In the Metro section of today’s Providence Journal, Linda Borg reports on anti-bumping legislation which has been drafted by ESPEC’s Sam Zurier and submitted by the ESPEC Steering Committee to House Majority Leader Gordon Fox and Senator Rhoda Perry. In addition to discussing the bill itself, the story reports that state Commissioner of Education Peter McWalters and the Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education have been looking at issues of bumping and teacher evaluation. According to the story, “Yesterday, McWalters said the state Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education has asked him to explore the issue of seniority and bumping. McWalters said he will invite the teachers unions to discuss how to create a better system for handling layoffs and job fairs.”… “Seniority has a role in the hiring and firing of teachers, [McWalters] said, but it shouldn’t be the only or the most important factor. “
Bill proposed to dump seniority bumping
Friday, February 22, 2008
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff WriterPROVIDENCE — The East Side Public Education Coalition has submitted proposed legislation that would repeal a 1946 state law that prevents school districts from laying off teachers purely on the basis of seniority.
The proposal has been sent to Rep. Gordon Fox, D-Providence, House majority leader, and Sen. Rhoda Perry, D-Providence, who will review the language with attorneys and consult with the state Department of Education. Sam Zurier said the East Side parents’ group decided to tackle the issue after it came up last summer at a forum on public education at the Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School.
At that gathering, several parents expressed dismay that highly respected teachers were “bumped” from their schools because they lacked seniority. Two weeks ago, more than 600 Providence teachers received pink slips, even though only 66 positions will be eliminated. The disparity results from a complex process in which the most senior person bumps or displaces someone with less seniority and so on down the line. Adding to the complexity, districts have to factor in which teachers have the right certificates to teach a specific subject at a specific grade level.
Zurier said the proposed bill would do several things. First, it would abolish the state law that establishes seniority as the guiding force behind layoffs. Second, it would replace the seniority-based system with one based on teacher evaluations. According to the bill, teachers could be dismissed if they fail to satisfy performance standards developed by the state Education Department.“Currently, teachers are dismissed for insubordination or if they display conduct unbecoming to a teacher,” Zurier said. “We would add language to say that a teacher could be dismissed for not meeting performance standards.”
That move is bound to infuriate the two teachers unions, the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association of Rhode Island, which typically argue that such a move would subject teachers to arbitrary firings by leaders who don’t like them. Spokesmen for the two unions could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The problem is that Rhode Island has as many teacher evaluation systems as it does school districts and many of them lack rigorous standards, according to state Education Commissioner Peter McWalters.
Yesterday, McWalters said the state Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education has asked him to explore the issue of seniority and bumping. McWalters said he will invite the teachers unions to discuss how to create a better system for handling layoffs and job fairs. (Every spring, school districts hold fairs in which teachers can apply for new positions; that process is also governed by seniority.)
Although there is a deep need to provide more stability in teaching assignments, McWalters is reluctant to throw out the baby with the bath water. Seniority has a role in the hiring and firing of teachers, he said, but it shouldn’t be the only or the most important factor.
Meanwhile, the Board of Regents has adopted a set of professional teaching standards and McWalters said that a regents’ task force is looking at examples of effective teacher evaluations, including those used by local districts.
“We’re going down this road,” McWalters said. “I’m glad that Gordon Fox is providing the lead on this. We’ll work with Gordon to support this work.”
But the commissioner made it clear that his office will not impose a one-size-fits-all teacher evaluation on school districts. Rather, the Department of Education will establish a set of standards or criteria that districts can use as a guideline.
“At ESPEC, we’re not experts, we’re citizens,” Zurier said. “We put forward a proposal in the hopes that it would begin a discussion so the experts would become involved.”
The bill’s language is largely adopted from the 1993 Massachusetts Education Reform Act that shifted key rights, such as hiring, back to management.
“It makes sense that if you are going to make a layoff decision, you want to retain your best teachers,” Zurier said. “You don’t want to make that decision solely on the basis of how many years of service that teacher has. You want an evaluation system that is accurate, thorough and fair.”
Under the proposal, the principal would have the authority to dismiss or demote a teacher, subject to the approval of the superintendent. A teacher would have to be given a written notice of intent to dismiss and an explanation of the grounds for dismissal. The proposed legislation would give teachers the right to appeal a dismissal by filing a petition for arbitration with the education commissioner.
lborg@projo.com
Click here to read the text of the bill.
One thing I don’t understand about the proposal on the table is how layoffs would be distributed around the district. If the district needs to lay off six high school English teachers, does that mean the six lowest scoring English teachers in the district go, or does it mean six high school principals axe their lowest scoring teachers? Or something else?
Tom,
Section 1 of the legislation that has been submitted simply says that seniority will no longer be the sole consideration for who gets laid off. Section 2 requires that districts adopt evaluation procedures, and says that that those evaluations may be used in decisions to demote or remove teachers.
There are a number of aspects of this that will have to be worked out over time and there are a number of different arrangements that might be adopted. The legislation we submitted does not specify those procedures. It simply makes it possible, under state law, to adopt procedures other than strict seniority preference.