Teachers' unions offer own education reform

[January 04, 2011]  SPRINGFIELD --  Education in Illinois needs revamping, but those involved with the system are at odds over how to accomplish that.

While a comprehensive reform plan was recently introduced in the Illinois House of Representatives, state teachers' unions laid out their own proposed changes Monday during an Illinois Senate committee hearing.

The unions want school administrators and local school boards to be more responsible for what happens in a school district. Additionally, they are seeking professional training for school board members; a second certification for principals, based on performance evaluations; and a list of programs that districts must maintain, said Ken Swanson, president of the Illinois Education Association.

The proposals come after several special House committee hearings in December, during which union representatives testified about their concerns regarding the original plan. Swanson said Monday's proposed changes were the product of feedback after the House hearings.

Several union representatives said that not all parts of the state's first draft of reform are ill-conceived. Like the proposal in the House, the unions would have performance ratings established in the Performance Evaluation and Review Act of 2010 count heavily when districts fill new and vacant positions.

"What we are proposing is all predicated on a successful implementation of the PERA evaluation system so that we have a credible, solid base of reliable evaluations to work from. That is, in our view, absolutely critical," Swanson said.

All schools in the state are slated to have the new evaluation system in place by 2016.

Additionally, like the House version of the plan, the unions want to see tenure based on good evaluation scores. The unions, however, want the length of time for earning tenure shortened from four years to three years, barring no poor evaluations.

Swanson said that under the unions' plan, teachers who have received tenure in one district should get tenure in another district in two years with proficient or excellent evaluations.

Crafting significant reform from a shotgun blast of ideas and draft plans isn't the best way to accomplish change, said Kimberly Lightford, co-chair of the Senate's Special Committee on Education Reform.

"I have a concern that at the end of the day we'll have 10 bills from every interested party on what they think is the dynamic to education reform," the Maywood Democrat said.

She asked Darren Reisberg, deputy state superintendent of the Illinois Board of Education, if his agency should have more input in the process.

"It's a lot more difficult ... when you have bills coming in all directions and it's not very clear who will be trying to hash all of that out. ... I think there are some merits for us being more involved in the process," Reisberg said.

The legislation introduced in the House must be passed before the new General Assembly gets sworn in on Jan. 12. Otherwise, the whole legislative process would have to start again.

Lightford emphasized that she didn't want to move too quickly on such a sweeping piece of legislation and wanted to time hear and consider all facets of any changes.

[Illinois Statehouse News; By ANDREW THOMASON]