Member Bulletin for November 8, 2023
Topics: Contract campaign kickoff, Nov. 15 action to teach truth, not Skyline, ASPIRA TA, National School Psychology Week, Instituto rally, CPS budget meetings and more!
Grievance Dept. wins in several cases on several fronts
A key part of protecting our rights and enforcing our hard-won contracts is challenging management when they violate our bargaining agreements — and fighting these cases all the way through the arbitration process when necessary to secure and reinforce our rights. The CTU Grievance Department has a raft of new wins to report that protect our members in both the charter and district spaces.
New podcast episode! Rating REACH
In our latest episode, co-hosts Andrea Parker and Tara Stamps talk with CTU Research Director Pavlyn Jankov to unpack how REACH ends up punishing rather than lifting up teachers, disproportionately striking at those educators of color who daily teach students coming into their buildings with the highest needs.
Pushing back against inappropriate REACH PTs before Dec. 2 deadline
This year’s performance tasks have drawn complaints from across the district for being wildly developmentally inappropriate, entirely too late, and generally doing what so many of these testing regimes do: robbing our students of vital instruction time.
We surveyed educators on REACH PTs this year. The responses were troubling.
We’ve surveyed rank and file members about issues related to REACH PTs. We heard back from educators across the district, and the responses were troubling.
Pushing back against REACH Performance Tasks
The exchange between rank and file CTU bilingual kindergarten teacher Neysa Rivera and CPS on CPS’ appallingly inappropriate 2022-23 Kindergarten Literacy REACH Performance Task, which some teachers have reported is so difficult and inappropriate it’s made...CTU Raises Member Concerns about REACH Performance Tasks
Many members have noted that some REACH Performance Tasks (PTs) are educationally inappropriate, especially at the early childhood and elementary levels. The tasks do not take into account students with disabilities or the normal scope of skills and content taught. In...REACH Summative Ratings released in RLS on September 21
Teacher Evaluation Support REACH Summative Ratings were released in RLS on September 21, 2022 Last school year, the CTU negotiated to limit for whom the REACH evaluation process was required for our members in CPS schools. All CPS PATs (aka untenured or Probationary...
CTU year in review: Reducing REACH evaluation
There is no such thing as “normal” evaluation in a year that is anything but normal.
