A Smarter Teacher Layoff System

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“A Smarter Teacher Layoff System: How Quality-Based Layoffs Can Help Schools Keep Great Teachers in Tough Economic Times"

Amid financial crunches and budget cuts, many school districts are now grappling with the prospect of letting go large numbers of teachers. Worse, most districts are forced to make “quality-blind” decisions, taking only seniority into account. In several districts, these regulations have forced schools to layoff “teacher of the year” award winners and nominees and other superstar teachers. This policy brief calls for a new layoff system that uses multiple factors to make quality-based layoff decisions, including evaluation ratings, attendance, and additional school responsibilities—as well as length of service. The report also includes results of a 9,000-teacher survey in two large urban districts. Contrary to most assumptions, teachers support a quality-based layoff policy: a majority of teachers at every experience level (including those with over 30 years of service) said that factors besides seniority should be considered.


CT Context

Connecticut school districts, like those nationwide, face financial crunches and tough choices about where to make needed budget cuts, including reducing staff. Quality-based decisions about layoffs would go a long way towards making sure that our most talented teachers stay in our classrooms. Some districts are already making great strides toward this end. In March, New Haven ratified a new teachers' contract that revamped evaluation policies to include student achievement growth as one of several factors to be included in teacher evaluations. And, in May, the state legislature passed a key reform bill, SB 438, that, for the first time, links student data to teachers and requires every district in the state to evaluate teachers based on their students’ achievement and other important factors. When this new system is in place, districts facing teacher layoffs will have the tools they need to put quality first when making those tough choices.

Source: The Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN), an advocacy organization building a new movement of concerned Connecticut citizens working to create fundamental change in our education system.

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