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 As stakeholders gather in Aurora on Thursday to discuss substantial
changes to how schools in Illinois operate, a look at the draft plan
obtained by Illinois Statehouse News shows that seniority in the
education system could lose a lot of its clout.
Tenured teachers and principals would lose any state-granted
certifications if they got poor grades on performance evaluations
three years in a row during a 10-year period, according to the
draft.
Teachers and principals would be allowed to plead their case before
the State Teacher Certification Board before revocation of their
certification.
Poor performance evaluations could also result in a firing, but
teachers would be afforded a hearing to refute their score. Out of
this hearing, the superintendent at the school must make one of
three recommendations to the local school board: fire the teacher,
retain the teacher, or return the teacher to probationary status.
All of these changes pre-empt any previous collective bargaining
agreement that protected tenured teachers and principals, according
to the draft.
Several sections of the draft refer to the 96th General Assembly,
which ends on Jan. 12, when the new Legislature is sworn in. That
could mean proponents of the legislation are hoping to capitalize on
the lame-duck session and avoid putting the plan through the regular
spring session.
That timeline is too quick, according to Sharon Teefey of the
Illinois Federation of Teachers. During an Illinois State Board of
Education board meeting on Wednesday, Teefey stated the IFT's case
against the quick turnaround.
"(IFT is) working with our local union leaders and members, the
state board of education, (Illinois State) Superintendent (of
Education Chris) Koch, and members of the General Assembly to help
shape reforms that can make substantial differences in our schools,
but it takes time, and we do recommend that the process that you
people have developed and effectively utilized be put in place to
ensure that going forward we do the right thing," Teefey said.
School reform has been a big issue in Illinois during the past year.
The current proposal is a follow-up to the Performance Evaluation
Reform Act of 2010, which the General Assembly passed in the spring
session. The act links teacher evaluations with students'
performances on standardized tests. The push for linking the two
came out of wanting to bring federal "Race to the Top" money to the
state, which didn't happen.
All schools in the state are required to implement the new
evaluation process by 2016.
"I would assume some folks would be asking, 'Does this come from
Race to the Top?' and some of the ideas we had in our proposal and
passed in the performance evaluation law were around these topics,
(but) we didn't go as far as this," Koch said.
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The ideas behind changes recommended in the draft legislation aren't
necessarily bad, according to Koch, but the way the Legislature is
handling it causes concern.
"It's happening very quickly. ... If there are issues of tenure or
teacher dismissal, these are high-stake decisions. We want to make
sure we're being fair, that these are thought through carefully,"
Koch said. Not everyone shares Koch's and Teefey's concerns about the plan.
Advance Illinois is part of a group of education reform advocates
that support teachers' evaluations being linked with how well their
students do.
"The fact is that all students can, and do, learn, and they learn
more when paired with effective teachers. ... If we care about
closing our achievement gap, we have to care about developing and
retaining effective teachers," said Amy Ballinger-Cole of Advance
Illinois.
During the Illinois Board of Education's meeting, members discussed
how to avoid cutting state funding for schools next year. In a
worst-case scenario presented to the board, the Illinois school
system would have to make do with more than $500 million less than
it did this fiscal year.
Layoffs haven't specifically been discussed, but if they come to a
school, under the proposed draft legislation seniority won't mean
what it does currently.
Instead of looking at seniority, school boards will be required to
consider a list of "factors including, but not limited to,
qualifications, certifications, experience, performance ratings or
evaluations, and any other factors relating to a teacher's job
performance," the draft reads.
In fact, layoff proceedings "must require the consideration of
performance ratings or evaluations prior to experience."
If a school can afford to fill a vacant position, it would be
required to look at a candidate's merit and ability to perform the
position, while at the same time completely disregarding length of
employment at a school.
The other sweeping change included in the plan is creating a
three-member fact-finding board to help with collective bargaining
discussions that come to a standstill.
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By ANDREW THOMASON]
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