AUGUSTA, Maine — A new teacher evaluation and termination process proposed by the LePage administration sparked debate in Augusta on Wednesday that pitted proponents of due process in employment against those who say it’s too hard for a public school in Maine to fire a poor-performing teacher or principal.
The Legislature’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee spent more than four hours Wednesday afternoon hearing from dozens of stakeholders on both sides of the issue. At one point, Sen. Justin Alfond, D-Portland, called the measure “the ultimate penalty for teachers,” while Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen told the committee that “no other bill you’ve heard this session has the potential to have the positive impact on education in Maine that this bill does.”
At issue is LD 1858, An Act to Ensure Effective Teaching and School Leadership. Among other things, the bill would establish an “effectiveness rating” system for teachers and administrators that includes student progress markers. An educator who receives two consecutive years of “ineffective” scores could have his teaching contract canceled without the option to appeal the evaluations that led to the decision. As it currently stands, teachers use an appeal system through the Maine Educational Association to contest bad reviews.
The bill also would require school districts to implement professional development opportunities for those who score low in the rating system and sets more rigorous teaching qualifications, such as an extended student-teaching experience and the passage of mathematics and reading tests for middle school teachers. If passed by the Legislature, the system would be phased in between this fall and the 2014-15 school year.
Though there was fervent opposition to what some educators said was a stripping of their due process rights, a major hurdle for LePage’s bill is funding. As proposed, a portion of Essential Programs and Services Funding — which constitutes the state’s share of public education funding — would be earmarked for the evaluation process and professional development training for evaluators and educators who receive poor marks. Other than some programs that involve matching funding from the state, this bill would mark the only instance where the state tells local school districts how they must use their state subsidy, according to testimony on Wednesday.
Bowen said the department has not yet calculated how much the system would cost statewide. A fiscal note attached to the bill couldn’t quantify that either, but said while the cost to state government could be absorbed within the Department of Education, the cost to local communities would be “significant.”
“We haven’t done the digging into the cost yet because we need to get a piece of legislation passed first,” said Bowen.
Rep. Stephen Lovejoy, D-Portland, who is a member of the education committee, questioned the financial impact on local school districts.
“By putting this in EPS, we’re reducing everything else in EPS to fund this,” he said. “Aren’t we putting a mandate on the communities?”
Bowen responded by saying that he hoped rising education funding under the LePage administration would increase again in the next biennial budget and cover the cost of the program, the bulk of which would be for training and professional development.
“I don’t see education funding going up in the current environment. Do you see it going up enough to cover this?” Lovejoy asked Bowen.
“I hope so,” said Bowen. “I don’t have an answer for that.”
Alfond then brought up the issue of earmarking state EPS funds for certain programs, which he said is an idea that has come to the Education Committee before and been rejected every time.
“This is part of the discussion that we’ll have to have,” said Bowen. “To what degree does the Legislature and administration say, ‘We’ll provide funds, but you have to spend it for this’? At the end of the day, we write a check and we don’t bind districts [about how to spend it].”
Representatives from the Maine School Boards Association, the Maine School Superintendents Association, Associated Builders and Contractors and several educators voiced support for the bill. Paul Stearns, president-elect of the superintendents association, called the bill “the most significant improvement of teacher employment law in decades.”
Susan Campbell, president of the school board’s association, said the bill’s provision that a firing could be appealed at the local school board level gives educators all the due process they need, but she said she was concerned about how districts would pull off implementation.
“Our concern is that the process has to be properly funded,” said Campbell. “This process will take a lot of time and hard work. It is time we have to commit, however, because our children need the best we have to give them.”
Those in support of the bill, such as Connie Brown, superintendent of Augusta-area schools, hailed it as a way to cull low-performing teachers and principals from the profession.
“My job is to make sure I have the best teachers in front of kids every single day,” said Brown. “I applaud the department for bringing forth a proposal that would in fact do that. … I don’t believe that this strips away any aspect of a teacher’s due process rights.”
Several teachers testified that the new evaluation process would discourage educators from taking risks in terms of teaching styles and stymie challenges of administrative edicts.
“This language creates a climate of fear,” said Grace Leavitt, a Spanish teacher in Cumberland who is also the MEA’s local president. “My students cannot learn in a climate of fear. I cannot teach in a climate of fear. What this really does is take away our due process.”
Adam Leach, who teaches history at Bangor High School, said he was concerned about the “open-endedness” of the bill, in reference to the fact that the Department of Education would have to go through a rule-making process after the Legislature acts. He also said that a good teacher is something that’s hard, or maybe impossible, to measure.
“How can you measure the impact of a teacher in terms of the value added to an individual student?” he said. “The teacher rating scale is an attempt to take a qualitative measure and turn it into a quantitative one. It’s a measure of essentially an objective nature and should be recognized as that.”
