Now, their main tasks revolve around
making teacher tenure decisions, conducting «Quality Reviews» of school's internal organizational structures, attending public hearings about schools in their districts, and putting out fires when they arise.
Use teacher evaluations to
make teacher tenure decisions, with teachers granted tenure after receiving two Highly Effective or three Effective ratings within a five - year period.
We would hope, for example, that the measures used to
make teacher tenure decisions are good predictors of how teachers will perform in the years after they receive tenure.
In New York City, value - added data has been used for the last two years by principals only to
make teacher tenure decisions.
Not exact matches
But the groundbreaking
decision in the Vergara case
makes it clear that early, and effectively irreversible,
decisions about
teacher tenure have real costs for students and ultimately all of society.
Second, school and district leaders can use VAMs to
make workforce
decisions — recognizing and rewarding effective
teachers and denying
tenure and dismissing the lowest - performing
teachers, according to Corcoran and Goldhaber.
Because a
tenure decision involves thousands of future students as well as future colleagues and supervisors at other schools in a district where a
teacher might work, it
makes no sense to leave the
decision in the hands of their current supervisor alone.
Is it in children's interest to
make teacher -
tenure decisions in 18 months?
They could
make a much better
decision about which
teachers to retain for
tenure if they had an extra few years of data.
Moreover, districts will do a better job evaluating and providing feedback to
teachers after
tenure, so employment
decisions can be
made on the basis of the quality of instruction.
It uses two years of information before
making any
decisions, and it defers to districts and individual
teachers to
make the ultimate
decisions (the
teachers aren't necessarily fired, they just lose their
tenured status).
Additionally, supermajorities of California voters support policy changes to elevate
teacher quality, including either eliminating
teacher tenure or lengthening the time before
teachers receive
tenure from the current eighteen months to at least four years, taking performance into account when
making layoff
decisions, and
making it easier to let go of underperforming
teachers.
However, save for anecdotal evidence, we know very little about whether and how state education policy makers take their voices into account — or any other voices, for that matter — when
making policy
decisions related to
teacher evaluation and
tenure.
The advantage that we now have as experienced,
tenured teachers is that we can and should speak up when our school leaders
make unwise
decisions.
We know very little about whether and how state education policy makers take
teacher voices into account — or any other voices, for that matter — when
making policy
decisions related to
teacher evaluation and
tenure.
She pointed out that the California
Teachers Association has racked up three wins since spring, with the appellate court's unanimous ruling to overturn Vergara, the Supreme Court's
decision this week to decline to review the case and the thwarting of her own bill that would have
made changes to
teacher tenure and dismissal procedures.
First, it provided those
making the
tenure decision with more information on
teacher effectiveness including a district - developed Effectiveness Framework, a tool designed to guide principals and superintendents through a rigorous process for determining which
teachers have earned
tenure.
It is unlikely that empirical evidence will shed much light on the matter of when in a
teacher's career high - stakes
decisions (e.g., licensure or
tenure) should be
made.
He also tried to undercut the former superintendent's testimony that school administrators had sufficient time to
make tenure decisions, pointing out that most of the
teachers whom Seymour evaluated were already experienced
teachers, which required less time.
He told the court he could decide within three months whether a new
teacher would meet program standards — testimony the defense used in support of its claim there is sufficient time to
make decision on
tenure within the two - year statutory framework.
Additionally, instead of
making teacher tenure an earned benchmark based on demonstrated quality of instruction, as
teachers and policy organizations across the country strongly have advocated, AB 934 now doubles down on
making tenure a time - based employment
decision.
Seymour's testimony also helped support the defense's position that the contested
tenure law doesn't provide for enough time to
make an informed
decision on a
teacher's potential for success.
Then we can
make informed
decisions about
tenure and
teacher compensation.
«Assessing the potential of using value - added estimates of
teacher job performance for
making tenure decisions.»
High - stakes tests are used to
make important
decisions such as student promotion or graduation, granting
teacher tenure, or sanctioning schools for poor performance.
«On the problem with extending the
tenure beyond two years... It's important that while we want
teachers to at some point have due process rights in their career, that that judgment be
made relatively soon; and that a floundering
teacher who is grossly ineffective is not allowed to continue for many years because a year is a long time in the life of a student... having the two - year mark — which means you're
making a
decision usually within 19 months of the starting point of that
teacher — has the interest of... encouraging districts to
make that
decision in a reasonable time frame so that students aren't exposed to struggling
teachers for long than they might need to be....
The bill cements the use of test scores to evaluate and
make high - stakes
decisions (e.g.,
tenure) about
teachers, along with observational measures.
Tennessee's largest
teachers union is taking another swing at statistics being used to
make pay and
tenure decisions.
I think it's also possible that — having watched a lot of school districts over the years — not having a moment at which you have to
make a
tenure decision could allow districts to just keep fairly mediocre
teachers along, without doing the due diligence of
making a
decision in the early years that would protect kids from
teachers just kind of hanging on.
Michigan's Public Act 4 is the most extreme example, but lawmakers from New York to California are seeking ways to circumvent or eliminate public school
teacher tenure, pushing for staffing
decisions to be
made based on merit rather than seniority.
Option # 2: The length of time in the classroom is the most important factor in
teacher development, therefore awarding
tenure, promotions, and
making other staffing
decisions based solely on the length of time teaching is most fair.
Option # 1: «It doesn't
make sense to award
teachers tenure, promotions, and
make other staffing
decisions unless they have a proven track record of effectively increasing student growth.
For
teachers who were probationary, but not yet
tenured, the court still found an unconstitutional impairment of their contract rights because these
teachers had relied on the expectation of receiving
tenure as a part of their
decision making to remain as a
teacher in a district.
Assessing the Potential of Using Value - Added Estimates of
Teacher Job Performance for
Making Tenure Decisions
Better evaluation systems are also designed to provide districts with the data they need to
make performance management
decisions — such as professional development, compensation, and
tenure — around
teachers and school leaders.
Another survey released in 2015, sponsored by the pro-reform group Teach Plus, found that 65 percent of California
teachers think that a probationary period between three and five years
makes sense for administrators
making tenure decisions.
Many
teacher tenure critics also want to end the process of «seniority» — which requires that districts
make layoff
decisions based on the number of years a
teacher has been working.
Assessing the Potential of Using Value Added - Estimates of
Teacher Job Performance for
Making Tenure Decisions
Following the original Vergara
decision, Republican lawmakers introduced a package of three bills to extend the time it would take a
teacher to earn
tenure, to repeal the «last - in, first - out» statute that
makes layoff
decisions based on seniority, and to establish an annual
teacher evaluation system.
According to another poll from last year, even most educators believe that a
teacher should serve in the classroom at least five years before an administrator
makes a
decision about whether or not to grant
tenure.
Clearly, this book is to prove very relevant given the ongoing court cases across the country (see a prior post on these cases here) regarding
teachers and the systems being used to evaluate them when especially (or extremely) reliant upon VAM - based estimates for consequential
decision -
making purposes (e.g.,
teacher tenure, pay, and termination).
These members of the Deformer «advance force» parrot a regressive agenda of union - busting,
tenure - smashing, and
teacher - demonizing, paired with an obsessive devotion to standardized testing, «data driven
decision making», charter school expansion, and privatization as the «answers» to the «crisis in public education» — while remaining seemingly oblivious to the fact that it was their policies that manufactured the crisis they claim to be addressing, and which are paying off so handsomely for the investors who fund their charter schools and pay their generous salaries.