Tenure Destruction Bill Reintroduced
Senator Conrad Appel has now reintroduced a bill (Senate Bill 89) to drastically reduce the due process needed for teacher dismissals. This bill would nullify a teacher's tenure status based on only one year of negative ratings using the new teacher evaluation system starting with the 2013-14 school year. Three separate independent researchers have published papers pointing out that the VAM portion of the new evaluation system is so inaccurate that it should never be used to dismiss or invalidate tenure based on only one year of data! For the very latest report on the flaws in VAM just click on this link to a report just sent to the legislature by Herb Bassett.
These are the same changes to tenure that were part of Act 1 of 2012 which has been ruled unconstitutional by a district court judge. This ruling is being appealed to the Supreme court by the Jindal administration. Observers see the new Appel bill as an effort to re institute the teacher tenure destruction law in the event the Supreme Court also rules Act 1 unconstitutional. This new law if passed would presumably meet constitutional requirements because it avoids the multiple subjects contained in Act 1.
Let me explain to you why I say this bill is the teacher tenure destruction bill. First, the bill does away with all tenure and all due process based on only one bad evaluation. Three independent researchers and the creator of VAM for Louisiana, Dr George Noell have all agreed that no decision on teacher ineffectiveness should be made
These are the same changes to tenure that were part of Act 1 of 2012 which has been ruled unconstitutional by a district court judge. This ruling is being appealed to the Supreme court by the Jindal administration. Observers see the new Appel bill as an effort to re institute the teacher tenure destruction law in the event the Supreme Court also rules Act 1 unconstitutional. This new law if passed would presumably meet constitutional requirements because it avoids the multiple subjects contained in Act 1.
Let me explain to you why I say this bill is the teacher tenure destruction bill. First, the bill does away with all tenure and all due process based on only one bad evaluation. Three independent researchers and the creator of VAM for Louisiana, Dr George Noell have all agreed that no decision on teacher ineffectiveness should be made