Staffing/Surplus/Transfer Round Update

Transfer round 1 took place last week and, despite the limited number of vacancies available (50.5 FTE), it was a relatively successful round in that over 35 FTE positions were filled. Every full-time vacancy which had applicants was filled by principals - there were no "passes". At the start of Round 1, there were approximately 113 FTE teachers who were surplus, and now the number is down to 86 FTE.

The staffing numbers are continuing to disappoint the Board and the difficult decision was made to postpone the opportunity for part time teachers to increase their teaching assignments - this will NOT happen in round 2 as previously hoped. The Board has indicated that if there are vacancies available after all surplus teachers are placed following round 2, the Board will hold a third transfer round to allow assignment increases.

The vacancies for Transfer Round 2 will be posted next Monday, May 3rd. There are approximately 45 FTE vacancies available in round 2. Teachers will be able to apply to these vacancies from May 4 to 6, and Transfer Round 2 will take place on May 11th.

Annual Meeting is next Wednesday, May 5th!

The flyer has already gone out to schools, so this is just a reminder that our local Annual Meeting will be held next Wednesday, May 5th at the Deer Creek Golf and Banquet Facility, at 2700 Audley Road North in Ajax. The meeting will start at 4:30 p.m.

On the agenda for the meeting: approval of the proposed 2010-2011 budget, annual reports, and elections for your 2010-2012 Local Executive. Elections are a "timed item", meaning they will start promptly at 5:00 p.m. Nominations have been received for all executive positions, with the exception of Member-at-Large/Political Action. Nominations will be accepted at the meeting for this position only, until 4:50 p.m.

We hope to see many of you then!

Early Learning Program Meeting Scheduled - All Members Welcome!

Mark your calendar!

Our local will be holding an Early Learning Program (aka Full-Day/Every Day Kindergarten) meeting on Monday, May 17th at 4:30 p.m. The meeting location will be announced within the next few days.

This meeting will be of particular interest to those members who will be teaching in one of the phase one ELP Kindergarten classrooms this fall, but other Kindergarten teachers and any interested members are most welcome to attend! The meeting will give teachers an opportunity to voice their concerns and needs with respect to the new program and hear the latest information from one of our provincial released officers (the president or one of the vice-presidents).

To see a list of the schools that will be hosting ELP Kindergarten classes this fall, click on "Kindergarten" in the right hand margin and read the earlier post announcing those schools.

Stay tuned for more information about this meeting in the coming week!

Happy Earth Day!

Did you know that it is one of ETFO's priorities to promote the care and protection of the environment? I hope that each one of us takes a moment today (or this weekend) to do something kind for our planet. Buy a travel mug... pick up some garbage in your neighbourhood.... turn off the lights when you're not in the room. Little things can make a big difference!

Happy Earth Day to you all!!

ETFO's On-line Registration Opens

Thursday, April 15th marked the launch of ETFO's new online registration and e-commerce platform for the ETFO PQP, face-to-face AQ courses, and new online AQ courses.

The first registrant, an ETFO member from Pickering, registered for a course 10 minutes after the platform went live. By the end of the day, ETFO had received 140 registrations which made the platform an immediate success!

If you are considering registering for one of ETFO's upcoming AQ or PQP courses, you may want to avoid waiting until the last minute as ETFO's PD department anticipates that some courses may fill up by the end of April.

Here's the link to ETFO's AQ website if you'd like to check out the offerings or if you'd like to register: http://www.etfo-aq.ca/

Draft Full-Day Kindergarten Curriculum is Out!

The Ministry of Education has just released the draft curriculum for the new full-day Early Learning Kindergarten Program. The curriculum document provides the program expectations, but is still missing some content related to the respective roles of the teachers and ECEs assigned to the program. Here is the link to the draft document:

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/kindergarten.html

ETFO will advise us when the more complete document becomes available. This document will remain in draft form throughout the 2010-2011 school year and will be revised based on the experience of the first year of ELKP implementation. This curriculum document will eventually fully replace the Kindergarten curriculum when full-day, every day Kindergarten is fully rolled out in 2015.

Workplace Harassment and Bullying

What is workplace bullying? Bullying is a form of harassment and a form of violence in the workplace. Bullying can be based on grounds set out in the Human Rights Code (e.g., based on gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.), or it can be a form of psychological or personal harassment apart from the Human Rights Code. Workplace bullying is objectionable conduct or comments directed towards a specific person, which serves no legitimate work purpose, and has the effect of creating an intimidating, humiliating, hostile or offensive work environment. Unfortunately, bullying happens because it is allowed to happen. Courage on the part of those who can take action is vital. We all have a right to protection from violence in our workplace.

