Governor’s Bid to Change Tenure Advances

The governor’s bill to make it harder for teachers to get tenure took its first step in the Tennessee House Wednesday.

Democrats on the House Education Subcommittee tried to slow down the tenure bill, giving it until July 2012 to take effect. Republicans on the subcommittee turned down that attempt and approved the governor’s bill, clearing it to go to the full Education Committee.

Gera Summerford, state president for the Tennessee Education Association, says teachers are worried because new tenure decisions will be based on an evaluation system which doesn’t exist yet.

“Well, our concerns are around the new evaluation system, with such great decisions based on that. We just feel like we’ve gotta have some time to see how it’s gonna work.”

Summerford says teachers are supposed to be graded on how well their students do – but up to 45 percent teach subjects like music and art which aren’t currently measured by state achievement tests.

The governor’s bill would require teachers to work five years before getting the “due process” protections of tenure. Today it only takes three years before a teacher may be granted tenure.

The House Education Subcommittee also deferred a measure stripping collective bargaining rights from teachers.

The tenure bill is up for a vote in the state Senate Thursday.

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The bill is HB 2012 Dunn/SB 1528 Norris.

Under the bill, which would go into effect July 1, 2011, any teacher who hasn’t gained tenure under current rules would go under a new system that would require five years of experience. Then teachers in the top two (of five) tiers of the new evaluation system would be eligible.

Representative Bill Dunn, presenting the bill, said the new five-year plan may be more forgiving than the current three-year system.

“With this bill going to five years, it gives the opportunity for a little bit more development, and you may take a teacher that’s struggling at the first, and they become just an outstanding teacher, given the time.”

Dunn says school administrators in his city of Knoxville say they drop as many as 50 teachers a year who don’t measure up in the first three years – but who might become better teachers with another two years of work.