NEA proposes criteria reform for teacher jobs

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Washington Times:

Performance, not seniority, would play the primary role in whether teachers keep their jobs under a broad reform plan released by the National Education Association last week.

The nation’s largest labor union, representing more than 3 million teachers, is pushing a revamped system in which instructors would collaborate with principals and school administrators to design detailed peer-review processes, with the results determining “continued employment and advancement.”

“In this system, the need for tenure is replaced,” said Madaline Fennell, who chaired the NEA's Commission on Effective Teachers and Teaching, a 21-member board formed last year.

The policy statement is a dramatic change for the union, which has previously been skeptical of such models. But NEA President Dennis Van Roekel said his organization has now turned a critical eye on itself and is willing to re-evaluate sacred cows, including the teacher tenure system, seen by many as deeply flawed because it allows ineffective instructors to remain on the job and receive regular pay increases simply based on their length of service.