By Jocelyn Huber, DFER Director of Teacher Advocacy
(From the Indianapolis Star, April 12th 2011)
Legislators will consider changes that address longstanding problems with the way teachers are paid, evaluated and given tenure. The current system dates back to the days when teachers were treated like interchangeable cogs in schools that were more like factories than centers for learning and development.
Now, the best teachers are often paid the same as the most ineffective ones, and arbitrary employment standards mean that when school districts are forced into layoffs, a more-effective younger teacher will frequently lose her job before a potentially less-effective colleague who has simply been there longer.
When we have no good way of evaluating, identifying and rewarding our best teachers, more kids go without what they need most to succeed in school.
The proposed legislation will start paying educators like professionals. This starts with better evaluations for teachers and principals, based on locally developed tools that will reward Indiana’s best teachers for driving student growth and achievement. It also allows our best principals to be rewarded for excellent school leadership.
This plan allows professional educators to develop flexible and tailored evaluation plans that make the most sense for a given school and its environment. Such flexibility acknowledges that the people who are in the classroom every day know what they need better than representatives at a negotiating table.