As a State Senator Peter gets many emails related to his legislative work. Peter’s Inbox is an ongoing series where we highlight some of those emails preserving the anonymity of the author. You can write to Peter directly at peter@millsformaine.com.

Hi Peter,
I am a teacher/administrator at [school name removed.] Being both a teacher and administrator puts me on both ends of my request. I would encourage you to vote in favor of a bill allowing student achievement to be included in teacher evaluations. There must be a method to hold everyone accountable for student achievement and we need a bill that would allow local control over the development of such a document. This would allow for teachers to be held accountable for student achievement. With the provisions of the race to the top, and other accountability measures being put in place, there needs to be a sharing of accountability for student improvement. Currently, there is not a method for sharing to take place. Contractual limitations are handcuffing schools district administrators with regard to documenting poor student achievement from teacher instructional deficiencies.
I hope you will consider this during today’s discussion and vote.

Peter’s Response

Hi [name removed],
LD 1799 as it came out of the Education Committee with an 11 to 2 vote would have done what you suggest. It would have removed the one sentence prohibition in Maine law against using state assessments in the evaluation of teachers. It directed the Department to develop suggested models for districts to use as they might wish and it created a stakeholder’s group to advise the Department. The advisory group included 5 associations: MEA, ME Principals, Maine School Boards, Maine Superintendents, and Maine Administrators of Services for Children with Disabilities.

Unfortunately, radical members in the MEA compelled union leaders to draft a floor amendment that effectively gave MEA a veto over new evaluation systems and took away local control. Under their version the stakeholder group may veto any model developed by the department; and any district that wants to use assessments to evaluate teachers may only use a model approved by the stakeholder group.

The bill states: “The Department of Education may not finally adopt a model that is not approved by the stakeholder group pursuant to this section.”

While the bill fails to state whether all stakeholders must agree, I fear that the language gives the MEA just the veto power that they want.

Linda Pistner, the deputy Attorney General, wrote a letter stating that the MEA amendment would jeopardize Maine’s ability to compete for “Race to the Top” funds and might even cause the feds to recover stimulus money that was sent to us last year.

Nevertheless, MEA leadership got their way in both the House and the Senate and their version is now on the governor’s desk. There is a remote chance the Governor will veto the bill, but I doubt it. You might try weighing in with him.

The problem is that we need the bill to pass in some form in order to get rid of the one sentence in current Maine law that prohibits schools from using state assessments in the evaluation of teachers.

I argued on the floor of the Senate that the version passed on Thursday night is worse than the law that currently exists. It deprives superintendents and school boards of fundamental autonomy in the management of schools.

If you can’t evaluate teachers, what is there left?

Sincerely,
Peter Mills