If you are being bullied at work, or know of someone who is, seek assistance early. Do not stand idly by and watch a colleague be bullied. Help them get help. If you are being bullied, be sure to document all incidences. If you are able to do so, ask the harasser to stop. Contact your local president or staff in PRS at the provincial office.

ETFO has developed a PRS Matters bulletin on workplace bullying. Here's the link: Workplace Harassment and Bullying There is also a wealth of information online about workplace bullying, just google the topic and you'll find a number of good websites, such as http://www.workplacebullying.org/ and http://www.bullyonline.org/ There is lots of great information about why people bully, who they bully, different types of bullying, and how to take action against the bully.

Do not suffer in silence. Ask for help.

Thinking of Retiring but Still Want to Teach? Read this...

If you are thinking of retiring and daily occasional teaching is a part of that plan, be advised that the DDSB is not currently accepting any new additions to the occasional teacher roster. This includes soon-to-be retirees. This is a common agreement between district school boards and occasional teacher locals as it ensures that an appropriate amount of work is available to those who are already on the occasional teacher list.

For those who hold sought-after specialist qualifications, such as FSL, the Board has accepted new members to the list in the recent past, but only following a formal application and interview process.

Staffing Update for Monday

Originally due last Friday, Round 1 vacancies were available on the weekend following some technical difficulties in posting on the DDSB's staff intranet. You may have noticed that there are a little over 50 FTE positions available in Round 1, but there are currently 100 teachers that are surplus to their schools (NOT redundant). The Board has indicated that the system-level assignments (e.g., literacy coaches, facilitators) that have been vacated because their term limit has been reached, have not yet been posted but will help to generate another dozen or so positions. This is notable because it has created an imbalance of sorts - those members have been incorporated into their home school's staffing, possibly creating staff surplus, but the corresponding vacated position is not yet posted. These positions, along with retirements, leaves of absence, maternity leaves, etc., will all help to rectify the imbalance between the surplus numbers and the numbers of vacancies in the system.

At this time, the DDSB still hopes that part time teachers will be able to apply to increase their teaching assignment in Round 2, but is closely monitoring this situation. Worst-case scenario? An additional transfer round would be established to allow the increase in teaching time, before positions are posted externally. I will keep you apprised as the staffing process continues...

Interesting Column about American Education Policy

This Globe and Mail article from early April is an interesting perspective by a Canadian journalist on American education policy. Just in case you're thinking, "How can this possibly be related to what's going on in Ontario education?", consider that President Obama's Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, who is profiled in this article, is to be a keynote speaker at the Ontario government's Education Summit in September.

GLOBE AND MAIL April 1, 2010

Konrad Yakabuski, Columnist

Of all the strange sights to which the Bizarro World of American politics has borne witness of late, perhaps none is as strange as the coming together of Arne Duncan, Newt Gingrich and Al Sharpton as Barack Obama's education musketeers. A more unlikely political alliance is hard to imagine.

Officially, the trio composed of Mr. Obama's earnest Education Secretary (Mr. Duncan), the hard-right Republican (Mr. Gingrich) and the self-anointed voice of America's oppressed (Rev. Sharpton) was dispatched by the President last fall to investigate innovation in the classroom. But their tour of U.S. cities was really a promotional junket for his radically un-Democratic education policies.

The centrepiece of this agenda is the President's $4.35-billion (U.S.) Race to the Top fund, a carrot dangled in front of cash-strapped states to induce them to dramatically expand the role of charter schools and punish, even fire, teachers who fail to lift student scores on standardized math and reading tests. The first $600-million in Race money was awarded this week to the “winners.” Delaware will get $100-million and Tennessee $500-million, after both agreed to lift caps on charter schools – which are publicly funded, but privately managed K-12 institutions – and to base teacher pay and advancement on how well their students perform.

Whether pushing the tough-love triad of choice, competition and teacher accountability will actually raise the woeful performance of American school kids compared with their international peers remains to be seen. What is not in doubt is the groupthink that has seized politicians and policy-makers across the United States – and quite a few in Canada, too – according to which markets are the solution to all that ails public education.

There was a time when only Republicans championed this view. But in the past decade, the pro-charter, anti-union Wall Street Journal has not lacked for reformist Democrats to lionize in its editorial pages. Two of its favourites are Mr. Duncan, the former head of Chicago's public school system, and Michelle Rhee, who took over in 2007 as chancellor of Washington, D.C.'s public schools, possibly the worst in the nation. Like New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who gained full control of the city's schools in 2002 after the state eliminated 32 local boards, the reformers have shuttered “failing” schools, sought to reward and penalize teachers based on test scores, and overseen an explosion of charters, largely catering to minority students.

