State Collaborative on Reforming Education

Tennessee's State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), chaired by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, is out with a campaign to reform tenure in TN.  You can check out their compelling 1-min video and other info at: www.tnscore.org/teacher-effectiveness.  Here's the summary:

Research has shown that teachers are the most important factor in determining a student's academic achievement.¹

In order to improve public education in Tennessee, we need to start with a critical focus on improving the effectiveness of our teachers.

Facts about teacher effectiveness in Tennessee:

·         A student assigned to a highly effective teacher for a single school year may gain up to a full year's worth of additional academic growth compared to a student assigned to an ineffective teacher.²

·         Students taught by an ineffective teacher make 2.5-3.5 fewer months' worth of academic progress in a year than they would with an average teacher.³

·         In a national study, 59% of teachers and 63% of administrators say their district is not doing enough to identify, compensate, promote and retain the most effective teachers.⁴

·         Out of 65,000 public school K-12 teachers in Tennessee, only 50 tenured teachers a year are removed from their jobs (mostly due to personal misconduct).⁵

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam has proposed a reform to Tennessee's tenure process. This proposal will make tenure a more meaningful decision by rewarding effective teachers and helping to ensure that every Tennessee student has an excellent teacher in the classroom.

Join SCORE and sign the petition to make tenure meaningful by tying it to classroom performance.

And here's the text of the video:

 

"Every child deserves a great teacher. Of all of the factors that determine how much a student learns, research has shown that teachers are the most important¹. Unfortunately, Tennessee has done a poor job of rewarding great teachers, and identifying which ones need improvement. Tennessee's students have fallen behind the rest of the nation², yet 99% of teachers received a "satisfactory" rating on their evaluations³ and 90% go on to receive tenure⁴. Of the 65,000 teachers who work in Tennessee, only 50 tenured teachers are removed from their jobs each year, or 0.07%⁵. It's no surprise that 57% of teachers say there is a tenured teacher in their school who is performing poorly⁶. The truth is that teachers are a diverse group of professionals with different skills and levels of ability. Shouldn't tenure be a reward for great teachers, and an incentive for others to improve? It's time for Tennessee to ditch its "one-size-fits-all" approach to granting tenure, and move to a system that rewards excellence in the classroom. Join SCORE and sign the petition to make tenure meaningful by tying it to classroom performance. Because every child deserves a great teacher."