Letters                                                   

Performance-based teaching already a reality
Editor: I read with great interest Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra's recent column "Replace teacher tenure with performance-based contracts" (see Illinois Issues, December 1994, page 10). At the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, teachers and administrators have developed a new system of teacher supervision, evaluation and professional development into three different, sequential contracts.

IMSA's C.A.D.R.E. system (Career Development Reinforcing Excellence) integrates research on the supervision and evaluation of teachers, new knowledge about student learning and the public's legitimate interest in educational accountability. Grounded in mutual accountability and professional trust, C.A.D.R.E. holds teachers accountable for improving student learning and professional practice, and for developing products and services for external sharing. It holds teachers and administrators accountable for facilitating professional development and educational experimentation.

IMSA teachers, who have chosen not to unionize, progress through a series of three contracts (initial two-year, then a three-year, then an ongoing collaborative accountability contract), all of which involve teams of teachers and staff in monitoring, assessing and supporting each individual teacher. Mechanisms to address performance concerns are included in each contract.

Fundamental to Mr. Kustra's concern about Illinois' tenure system is what he calls a "guarantee" of "unconditional lifetime employment." IMSA's collaborative accountability contract provides access to ongoing employment as long as exemplary performance is sustained.

We believe the commitment our teachers have made to explicit standards of professional accountability can be embraced by other teaching professionals. As an educational laboratory for designing and testing innovative programs and methods to share with other Illinois schools, IMSA welcomes the opportunity to partner with those in our state, including educators and government and business officials who are committed to addressing this important issue.

Stephanie Pace Marshall
Executive Director
Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Aurora

Kustra has tenure backwards
Editor: Bob Kustra's trial balloon to terminate teacher tenure is the latest back stab in what has become a prolonged attack on public schools and public school teachers. Kustra holds out the expectation that Illinois would gain an economic benefit from firing as quickly as possible trained, educated, experienced (and expensive) teachers without any cumbersome legal impediments. He says with a straight face that this would lead to better teaching; however, at the bottom line, he simply plans to cheapen education to avoid the need to raise revenue.

At the bottom line, Kustra simply plans to cheapen education to avoid the need to raise revenue

Making teachers the scapegoats is merely the logical consequence of his party's "no new taxes" and "the devil take the hindmost" policy. Under Republican leadership, support for public education in Illinois has fallen so low it now ranks within the lowest three states of the nation. Common sense challenges the long-term wisdom of such a policy. The Republicans may say that more money is not the answer for better education, but that empty-headed campaign slogan runs counter to experience. Revenue is the lifeblood of every enterprise. To cut revenue is to cripple the enterprise.

Kustra has tenure backwards. It doesn't protect incompetent teachers, who, by law, can quickly be removed from the classroom. It doesn't protect evaluated teachers, who, since 1985, can be removed for failing a one-year remediation process.

On the contrary, tenure protects the good teachers. It protects them from poor administrative judgment and arbitrary, angry witch-hunts which occasionally flare up in the schools. It protects academic freedom from the calculated, cold-blooded determination of special interest groups to bend the schools to their own will and agenda. It provides stability in the classrooms so that good teachers can continue helping students without fear of bribery, corruption or political intimidation. Kustra and his kindred spirits should think twice before deliberately exposing schools to such disruptions.

Public leadership by elected officials requires a commitment not only to government service, but to the services of government. A mean-spirited attack upon educators encouraging responsible citizens to avoid their obligation to help educate the children is a weak and tawdry example of such leadership.

William R. Harshbarger Arcola

Urges further restrictions on smoking in public places
Editor: The Illinois legislature and Gov. Jim Edgar should follow the lead of New York City's city council, which on December 21 passed by a 38-8 vote a smoking bill that will severely restrict smoking in nearly all public places, including a ban on smoking in most restaurants, offices and many outdoor locations including stadiums and parks. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was expected to approve the measure. New York will join over 100 other cities and four states that have enacted such measures.

Illinois should be just as concerned as New York, over 100 other cities and four other states about the dangers of poisonous secondary tobacco smoke to its residents, workers and visitors. I urge the legislature and governor to join the cities and states that have taken a significant health step to protect their residents from a dangerous consumer product that causes death and/or serious illness.

Edward L. Koven
Highland Park

Correction
Wagner Castings Co. called to report that, contrary to information in the January 1995 Illinois Issues, its factory in Decatur is not closed but rather is busy enough to "turn away business." Wagner was among numerous companies listed in a table with the cover article, "Working in 2000," showing companies that had laid off workers due to economic conditions. The table, which indicated all the firms had shut down operations, should have reported that some of the companies on the list had not necessarily closed plants, but had furloughed employees for economic reasons. The information for the table was supplied by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, which tracks company closings and layoffs through news reports.

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