Ballot Measure 95 is making teachers across Oregon sweat.
The measure, designed to base teachers’ salaries on the performance of their students, will potentially threaten job security and create competition between teachers, Oregon Parent Teacher Association President Kathryn Firestone said.
Supported by Bill Sizemore of Oregon Taxpayers United, Measure 95 will require student learning, not seniority, to determine teacher pay.
Oregon currently has the “Fair Dismissal Law,” a law designed to protect teachers from being unfairly fired. Seniority plays no part in a teacher’s employability, Ted Heid, head of the human resource department for Eugene’s 4J School District, said.
Oregon Taxpayers United argues that seniority does exist and is keeping unqualified teachers employed. They suggest that teachers’ unions are working to keep teachers employed through seniority so the unions have more power.
“From the moment teachers’ unions have been in existence they have been focused on keeping teachers employed because of seniority,” chief petitioner for Measure 95 and Oregon Taxpayers United employee Becky Miller said. “Since then, student learning has gone down.”
It is assumed that student performance will be tested through standardized tests given at the beginning and the end of the school year, Firestone said. Those opposing the measure, such as Firestone, feel the testing will be inaccurate.
“Standardized testing is not a reasonable evaluation,” Firestone said. “To most kids, tests mean nothing.”
The measure does not specify how student learning will be determined. In fact, such details have been purposely left out of the measure so that each school district can determine its own form of measurement, Miller said.
Firestone feels the likely means for evaluation will be standardized tests, however, and all students, regardless of level, will suffer.
“I’ve had a number of parents come to me and tell me their kids just don’t test well,” Firestone said. “Also, for those kids in special education classes, a good day is when they don’t lash out at a fellow classmate. No test can show progress like this.”
Miller argued the measure defines job performance as the degree to which the appropriate knowledge is learned.
“Students will be measured on what they are expected to learn,” Miller said. “Children in special education classes will not be expected to meet the same criteria that, say, a child from another school is expected to learn.”
Oregon Taxpayers United also argues schools will end up with the best teachers thanks to the results of the student evaluations.
Firestone disagrees, saying if teachers are fired because of their students’ performances, they will start to compete with other teachers for high-level classes.
“Teachers will only want to teach the AP [Advanced Placement] and honors level classes so that their students do well,” Firestone said.
Miller feels that rather than competing for jobs, teachers will be more likely to request better materials and resources to help students learn better.
Both organizations feel parents should play an active part in the process, whether or not the measure is passed.