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Bipartisan Duo Push New “Ed Reform” Bill

This Washington   April 5, 2011 at 12:25 pm Josh Feit

Earlier this session, a bill supported by education reformers who tack to the Obama agenda, got squashed in committee. The bill would have made teacher evaluations guide pending layoff decisions. A tandem bill mandated that schools on the receiving end of teacher transfers had to sign off on the deal. The bill was an attempt to end the practice of shuffling under-performing teachers from school to school.

Sens. Rodney Tom (D-48, Bellevue) and Joseph Zarelli (R-18, Ridgefield) have teamed up across party lines (though Tom is a conservative Democrat on fiscal issues) to introduce a bill that proposes similar standards.

“Let’s stop rewarding for seat time and masters degrees,” Tom says, adding that “research has shown [teachers with] masters degrees have little or no effect on students.”—Sen. Rodney Tom

The bill would:

•Make school districts lay off underperforming teachers first, regardless of their seniority status.
•Protect underperforming schools from being forced to hire teachers from other schools.
•Give principals the authority to fire teachers who don’t show improvement after three years.
•Institute an annual bonus policy—$5,000—for high-performing teachers.
•Phase in performance pay based on each teacher’s ability to help students.

It’s late in the game for this bill, but with the budget taking center stage and education in the mix, the senators are likely to tag the bill as budget-related. The bill has been referred to the ways and means committee.

We have calls in to both Tom and Zarelli, and to the Washington Education Association, the teachers’ union, which opposed the earlier bill.

UPDATE:

Sen. Tom says the bill is “very real” and he says he has the votes to pass it out of ways and means. (Tom was the senate sponsor of the earlier bill.)

“Let’s stop rewarding for seat time and masters degrees,” Tom says, adding that “research has shown [teachers with] masters degrees have little or no effect on students.”

Tom explained the mechanics of the bill: It would take $735 million of the $900 million salary allocation money in the state budget and dedicate 70 percent of that to teachers who come out on top of the new four-tiered evaluation system. Currently, the money goes to reward teachers who’ve gone back and earned masters degrees.


  • Dr. Tchock

    Up until 2006 this wouldn’t have been a “bi-partisan” anything.

  • gohuskies

    I support ed reform insofar as I support rewarding good teachers, training and improving bad teachers, and firing those who are bad and can’t be improved. But I still am not sure how best to measure how good a teacher is and I’m not sure it’s even possible to do accurately. If you can’t measure quality of teacher accurately, can we really go around making policies based on those measurements? I read the RCW section on teacher evaluation and it didn’t make me more confident in all this.

  • Anonymous

    Maybe this is how Senator Tom spent last Friday afternoon, instead of helping arts funding, community college instructors, or teachers near retirement.

  • Barfly

    Proof the unions are losing the debate and parents are winning.

  • Dr. Tchock

    Um, no. I’m saying Rodney Tom was a Republican until 2006, then he switched to be a Democrat. Ergo, if this came about in 2006, this would be a Republican proposal.

  • fount

    Please point me to the studies that show that education reforms have raised student achievement. Please let me know of the plethora of evidence that shows that performance pay clearly increases student test scores.

    So far, no studies I’ve seen have demonstrated this. But you must know otherwise, because you’re certain that these policies mean “parents are winning.”

    Certainly you’re not just buying into Wisconsin-style union-busting and teacher-bashing on the basis of flimsy empirical evidence?

  • The Uke Shaman

    Unfortunately this only gives a external incentive to help the students and not actually improve our education system. The system is broken and needs to be remade from the ground up to allow students to explore their strengths and improve themselves as they need it, rather than by a “manufacturing date” of age or by forcing them to be sedated in class because “they have to go”.

  • guest

    Rodney Tom sounds a lot like Wisconsin Governor Walker by proposing to abrogate signed contracts and usurp collective bargaining.

  • Wisconsin Governor

    Does it really matter which side of the aisle this proposal came from? The system is broken, the unions will go to any length to protect their members and the students continue to suffer. It is a structural failure, not a money issue, a class size issue or a neighborhood issue. It is interesting that the majority of the posters want to point fingers at anyone that suggests a change in structure and policy, even if it improves the outcome for the students. Very self serving!

  • guest

    If you have any evidence that this proposal would “improve the outcome for students” lets hear it. It is all based on supposition. Tom doesn’t have any valid evidence and you don’t either.

  • http://manywordsforrain.blogspot.com/ Mr Baker

    Technically, you are correct.
    Calling himself a Democrat in 2006 doesn’t really mean much.

  • http://manywordsforrain.blogspot.com/ Mr Baker

    Maybe I’m really pissed off just thinking about that.

  • Wisconsin Governor

    Are you suggesting the current system is working? Do you support the status quo?

  • ivan

    I support not making things worse. This bill makes things worse.

  • ivan

    I support not making things worse. This bill makes things worse.

  • guest

    Didn’t have an answer did you. You have no evidence that the Bill proposed by Tom and Zarelli will improve the outcome for the students. What is your motive if it won’t improve the outcome for students?

  • sarah

    I’m wondering when teachers were accorded the status of not being fired for doing poor work. This bill at least rewards them financially for doing good work.

  • The Big Bad John

    Um, why again is it not a class size or neighborhood issue? If there is in Seattle a breakdown in our system of public education it is happening south of the ship canal where the “failing schools” are. According to the Center for Reinventing Education’s analysis, “only 10% of African American children are currently attending a high-performing (Level 4 or Level 5) elementary school.” (http://www.crpe.org/cs/crpe/download/csr_files/375_crpe_brief_performance_Nov29.pdf)

    Class, race, and residential segregation are all at play and yeah, so is money. If it weren’t about the money, why shake down the teachers? Why increase class sizes? Why the masturbation over privatizing public education when “failing” public schools consistently outperform charters?

  • http://manywordsforrain.blogspot.com/ Mr Baker

    Why did Publicola change the photo from Rodney Tom to some stock photo of what might be a student?

    Is that little girl now a co-sponsor of the bill?

  • Anonymous

    I have known multiple teachers who have been fired or convinced to quit because they were doing poor work in the eyes of administrators.

  • Jacob

    Maybe Tom should take the hint, and remove his sheep’s clothing. If he is not can’t be trusted to stand-up and say he is a Republican, why should he be trusted at all?