This summary of the education reform proposals was written by DMEA Executive Board member, Andrew Rasmussen:
- The governor has now released his final proposals for education reform to the state legislature who will now craft the legislation to put the reforms into effect. You can read the full proposal at the following link…
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/assets/pdf/D218358416.PDF
- Among the proposals there are several that will have a major impact on educators and our students including…
* LAYOFFS: A proposal to base layoff decisions primarily on performance based measures rather than by seniority. There is no clear explanation of how performance would be determined but it would be a subject of local bargaining.
* EVALUATIONS: A proposal for teachers to face yearly evaluations rather than every three years. Included is a proposal for creating new administrative assistants (School Adminstrative Managers) at schools that would then free up building principals to take on the increased evaluation load.
* TEACHING STANDARDS: Doing away with the Iowa Teaching Standards for the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium standards. Increasing the standardization of evaluations across the state.
* VALUE ADDED MEASURES: Creation of so called Value Added Measures for teachers and schools. These measures would try to tie student achievement to teachers in order to determine the “value” a teacher or school added to a student’s achievement.
* TERMINATION APPEALS: A proposal to take termination appeals out of the courts. School boards would make final decisions on terminations and after that educators would have one opportunity for an appeal to an outside arbitrator. That arbitrator decision would be final. Only cases involving civil rights or employee mistreatment would be allowed to go to court.
* RETAINING THIRD GRADERS: Third grade retention for students who do not pass broad based measures of reading. Requiring schools provided intensive reading assistance for those students. Also includes the funding of a new statewide literacy program with a $10 million price tag.
* TESTING OF PRESCHOOL STUDENTS: Kindergarten readiness assessment of literacy and numeracy skills given to all preschool students in the state preschool program.
* END OF COURSE EXAMS: End of course assessments for core classes in high school that would eventually be used in the student’s final grade or become a requirement for graduation.
* ACT/SAT REQUIRED: Requiring all students to take a college entrance exam in high school.
* PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: The Department of Education would determine state needs as far as professional development and set statewide professional development plans. If an AEA or district wanted to do something different they would need to get Department of Education approval.
* FUNDS FOR INNOVATIVE APPROACHES: Creation of an Innovation Acceleration Fund that would grant money to school districts or community based non-profits in a competitive bid process.
* CHARTER SCHOOLS: Opening up more room for charter schools run by school districts, universities, community colleges, or non-profits. Would require that all charter allow collective bargaining rights for employees and meet all state standards.
* COMPETANCY BASED EDUCATION: Support for school districts wanting to explore “competency based education” models.
* TEACHER SALARY SCHEDULES/LENGTH OF SCHOOL YEAR: Task forces created to study educator salary schedules and changes to the school day and year.
* PROBATIONARY PERIOD: Increasing the probationary period to 5 years.
* REQUIREMENTS FOR ENTERING EDUCATION PROGRAMS: Increased requirements for admission into education programs.
* ALTERNATIVE CERTIFICATIONS: Opening up alternative certification for people not in the education field interested in becoming an educator.
- The governor’s proposals seem to be heavy on increased “hoops” for educators and students while being rather light on supports. There also seems to be a “power grab” by the Department of Education taking over professional development and licensure. Finally, there are worrisome moves to tying student results (on tests) to teacher evaluations and decreased respect being given to experienced educators in these proposals. Overall, the devil is surely in the details of implementation of these proposals.
- It is important to remember that these proposals must go through both houses of the state legislature where we as involved education professionals and citizens can influence the final outcomes. We will need to have an intense lobbying effort from educators around the state on this so stay tuned and be prepared to contact your lawmakers!!!
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