A battle began anew Monday as a controversial bill seeking to change teacher-tenure laws was introduced into the legislature — much to the ire of the powerful teachers union.
"Now the fun begins," said Sen. Michael Johnston, D-Denver, the main sponsor of the bill that has been in the making for four months.
The Colorado Education Association — the state's largest union, which represents 40,000 educators — is opposed to the bill, calling it "too much, too fast," said CEA president Beverly Ingle.
Senate Bill 191 would:
• Define effective teachers and principals and use student academic growth data to set that mark.
• Base 50 percent of teacher evaluations on student academic growth and 66 percent of principal evaluations on a combination of the school's academic growth and the demonstrated effectiveness of the teachers in the school.
• Grant tenure after new teachers demonstrate three years of being "highly effective" — a classification based on evaluations weighted heavily by student academic growth data.
School in running for Obama comencement speech works on video showing its success04/13/2010Seventeen-year-old senior Dan Marks has the keen eye of a political strategist in weighing the odds of getting President Barack Obama to speak at his school's graduation ceremony.
Colorado renews teacher-tenure debate 2004/13/2010 - A battle began anew Monday as a controversial bill seeking to change teacher-tenure laws was introduced into the legislature — much to the ire of the powerful teachers union.
DPS's new rules on assigning teachers freezes hiring 3204/12/2010 - A change to Denver Public Schools' teacher-hiring process has frozen the system and could result in dozens of veteran teachers being paid even though they are without jobs and not working.