Highly respected Bangor High teacher Adam Leach says it so well, as he did in a BDN Op Ed not long ago. Those who think that teaching ability is easy to measure and that students’ performance has little or nothing to do with life outside of the classroom should try teaching themselves. It’s so easy for those who would dismiss allegedly failing teachers to impose quantitative measures on ultimately non-quantitative phenomena. Of course teachers, even veterans, might benefit from fair-minded suggestions for improvement. But the subtext here is that “those who can’t, teach” and that corporate-minded folks like LePage and Bowen would happily intimidate teachers. And such persons, let us be honest, would NEVER seek to measure the performance of corporate executives or school supts. or others not at the grass roots.
You can not be serious, in the corporate world performance is based on profits, you do not produce you get fired it is call performance based employment and is reality, not the union protected and tenure driven world of teaching.
You can not be serious. Have you ever spent one moment teaching in the public schools, or in the private schools for that matter? (Will the religious schools be subject to these laws too?)Students are not “products” to be made and sold in the free market, and they are not “broken machines” that just need to be “properly fixed” by the right “technicians.” You have no clue what you are talking about, and that right wingers hate workers and workers’ rights is sickening. Whatever is best for millionaires, and workers and the middle class be damned. Unions helped build the American middle class and stopped workers from being treated like worthless cattle. Heaven forbid that there are organizations out there that actually care about workers, their working conditions, and their interests. Enough of the right wing attack on workers while you worship at the feet of Wall Street, corporations that outsource American jobs, and millionaires like Flip RoMONEY who hide their millions in the Caymans and pay lower tax rates than their secretaries.
This guy obviously failed civics class, and I dont think the teacher was to blame!
We do not hate workers or workers rights. WE HATE UNIONS!
Correction: you hate anyone and anything that doesn’t fit your narrow-minded, hypocritical views. If you can’t smarten up, then go back to your dumbafental cult and stay there.
Personal attacks? Great way to defend your “argument” mainegal. Grow up!
In the business world, manufacturers are able to reject an inferior raw material so it doesn’t end up as an inferior product. In education , teachers work with and improve the “product” they get. The improvement level, isn’t nor ever will be consistent as the “raw material” is always changing. The right to due process, which unions guarantee is one that all workers should have. Since senior teachers make the most money, guess who some administrators will be targeting? No, you say? Well, past practice shows just exactly that is what will happen. Ask any senior teacher what question that a new administrator may ask. “when are you planning to retire.” This is done all too often.
Tenure is a great system in that in provides zero accountability. Many time the worst teachers in the system are the safest. Thanks UNIONS and DEMOCRATS for looking after our students.
The problem with comparing the two is that in the profit driven world profits are easy to measure. In the the teaching world they would held mainly to subjective evaluations and probably most of it due to things out of their control.
Aaahhh, so that’s why CEO’s can lose 40% of a company’s equity and get bonuses in the millions.
That type of model makes sense………………..(I guess the unions didn’t get in their way)
He doesn’t mind bailing them out but doesn’t want kids educated which is why ME is rated so low.
and when you are a CEO and get fired, you get 100’s of times more dollars and benefits than any teacher would get while working. And when you rip off the rest of us like the banks/Wall Street, getting large bonuses for ripping us off (read profits), you get rescued and get more bonuses. Give me a break about “corporate world performance”! If you are in a corporation, you know it’s mostly about your personal alliances with sources of power.
Trust LePage, the dumbest governor we’ve ever had, to come up w/this brilliant plan. By the time he’s done, Maine will have the first fully privatized system there is, chock full of highly unqualified rent-a-teachers.
Next up? Rent-a-special interest-group.
Yes, education is working so well now under plans by dumb democrats, lets just leave it that way. I looked up the word dumb in the dictionary and one of the synonyms listed was democrats.
Yup……that would be the FauxNews Dictionary which would be the only book on your shelf.
S/he’ll be the first one in line for SS and LBJCARE. Hypocrites are like that. Dems see the glass as half full and repukes see the glass as theirs. I’m an Indy btw but the repukes are pushing me into the Dem party. Not one I could vote for, HOUSE cleaning in November.
Who looked it up for you?
If you did it “all by yourself”, you can read…thank a teacher! (because politicians don’t teach reading).
Although really, I don’t believe there’s any truth to your comment. That removes the “cred” from any of your posts.
Isn’t that amazing, I looked up conservative and found conservaturd. You have a D rating in ME, you should be very proud and you show the results of that with your insults and hate, just another GOPig.
Lepage first needs to pass a bill that fires Incompetant Governors, like the one that hasn’t got enough brains to put a deal down on paper between the Town of Millinocket and the State as to the handling of the Toxic Dump that he bought!
Maybe then he can “Lead By Example” and clean out his desk and leave!
Thank you for proving my point, entitled4life. The correct grammatical usage of “lets” is “let’s.”
