CSA Letter 11 1 11

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ContractForStudentAchievement

November 1, 2011

Dear Minneapolis School Board and Minneapolis Federation of Teachers,

We passionately believe in public education as a democratic institution that requires

public investment and community trust.

The teachers’ contract you are currently negotiating represents almost $240 million in

annual wages and benefits and directly controls who is teaching our children in the

classroom. This is in addition to the district administration costs of $19 million annually.

All of this is paid for with our public tax dollars.

In the past, teacher contract negotiations have been treated as exclusive talks between

private parties. Unfortunately, the result has been a legacy of contracts that repeatedly

put the needs of adults over the academic needs of students—causing a breakdown in

trust between both the community and the MFT and the community and the district.

Today, our schools work very well for some of our students while completely failing

others. Minneapolis has the largest achievement gap in Minnesota, with white students

more than twice as likely to pass state tests than their black, Latino and American Indian

peers and with less than 35 percent of our students of color graduating on time. This

human crisis represents an enormous loss of talent, creativity and income for

individuals, families and our entire city.

We all have a moral and economic obligation to address the long-term issues of

opportunity and equity that contribute to this mass academic failure to thrive.

So we call on the district and the MFT to negotiate a different kind of contract---one

that recognizes the academic crisis in our schools and makes student achievement the

top focus.

********************

As you continue negotiations for the 2011-2013 teachers’ contract, we call on you to

ratify a contract that recognizes the power of effective teaching and will:

1. Shift to performance-based staffing.

Make effectiveness, not seniority, the chief criteria for teachers’ hiring, placement and

lay-off decisions. Further, tie staffing decisions to a transparent teacher evaluation

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process that include student growth data, classroom observations by trained evaluators,

student surveys and feedback from parents.

2. Allow every Minneapolis school to hire from the widest possible talent pool.

School leadership teams need the authority to choose the licensed teacher they believe

will be most effective with their students, whether or not the candidate currently works

for the district. End the practice of forcing schools to hire from the limited pool of

tenured or excessed MPS teachers.

3. End forced placements of teachers in schools that do not choose to hire them.

Under our current contract, all tenured teachers are guaranteed a job if there are any

openings that fit their licensure. Each year hundreds of teachers are placed in schools,

even if site leadership teams do not believe these teachers are an appropriate fit for their

school or students.

This must stop.

Under our proposed open hiring system, tenured teachers who are not selected by any

school should be given alternative work assignments for one year. If after one year they

are still unable to find work within MPS they should be released with the right to re-

apply at any time. Taxpayers should not have to continually to pay the salaries and

benefits of teachers that MPS schools do not want to hire.

4. Extend learning time for those who need it.

Successful schools have realized the benefit of increasing opportunities for students to

learn by extending the time they receive quality instruction. The district has the right to

give underperforming schools extended instruction time; the teachers have the right to

be compensated for it.

5. Remove poor performers.

Simplify and shorten the process for discharging chronically ineffective teachers to

under 12 months.

According to The New Teacher Project’s study, only one percent of tenured MPS

teachers are referred to the Peer Assessment Review process (PAR), which under our

current contract rules is the sanctioned method for dealing with under-performing

teachers. Out of this one percent less than half are dismissed, resign, or retire. That

means under the current PAR criteria 99.5 percent of our tenured teachers are

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considered effective. This isn’t credible for any profession. The PAR process either

needs to be scrapped or drastically changed.

********************

As active parents, citizens and stakeholders we call on you to put student

achievement at the center of contract negotiations.

The five proposals above are based on sound research and best practices from school

districts across the country. They align with the district’s own strategic plan and the

recommendations of The New Teacher’s Project report on MPS staffing.

Last August, School Board Director Dick Mammen eloquently spoke about the need for

more transparency and conversation before decisions on staff contracts were made. He

called on fellow board members to “be more open about this…. to talk truth to each

other, it's time to turn on the lights, open the windows, and the doors.”

We agree.

In this spirit, we hope the negotiations continue to be open to public observation under

the state’s open meeting laws.

We also call on our elected school board members to push for a contract that puts the

needs of students and families first and honors the public investment of taxpayers.

Respectfully,

Faith Adams

MPS Parent

Christa Anders

MPS Parent

Jim Bartholomew

Director, Education Policy

MN. Business Partnership

Maureen Bazinet Beck

Former MPS Principal

CEO, Edward R. Bazinet

Foundation

Ian Bethel, Pastor

New Beginning Missionary

Baptist Church

Rev. Laurie Bushbaum

MPS Parent

Sally Centner

MPS Parent

Yvonne Cheek, Founder

Millennium Consulting

Group

Laurie Davis

Advance Consulting

MPS Parent

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Fred Easter

Former public school leader

John Cairn

Former City Council

President and member

Dr. Eleanor Coleman

Former MPS cabinet

member

John Eaton

MPS Parent Alumni

Bill English

Education Chair

Coalition of Black Churches

Al Fan, Executive Director

Charter School Partners

Judy Griedsedieck

MPS Parent Alumni

Eric Hanson

MPS Parent

Jeffrey Hassan

African American

Leadership Forum Member

Sharon Henry-Blythe

Former Board Director

Minneapolis Public Schools

Seth Kirk, Co-Founder

Put Kids First Minneapolis

Rev. Jerry McAfee,

President

MN. State Baptist

Convention

Lynnell Mickelson

Co-Founder

Put Kids First Minneapolis

Hon. Don Samuels

Council Member

Minneapolis City Council

Dennis Shapiro



Rev. Randolph Staten

Board Chair

Coalition of Black Churches

Chris Stewart



Alana Ramadan

Life-long MPLS resident

and MPS alumni

Katy and Kerry Vermeer

MPS Parents

Dr. Betty Webb

Education Consultant

Dr. Betty Webb Consulting

Catherine Shreves



Meg Tuthill

Council Member

Minneapolis City Council

T. Williams



Documents

CSA Letter 11 1 11