| And ProgressNow got it wrong on the merits of issue, central to the Obama agenda - for too long, we progressives have allowed our understanding of issues of poverty, socioeconomic class, and language and immigration status to paralyze our ability to act on reforming education, our most fundamental social justice issue. It is easy to find reasons why poor urban children are underachieving, and hard to find solutions. The net effect of this paralysis is to accept the status quo as inevitable, while we study or commission our way to tentative and incremental public policy consensus - and lose another generation of children.
Senator Johnston is a principal and teacher himself, and advised the Obama administration on their education platform. I urge you to support this measure and contact your legislators to let them know your position.
As Dwight Jones pointed out in a Denver Post Op-ed two weeks ago, this is not just about the Race to the Top funding. But it is about the goals of the Obama administration in education, and it is about fundamental change.
I have worked in tandem with members and leaders of the teachers' union for many years, and have great respect for them. I am sorry to disagree with many old friends and colleagues on this measure, but on this item in progressive policy we part ways. The future of Colorado's school children is not well served by a system that protects the job security of adults at the expense of our students, and this should be the central concern for progressives.
Research shows that an effective teacher is the number one factor in determining student growth. An effective principal is number two.
Here's what Education News Colorado said about the provisions of SB 191:
Key provisions of the bill include annual teacher and principal evaluations, with teacher evaluations to be based 50 percent on student growth and principal evaluations based two-thirds on student growth and the demonstrated effectiveness of a principal's teachers.
The bill also would require that tenure be earned after three consecutive years of effectiveness as determined by evaluations. Tenured teachers could be returned to probation if they don't have good evaluations for two years. The bill also would require the mutual consent for placement of teachers in specific schools and establishes procedures for handling teachers who aren't placed. It also specifies that evaluations can be considered when layoffs are made.
Many of the details of the new system would be left to the Governor's Council on Educator Effectiveness, whose work is just getting underway, and to the State Board of Education. A key part of that work would be developing a definition of educator effectiveness on which to base a new evaluations system.
Progressives should be supporting SB 191 as it moves to the House. |