LePage didn’t have much to do with it, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is behind all or most of it…
ALEC’s largest effect on Maine’s public policy has been in
the field of education. At least 13 education bills with ALEC ties were
introduced during the 125th Legislature. Some of these bills were exact copies of
ALEC model legislation and others simply have been paraphrased or rewritten but
still share the same structure and intent.
ALEC and its members have made a priority of privatizing
education and encouraging school voucher and tax-credit programs. Rep. Amy Volk
(R-Scarborough) sponsored LD250 “An Act to Permit Tuition Subsides by
Municipalities,” which would allow towns to provide subsides to families with
children enrolled in private schools. LD
250 draws from two ALEC model bills, the “Family Education Tax CreditProgram
Act” and “Family Education Savings Account Act.” The ALEC model bills and LD 250 seek tocreate
financial incentives for parents to send their children to private schools,
including religious schools, by creating tax credits and subsidies.
Please don’t make the mistake of thinking our illustrious governor remains at arm’s length from ALEC or any other of the special interest groups he swore wouldn’t be a part of (remember, in the early days, when his lies were just white ones?).
When I provide professional training the metrics I go by are whether they paid attention, whether they understood it during the teaching session, and whether they retained it afterwards. If an appreciable number of students did not pay attention and did not understand the material I don’t blame it on outside events. And if I’m not conveying the material properly then someone else should be teaching because the first priority is passing on the knowledge, not protecting the instructor.
And if they are not paying attention, not engaged, and if they are unwilling, unmotivated, and don’t care, you are fine being entirely blamed for that? Most school districts already have pretty darn vigorous biannual evaluation systems based on a variety of factors including instructional practice and effectiveness. What they are going to do here is attach evaluations exclusively to high stakes standardized testing scores which is insane as there are so many factors that impact standardized test scores and overall academic performance. This is especially problematic for teachers at higher levels with over 100 students. How can a middle or high school teacher in that situation be held accountable for the motivation of every single one of those students at those kind of numbers? This is crazy. This is just one more ALEC/Heritage Foundation attack on teachers and teachers unions. It will drive many very good teachers and propective teachers straight out of the profession. Should we evaluate doctors solely on cure rates? How about evaluating cops based just on local crime rate statistics? How about evaluating prison wardens based just on re-arrest rates? How about evaluating psychiatrists based just on cure rates? When it comes to human behavior, there are so many factors that play into it that are outside the control of the person being evaluated. Yes, we need well qualified teachers using good teaching methods and class management techniques, but there must be balance in all things and consideration of many factors. Students are not machines that simply need to be “fixed” by the right “technicians”. Education is a very complex human behavioral process involving numerous factors. There are students that are privileged and of gifted intelligence, and there are others who are in homeless shelters struggling to survive. And our teachers get them ALL every day. Let’s start supporting teachers and enough of this endless attack on them.
In your household, try getting something across to 20-25 of your own children, some who haven’t had breakfast, some who have had a fight with you or you wife, some who are ill, some who are sleep deprived, some who may even be high , or whatever other factor may be affecting their lives at the moment. When you try that, and then can tell me that outside events don’t affect how students learn. In your case, I guess it isn’t outside events at all, it’s just that you aren’t very good at it and your evaluation will be bad, at that time you won’t be able to contest it, just get fired
Please explain your “professional training”! Is it for students that didn’t have breakfast that day? Is it for socially and academically challenged individuals that do not have external support? Is it provided to non-interested and combatant participants? Is it meant for students that are not prepared for the sessions by being “passed” through from another department? Is it intended for heterogeneously coupled groups with disparate abilities?
Or is it for “professionals” that already have an education and are doing the training as a part of their employment?
When you provide professional training in what? Math? Science? Basket weaving?
This is absolutely a mistake. Teachers are about all there is in a school that protects students from being chewed up by a system that is increasingly being run by people who ALWAYS look at cost first and needs second. If this passes no teacher in their right mind would ever stand up to those who “administer” via the bottom dollar again. Most will become just another gang of head nodders who do whatever they’re told even when what they’re told is detrimental to the needs of students. I certainly wouldn’t want to be a teacher now and if I was thinking about it before I’d begin a serious look into making a different career choice.
Why the heck don’t these administrators do intelligent evaluations now? No union is going to protect a teacher that has an endless stream poor job evaluations. Why aren’t administrators doing their jobs! Answer. In general, school administrators are incompetent and these are the same incompetents that Mr. LePage wants to allow to remove teachers on what will soon amount to a whim or even a clash of personalities. That’s a sad way to lose a good teacher. This is the reality of our future under Mr. LePage’s plan. Call your representatives and tell them you say NO!
