Colorado Alters Teacher Tenure, Democrat Breaks Down In Tears

It isn't as if tenure is going away in Colorado. And other than wanting to see some progress in a particular teacher's students for evaluation purposes, there's not much change. But, by the time any teacher gets done appealing an individual case all the way up to the state supreme court, can this really improve education, without costing a fortune in legal fees?

And given all that, a Democrat and teacher breaks down in tears at passage? Good grief. This is as ridiculous as it is groundbreaking, pointing out how bad the current system actually is. God forbid they be held to account for producing the results they are paid to produce.

After the bill survived a filibuster attempt and passed a key House vote, Democratic Rep. Nancy Todd, a 25-year teacher who opposed the measure, broke into tears.

"I don't question your motives," an emotional Todd said to the bill's proponents. "But I do want you to hear my heart because my heart is speaking for over 40,000 teachers in the state of Colorado who have been given the message that it is all up to them."

The new law requires teachers to be evaluated annually, with at least half of their rating based on whether their students progressed during the school year. Beginning teachers will have to show they've boosted student achievement for three straight years to earn tenure.

Teachers could lose tenure if their students don't show progress for two consecutive years. That won't be a possibility until 2015, however, because lawmakers slowed down the process under political pressure from the teachers' union. Teachers can appeal dismissal all the way to the state Supreme Court, and school districts have the burden of proving why they should be terminated.

Comments

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

So, you just have to play the game for three years before you get tenure-for-life? Sounds like a pretty good deal.

[Scott]

Good god, what a baby. I mean,seriously. What sort fo person cried at beingheld accountable for their work (other than ditherin incompetants.. oh wait). Try employee reviews in the private Sector.

[Fire them all and start over]

Tenure is a stupid idea. It does not exist in any other profession. When all of our teachers are marching in such close ideological formation as they are now it just serves as a means for excluding more rational viewpoints.

[geokstr]

Everybody in the real world has their performance evaluated every year, without fail. But not if you belong to a union, apparently.

[WATeach]

Wow, I gotta join that union which doesn't require annual reviews---
Wait a minnit, I already am! Woohoo for the American Federation of Teachers and its commitment toward social justice...umm..wait, I mean education...no, that can't be right...mediocrity towards all!
That's more like it.

[filbert]

Dear Nancy Todd:

Stick your heart where the sun don't shine, sweetheart. If you and your "progressive" leech teacher friends had been doing your job in the first place, this law would never have been necessary.

You brought it on yourself.

If you can't do the job, you deserve to be fired. That's how the rest of the world works, Nancy. Actually, Nancy, in the Real World, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TENURE. You do your job, you meet your job expectations, or YOU GET FIRED. So save your ridiculous crocodile tears for someone who might actually give a damn how you ***FEEL*** about your precious "profession" of teaching.

Suck it up and DO YOUR JOB and you'll have no problems.

Or is that too hard for your sensitive little heart? If so, go ahead and slit your wrists right now, because you're too f'ing sensitive to live in this ol' cruel harsh world.

Sheesh. People voted for this sorry excuse for a person?

. . . what? Too harsh? I don't think so . . .

[Stephen]

I know the theoretical basis for college professor tenure: so they have academic freedom and can conduct research without fear of losing their jobs. Why in God's name should an elementary school teacher need tenure?

[gahrie]

Obviously none of you teach.

Rewarding or punishing teachers based on student performance is unfair.

You can put the best teacher in the world in front of a class who does not care about learning (not hard to do today) and the kids will not learn. Put the worst teacher in the world in front of a class that is motivated, and the kids will learn.

The problems with education today are unmotivated students and absentee parents.

But it is easier to blame teachers.

[Thomass]

Posted by: gahrie

"Obviously none of you teach.

Rewarding or punishing teachers based on student performance is unfair.

You can put the best teacher in the world in front of a class who does not care about learning (not hard to do today) and the kids will not learn. Put the worst teacher in the world in front of a class that is motivated, and the kids will learn."

