Bill would signal big change for 100,000 Va. teachers

Virginia's public school teachers would operate under two different contract systems under the latest version of a proposed teacher contract and evaluation overhaul backed by the McDonnell administration.

Amid weeks of work with education groups and debate before small panels of lawmakers at off-peak hours, the original proposal has undergone significant alterations since it was introduced as a system that would move teachers from three-year continuing contracts to an annual contract and evaluation system.

The proposal scheduled to be heard by the House Education Committee Wednesday morning would put teachers and principals on a five-year probation period before beginning a three-year term contract. Employees would have annual evaluations but at the end of the three-year term contract, would not be automatically renewed.

Teachers working under a continuing contract -- roughly 90 percent of the teachers in the state public schools -- would retain that contract unless they moved to another school system, in which case they would switch to the term-contract system.

The changes would mean a major shift for the state's 100,000 teachers.

Opponents say the new system would demoralize current teachers, turn off new ones and discourage candor and creativity in the teaching ranks.

Supporters say the aim is to raise rigor and more closely link contracts to job evaluations that will be substantially based on student performance.

The bill moved out of an Education subcommittee this morning, after the panel clung to it for several days until legal issues with the bill could be sorted out. The measure was referred to the full Education committee without a recommendation.

Lawmakers had concerns with an earlier version of the bill and how it handled teachers on continuing contracts moving to term contracts. The bill has been amended to allow teachers with continuing contracts to keep them for as long as the teacher stays in the same school division and shows good behavior and competent service. They would be evaluated on the same schedule as the term-contract teachers.

"Incompetency," as described in the bill, could include one or more unsatisfactory performance evaluations.

Each school board would adopt an evaluation process based on guidelines established by the state education department and rolled out this year statewide. Student performance accounts for a substantial portion of the evaluation. An evaluation model for principals has not yet been approved by the Virginia Board of Education.

Robley Jones, with the Virginia Education Association, said while much of the evaluation is based on student performance, only 30 percent of teachers lead courses with Standards of Learning assessments to use as a benchmark.

"I would suggest to you that we should let that new evaluation instrument play out before we go in this direction, see how it works," he said.

Meg Gruber, a high school science teacher from Prince William County, told the subcommittee that "if this happened when I was younger, I wouldn't be a teacher."

"When I teach my students and I work with them and they don't do well on a test, I work with them to improve," she said. "I don't throw them out the door. Why is that OK to do to teachers?"

She said under the bill, military wives who teach would lose their continuing contract if they move with their husbands. A teacher offered a position in a regional school would lose a continuing contract.

The bill's sponsor, Del. Richard P. Bell, R-Staunton, said the measure is designed to raise rigor and competition.

"One of the misconceptions here is that we're targeting ... senior teachers and trying to remove them from the systems. That's not the case. What we're trying to do is improve the profession. Make it a little more competitive."

"We're trying to raise the rigor so that the people that we hold accountable for teaching our students are more accountable themselves."