Education Advocates: We Can Live With This
Continuing Contract Bill Counted As A Victory
Posted: February 6, 2013
HARRISONBURG — Education advocates said they were satisfied Tuesday with changes made this General Assembly session to legislation dealing with continuing contracts, considering earlier versions of the bill took the perk away from teachers.
The Educator Fairness Act, one of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s key pieces of legislation making changes in teacher accountability, passed the Senate on a 40-0 vote Tuesday.
The act, which changes the grievance procedure for teachers and opens up possible changes in the time a teacher must wait before being awarded a continuing contract, passed the House of Delegates last week on an 84-14 vote.
“Last year’s bill, which was much more radical, was passed by the House … [and] just missed getting through the Senate,” said Robley Jones, Virginia Education Association’s director of government relations, who worked this year with lawmakers to reform the legislation. “We made the strategic decision to try to fix the bill rather than stop it; we weren’t sure we could stop it.”
Virginia teachers are now awarded a continuing contract, similar to tenure, after a three-year probationary period. The just-passed bill will give school boards the authority to extend that window from three to up to five years.
Also, teachers, assistant principals and principals will be evaluated each year, with student achievement counting as a significant portion of the evaluation as part of the new law.
One argument that opponents of continuing contracts make is that the process to get rid of ineffective teachers is costly and timely. The bill addresses that concern by streamlining the grievance procedure.
“It takes a process that is very costly and very time-consuming and moves it to a less costly and more manageable timeline so the teacher and the schools system could get closure in a more reasonable manner,” Harrisonburg City Schools Superintendent Scott Kizner said.
Rockingham County Schools Superintendent Carol Fenn added: “While I didn’t necessarily see it as critical, it will make the review and action by the school board more streamlined.”
Harrisonburg Education Association President Virginia Healy said the important thing was that teachers still had an outlet to have dismissals reviewed.
“As long as teachers still have some form of due process, and they will still have a chance to have their say, I think this should also be a reasonable solution,” Healy said.
But education advocates still didn’t completely get their way, according to Jones, given that the legislation changes the definition of incompetence to include one unsatisfactory evaluation that could lead to a teacher’s dismissal. Still, he said that was a minor part of the bill compared to the group’s victories regarding the grievance procedure and continuing contract.
“Last year, our ultimate goal was to preserve continuing contract; we won that battle,” Jones said. “This year, our ultimate goal was to preserve due process; we won that battle.”
Both chambers passed another of McDonnell’s education reforms this week, one that assigns school divisions a grade of A through F depending on how they do on standardized tests and state and federal accountability benchmarks.
The measure passed the Senate on a 20-20 vote, with Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling casting the tie-breaking vote.
Kizner and Fenn said they have not changed their minds about the system, which they believe could lead the public to misconstrue how well schools are actually performing.
“[The] A-through-F decision is another example of the General Assembly and politicians thinking they know what’s best for communities,” Kizner said, pointing out that several education organizations opposed the grading system. “This will now be the third accountability designation a school could have, so I think this will only confuse the public.”
Fenn said she hopes that parents and the community will realize that the letter grade will only take into account test scores and is not a reflection of a school or school division as a whole.
“A single letter grade about a school does not give the whole story,” she said. “There are many ways to assess a school and it’s not just student achievement.”
Contact Emily Sharrer at 574-6286 or esharrer@dnronline.com
The Educator Fairness Act, one of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s key pieces of legislation making changes in teacher accountability, passed the Senate on a 40-0 vote Tuesday.
The act, which changes the grievance procedure for teachers and opens up possible changes in the time a teacher must wait before being awarded a continuing contract, passed the House of Delegates last week on an 84-14 vote.
“Last year’s bill, which was much more radical, was passed by the House … [and] just missed getting through the Senate,” said Robley Jones, Virginia Education Association’s director of government relations, who worked this year with lawmakers to reform the legislation. “We made the strategic decision to try to fix the bill rather than stop it; we weren’t sure we could stop it.”
Virginia teachers are now awarded a continuing contract, similar to tenure, after a three-year probationary period. The just-passed bill will give school boards the authority to extend that window from three to up to five years.
Also, teachers, assistant principals and principals will be evaluated each year, with student achievement counting as a significant portion of the evaluation as part of the new law.
One argument that opponents of continuing contracts make is that the process to get rid of ineffective teachers is costly and timely. The bill addresses that concern by streamlining the grievance procedure.
“It takes a process that is very costly and very time-consuming and moves it to a less costly and more manageable timeline so the teacher and the schools system could get closure in a more reasonable manner,” Harrisonburg City Schools Superintendent Scott Kizner said.
Rockingham County Schools Superintendent Carol Fenn added: “While I didn’t necessarily see it as critical, it will make the review and action by the school board more streamlined.”
Harrisonburg Education Association President Virginia Healy said the important thing was that teachers still had an outlet to have dismissals reviewed.
“As long as teachers still have some form of due process, and they will still have a chance to have their say, I think this should also be a reasonable solution,” Healy said.
But education advocates still didn’t completely get their way, according to Jones, given that the legislation changes the definition of incompetence to include one unsatisfactory evaluation that could lead to a teacher’s dismissal. Still, he said that was a minor part of the bill compared to the group’s victories regarding the grievance procedure and continuing contract.
“Last year, our ultimate goal was to preserve continuing contract; we won that battle,” Jones said. “This year, our ultimate goal was to preserve due process; we won that battle.”
Both chambers passed another of McDonnell’s education reforms this week, one that assigns school divisions a grade of A through F depending on how they do on standardized tests and state and federal accountability benchmarks.
The measure passed the Senate on a 20-20 vote, with Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling casting the tie-breaking vote.
Kizner and Fenn said they have not changed their minds about the system, which they believe could lead the public to misconstrue how well schools are actually performing.
“[The] A-through-F decision is another example of the General Assembly and politicians thinking they know what’s best for communities,” Kizner said, pointing out that several education organizations opposed the grading system. “This will now be the third accountability designation a school could have, so I think this will only confuse the public.”
Fenn said she hopes that parents and the community will realize that the letter grade will only take into account test scores and is not a reflection of a school or school division as a whole.
“A single letter grade about a school does not give the whole story,” she said. “There are many ways to assess a school and it’s not just student achievement.”
Contact Emily Sharrer at 574-6286 or esharrer@dnronline.com