Indeed, Harlem is the nation's poster-neighbourhood for charters. From Geoffrey Canada's Promise Academies to its KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) schools, the long waiting lists for Harlem's charters attest to African-Americans' frustration with a public school system many believe failed them in the past, is failing their children now and will as assuredly fail their kids' kids.

Touting challenging curriculum, envious test scores and uncommonly dedicated teachers, American charter schools have done a good job cultivating their winner image. The truth is that, just like public schools, charter schools come in good, bad and ugly varieties. That alone is telling, considering that charters can count on the most motivated students and “counsel out” persistently low-performing kids.

BUYING INTO THE HYPE
Nevertheless, American policy-makers have wholly bought in to the charter hype. If they're not replacing public schools with charters, they're implementing charter-like teacher accountability in the public system.When it comes to teachers, just how do you separate wheat from chaff anyway? Education experts have agonized over this question for decades without resolution. Yet Mr. Duncan, Ms. Rhee and Mr. Bloomberg all share a deep conviction that they know how. If your class improves its scores on standardized state math and reading tests, they figure you're wheat. If it doesn't, well, you're toast.

This obsession with standardized testing is George W. Bush's lasting gift to American public education. His 2002 No Child Left Behind law made states eligible for extra federal cash if they could show continuous improvement in student scores on state-administered tests.

Unfortunately, the law created a set of perverse incentives for teachers, students and bureaucrats alike. Teachers have increasingly “taught to the tests,” diminishing the emphasis on other worthy material and subjects. Students have “learned” what's needed to score better on the tests. And states have lowered standards to raise student scores and get their hands on the federal moola. In other words, everyone is gaming the system. The proof is that students in almost every jurisdiction have shown eye-popping improvement on state tests, even though their scores on the federally administered National Assessment of Education Progress tests have been flat since 2002.

The reaction of states, students and teachers to No Child would not surprise experts in behavioural economics. But somehow it has not deterred Mr. Obama. His proposals for updating the No Child law, unveiled by Mr. Duncan on March 15 and subject to approval by Congress, would shift the objective of federal education policy from making all students “proficient” in math and reading by 2014 – an illusory goal since only a third currently make the grade on NAEP tests – to ensuring that every high school graduate is “college- or career-ready” by 2020. Though meeting the new goal is not any more likely than reaching the old one was, the fate of teachers and entire schools would nevertheless rest almost entirely on their test scores. To be eligible for federal cash, states would have to take corrective action with respect to their lowest-scoring 10 per cent of public schools, from moving or firing their teachers to closing them down.

Criticism of the President's plan has been sparse. After all, Mr. Duncan, with his hard-knocks Chicago accent, and Ms. Rhee, the ambitious daughter of South Korean immigrants, are media darlings. They express the kind of “Yes we can” confidence that pleases Obama Democrats. Their get-tough-on-teachers tactics cheer Republicans. And the education unions long ago ceded the public relations war.

Under the circumstances, Diane Ravitch stands out like a rebel voice in a schoolyard full of conformists. In reality, she's the conservative one. Her newly published Death and Life of the Great American School System offers up an indictment of the “pedagogical fads” of the Bush and Obama eras, adapting the title of Jane Jacobs' famous book on 20th-century crazes in urban planning.

As an education historian at New York University, Prof. Ravitch has chronicled every “big idea” that has shaped (mostly for the worse) American public education in the past century. She also had a hand in spawning a few of them. As assistant education secretary in the administration of George H.W. Bush, and as a member of the National Assessment Governing Board under Bill Clinton, she played a role in creating the testing infrastructure that gave life to No Child. She admits to having once “drunk deeply of the elixir that promised a quick fix to intractable problems.” She now warns that testing and charters – the twin pillars of Mr. Obama's education policies – are destroying public education and all it should accomplish. (Hint: It's not just about passing tests.)

“The big idea now is that we all have to run [schools] like a competitive business,” Prof. Ravitch lamented over the phone from New York this week. “If you look back to the [financial] debacle of 2008, you wouldn't think this was a model for American education.”

Nor does it make for well-rounded students. “States and districts are now gearing everything to getting the right [test] numbers and nobody is learning anything [more]. They may even be learning less overall, because there is no incentive to teach anything except reading and math.”