Why would any UNION HACK allow teachers to be evaluated and rated according to performance. Perish the thought that UNION members should have to be assessed and be required to meet minimum levels competency. Our system is perfect; we keep the highest paid, worst teachers around because of UNION TENURE rules while we lay off award winning teachers. None of you LIBERAL UNION HACKS talked about the students only how much you hate LePage. Think about the students instead of supporting UNION THUGS.
Dear Flat_head:
The MEA contracts do recognize, and require, evaluations as a means to improve effectiveness (thinking about students). The evaluation process is not used to punish, but rather has at its heart “the sole purpose of improving instruction”. That puts the onus on the school administrators to evaluate, assist, develop, and mentor teachers to a higher level of efficacy.
Try decaf…and take off the caps-lock key.
Your emotions are showing–you just might need a time out!
I disagree. I think that the teacher’s are working hard to make this issue of evaluation seem elusive and ambiguous. The simple fact is that parents and students know who the good ones are, and who the bad ones are. We talk with each other, share experiences and do our own evaluations. I know which ones taught my kids effectively, and which one’s didn’t.
Having kids in the Bangor Schools, I can tell you that my frustration is that the really bad teachers don’t leave or get dropped. They linger.
This is probably the only part of Penguin’s agenda that I support, though I don’t have the same union-busting motive that he does.
I also had kids in school and have teachers as friends and relatives. I have also considered getting involved teaching and decided I would never get involved with that thankless job. Most of it due to the bonehead parents teachers have to put up with and the lack of respect kids have. We shouldn’t have to expect teachers to morph into parents or babysitters to solve societies problems. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to go into teaching with this constantly hanging over their heads. This will just dumb down the profession.
Re conservativedad: like so many others who think that teaching is easy, you see education as identical to an assembly line, turning out widgets or whatever and have an easy means of checking for errors in the finished product. Sorry, it’s a very different world. How many businesspersons have failed in trying to impose their one size fits all model on education, not least higher education? I do cherish your notion that, in contemporary America, those who don’t produce are fired. What planet are you on? How many corporate execs and bankers responsible for the awful economic conditions since 2008 and really before were fired? Hardly as many as were not only kept on by their boards of directors who allegedly believe in your same creed but were also given huge bonuses. Your anti-teacher/pro-business “model” is rather naive and quite unscientific. But it makes self-proclaimed business folks delighted.
be up to lapage all kids would be home on laptops except the fortunate they could go to private schools
Whats so difficult to understand here? Republicans will do anything to screw over teachers. They are natural enemies. Teachers educate people and educated people don’t vote republican.
So where does that leave those of us who are educated but don’t like either party? LOL
If you can read this you should probably thank a teacher. If “this” is a foreclosure notice or a pink slip then you should thank a republican.
Since I can read this I think I’ll thank BOTH teachers and my parents. And I’ll thank a couple special teachers who taught me to think for myself because without them I may just follow along with what the news tells me rather than doing some research into topics myself. For if it weren’t for those few teachers I’d never know that NAFTA was done by BOTH parties, the housing market was because of BOTH parties, the bailouts came from BOTH parties, and the NADA was put together by members of BOTH parties. It’s not a D vs R issue anymore, both sides are full of nitwits and scoundrels.
Agreed. But when choosing between two less than stellar choices, which do you truly believe will do the least harm? Which is more closely aligned with those values that you yourself hold as being important both as a person with children or just as someone looking to the future? To me, the choice was a simple one. In history, more death and destruction can be attributed to extremism and/or religion than any other cause. As a lifelong Independent, I feel the Right has left no room to accomplish anything with anyone but their own kind. They don’t play well with others anymore. That much is apparent. Just look at our governor. Their agenda is self-serving and oppositional. By today’s standards, Clinton was a moderate Republican. We can’t afford self serving stagnation towards accomplishing things that benefit only the elite few which is what I feel we are facing here. We each must make up our own mind. Like I said, I have children and a conscience and for me the choice was easy.
The LIBERALs/COMMUNISTS and DEMOCRATS have a vested interest in maintaining poverty. Without a population requiring entitlement/handouts the constituency would disappear. Successful people do not need entitlements and therefore the DEMOCRATS cannot buy their votes. DUMOCRATS/LIBERALS/COMMUNISTS need perpetuate poverty to maintain a voting block.
Apparently, flat_lander, you are the product of some lousy teaching, for all an intelligent person needs to do is totally reverse what you have just written to find the truth. Glad you are in Maine now. If you stay long enough, you just might find yourself becoming intelligent. If that never happens, Massachusetts will welcome you.
“If you can read this you should probably thank a teacher” Really? So, if a student graduates from high school unable to read, how many teachers do we have to thank for that. How about making the teacher retirement benifits dependent on how successful their former students become?
