I just wrote that the shrinking pool of teachers in Duluth’s ISD 709 schools is killing the pension plan. Its also killing the education of our children. So says the President of the State’s Teacher’s Union: From a story in today’s DNT:
That’s going to be hard for districts like Duluth, which has some of the largest class sizes in the state, Dooher said.
“When you have class sizes that large, you start to crowd out the learning taking place,” he said. “Now, if you are going to judge me, and I’ve got 49 kids in a class, how do you fairly evaluate me when I don’t have the tools to do my job on a very basic level? It’s going to be more difficult.”
I’d really like to know just how high up the list of classroom overcrowding Duluth ranks in the state.
The story is about teacher evaluations and possible changes in how the Duluth Schools evaluates teachers. When I was a probationary teachers waiting and hoping for tenure which never came I had someone come in and evaluate my classroom presentation three times each school year. I’m sorry that I can’t recall how often tenured teachers had someone sit in on their classrooms. Frank Wanner, Duluth teacher’s Union president says he hasn’t had someone sit in his room for ten years.
I used to sit in Frank’s classrooms quite often when I served on the school board – as a guest.