Rogers / Fourth Senator Whitcomb

S.W.______

A BILL
To reform multiple aspects of the teacher tenure policy such as eligibility and both the application and revocation
process.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited as the Teacher Tenure Reformation Act of 2016.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
1) A 2009 study by the New Teacher Project found that 81% of school administrators knew a poorly performing
tenured teacher at their school yet 86% of school administrators said that they do not always try to fire poorly
performing teachers because of the costly and time consuming process.
2) A Nov. 21, 2008 study by the University of Washington's Center on Reinventing Public Education found that the
first two to three years of teaching do not predict post-tenure performance.
3) According to an Oct. 1, 2006 survey published in Planning and Changing, 56% of school board presidents
disagreed with the statement that teacher tenure ensures academic freedom.
4) A June 1, 2009 study by the New Teacher Project found that less than 1% of evaluated teachers were rated
unsatisfactory.
5) According to a Sep. 2010 report by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, 86% of education professors favor "making
it easier to terminate unmotivated or incompetent teachers - even if they are tenured.
6) Research suggests that teachers typically have steep growth curves in their first five years and evaluating them for
tenure at that point, rather than in their developing years, would enable decisions based on data that better predicts
long-term performance.
7) According to a Hoover Institution report, school districts in the US, on average, dismiss about one teacher per year
for poor performance.
8) In New York City where a recent reform of the tenure process was made, extended teachers, ones who had their
probationary periods extended to allow them an opportunity to demonstrate teaching effectiveness, were much more
likely to leave their schools and be replaced by a teacher who was judged to be more effective.
9) In districts that use binary evaluation ratings (generally satisfactory or unsatisfactory), more than 99 percent
of teachers receive the satisfactory rating.
10) Once a teacher secures tenure, the link between teacher performance and career or financial incentives is severed.
SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
A) The Teacher Tenure Reformation Act of 2017 shall increase funding for each states education department by five
percent per district that follows the guidelines for teacher tenure as set by the new Teacher Tenure Reformation
Committee (TTRC). The committee will oversee that all school districts are following the criteria to receive the extra
funding. The committees criteria to see if a school district deserves the funding will be if the district (1) uses
accurate performance evaluations to make important decisions such as teacher assignment, retention and dismissal,
(2) adopts dismissal policies that provide lower-stakes options for ineffective teachers to exit the district and a system
of due process that is fair but streamlined and efficient as made by the committee, and (3) sets a standard of five for
the number of years that a teacher must complete in order to be eligible for tenure. All school districts can apply for
the funding through an online application which will be open from June 1 to August 1 of each year. The districts will
then enter an observation and evaluation stage for three academic school years where the TTRC will make sure all of
the criteria for the funding is being met. If accepted, the districts must submit annual reports on teacher tenure status
to the TTRC. If the criteria is not being met right away or at any point in time afterwards, the funding increase will
be revoked for that district.
B) The extra funding will come from multiple sources, including an five percent tax on textbooks, school desks,
smart boards, and projectors, as well as taking ten billion dollars from the United States Military and Defense budget.
C) This bill will be enacted on June 1, 2017 and will be reviewed every five years to see if it is still needed.

For many children across America, a great education is the key to changing their lives. Whether it is because of
emotional or physical abuse by family members, or challenging socioeconomic circumstances, education can have an

enormous impact on a persons life. This is how we are building the future leaders, creators, and inventors of our nation.
Therefore, shouldnt we have the best, most effective teachers helping students learn and grow into critical thinkers?
Teacher tenure prohibits any steps in this direction by allowing ineffective teachers to stay in our schools until
retirement. To help change it, we must reform the three main aspects of the teacher tenure policy: eligibility, application
and revocation. By reforming eligibility we make sure that teachers have the needed experience to help students; by
reforming the application process we ensure that the best possible teachers are receiving tenure; by reforming the
revocation process we provide dismissal policies for ineffective teachers to leave the district in a fair but efficient
manner.
Changing the qualifications that make a teacher eligible for teacher tenure is the first step in bettering our
education system. K12 tenure is granted to nearly all teachers, with almost no criteria, and within the first few years of
teaching. Currently, part of becoming eligible for teacher tenure includes teaching at the same school for a certain
number of years, and this number changes from state to state, some being as low as two years and some as high as seven
years. However, a study done in November of 2008 by the University of Washington's Center on Reinventing Public
Education found that two to three years is not enough time to see whether a teacher deserves tenure. Research also
suggests that teachers typically have steep growth curves in their first five years and evaluating them for tenure at that
point, rather than in their developing years, would enable decisions based on data that better predicts long-term
performance. By waiting at least five years before permitting teachers to become eligible to gain tenure, we are able to
see the progress they have made as they have better settled into their classroom environment and become better
associated with the student population.
The next step to secure a quality education for students is to reform the application process. Teachers who apply
for teacher tenure normally have to be evaluated. Like the number of years before teachers are eligible, the content,
quality, and amount of these evaluations change between states. Typically however, most evaluations are quick, being
around only 60 minutes, and infrequent, happening on usually about 2 observation sessions carried out by administrators
without adequate training. Evaluations have the potential to be a good deciding factor in the debate as to whether a
teacher deserves tenure or not, but the average evaluation today does not accurately assess the value of a teacher. In
districts that use binary evaluation ratings (generally satisfactory or unsatisfactory), more than 99 percent of teachers
receive the satisfactory rating. The fact that 99 percent of teachers pass the evaluation does not show that these districts
are chock full of great teachers, but rather the administrators that perform the evaluation are not giving honest
assessments of the teachers abilities. The tenure process is then assumed to have low expectations, with 41 percent of
administrators saying that they have never non renewed a probationary teacher because of performance concerns in
his or her last probationary year. Teachers are almost guaranteed at this point to receive tenure because of how unreliable
evaluations are.
The last way we can guarantee that our children will be taught by teachers who are qualified is by reforming the
revocation process. The dismissal procedure for underperforming teachers is presently ineffective. 81 percent of
administrators and 57 percent of teachers say there is a tenured teacher in their school who is performing poorly, and 43
percent of teachers say there is a tenured teacher who should be dismissed for poor performance. Yet, school districts
in the US, on average, dismiss about one teacher per year for poor performance. Why is it that only one teacher is
dismissed a year, yet there are many other ineffective teachers that stay? 81% of school administrators knew of a poorly
performing teacher who had tenure at their school, yet 86% of school administrators admitted that they dont always try
to fire low performing teachers because of the amount of money and time the process requires. The process of removing
the tenure status from a teacher is so time consuming and costly that administrators are letting students be taught by
teachers that they know are not giving student the education they deserve. Students should not have to suffer for a
problem that can be fixed by not only changing the process of revoking tenure to make it easier, but also by simply
raising the standards for eligibility and qualification for teachers to get tenure in the first place.
The teacher tenure system has many problems but can be fixed by reforming the eligibility requirements, the
application process, and the revocation process. Through these changes, we can provide future generations with an
education that helps them succeed in the modern world. As critical thinking becomes a more important quality than ever
before, students deserve teachers who can help them attain this necessity. The impact a teacher has is incredible.
Together we can make sure that these future students receive a quality education by passing the Teacher Tenure
Reformation Act of 2016.