A rational use for the union would be to make that specific argument to management (i.e., the ability of the class to learn needs to be taken into account in these evaluations)... rather than fighting the whole bill.

Do you think management wants to dismiss every teacher that takes on teaching challenged students? My bs sensor is going off... I.e., you’re trying to use this argument as a lever to not have any objective standards of performance... it's why no one trusts you (and/or the teacher's union) anymore....

The problems with education today are unmotivated students and absentee parents.

But it is easier to blame teachers.

[tm]

The problems with education today are mostly caused by leftist teachers and their unions. Nice try though to blame the kids.

[dualdiagnosis]

Can anyone make a coherent argument for having any group of public employees unionized? Who are we supposedly protecting them from, us taxpayers?

[Pete]

As a conservative, a former secondary science teacher, and someone who thinks public employee unions ought to be illegal, I find much to dislike concerning how public schools are run. The NEA and other teachers unions are thinly-disguised fronts for the protection of the K-12 education establishment, which is broken and dysfunctional. However, that does not change the fact that educating young people today is an enormous challenge. In fact, in some of our worst urban schools, like the kind in which I used to teach, training as a cop or corrections officer would be more appropriate than teacher's college as preparation - and that's not an exaggeration. Holding teachers entirely accountable for student outcomes in such a setting is ridiculous. Even the best teachers cannot and should not replace the home and family as the primary means by which young people are shaped. Many of our most pressing problems arise from the fact that the schools are being asked to fulfill roles for which they are unsuited and unqualified, i.e., serving as the de facto family and parents of our young people. By the time a young person hits high school, if they are on the wrong path, it is very difficult to set them straight. That's not a politically-correct observation, but it is the cold, hard truth. Many of my former students were, by 10th-12th grade, well into crime, drugs, promiscuity, STDs, teen pregnancy, dropping out of school, failing grades, the whole nine yards. The "education is easy" crowd is going to scale my pay and job security on whether Johnnie the Crack addict can do arithmatic or pass 10th grade chemistry? Not on my life!

In short, I am no fan of teacher's unions, or government-run public education - both should be be scrapped and we should start over - but to anyone who thinks teaching is either easy or simple should get in front of a class and try it. It is not as easy as it looks.

[John P. Squibob]

It's all about the guild.

"It's for the children" is nothing more than smoke screen.

[James Lynch]

Did ANYONE read the article (much less the law)? Nowhere does it say that student performance is the ONLY criterium for evaluation. Just like in "real life", there are several criteria used for evaluation of one's performance on the job.

And just what were all those teacher/course evaluation forms I had to fill out after attending classes (mostly in college and later) used for? A waste of my time, ink and tax resouces (paper and printing)? Were the evaluations even looked at?

[Robert Speirs]

If teachers can't possibly teach - because of the students - why should they be paid as teachers? Why not pay them as the babysitters they are?

[Hyphenated American]

I was in the middle of putting together a bunch of reviews of what I recently had read in the media, when one particular article and a reply by a liberal teacher won the prize were so amazing that I had to dro everything else and publish me comment. It could not wait.

Here is the story. The State of Colorado made draconian changes to the school rules. Namely - the teachers will be held accountable for their performance. What a shame! "The new law requires teachers to be evaluated annually, with at least half of their rating based on whether their students progressed during the school year. Beginning teachers will have to show they've boosted student achievement for three straight years to earn tenure.
Teachers could lose tenure if their students don't show progress for two consecutive years. That won't be a possibility until 2015, however, because lawmakers slowed down the process under political pressure from the teachers' union. Teachers can appeal dismissal all the way to the state Supreme Court, and school districts have the burden of proving why they should be terminated."

And, as anyone would imagine, the liberals were understandably saddened by this vicious attack on teachers' diginity. Democratic Rep. Nancy Todd, a 25-year teacher who opposed the measure had this to say before she broke into tears: "I don't question your motives. But I do want you to hear my heart because my heart is speaking for over 40,000 teachers in the state of Colorado who have been given the message that it is all up to them."

