Indiana’s Plan for Education Reform
Indiana passed sweeping education reform this year that makes huge strides in ensuring that every student has access to a great teacher.
Read below to learn more about the key policies in the legislation: Save Great Teachers, Fair and Robust Evaluations, and Reward Effective Teachers.
Save Great Teachers
When teacher layoffs are necessary, the best teachers should be protected. Our children deserve a great teacher in every classroom.
With the current fiscal crisis, Indiana is at risk of losing thousands of their best teachers to layoffs. Currently, layoffs are based on seniority, an outdated and bureaucratic practice known as “last in, first out” (LIFO). LIFO means that the last teacher hired has to be the first teacher fired, regardless of how good teachers are. This harms students and teachers in three ways:
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Research indicates that when districts with LIFO conduct layoffs, they end up firing some of their most highly effective educators.
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LIFO policies increase the number of teachers that districts have to lay off. Because junior teachers make less money, districts have to lay off more of them in order to fill their budget gaps.
- LIFO disproportionately and negatively impacts the highest need schools. These schools have larger numbers of new teachers, who are the first to lose their jobs in a layoff.
The new education reform law end LIFO and mandate that layoffs be based on performance.
Fair and Robust Evaluations
Teachers’ and principals’ evaluations will be based on how much academic progress their students make. We need to urge state leaders to strengthen the current proposal to require that at least 50% of the annual evaluation be based on student achievement.
We’re focusing on teacher quality because teachers are the most powerful way for schools to ensure a quality education for our kids. An effective teacher is the most important ingredient to a student's success. Because of this, fair and meaningful teacher evaluations are critical. We must be able to recognize and reward excellence in the classroom and identify and support teachers that need improvement.
The new law requires districts to implement fair evaluation systems for teachers and principals that use multiple factors, including student achievement growth. evaluation.
Reward Effective Teachers
Teachers deserve professional-level salaries, and the more effective they are the more they should be paid.
Teachers should not feel like widgets on an assembly line, where no matter what they do they get paid the same. Extra commitment, hard work and, most importantly, results should be rewarded.
The new law enables districts to base salary increases for teachers hired after July 1, 2012 primarily on student academic performance, rather than based on years of experience or attainment of additional degrees. Moreover, teachers who are rated ineffective or in need of improvement according to their annual evaluation may not receive any raise the following year.
This is not only great for teachers - rewarding Indiana’s most effective educators means that our students will be taught by only the best. That’s real education reform.
StudentsFirst attended the signing ceremony for the new law. Read our blog about the event.
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