Alf999, meet mainestudent down below. If your kid went through 12 years of school without learning how to read I’ll put the blame for that squarely where it belongs. On the parents who told that kid that teachers should be ignored and that they deserve no respect. Think that doesn’t happen? Think again. Parents who don’t support educators is the biggest reason for a failed system. Its people like you who are to blame if thats where you are coming from.
Java88, My kids were reading at the 3rd grade level when they entered kindergarten.They were helping the teachers with the kids that were not reading at even grade level. I actually had to go in and put a stop to it because one of my kids was tired of helping the same kid EVERYDAY. Funny thing is, that after I had the NERVE to complain, the teacher would ignor my kid if she needed help. Respect is an earned privilege. Not a right.
I could read before kindergarten because of my parents. I’ll thank them.
Then you are the exception to the norm……….you were very fortunate.
The problem isn’t with the teachers but with the UNION that is purely a cash funnel to the DEMOCRATS. The UNION perpetuates inefficencies by promoting TENURE which is not in the best interest of the students. Teacher UNIONS do not care about students as much as they care about their political powers and the perpetuation thereof.
flat_lander…the Maine Education Association has backed republican candidates.
Simply put this is a bad idea. It reminds me of ‘No Child Left Behind’ and we’re seeing how well that’s working. I myself am not a teacher but I did intend to be for my first two years of college until realizing it wasn’t for me. I do, however, have friends who are teachers and I hear the horror stories often enough. Many of them spend more time trying to be parents for a couple of students and it takes away from the rest of the class. And lets not forget about those that teach the kids in the special ed department. How exactly are you going to evaluate those teachers? So many of these children come from home lives that the rest of us can’t imagine. While there are indeed teachers who aren’t up to par, as there are in any other profession, putting everyone under a microscope isn’t going to change anything and I believe will actually make matters worse. Younger people are already beginning to look at leaving the profession, do we really need to give them another excuse?
So now Maine is going to be a state for teachers to avoid.Maybe the long term plan is to just make everyone leave.Sorry Paul time for u to go.Maybe you need to cancel your trip to china and put what the cost of that is into budget sort falls.
For an administration which is looking to privatize the
school system I’m guessing the inevitable outcome of the evauations will be to use
the data to prove that teachers in public schools are unfit, therefore the
public schools will be closing due to lack of teachers.
A trip to China? The legislature better look into that. Did Violette ever go on a trip? Maybe the next trip LePage takes should be to room with him!
I had a French teacher as a youth who said
( You can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink)
I didn’t like French and I failed the class!
Is the answer Fire the Teacher?
Is the answer to fire the teacher? Maybe. If she’s not relating to the kids in a way that makes them able to learn, then yes, she/he should be fired. We are not talking about a 100% success rate, BUT it should be the majority of the students making GROWTH. They have to be careful with benchmarks or otherwise teachers will spend ALL their time on those below the benchmarks, and that will lead to only further lowering of the scores. But ALL kids should make some growth regardless of how high or how low their level is. That’s why NCLB is failing to raise overall averages… it only is trying to get the low level up to a certain point. Those that could be soaring high above average are not, because there is no reward or punishment for getting them there.
Whats the problem in making certain employees meet certain minimum standards?
They do meet certain minimum standards which are higher than many professions call for. The problem is the subjective evaluation and denying an appeal process. Its too much to ask for anyone to invest in this profession and then take away that basic right. You think people will be encouraged to go into teaching?
Even students can recognize a lousy teacher as compared to a good teacher, and there is absolutely no reason outside of union BS for not being able to send the substandard teachers packing. They are no different than any other profession. If a hospital can fire a poorly performing doctor, then a school district should be able to fire a poorly performing teacher.
Yes, Every student CAN recognize a poor teacher, as do the parents. But is there ever any way to get input from the stakeholders? I think parents should be allowed to have a voice in evaluation too. As I stated above, in a private school, I can give my vote to the effectiveness of the school by being willing to pay for another year, or taking my child elsewhere to school. That really is putting the power in the hands of the consumer. Buy it or don’t. If it’s inferior, then buy it somewhere else.
Totally agree, BB84SS.
A Teacher can spot a poor student!
However
The Parents Can’t!
That’s because most parents think their children are perfect, they have no behavioral problems, would never drink or do drugs, AND they never think about sex.
LOL, And some of those kids grow up to become teachers in the same school system that graduated them.
“Representatives from the Maine School Boards Association, the Maine School Superintendents Association, Associated Builders and Contractors and several educators voiced support for the bill. Paul Stearns, president-elect of the superintendents association, called the bill “the most significant improvement of teacher employment law in decades.”
Seems the only ones against this bill passing are the teachers and their unions. Not surprising there, but they may have a point. We don’t require our students to maintain or acheive academic standards to advance year after year until they graduate, so why should we have performance standards for our teachers.
If we truly want to improve our educational system we need to put in place measures that require both our teachers and students to perform.
