Professionalism at its Best

The Boston Teacher Union filed an unfair labor practice over teacher evaluations.  Matt Stout reports in the Boston Herald: 

 A “dismayed” Boston Teacher’s Union today threatened to bring additional unfair labor practice charges against the city’s school department if it plows forward with implementing a new teacher evaluation system this school year, a warning that drew a sharp rebuke from school officials in the two sides’ contentious contract talks.

It also represented a step toward implementing a new teacher evaluation system, one of the biggest sticking points in the ongoing talks. The school department said in a letter to the union today it would implement a new evaluation system this school year to comply with changing state regulations that last year made student test scores a key part of a teacher’s job review and put unsatisfactory teachers on a fast track toward termination.

The union on Friday filed unfair labor practice charges against the school department, accusing officials of undermining the mediation process. Today, it said putting the new system in place “will only force BTU to expand the scope” of its charges with the state Department of Labor Relations and “place at risk the validity of performance evaluations for the district’s more than 5,000 educators.”