How does a teacher raise test scores in 30 days? 

Boston has been hailed nationally as one of the best urban school systems in America.  What we're doing in Boston has been replicated nationwide.  We have one of the strongest urban programs for National Board Certified Teachers--the gold standard of licensure.  The "Evil Teacher" and the "Evil Teacher's Union" rhetoric is getting tired.  All of this, by the way,  produced by hard-working teachers who haven't even been given the dignity of a contract for the past two years.  

The idea of a built in trigger for mediation and fact finding may be a good one, but it cannot be supported by one sided and shallow assumptions about the issues and outcome.  A fact finder may see intransigence on both sides. Perhaps the fact that evaluations in a great many cases haven't even been performed as required might suggest fault in the evaluator rather than the evaluation process.  A fact finder might note that student outcomes are affected by countless factors over which teachers have no control, and cannot be remediated in 30 days. And finally, a fact finder might see that to take away all that pesky due process will not lead to an ultimate improvement in working conditions, performance, or outcomes.

Delay tactics are used by school department negotiating teams in order to stifle cost of living adjustment raises. I know because an ex school department chair from a different district told me. To say that "unrestrained" unions are holding the system at bay, and are "dragging" out negotiations highlights the author's bias. The school department drags, not the teachers union - but I guess reality is irrelevant. The author even admits that the school department has the "upper hand", and that they should be able to "impose" a contract that they feel is fit. Do you know what happens when admin can fire hard working teachers on a whim? You have an unbridled administration with too much power, eager to rid the system of experienced and more costly human capital. And that folks, is what this is really all about. I hope the "fact finder" asks how much profit publishing and testing companies are making. I hope the "fact finder" asks why employees of Pearson sit on "watchdog" boards. I hope the fact finder asks why millions upon millions of dollars are needlessly spent each year on criminally overpriced supplies, even when they are bought in bulk. I hope the fact finder asks why there is enough money for a nearly billion dollar municipal building in Dudley, and which contractors got the bids. Meanwhile, many kids in Boston do not have GLASSES in school. Did you think that might affect test scores? No, I guess it's all us incompetent teachers. Indeed, a new evaluation system, which is costing millions to roll out, will set us straight. God save the Queen!

Pretty one-sided editorial Globe. So Court St. and City Hall did everything right and the Teachers' Union did everything wrong, doesn't seem too believable. You seem to be giving a lot of credit to the Johnson "team" that the Globe has been extremely critical of in other matters. Do you really think they've "nailed it" with the contract negotiations? The folks at Court St. are a long time away from the classroom, many were never there at all. The teachers are the ones who know what it's like to work with 31 students in a room all day. I'd like to see Johnson, Meniono, Canellos, Lehigh or Sam Tyler try it (and not at an exam school). To not bargain in good faith with the Teachers' Union shows that Court St. has an agenda other than respecting the adults who do the extremely challenging work of educating the young people of this city. When the Globe editorial board supports Court St. in this, it shows its agenda too.

Public sector unions don't work.

I agree that the labor laws need to be changed. Perhaps if teachers were allowed to strike, the school department would have more incentive to reach a fair resolution to contract disputes.

First, I want to thank BecknBuy, Chemteacher, ColumWhyte, Giermund, SixthStreet, and TSeeker43 for stepping up and posting today.  All of you said it best!  So often when I read these Boston Globe editorials and articles I get depressed because of the widening inequality of ethics and being fair.  I wonder about the people writing them, what is their agenda.  Don’t they have all the information?  Do they really believe what they write; is it just something that their boss assigned, so they have to do it?  Is it just a game where they take no responsibility for the lives that are affected negatively by their one-sided words?  

This ediortial is so blatently myoptic that it negates its own argument, as it does not present an understanding of the two sides of this story in order to refute one; it is as if the Boston Globe is writing in the same manner that the BPS negotiates. It will be interesting to see how the Globe spins the Boston Teachers Union offer to break the stalemate that was offered today. This offer represents significant compromise from the BTU that addresses teacher evaluations, salaries, and adding more services for students. The BTU is showing that it does care about meaningful evaluations for teachers, and is willing to give back salary to cover the expenses of additional services for students. Here is the "resonably priced contract that allows for a reliable way to evaluate teachers" that the Globe claims is all that is needed to end the "long and acrimonious struggle." If the Superintendent Johnson and her team do not accept these compromises, will the Globe accuse them of being "intransegence," or will there be yet another way they will find to blame the BTU for the stalled negotiations?

But what is most distressing to me is within this opinion the Globe asserts that "The length and bitterness of this negotiation should give lawmakers pause about the current state of labor laws more generally. While the law allows for arbitration, fact-finding, and other mechanism to close unreseolved disputes, it provides no effective incentives to reach agreements within a reasonable time frame - and few protections against outright intransigence." The Globe not only assumes that this or any acrimonious labor dispute is the fault of the workers unions, and not of the employers. The need for labor unions arose when the employers had complete power over their workers to impose wages and rules that benefitted only themselves. Slowly worker's rights, across all industries, has been eroded until now newspapers such as the Globe opine that any fight from the workers to resist unilateral imposition of an employers demands becomes "instransigence." This signals to me that the need for strong labor unions has never been more important, as the assault against all workers' rights persists, even the right to negotiate. And if one complains about the benefits and salaries that a Union has won for it's workers, instead of complaining "why them?" ask instead "why not me?" and stand up for one's own rights to a good wage and benefits.

The BTU "is willing to give back salary to cover the expenses of additional services for students."  It is odd that this was not mentioned in the editorial.  Thhe level of services offered to students has a huge impact on the working conditions of teachers, the productivity of the classroom environment, and student outcomes.  It is clear that the Globe has an axe to grind here, and it would be really interesting to know why.  

14-15% over six years is "fair"?  Bleep you.  Nobody in the private sector is getting 2.3% annual raises.  Nobody is getting raises at all.  The taxpayers certainly aren't.