It should be noted that teachers and the MEA are not opposed to evaluations, but to the portion of the bill that prohibits an appeal of them.
How many readers in the private sector have received an evaluation from their boss that they thought was unfair? Public schools are no different, with the same politics, favoritism, etc.
I don’t know many private sector employees who get any appeal when they lose their jobs. And I also don’t know many private sector employees who get to perform poorly for two consecutive years before they are let go.
This bill allows for 1) a multi-pronged evaluation of a teacher’s performance; 2) guaranteed opportunities for an ineffective teacher to receive professional development in order to improve performance; 3) two years of guaranteed employment time to establish a record; 3) additional mentoring before a teacher is allowed to teach on his or her own so the teacher can start in the classroom having had more supervised experience.
How can any reasonable person have a problem with this?
This bill is right off the ALEC playbook to privitize schools, ending up with a for-profit educational system. Fight it, strengthen the Public system instead. Don’t let these Grover Norquist worshiping, tea potty, zealots ruin what benefits all.
99% of student success starts at HOME. Start removing underperforming parents from the ranks and you’ll see an improvement in student ability. Hey parents, if your child really excels in school, thank yourself because you are the vast majority of the reason.
As far as this myth that you can’t remove incompetent teachers in Maine…It’s just that…a myth. In the first two years of employment a teacher can be removed for any reason at all, including no reason. In fact, you don’t even have to give a reason. You just don’t recommend them for rehire. Done. Gone. No nothing can be done beyond that. After that, it is just the same, only you have to “have cause” (and there are A NUMBER of “causes” and all you have to do as an administrator to remove an incompetent teacher is to document the incompetency and offer that teacher some retraining and the chance to improve. If they don’t, they’re gone. Why is that so difficult to understand? It shouldn’t be. As far as why it doesn’t happen, simply put, some administrators are over-extended or unwilling to go through the steps to remove an incompetent teacher.
Get off your soap boxes about teacher unions, because IN THIS STATE they are NOT any sort of powerful force in ALMOST EVERY community.
Learn, then speak.
They are speaking, but when your only source of knowledge is Rush, Hannity and Fox then your line of thinking is quite narrow.
Keep lying to yourself while only 4 of 5 graduate high school. 10% of the delegates at the Democratic National Convention are NEA members there to perpetuate a system that is failing our students as our ranking in the world gets lower and lower. But we who don’t agree with the policies that lead to our degradations are just rabid right wingers. Look beyond your delusional perspectives and try to see the students.
Please cite your source that 10% of the delegates at the DNC are NEA members. I suspect you don’t have one…
Clean up your deadwood, MTA.
If not, stand by your poor teachers and watch while students flock to private schools with vouchers in their hot little hands.
This is a great idea. Once a teacher is tenured they become a permanent fixture: competent or not. Pass this bill and watch the learning results improve.
As they did with NCLB?
Uh huh!
Listen as Sen. Justin Alfond questions Commissioner Bowen on the part of the bill the prohibits a teacher from appealing the contents of an evaluation. The bill only allows an appeal if the process isn’t followed:
http://soundcloud.com/dirigo-blue/alfond-bowen
Of interest is that the evaluations required in the bill only pertain to teachers and principals in public schools. Educators in private schools, although accredited by the State, are exempt.
The difference for private school is that they get their evaluation by whether people actually will PAY to take their kids there. If they don’t perform, then the parent is not going to pay to keep their kids there. That’s a pretty powerful evaluation! And there is no coddling of sub-standard teachers in private schools. One of our kids attended a private, and indeed one teacher did get fired because she didn’t perform the way they expected. There was no remediation, no probation… just GONE. In fact, I think she went back to teaching in public school after that. How’s that for a stamp of approval of how the public schools work?
My children go to a public school. They are very well educated. I teach in a public school and I work my behind off trying to teach. Do not group us all. This is what this piece of legislation is doing…weeding out the morons.
I’m not lumping all teachers in together, I’m lumping how the public school systems do NOT weed out the morons. As a parent and consumer, the only choice we have is to live with it, or hopefully have access and the money to a private. MOST around here do not have that luxury. We have some EXCELLENT teachers in our district, and even they would like to see several of their colleagues moved on to something else. It’s the fact that sub-standard teachers get carried along way longer than they should be that I’m opposed to. For instance, we have a teacher that I had in high school, who is STILL teaching but now in elementary. Both of my kids had her too. She was a bully to me when I had her, and she was the final straw for one of my kids…. after my son had her we ended up taking him to a private school just to work on self-esteem and self-worth, to heck with academics (he’s actually a high-honors student in the GT program in another district now – but she just didn’t like him and was just plain MEAN). THOSE teachers should be GONE, but yet, she’s still doing the same exact thing, 20 years later. There are several parents that have had similar interactions with her, but she also has her favorites whose parents rave over how good she is, so the complaints go unheeded. Nothing but old age is going to get her out of the school. Why is that???????
