I am unpersuaded - NO on SB 191

This diary repeats the words “SB 191, alone” several times, as though the only way to view supporting it were in a vacuum. But as we know, public policy and politics don’t happen in a vacuum.

No one is suggesting that SB 191 is a silver bullet, only a first step. In education policy, you can view that first step in SB 191 in terms of developing a fair, balanced way of measuring, supporting, compensating and rewarding effectiveness in teaching and school leadership. Teachers have said that they are not happy with the current system, in which they are evaluated every three years, and are subject to the whims of ineffective principals’ assessment of their skills. They also resent one-size-fits-all professional development, as though every teacher in the building needed the same retraining or intervention. SB 191 seeks to provide that, by tying 50% of an evaluation to student achievement and leaving the remaining 50% to be determined by the work of the Governor’s Council on Educator Effectiveness, the CDE, and a final review by the state legislature. Teachers will be involved in every stage of this over several years. And principals will be evaluated in part by their improved support for struggling teachers, so they will be incentivised – horrible word – to be better educator-mentors.

So no – “SB 191, alone”, won’t solve anything – but SB 191, together with the authentic hard work of all these parties, will help create an evaluation system that will support everyone in their practice. And that will be better for teachers, students, and their communities.

And then to the politics. “SB 191, alone” doesn’t necessarily create a Ref C coalition. But it’s one step along a road to conditions that might make that possible. Bobby and I were both part of building the last one, and we know that it took a good faith effort of a lot of individuals and organizations that weren’t comfortable with one another, working together, to cobble that into place. That’s not naive – that’s Colorado reality.

The framers and advocates who have been working to build and refine this measure deserve credit for their activist outreach in amending this bill to make it and its impacts less concerning to teachers. The bill in its current form provides the first ever statutory assurance that all non-probationary teachers will have the right to appeal any ineffective evaluation they receive. They have slowed down the timeline initially proposed considerably, now stretched out to 2015. (This may have changed as I am writing this, as the negotiations are ongoing.)

Teachers, and students, deserve better.