Wednesday, April 04, 2012

MSTA: Teacher tenure still on the chopping block

Missouri State Teachers Association (MSTA) is also sounding the warning about Sen. Jane Cunningham's anti-teacher tenure bill, which will likely be brought up on the Senate floor today despite the approval of an amendment Tuesday shelving the tenure portion of the bill in favor of the appointment of a committee to study teacher pay issues.


On its website, MSTA issued the following warning:

Teacher tenure is on the chopping block of the state Senate today, and MSTA is asking education supporters to contact their legislator in opposition to this measure. 

SB806 (Cunningham) would place all teachers hired to start after July 1, 2012, on a one-year contract. Each school district would develop a policy regarding the length of multiyear contracts for school years after 2013-14. The school board could terminate a contract for cause at any time. In addition, a two or three-year multiyear contract could not be renewed more than 14 months before its expiration.

The bill also targets teacher evaluations. School boards would be required to develop evaluation systems that would use student achievement on state assessments to determine at least half of the evaluation. Teachers of courses that are not subject to statewide assessments, would still be evaluated based on how their students performed on tests for other subjects. Student achievement growth would be measured through the assessments using a state-level growth model and value-added methods developed by DESE.

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