Why is the solution a bill that would put EVERY teacher in the fire line? Orwell once said, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Giving any person the power to fire someone on a whim is never a good idea in an economy and a society as at risk as ours. The solution is to ask administrators why the teacher is still there. Why haven’t steps occurred to help improve the teaching or move this teacher out of the classroom. Ineffective teachers should not be in the classroom. The Union believes that. I believe that. But I am a nontraditional teacher who puts heart and soul into the classroom. For most of my career, I’ve been blessed with amazing administrators. However, I had a horrible one for two year. If this bill were in effect now, I would not have a job. I have no doubt that he would not have renewed me. I stood up to him, defending my students, and refused to let him change me. I’m still teaching, I still love what I do, love my kids, and I would still do anything for them. THAT’S WHY I NEED A UNION.
I lived in NYC and most teachers I knew sent their kids to private schools. They were truly concerned about kids but only their own.
I know the Christian school in our area, and many other private schools, do not have to have certified teachers. They have parents that go in and teach. We cannot regulate that and they are exempt.
Precisely why sending my child to a Christian school would be my last resort. “They have parents that go in and teach.” I’ve seen the end result of this and trust me, they may know the bible inside and out, but apart from that, they are far from bright. If they have any standards in these schools, they are on par with those in the deep south.
Based on everything i have read here. It depends on how well you comprehend what is taught and if you don’t get it, it is your fault. (not really) Teachers are a unique breed of people and are not beyond scrutiny and that is what the problem is. Yes you have our children for 6 jor 7 hours a day and you try to make the best out of them you can. And the parents have a responsiblity to assure that their children are doing what they need to be doing in school also. What i find today is that some of the basic skills that used to be taught in school are no longer being taught. The mindset is get them ready for college. Some have no desire to go to college so why not offer those courses that will help them. Like business, bookeeping, the students in the technical trades that don’t go on to the community schools and go out on their own do not get this type of instruction today. Teqachers do need to be evaluated and some of the evaluation should be on performance. I remember when i went to school the principal was in the teachers class at least twice a year evaluating. Do they still do this.
They still do evals and go into the classroom but, vo tech has been pulled from many schools however most students can goto a vo tech in their area that gives them credits. That being said, what happened to parents and other adults teaching their child a skill?
Interesting that a man who has no respect for anyone but himself wants to evaluate teachers. LePage needs to go to the back of the class, sat down and keep his big mouth shut and listen. He has nothing to offer at this time.
“We haven’t done the digging into the cost yet because we need to get a piece of legislation passed first,” said Bowen.
Go back to school brother Bowen. Who in their right mind, (I guess I just answered that didn’t I) would propose legislation without doing a cost/benefit analysis first?
Neglecting to do that only demonstrates the intent behind this feckless proposal. It really isn’t related to anything other than political slime.
Cost is a major factor in supporting our school systems and should be the first concern. I am tired of hearing “It’ s for the “Kids”. A lot of teachers today cannot teach, there are classrooms with 8-10 students and they have to have aids. What happened to the days when a teacher taught 20-30 kids in a classroom, where have they gone!
The towns don’t want to consolidate classrooms or schools as a means to saving money. If you cannot handle 8-10 kids and teach them properly then maybe they should look at another profession. Private tutoring in public schools has got to stop!
Every town in Maine is having to tighten their belts when it comes to frivalous school spending. That’s the problem with people who havn’t been made accountable for their spending. When it comes time to make cuts, they don’t want to compromise. It’s about time we have a Governor who is making people accountable for their spending!
Shouldn’t the first concern be the students? Teachers are not in charge of the spending…that would be the administration. In addition, this bill would do nothing but INCREASE the money needed for education. Most would have to be pulled from the towns as education is already experiencing a shortfall. I know of few classrooms with 8-10 students in them. I would encourage you however to visit a middle or high school classroom. The “days” as you call them have changed as have our children. The behavior in a classroom twenty years ago and the behavior today are comparing apples to automobiles. Nothing in common but the beginning.
Go ahead an tax retirees higher, you do that because then you can watch the line as we cross the border and get out of this state that is already sucking us dry. Not another penney because you can’t balance a budget. Too expensive here anyway. Do it and watch what happerns :)
Cost is a major factor in supporting our school systems and should be the first concern. I am tired of hearing “It’ s for the “Kids”. A lot of teachers today cannot teach, there are classrooms with 8-10 students and they have to have aids. What happened to the days when a teacher taught 20-30 kids in a classroom, where have they gone!
The towns don’t want to consolidate classrooms or schools as a means to saving money. If you cannot handle 8-10 kids and teach them properly then maybe they should look at another profession. Private tutoring in public schools has got to stop!
