A VERY interesting development in Connecticut:

Connecticut's school superintendents offered a bold set of recommendations Wednesday to transform the state's educational landscape, including eliminating lifetime tenure for teachers, regionalizing school districts, personalizing education and making school calendars more flexible.

Heading into this winter's legislative session, which the governor has promised will focus on education reform, the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents issued a report with 134 recommendations. The next step is to shape them into proposed legislation.

…Perhaps most controversial is the proposed elimination of lifetime tenure for teachers, replacing it with renewable five-year contracts.

Mary Loftus Levine, executive director of the state's largest teachers' union, the Connecticut Education Association, said: "We think that would invite all kinds of abuses and capriciousness and a lot of volatility in our schools."

She added the idea was "counterintuitive" to what's needed in urban districts, where teacher turnover is so high. "We are trying to get teachers to stay for five years in some of these more challenging districts. We don't think students and parents are well-served by short-termers."

Cirasuolo said the recommendation was aimed at getting rid of teachers who are "mediocre." He said that it's not hard to get rid of teachers who are incompetent, but "if you are mediocre and stubborn in your mediocrity, there is almost nothing we can do about it. We need to solve that problem."

Cirasuolo said that if someone has "a better way" to deal with mediocre teachers than a five-year contract, "we're open to it."

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