[StBernard] Advertiser: Jindal says grade shows tenure system is broken

[Westley Annis]

Jindal says grade shows tenure system is broken


Lafayette Advertiser
Mike Hasten
1/25/12

"Louisiana is taking steps that can assure that there's an effective teacher
in every classroom, a national survey shows, but it's still got a long way
to go.

The state Teacher Policy Yearbook, assembled by the National Council on
Teacher Quality, ranks Louisiana 17th overall in 2011 with the same 'C-'
grade as 2009. Implementing seven new goals in this assessment caused shifts
in performance scores but the state moved up three slots in the ranking.

Asked about the report, Gov. Bobby Jindal said he agrees with it and he
finds that its suggestions mirror many of the changes he's proposing in this
legislative session.

'What the report says is that the way tenure is working in many states
across the country is broken,' he said. 'We agree that tenure should be
based on teacher effectiveness. We agree that compensation should not be
based just on length of service. We agree that hiring and firing decisions
should not be based just on the length of service. We do think that teacher
evaluation programs have to be linked to student achievement to be
effective.'


 
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Among the governor's proposed changes are that teachers must be evaluated as
'highly effective' five years in a row before they receive tenure and
'ineffective teachers should not be allowed to keep their tenure.'.

Jindal said teachers who perform well in classrooms have nothing to fear
from his reforms and they would be eligible for rewards for high
performance.

'Our reforms will help good teachers,' Jindal said, and would help teachers
with a desire to improve by receiving developmental instruction.

'The only people who have to fear from our reforms on tenure are ineffective
teachers who do not want to improve.

'If you've got a teacher who has been ineffective three years in a row, even
despite the assistance of additional professional development, that's
probably not a teacher who should be in the classroom,' he said.

Sandi Jacobs, vice president of the Washington, D.C.,-based LCTQ and
director of the research project that assessed all 50 states' policies, said
three years 'is an egregious amount of time' for students to be subjected to
an ineffective teacher.

Discussing the state's lowest score, 'exiting incompetent teachers,' Jacobs
said that like many states, Louisiana has 'a lot of language' in its policy
aimed at removing teachers, but it's 'mostly about morality and whether
they've committed a felony. An ineffective teacher could be sitting in a
classroom many years.'.

Jacobs said she believes Louisiana's policy of granting tenure after three
years of passing assessments is too short.

The report says tenure should be granted only when teachers have
demonstrated competence in classrooms for several years, five at a minimum.

The report also criticizes Louisiana's system of paying salaries based
mostly on experience and not performance. Also, the state does not have a
policy that teacher quality should be considered when layoffs occur.

The report speaks well of Louisiana's new teacher assessment program that
grades teachers on how well their students perform on a standardized test.
Another part of the assessment is a principal's review.

'Louisiana is one of the farthest along in using real student data to assess
teacher performance,' Jacobs said.

The report and Jindal say teachers should be rewarded for excelling in the
classroom.

Jacobs said Louisiana, like most states, pays larger salaries for teachers
who achieve higher degrees but 'research shows there is no relationship
between advanced degrees and teacher effectiveness.'

She said the state could remove that benefit and school systems could use
the money to give raises to their most effective teachers."

Read more in the Lafayette Daily Advertiser: 
http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20120126/NEWS01/201260316/Jindal-says-g
rade-shows-tenure-system-broken
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Sign the petition demanding an equal opportunity to a great education for
every Louisiana child: http://www.bobbyjindal.com/education/
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