Efforts to Produce Rational Education Reform
Senator Ben Nevers, a long time supporter of public schools and teacher rights attempted last week to restore sanity to one component of education reform in Louisiana. Unfortunately his efforts were overwhelmed by the big business lobby. Senate Bill 650 by Nevers was supported by the Louisiana Association of Educators and would have substituted multiple measures of student achievement (instead of the scores on one standardized test) for the quantitative portion of the teacher evaluation system. Surprisingly, the State Department of Education put in a green card of support for the legislation, but the effort was not sincere as evidenced by the fact that no one from the Department testified for the bill.
This legislation would have significantly improved the foundation of the Act 54 evaluation. Many educators believe that the Nevers legislation would have produced a more effective and rational evaluation system, but the big business lobbies represented by the The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) and the Council for a Better Louisiana (CABL) successfully put pressure on the Senate Education Committee to block the
This legislation would have significantly improved the foundation of the Act 54 evaluation. Many educators believe that the Nevers legislation would have produced a more effective and rational evaluation system, but the big business lobbies represented by the The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) and the Council for a Better Louisiana (CABL) successfully put pressure on the Senate Education Committee to block the