This woman must surely have a gigantic heart - or, what is even more realistic, Aliens have transformed her heart into a magical receiver of human emotions. Moreover, it is fine tuned to teachers' emotions - because the emotions of parents of hundreds of thousands of failed and under-educated kids are out of its range. It also comes with speakers - which I believe is a needless luxury.

But what I particularily cherished was the comment from one of the readers of this article - a reaction not just to the article and the law, but also the comments from other readers. Here is the reply that left me speechless for about 5 seconds if you don't count my giggling.

"Obviously none of you teach. Rewarding or punishing teachers based on student performance is unfair. You can put the best teacher in the world in front of a class who does not care about learning (not hard to do today) and the kids will not learn. Put the worst teacher in the world in front of a class that is motivated, and the kids will learn. The problems with education today are unmotivated students and absentee parents. But it is easier to blame teachers."

This reply is a treasure just waiting to be shown to the world. The first thought that popped into my mind was obvious - if teacher performance is irrelevant to children's education - lets close all university departments of education, fire all teachers and hire instead people from fast food restaurants. After all - if teacher quality makes no difference - why do we need to invest money into teachers? Why high salaries, great benefits, and huge pensions? It was all a scam from beginning to end, and this teacher is honest enough to say so. No wonder teachers have the worst scholastic test results in America!

The second thought was a tad more intellectual. Granted, this poor woman was too depressed to express herself correctly. By all means attacking a liberal school teacher for stupid statements is unsportmanlike behaviour, it's like shooting fish in the barrel. In real life, there are plenty of relatively smart people who repeat same arguments - that taxpayers should not access the quality of teachers' work by the performance of the children. But this literally begs the question - how else can a taxpayer find out the quality of teacher's performance? It would be remarkable to imagine that teachers would be the only profession that is not rewarded (or punished) for performance - and the final product of teacher's work is children's education.

I fully realize that teachers feel reluctant to have their careers determined by how well little Jimmy (let alone Juan or Laquisha) can read, write and do arithmetic - but contrary to popular belief, taxpayers don't pay mind boggling amounts of money (more than a trillion dollars total annually) so that teachers' first priority would be to explain 100 fastest methods on how to put on a condom if you live in a society controlled by evil white corporatist structure. And this exactly why the taxpayers want some accountability from the public education complex - and it should not surprise anyone that there will be a lot of push back. But as someone said long time ago - When you’re catching flak, you’re on target. But I am consistently amazed at the stupidity

[SDN]

Actually, it won't stop at the state Supreme Court. After that will come the accusations of RAAAAACISM! to the EEOC, federal court lawsuits, and appeals to the Dept of Education and the Congress to make funding for Colorado schools contingent on dropping the law.

Read what happened in AL in the 80s when they tried to enforce a qualifications test (that a well read sixth grader could pass) on teachers.

[Ryan]

Fine, for those who object, tell me what the metric should be? Because saying that teachers HAVE no metric is flatly silly.

[Don M]

Obviously the only metric for Public School Teachers should be the ability to endorse their check for deposite. (oh, we did away with that by having their checks "Direct Deposit"ed)

[Dandapani]

Tenure, we don't need no stinking tenure. You think my private sector job is going to give me tenure so I can coast to retirement. No, it doesn't. I'm evaluated year after year and if I don't perform, I'm shown the door.

[Ritchie The Riveter]

Take what Stephen, Pete, and Hyphenated American said, put it together, and you have a pretty good picture of the reality that led to this law.

As Stephen said, there is a place for tenure ... at college level. Not at the elementary or secondary levels ... in fact, one of the problems in education today is teachers who try to recreate a "free-format" college experience (focusing on pet subjects and "alternative" approaches to education) in their classrooms, instead of focusing on the development of the basic skill sets our kids and grandkids will need to thrive (in and out of college).

As Pete said, it's not all about the teachers ... from parents who lawyer up their kids at the first "B" or detention, to kids whose parents are so apathetic they see no need to pursue excellence, the "customer base" is part of the problem.

