DENVER—A proposed new teacher tracking system that some see as the key to getting millions in extra stimulus money has gotten bogged down because of a fight between state lawmakers who back education reform and the teacher’s union.
At issue is a plan to set up a way to track teachers and principals as they move from school to school, and to see how their students perform. The main aim is to close the so-called “teacher gap,” in which experienced teachers tend to work in high-achieving schools serving middle- and upper-income students and newer ones often work in schools serving minority and low-income children.
The measure (House Bill 1065) passed the House as a small pilot program with the backing of the Colorado Education Association, the union representing about 38,000 teachers in the state. Now backers in the Senate hope to tap federal stimulus money to implement the program statewide and allow districts to use the information to sanction teachers and principals. The union opposes allowing sanctions under the bill, which was approved by the House with a specific ban on using the information to punish teachers and principals.
A vote has been delayed for several weeks, but Sen. Nancy Spence, a Republican from suburban Centennial, hopes to make the changes Thursday in the Senate Education Committee. She has the support of Senate President Peter Groff, a Denver Democrat who has been a proponent of education reforms and charter schools.
Colorado is expected to get about $1 billion in school funding from the federal stimulus package, but it can also compete for another $400 million or more to pay for school reforms. Eight to 12 states are expected to win.
Groff is convinced that statements from President Barack Obama and others in the administration on the importance of teacher effectiveness show Colorado would have a better shot at the money if schools were given more freedom to use the information. He said sanctions could be both positive and negative, from extra training or dismissal to merit pay raises. He said the aim isn’t a “witch hunt” and the information is just one of many tools districts can consider.
“In every other profession there are ways to figure out who’s doing well and who’s not,” Groff said.
Dan Daly, a lobbyist for the Colorado Education Association, said other states have a range of protections for teachers in their tracking systems, and said bill backers have no hard evidence that allowing sanctions would improve Colorado’s chances of winning extra money. He also said the state has a bad track record of unfairly taking data like test scores and comparing schools without taking into account differences like class size and the number of at-risk students.
“We’re all for evaluating teachers and having good teachers in the classroom and eliminating bad teachers. But this isn’t the best mechanism to accomplish that,” Daly said.
