Karen Lewis Tells Chicago Teachers Not to Cooperate with Management in Teacher Review Instrument

[Hannah Bell]

In an unprecedented letter to members of the Chicago Teachers Union, CTU President Karen Lewis on November 17, the day of the Board of Education meeting, warned teachers not to cooperate with management in a teacher review that is being used to trick classroom teachers into evaluating their colleagues so that management can refuse to hire those who are displaced.

The CTU letter, was originally sent by e-mail to those union members who have signed up to receive e-mail alerts from the union. The notification has also been posted on the CTU website (www.ctunet.com).

The message also lists four other things where CPS is being dishonest with those who work in the city's public schools.

Lewis cites what she called "Rogue CAOs" (chief area officers) who are setting quotes for E-3s for teachers, the refusal of the Board to provide the pension fund with accurate information about retiring teachers, and the mess at IMPACT.

The warning to CTU members is unprecedented in union history, short of those times when CTU was dealing with management disinformation during a strike. The last strike was 23 years ago...

The text of Karen Lewis's letter follows here:

Beware of a new and suspicious "Job Fit Questionnaire for Teachers" which likely arrived in your email inbox last week. The Chicago Public Schools hopes to lure 750 teachers into helping them develop a screening tool to identify attitudes, behaviors, and 33 "characteristics of teacher success." It smells just like a strategy used by CPS earlier this year which ended up hurting our colleagues...

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=1784§ion=Article

[Starry Messenger]

1. k&r

[madrchsod]

2. she`s the real deal...

if it was`t for the unions (what`s left of them) in this state we`d have a teabagger governor. we probably would have had a democratic senator but the family picked our loser candidate.

rahm is`t going to have an easy time with the unions in chicago. telling them to fuck off will not be forgotten.

[Reader Rabbit]

3. I hope she's also got them organized against Rahm.

If CTU fought against his mayoral campaign, and got the rest of the unions involved, he would be toast.

[Catshrink]

4. I hope so too.

for all the reasons you stated.