Illinois (Quinn) passes sweeping education reforms

TODAY Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law a sweeping measure that has the potential to significantly reshape the teaching profession by linking educators' tenure, hiring, and job security to performance, rather than to seniority.

These reforms represent unprecedented statewide agreement on issues that have gone unresolved across the nation. The reforms are expected to improve education in Illinois through enhanced accountability and training for teachers, administrators and school board members.

Teachers would be required to receive strong performance reviews through the evaluation system. Teachers who achieve the highest marks can receive accelerated tenure; the law will also make it easier for teachers to transfer their tenure status to a new district, if they move.

It establishes clear standards for teacher evaluations and prioritizes performance evaluations above tenure for decisions on teacher hiring and dismissal (i.e., the law makes it easier to remove an educator from the classroom for continuously poor performance).

The law also gives local school boards much greater authority in dismissing teachers for poor conduct, and for performance. It also requires newly elected school board members to undergo "professional development leadership training" in areas including education, labor law, financial oversight (i.e. more travel requests for school board members)

The law requires regularly administered surveys of classroom conditions (i.e, solidifies the creation of the niche market for school climate control surveys and climate control officers).

In addition, the law seeks to make the collective bargaining process more transparent, by requiring that both sides' last, best offers be published. Source

LIFO and teachers

What are the pros and cons of using last-in-first-out (LIFO) in the hiring and firing of teachers? Does the risk of losing seniority outweigh the immediate need for teachers with enthusiasm, who just so happen to be more cost effective?

From the February 16, 2011, New York Post... and Randi Wins Again
For a while yesterday, it looked like the full muscle and influence of the Obama administration was about to be flexed in favor of repealing LIFO. And then something happened.

US Education Secretary Arne Duncan spoke at a federal conference on "advancing student achievement through labor-management collaboration." The original, pre-delivery text of his remarks targeted "Last in, first out":

"Already, the ACLU has blocked seniority-based layoffs in Los Angeles, and Mayor Bloomberg has called for a change of state [LIFO] law in New York.

"My view is that we need to look hard at the impact of seniority rules on students, especially in low-achieving schools. The goal should always be to maintain the most effective workforce, regardless of years of experience . . .

"Last-in-first-out policies can disproportionately remove great newer teachers who take on tough educational challenges," the text read.

But here's what Duncan actually ended up saying, according to the new text distributed minutes before he spoke:

"With [federal stimulus] funds drying up, this is a front-burner issue across the country. My view is that we need to look hard at the impact of staffing rules and policies on students, especially in low-achieving schools.

"That means recruiting the best teachers and then making sure that our state laws, labor contracts and personnel practices support these teachers and keep them in their schools," he said.

That's it.

So, what the hell happened to LIFO? Ah, life is full of mysteries. As much as the teachers unions hate charters, LIFO is a line-in-the-sand issue for them.

As noted above, they have Albany's top education policymakers dancing like puppets -- so is there any reason to think their influence with the Obama administration is less strong?

This has the fingerprints of Randi Weingarten and the American Federation of Teachers all over it.

Duncan, who knows better, blew it.