CEA Capitol Connection Blog

As SB 191 goes into the House Education Committee tomorrow, CEA still strongly opposes the bill for reasons in addition to it being an unfunded mandate by the State:

1. Principal consent: Section 11 of the bill stipulates that a teacher be allowed to teach at or transfer into a school only with the principal’s consent.
2. Unending probation: The Senate added Section 14 to the bill. It allows a district to keep teachers on probationary status indefinitely. As a result, teachers will remain at-will employees who can be fired at any time without cause.
3. Reduction-in-force determined by “effectiveness:” Section 12 of the bill requires districts to adopt policies where “effectiveness” would be the most significant factor when deciding which teachers to lay off. This would trump collective bargaining agreements and go into effect before the Governor’s Council on Educator Effectiveness researches and recommends what “teacher effectiveness” really is.
4. Loss of due process based on “effectiveness:” Section 7 of the bill requires that, starting in the 2013-14 school year, a teacher must show three years of demonstrated “effectiveness” to gain nonprobationary status, and the teacher will become probationary again with two consecutive years of demonstrated “ineffectiveness.”  A teacher is allowed to appeal an “ineffective” evaluation, but that appeal is to the district superintendent.

No research supports the punitive measures in SB 191 as a means to improve student achievement, stem the drop-out rate, or prepare, recruit, and retain high quality teachers. What the research does show is that teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions – and that what makes a difference and has a direct impact on student learning is:
–   time to teach, plan, and collaborate with other teachers;
–   parent involvement and support for their children’s entire experience in school;
–   meaningful mentoring and ongoing coaching for new teachers;
–   high quality professional development linked to student needs and instructional strategies;
–   small classes and adequate school facilities and resources;
–   and skilled, knowledgeable school principals, teacher leaders, and leadership teams who work together to build professional learning communities that support ongoing school improvement.

This isn’t a bunch of education jibberish. We know it’s what works.

These quality factors aren’t in SB 191. That’s because SB 191 is not about good teaching and learning.

CEA has supported and been involved in every education reform measure in this state – CAP4K, longitudinal growth, accountability, and accreditation. Our members know what works in public schools and it’s not SB 191.

This entry was posted on May 5, 2010 at 6:15 pm and is filed under K-12 Student Achievement, Senate Bill 191, Teacher Dismissal, Teacher Effectiveness. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: CEA, Colorado Education Association, Colorado Legislature, Colorado State House