A month ago, the district signed a contract with Teach for America to hire 150 interns. Last week, they fired 115 non-tenured teachers. Don't know why this article says 87.
Superintendent John Covington’s drive to put the best teachers in Kansas City classrooms is forging into controversy.
Teachers are losing jobs. This was expected in a school district with too many underperforming schools. But questions persist over how the district is trying to get there.
“Performance growth plans” have been issued to at least 85 tenured teachers — designed to be a tool in helping teachers improve but also the first step toward seeking termination.
Among the district’s 210 non-tenured teachers, 87 have been told their contracts will not be renewed. The reasons, teachers said, are unclear.
School districts do not need cause to end non-tenured teachers’ contracts, but the number of non-renewals troubles the teachers’ union. That’s because the district, at the same time, has a contract to bring in 150 to 170 first-year teachers through Teach for America.
“My purpose is getting the best teachers I can find,” Covington said. “To do anything less ought to be unacceptable to the community.”
The teachers’ union agrees with that mission and has mostly concurred with the administration’s plans, including its partnership with Teach for America, a national agency that recruits top college graduates and trains them for at least two years of service in some of the nation’s neediest classrooms.
But the union now worries that the district has made too large a commitment with Teach for America and has doubts about the process used to evaluate teachers, union President Andrea Flinders said.
Read more:
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/04/11/2793565/kc-district-teacher-plan-chalks.html#disqus_thread#ixzz1JM9rQ0dp
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