Alabama legislature is looking for an excuse to cut teachers' tenure (al.com)

By Charlotte Campbell, a retired educator. Her 32 year education span includes: teacher, principal, Public Information Officer, director of instruction and Federal programs and grant writer. She also established a Parent Resource Center where parents can check out materials for their children that are aligned with Alabama Courses of study.

"If it seems too good to be true; it probably is."

The phrase may be trite, but is apropos for Senator Del Marsh's RAISE Act of 2016 that targets Alabama teachers. The "Rewarding Advancement in Instruction and Student Excellence" (RAISE) Act of 2016 is causing turmoil among Alabama teachers and administrators. Superficially, the 49-page bill outlines Senator Marsh's plan to "make Alabama's starting teacher pay the highest in the Southeast".

The bill asks teachers to exchange their tenure for a raise. They'd also have to agree to a new evaluation system with 40% of their performance tied to the results of their students' ACT ASPIRE assessment, 15% tied to feedback from parents' and students' surveys, and 45% to multiple surprise classroom observations. If standardized assessment data isn't available for a certain teacher then "the department shall establish a list of pre-approved options for governing boards to utilize to measure student growth."
***
If a teacher still chooses a tenure track, it would now take five years to obtain tenure instead of three, and it could still be revoked depending on evaluations.

Support personnel would no longer be eligible to receive tenure. Period.

Teachers hired after May 1, 2017 will no longer be compensated for acquiring advanced degrees, and school governing boards will cease to factor in seniority, degrees, or credentials as a basis for determining teachers' pay, promotion, or dismissal.
***
http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/01/alabama_legislature_is_looking.html


If you scroll down to the comments, consider yourself warned.