Clarifying Misconceptions About Governor Malloy’s Education Bill (SB 24)
With all of the coverage of Governor Malloy’s education bill, also known as SB 24, we’ve noticed that there are some misconceptions surrounding the content of the bill and what it actually proposes. Therefore, this is the first in a series of posts that seek to clarify some of the misconceptions and inaccuracies regarding interpretation of Governor Malloy’s Education Reform Bill (SB 24) that we’ve come across.
How a Bill Becomes a Law and the Role of the Public Hearing
Introduction of New Bills
Every new piece of legislation begins as a bill before a specific committee, depending on the subject matter of the bill. (For example, education related matters for grades K-12 would be introduced in the Education Committee of the General Assembly.)
Once the specific committee of cognizance receives and reviews a bill, the committee decides to take one of the following actions:
Unpacking the Governor’s Proposal to Reform Tenure
“And so when I say it’s time we reform teacher tenure, I mean it.”
– Governor Malloy in his State of the State Address, February 8, 2012
We began this week by taking a look at Connecticut’s teacher tenure policies– how they work (or don’t) and why they need to be reformed. Today, we’re going to look at the specifics of Governor Malloy’s plan for reforming tenure, based upon his proposed bill, which is currently being reviewed by the Joint Committee on Education.
The Vice President of the National Council on Teacher Quality Weighs in on PEAC’s Recommendations and Needed Next Steps
Sandi Jacobs is Vice President of the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ). In January, NCTQ released its fifth annual State Teacher Policy Yearbook, a 52-volume report on the state laws, regulations and policies that shape teacher effectiveness. To download a copy of Connecticut’s report or a national overview report, go to: http://www.nctq.org/stpy11/reports.jsp
Over the last few years, the National Council on Teacher Quality’s (NCTQ) State Teacher Policy Yearbook has chronicled a sea change in teacher evaluation policy. Across the states we’ve seen real movement toward rethinking how to evaluate teacher performance, including by explicitly tying assessments of teacher effectiveness to student results. If the State Board in Connecticut adopts the recommendations of the Performance Evaluation Advisory Council (PEAC) this month, the state will become the eighteenth state in the nation to include student achievement as a significant criterion in teacher evaluations (in 12 of those states, student achievement is required to be the most significant factor in assessments of teacher performance).
Even as the PEAC recommendations are a step in the right direction, the key will be what steps Connecticut takes to ensure that these evaluation guidelines translate into more effective teachers in classrooms across the state.
Commissioner’s Role in Turnaround, Part 2: New Authority Needed
Recently, the Connecticut Council for Education Reform (CCER) highlighted Massachusetts’ five-tiered Framework for District and School Accountability, and explained why it might be a useful model for Connecticut. Given the importance of a clearly defined and effective intervention framework for Connecticut, we’ve asked Jesse Dixon, the Director of the Office of District and School Turnaround in Massachusetts, to share three main takeaways from Massachusetts’ process and success with their school-turnaround plan and intervention framework.
In 2010, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education began a partnership with nine districts to turn around the Commonwealth’s lowest performing 34 schools. A new law was passed in January that gave flexibilities to superintendents to turn around the schools, but required each school to turn around in three years or face state takeover.
Powers of the SBE, Part 3: Student Achievement in Evaluations
The final State Board of Education superpower that we’ll look at for this week is the ability to require that student growth be given significant weight in teacher and principal evaluations.
Now let’s take a time-out to talk about what we mean when we say “student growth” because we know this phrase alarms some interested parties.