Of course, a lot of this parental/student dysfunction can be laid at the feet of the ideological allies of the teachers' unions, and those teachers who have promoted such ideology ... such as the focus on "self-esteem" which produces such a sense of entitlement in kids and parents that discipline (with respect to both behavior and the feedback of grading) has been greatly diminished, and the drive to promote Progressive values over top of what Mom and Dad might think.

It doesn't help matters that many of the parents have bought into the relativist ideology of these allies and/or been led to believe that the diktats of the "experts" of education must supersede their own judgment and observations, because they have bought into the Biggest Lie of All ... that "experts are always better".

Both of the above posts were reinforced by HA's ... particularly the description of teacher priority.

This is the Gramscian legacy ... facilitated by the delegation of OUR authority as parents and taxpayers to the "experts".

It's time to put a stop to it ... and put those who have to live with the results -- in the lives of their children -- back in charge.

[GreyOne]

The concept of K-12 teachers even having "Tenure" should be questioned.

As to this change in evaluation method, the teachers are going to be evaluated by , guess who ? Administrators who came from the ranks of teachers. It is still a good 'ol boy system, and if you are "in", you will have no problem.

[LTC John]

"...over 40,000 teachers in the state of Colorado who have been given the message that it is all up to them."

Dear God, no! Responsible, in part, for their own performance. The horror...

Maybe I could get the Army to do away with that whole Officer Evaluation Report thing and give me tenure? If my unit did not perform, I could just blame it on "unmotivated Soldiers" and say "how am I supposed to get them to do anything, its not my fault"!

[Rich]

I teach at the University level and see the result of all those students the education major teachers have taught. IT ain't pretty! For the most part an education degree is a series of courses that teach the theories of how people learn. I have been to some training session where the thrust was to make us college teachers "aware" of this so we can better serve the students. I am not going to repeat the comments I made at the time. I run my classes as if we were a department in a company. The student is the employee and has certain responsibilities, I am the manager and I have responsibilities. Mine involve giving the student the tools to be able to do the job. The student's involve taking the time needed to learn how to use those tools effectively. If there is a problem they have the responsibility to talk to me so they can do their job. Too many of them spend their time in making excuses about all sorts of stuff that has nothing to do with their responsibilities. MY usual response is: NO surprises! If you come to me at the last minute I have no sympathy for you and there is nothing I can do to change the situation. So tough! Come to me early and maybe we can do something about like like getting you extra help, but wait till the last minute...

PS I worked for 28 years in the IT industry before teaching.

[Mark E]

Those who can DO
Those who can't TEACH
Those who can't teach have TENURE

[jsallison]

Break up the mega-districts for starters. Any one district should be composed of a single high school, and the elementary and junior highs that feed it. Get oversight of education back where it belongs, in the hands of the parents and local school board. Inefficient? Sure, but that's not the point of the exercise. And what's so efficient after all about 6 figure incomes and associated staff and prestigious perks for non-teaching administration? Just what value do they add to their product?

[Julie]

Good teachers hate the fact that bad teachers can't be fired. It makes their jobs so difficult when they receive students from bad teachers, and is frustrating and heartbreaking to pass well-prepared and motivated students on to bad teachers, knowing both their work and the students' work is going to be squandered.

[dude]

Tenure for life? Now how ridiculous has that become. when a teacher is afforded the same position as a supreme court justice, something is seriously askew.

[m valve]

It amazes me, it's all about the children. But EVERY TIME we see budget cuts, teacher cuts, the teacher ends up crying!! For the kids of course!

