Future of educating teachers Part 3: Tenure, teacher performance and legislation to increase health care

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Editor’s Note: This is part three in a four-part series about the future of teaching.

New state laws regarding tenure, teacher performance and legislation to increase health care costs for public employees will provide some challenges for new teachers.

Gov. Rick Snyder signed teacher tenure legislation July 19 requiring administrators to make effectiveness in the classroom the determining factor in staffing decisions instead of seniority. School district performance evaluation systems will annually rate teachers as “highly effective,” “effective,” “minimally effective” or “ineffective.”

According to www.michigan.gov and http://legislature.mi.gov, teachers will now qualify for tenure in five years instead of four, although teachers who are rated “highly effective” three years in a row may qualify for tenure earlier. Teachers will have to continue earning effective ratings even after they earn tenure in order to keep it.

Director of Student Teaching Karen Edwards said in an email the “highly effective” definition for teachers is not clearly defined, and hopes mentoring during the tenure process will help all teachers be “highly effective.”

“Becoming and continuing to be ‘highly effective’ is a standard that we should demand,” she said. “We would want ‘highly effective’ doctors working with patients. We want no less for our students.”

Lynn Laskowsky, EDU 432: Student Teaching Seminar instructor and center leader for the Mid-Michigan Area Student Teaching Center, said the tenure qualification change will give teachers more opportunities to work with the school system. He said this will allow school systems to work with struggling teachers, and protect school systems from teachers who do not improve.

“It’s easy to become complacent,” he said. “These things are all set up to weed out those who take things for granted.”

According to MEA.org, data on student growth and assessment will have more influence in annual teacher evaluations. Student growth and assessment will account for 25 percent of teacher or administrator evaluation in 2013-14, and 49 percent of the evaluation in 2015-16.

Edwards said it is difficult to devise a perfect system evaluating teachers based on student growth because many factors impact student growth. She said according to Robert Marzano’s research on teacher effectiveness in “A New Era of School Reform: Going Where the Research Takes Us,” the most growth in student learning occurred when a student was in an effective school with an effective teacher.

The research shows a student entering the fifth grade at the 50th percentile in a highly effective school with a highly effective teacher tested at the 96th percentile after two years, while a student entering the fifth grade at the 50th percentile in a highly ineffective school with a highly ineffective teacher tested at the third percentile after two years, she said.

Laskowsky said he does not think it is fair for a large percentage of teacher evaluations to be based on student growth and assessment because student performance is also influenced by social and family issues. He said average students may or may not show improvement, while others may improve but not be at the top of the class.

“I think student advancement is often overrated by lawmakers and those not in the profession,” he said.

Republicans in the Michigan House and Senate sent legislation to Snyder on Aug. 24 that would limit local government and public school health care spending.

Starting Jan. 1, the health care legislation would cap public employers’ contributions to employee health insurance at $5,500 for individual coverage, $11,000 for individual and spouse coverage and $15,000 for family coverage. Public employers could choose instead to pay up to 80 percent of the total annual costs of the medical benefits for public employees, with employees required to pay the remaining 20 percent.

Edwards said it will be difficult for teachers to afford the health care expense on a teacher’s pay, especially because teachers have often bargained for better health care in place of higher wages.

“Now teachers will have lower pay and the added expenses related to health care,” she said.

Laskowsky said the skyrocketing costs in health care make caps on public employers’ contribution to employee health insurance a necessity.

“I do see a need for teachers to pay a percentage of the insurance,” he said. “Teachers aren’t rich, but I don’t think they’re poor.”