______________________________________________________________________________ Any Lions Club Members out there that can give a ROAR and help out? Column Whyte needs kids glasses! ______________________________________________________________________________ http://www.cityofboston.gov/Images_Documents/FY12%20First%20Half%20PILOT%20Status%20Report_tcm3-30229.pdf

thanks jshore, have been researching lions club.