In teaching, seniority trumps quality

Madeline Edison, James Kindle, Alicia La Croix & Sarah Schultes, via a kind Rick Kiley email:

A heavy burden rests on our shoulders as teachers: Alleviate Minnesota's large achievement gaps, accelerate learning gains, and get all children college- and career-ready. We're up to the challenge.

Teachers are the No. 1 in-school factor affecting student success. Research says a highly effective teacher can help students achieve as much as an additional year's worth of academic gains over one school year compared with a less effective teacher.

That's why it is so disheartening to see great teachers let go without regard to their performance.

Consider what happened late last month, when nearly 50 teachers in Eden Prairie received layoff notices.

These particular teachers were not laid off because they were bad teachers, because they had failed their students, or because parents, students or administrators wanted them to go. They were laid off because of a simple number: their number of years teaching in the district.

It's become a common scene across the state, and it will repeat itself in the coming weeks and months because of the "last in, first out" teacher layoff policy, or LIFO. The policy requires school districts to look solely at the length of time a teacher has worked in the district when making layoff decisions, without any consideration of performance.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at April 5, 2012 5:44 AM
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