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Teachers keep up pressure as Senate considers tenure reform; DetNews-June 30, 2011
Topic Started: Jun 30 2011, 10:40 PM (304 Views)
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Teachers keep up pressure as Senate considers tenure reform

Karen Bouffard/ Detroit News Lansing Bureau

Lansing— Scores of teachers, school administrators and education lobbyists are milling outside the doors of the state Senate today awaiting a vote on teacher tenure reforms.

The four-bill package would allow school districts to more easily fire poor-performing teachers and set requirements for earning tenure — eroding union protections critics charge sometimes safeguard teachers' jobs at the expense of students.

Teachers wearing red T-shirts, advocates with the Education Trust Midwest and StudentsFirst, and representative of the Michigan Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, are among the throng.

The Senate Republican caucus is shaping drafts of the bills, debating questions such as how heavily student test scores should be weighed in teacher evaluations. A provision that would allow teachers to be fired after three consecutive inadequate evaluations was removed from the bill at one point, and then added back in.

Among highlights of the most recent draft:

— A probationary teacher rated effective or highly effective can't be bumped by a tenured teacher simply because that teacher has tenure.

— Teachers have to have taught for five years, and been rated effective or highly effective for the last consecutive three years, to pass probation and receive tenure. If they're rated highly effective for three years in a row they can get tenure in four years.

— A tenured teacher rated ineffective on three consecutive annual evaluations will be dismissed.

— A district could fire or demote a teacher for any "reason that is not arbitrary or capricious."

— The legislation sets up a system for appeal by teachers being fired or demoted.

— A district could place a teacher on "unrequested" leave of absence for mental or physical disability for up to one year, renewable on a yearly basis; the teacher could contest the leave at a hearing.

— Teacher layoffs would be based on teacher effectiveness, rather than seniority; the most effective teachers would be the last ones laid off, and the first called back.

— The legislation outlines standard and detailed criteria that all districts would use for teacher evaluations.

— Starting in the 2013-14 school year, 25 percent of a teachers annual year-end evaluation would be graded on their students' academic growth on assessment data; the percentage would be increased incrementally each year until the 2015-16 school year, and thereafter, when 50 percent of teacher evaluations would be based on students' growth and test scores.

Stay tuned to detnews.com for updates.

kbouffard@detnews.com

(517) 371-3660



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From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110630/SCHOOLS/106300484/Teachers-keep-up-pressure-as-Senate-considers-tenure-reform#ixzz1QokPvqR7
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http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2011/07/05/obamas_price_$10_tax_for_union_teachers-_you_pay/page/full/

Obama's Price: $10 Tax for Union Teachers- You Pay...
FTA:While the rest of us were celebrating the 4th of July with BBQs and parades and recitations of the Declaration of Independence, teachers’ union “delegates” from the far left were giving Obama the thumbs up. Not coincidentally they also voted to levy a $10 tax on union teachers nationally to help support “messaging” in front of his reelection bid.

And the messaging will largely consist of another call to “crisis” in education because the union goose has stopped laying golden eggs.

“The Representative Assembly recommended that NEA members vote to re-elect President Barack Obama in the 2012 election” wrote Will Potter of the National Education Association. “They also voted for a $10 annual dues increase that will be dedicated to funding NEA's Crisis Fund, a program designed to put money back into the states for pro-public education outreach.”

3.2 million teachers will pay the tax – out of your tax dollars- which is expected to double the amount of money normally put into the “crisis fund.”

Maybe teachers instead should look at why they need an annual “crisis fund” in the first place? '' .......

Read the rest at the link
I support Global Warming cuz nothing grows in ice!
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