Prof. Ravitch is no apologist for tenured teachers. But she insists that relying on test scores – even if they could be trusted – is a haphazard way to evaluate educators. There is almost no empirical evidence to back it up. “No teacher has randomly assigned classes,” she noted. Yet that is what would be required to fairly compare teacher performance. “There are bad teachers, and they should be fired after due process. But even if we fire every single bad teacher in America, we would not have 100-per-cent proficiency [in math and reading] and we probably wouldn't have better performance on the whole because of all the demographic issues.”

A CAUSAL FACTOR IN LOW SCORES
Income inequality is the elephant in the room of U.S. education policy. It goes almost entirely unmentioned as a causal factor in the low test scores of black and Hispanic students, though the efforts to single-mindedly “lift” math and reading scores are focused squarely on minorities. In Washington, where blacks and Hispanics make up more than 90 per cent of the student body, fully 56 per cent of fourth-graders lack “basic” reading skills as defined by NAEP. Minorities are no better served than any other group by a system that privileges narrow testing in math and reading to the detriment of literature, art, music, science and geography. How does a mechanistic emphasis on teaching to the tests inspire them to learn, much less equip them to be productive 21st-century citizens, workers and human beings? If it doesn't, what is public education for anyway?

Ruby Ratliff knew the answer. She was Prof. Ravitch's homeroom teacher at San Jacinto High in Houston in the 1950s. At graduation, Ms. Ratliff hand-picked two lines of poetry for each of her students. Prof. Ravitch got Tennyson's “to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield” and “among them, but not of them” by Byron.

“Would any school today recognize her ability to inspire her students to love literature?” Prof. Ravitch asks in her book. “She would be stifled not only by the data mania of her supervisors, but by the jargon, the indifference to classical literature and the hostility to her manner of teaching that now prevail in our schools.”

In Arne Duncan's America, she might also be fired.

Seniority Demystified...

I often receive questions about how your seniority is used to determine who at the school is declared surplus. The seniority list can seem a bit overwhelming as there are so many columns and not a clear sense of what is counted (or not) towards your seniority.

This post is an attempt to make some sense of all those columns! The only thing that counts for your seniority with the DDSB is your continuous employment, meaning the amount of time that you have been continuously employed by the Board as a permanent elementary teacher. If there is a break in your service (e.g., you quit for a few years), your service is interrupted and your seniority would begin again at zero years. This service is listed in the first column to the right of the date your employment began.

All the additional columns to the right of the continuous employment column show the previous experience you may have brought with you from: previous elementary experience in Durham, secondary experience, other Ontario experience, Canadian experience, and other experience such as an LTO assignment. These do NOT count as seniority, but are used as tie breakers (starting from the DDSB elementary experience and so on) if two members have the exact same amount of seniority and ONE must be declared surplus.

Also remember that your seniority is very different from your experience credit, which determines at what year you will be placed on the salary grid. This is where all that "other" experience comes in to play (LTOs, employment with another school board, etc.).

If you are concerned whether or not you have been rightfully declared surplus, please contact the local office for advice.

Staffing Reminder!

Just a reminder that the posting of vacancies in transfer round 1 will come out this Friday. Members should know by Friday what they are teaching in the next school year, so that they can make an informed decision about whether to transfer (or not). Members can apply for up to 3 positions. Part timers wanting to increase their teaching time can apply for additional FTE teaching time in Round 2 (and all external postings beyond).

Those who are surplus need to submit their "Teacher Information Forms" to Brian Reid (Manager, Hiring), their current principal, and ETFO Durham by tomorrow. If you do not find a position in rounds 1 or 2, the information on the TIF is used to assist in placing you appropriately.

Remember to call the office if you have any questions: 905-666-1122 or 1-800-220-6912.

Degree or not degree? That is the question...

Thinking about pursuing your Master's degree? Recently a member inquired as to how this might help her with salary improvement. The answer is:

Our collective agreement, under Article 5.09, provides an additional allowance of $1096.00 (effective September 2010) if you obtain a post-graduate degree at the Master level or above. However, the allowance is NOT applicable if you used the degree in any way to move you up a category rating (e.g., if you used part of the degree to move you from A3 to A4). If you are not at A4 and trying to use the degree to upgrade your category rating, you should apply to QECO for a re-evaluation as you finish courses and they will give you the information as to how many courses you'd need to get to the next category rating.

QECO uses a very specialized formula to determine how each member is rated, so it is impossible to speculate on what any given member might need to move up a category. You can find more information about QECO at www.qeco.on.ca and check out the previous post about QECO, by clicking on that subject in the right hand margin.