Your donation will help us produce journalism like this. Please give today.

Last week, UTLA sent out an “evaluation rights toolkit” to all its chapter chairs to help members “effectively assert their evaluation rights, and to defeat Deasy’s attempted end‐run around the contract.”

The “end-run” refers to the guidelines sent out by Superintendent John Deasy, recommending that up to 30 percent of new teacher evaluations be devoted to student achievement.

Both the administrators union and the teachers union have been critical of the program, and at one point it was considered possible that the teachers union would go to court to try and block it.  That could still happen, of course, but for now, at least, UTLA is calling on members to fight individually.

The so-called toolkit urges teachers to sign a form letter to their principal, asking him or her to ignore Deasy’s guideline and arguing that any evaluation should be “mutually agreed to, pursuant to existing provisions of Article X in the UTLA‐LAUSD Contract, and it can and will be appealed when mutual agreement is not reached.”

It includes a separate letter for teachers who are being evaluated and want to appeal the evaluation. And finally, it recommends that all teachers with over 10 years of experience request a deferral from their regular evaluations, which normally occur every two years.

“I don’t pay attention to the stuff they put out,” Superintendent John Deasy told LA School Report in a recent phone interview. “Teachers have been asking for years for a better evaluation process. They’ve been demanding to me for something that is substantially better.”

“I wish UTLA would spend more time helping teachers rather than providing them propaganda,” added Deasy.

Previous posts: Teachers & Principals Question Deasy Teacher Evaluation Plan, Union & District Clarify Positions on Teacher Evaluation, Board Candidates Fault Process, Not 30% Figure, District Makes Student Achievement 30% of Teacher Evaluation*