[BunnyMomRocks]

As a former teacher, I hated tenure for the fact that bad teachers didn't get fired they just got moved from school to school and the rest of us dealt with their poorly prepared students. Or teachers that were retiring in a year didn't learn the new history curriculum - they just used the same dittos they had used for 20 years. I've had my job (in a high school) threatened by a parent who was furious I was holding their student accountable. I had a great administration standing behind me - tenure was introduced for those that had a weak administration or one whom they disagreed with for whatever reason. Teaching is in thrall of the ol' boy system - but one where the bar has been considerably lowered. I think this law in Colorado is a great step in the right direction. Student performance, which does not rely solely on the teacher's ability, is part of the teacher's evaluation. I would suggest that if you are going to hold the teacher's feet to the fire you give them back some authority toward helping their student make progress. Detention, afterschool tutoring, other methods teacher's used decades ago to hold students accountable. Nowadays teachers get in trouble merely for pointing out that a student didn't do their homework. So hold the teachers accountable and give them the tools they need to do their job.

[JorgXMcKie]

@WATeach, I'm in a college AFT unit, I just wish the AFT was striving for something as wonderful as mediocrity.

And gahrie is merely the base example of the uselessness of teachers unions. If that's the problem, teachers unions should be striving to change the damn system, not maintain it and increase their own compensation.

[southdakotaboy]

I have to agree with BunnyMomRocks IF you are going to hold the teachers feet to the fire give them the tools they need to run their classroom. Bring back the idea of being held back a year if the student fails don't "socially promote" them.
When I was growing up you were scared sh@tless if you got an F on an assignment let alone on your report card. We need to bring that back. The kids today just don't feel that they have to really take school all that seriously.
I had a great education from the small town school system I attended. The teachers there worked there for generations. I personally know of one elementary teacher who was there so long that she taught former students grandkids. I'm sad to say that some of those teachers would now a days be fired, both under the new Colorado plan or by the leftwing administrators.
To sum up I think in many ways it would not hurt this country to rewind our education system in this country back about 50 years and start cracking the whip.

[Micha Elyi]

"You can put the best teacher in the world in front of a class who does not care about learning (not hard to do today) and the kids will not learn. Put the worst teacher in the world in front of a class that is motivated, and the kids will learn."-gahrie

Thank you for illustrating why the compulsory attendance* experiment in schooling has been a failure, gahrie. The premise behind compulsory attendance is that the kids' motivation doesn't matter.

*another disaster brought to us by unions in alliance with goodie-goodie progressives.

[Kev]

"Can anyone make a coherent argument for having any group of public employees unionized? Who are we supposedly protecting them from, us taxpayers?"

Well said. Public employees' unions should be outlawed by the next non-Democrat Congress, post-haste. (Sorry, the Dems won't have the courage to do this.)

"And what's so efficient after all about 6 figure incomes and associated staff and prestigious perks for non-teaching administration? Just what value do they add to their product?"

Very little, if any. That's why no administrator should be allowed to stop teaching (one class per day is fine). That would break down the proverbial ivory tower, keep "those in charge" fully involved in what's going on with education today (as opposed to 20-30 years ago, when some of them last taught), and push those who are only in it for their own power and control out the door where they belong.

[kiver]

Ironically, I believe the "market place" may actually end up doing more for repairing education than anything. Tighter budgets are forcing hard decisions and staffing is the single largest expense of a school district. Smart districts are realizing the Fed won't be solvent to bail them out or continue current funding menus. State governments are seeing declining revenues which will necessitate lowering their contributions and local tax bases are shrinking as home valuations diminish.

On top of that, the much talked about "teacher shortage" (which never actually existed). Great article here on the Teacher Glut in the El Paso Market. I talked to my niece in the Dallas Ft Worth area where the numbers are even grimmer - 1400 applicants for 1 position.

http://www.elpasoinc.com/readArticle.aspx?issueid=290&xrec=5349

"Socorro is the fastest-growing school district in the county with nearly 42,000 students, 42 schools and 2,600 teachers, almost all of whom came from UTEP, New Mexico State University or Sul Ross State.

“We’ve seen unprecedented growth the last decade,” said Xavier De La Torre, Socorro superintendent.

“We had only 31 teachers leave us the entire year; so, I think the economy is just slowing down mobility.”

The district plans to hire about 120 teachers for the coming year from a pool of 748 applicants."