Every town in Maine is having to tighten their belts when it comes to frivalous school spending. That’s the problem with people who havn’t been made accountable for their spending. When it comes time to make cuts, they don’t want to compromise. It’s about time we have a Governor who is making people accountable for their spending!
I wonder if this Lepage should have an evaluation “An educator who receives two consecutive years of “ineffective” scores could have his teaching contract canceled without the option to appeal”
He has received two consecutive years of scores that are “inefective” In addition people even call him a fruit – to boot!
These hair-brained idiots that are trying to “reform” education through legislation are actually trying to destroy education. Our children are pawns for them to sacrifice in order to accomplish their ALEC/MHPC goals to privatize education and widen the divide between the “haves” and the “have nots.”
It is time to tell Paulie, Bowen, and other Tea Bagger wingnuts to get the hell out of our state and stop trying to put us back into the Middle Ages. They are regressives trying to open this state up to corporate interests. They won’t be happy until we become Maine,LLC instead of the State of Maine.
Yo body of water. How about getting your priorities adjusted, eh?
Until we solve the systemic problems of voter fraud in Diebold Maine
then our elected LOL representatives will be the best politicians corporations can front.
Then of course we have to gain control of the airwaves in Maine that we own . You know the ones that Regan and the FCC turned over to corporations?
Did I mention how taxpayer funded FBI agents got President Reagan elected?
see link for full story
http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/Judge_Orders_Justice_Dept_to_Release_Document_about_FBI_Helping_Ronald_Reagans_Political_Career_120311
Judge Orders Justice Dept. to Release Document about FBI Helping Ronald Reagan’s Political Career
Sunday, March 11, 2012
A California journalist has won his fight with the FBI to get the Department of Justice to release documents that may
show the FBI, although a government entity, was helping advance Ronald
Reagan’s political career in the 1970s.
You never mentioned students once in your rant
“We haven’t done the digging into the cost yet because we need to get a piece of legislation passed first,” said Bowen.
Commissioner Bowen sounds like he’d fit in in congress alongside Nancy Pelosi when she made the comment about Obamacare, “Pass it and then you can see what’s in it.”
Headline check: If this had been a Baldacci bill how many think the headline would have been written along the lines of: Baldacci teacher evaluation bill hits the legislature to generally good reviews?
I was surprised when I read the story to hear how much support the bill has. Now, I know “mixed reviews” is not a lie–but neither would “generally good” be a lie. But the two terms certainly offer a different impression, don’t they?
Some of you are already familiar with the portraits of Maine artist Robert Shetterly
who has painted over 160 portraits in a series called Americans Who Tell the Truth.
Each portrait has a quotation inscribed onto the canvas taken from the person in the portrait
Last year Rob painted the portrait of Dr Nancy Carlsson Paige, who also happens to be the mom of Matt Damon.
Here is the quote from her portrait
see http://americanswhotellthetruth.org/pgs/portraits/nancy_paige.php
Nancy Carlsson-Paige Biography
Teacher, Professor of Education, Writer, Activist b. 1944
“Corporations have been allowed to
assume, without public dialogue or debate, a growing influence over
children’s play, thoughts, and values, an influence which is, for the
most part, a negative one. Those who market to children do not base
their decisions on the well-being of children but on the well-being of
their profits. And if violence sells, then they provide it, no matter
what the costs are to children and society, no matter how much the
values they push conflict with those of families.”
BDN needs a different photo, this one makes it look like he just “Broke Wind” among friends!!!
Administrators who support this bill shirk their responsibility of creating a vibrant, creative approach to education that focuses on professional development, inclusion of the school’s greatest rich resources– teachers. Administrators who support this bill lack the energetic and compassionate management skills necessary to lead people towards success. Superintendents manage principals, not teachers. Administrators who support this bill obviously lack the skills to engender a climate of trust, shared vision, teamwork, open communication, and motivation.
Micromanaging of this sort shows extremely poor boundaries, lack of self-awareness, lack of awareness of how to effectively function as a leader and one who successfully improves school climate. Focusing on a “gotcha” mentality rather than cultivating excellence evidences a failure in personal effectiveness and clearly shows that these administrators value exercising power and control over people rather than successful collaboration. One comparative look at the “Successful Collaboration Wheel” and the “Power and Control Wheel” can clearly show the character of people who support this legislation.
I absolutely cannot believe that liberals would oppose a system to IMPROVE education. If you can’t tell by my username, I went to school in Maine. Parents tried for YEARS to get rid of under-performing, unconcerned teachers. Each year it was different parents writing letters and holding meetings, yet it was always the SAME awful teachers. It never worked. The system favors the teachers, not the students. It’s completely backwards! There are bad doctors, bad nurses, bad police officers, bad lawyers– and yes, there are BAD TEACHERS. Liberals: if you oppose education reform, you are clearly putting ideology before students. Thanks a lot.