To: The Connecticut State House, The Connecticut State Senate, and Governor Ned Lamont
Connecticut Legislators: Fix S.B. 24!
We ask our elected legislators to reject Governor Malloy’s proposed education bill and instead:
• Require that teacher evaluation plans use multiple indicators of student academic growth and development that truly measure the most important aspects of teaching and learning that go beyond achievement as measured by state test scores.
• Include educators in the development and implementation of local evaluation plans with a system of alternate dispute resolution to decide unresolved issues, resulting in the highest professional standards.
• Continue to allow towns to exercise control of their school districts as they see fit, as opposed to penalizing small, rural districts.
Why is this important?
We believe Senate Bill 24 in its current form will harm more than help education in Connecticut. Because we all share the same goals for the children of Connecticut, we sign this petition to propose some changes to SB 24 in order to provide Connecticut's students with opportunities for success.
What does Senate Bill 24 (S.B. 24) mean for parents and teachers of students in our district?
This bill affects every Connecticut public school teacher:
• Certification: The bill requires that teachers be ‘rated’ using standards that are not yet defined, and that these ratings be used to determine certification and a teacher’s ability to teach in any district in the state.
• Evaluation procedures: The bill establishes four designators for the purposes of teacher evaluation. Because 22.5% of these teacher evaluations must be based on standardized test scores, “effective practice” will be determined by teachers’ ability to get students to improve on standardized tests (some of which have yet to be created). The Mathematics Policy Research study found that even after three years of data, the error rate is 26% (meaning that 1 in 4 teachers would be misidentified).
• Salary: Requires new salary schedules aligned with new certification standards to be negotiated effective July 2014. School districts may be able to reduce costs by affecting evaluations to reduce teachers’ salaries.
It threatens local control:
• Section 11 of S.B. 24 threatens the existence of at least 41 small town school districts (including Bethany and Woodbridge. Starting in July 2015, the State Department of Education would begin reducing a small town’s Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula if the school district has fewer than 1,000 students and their per-student cost is at least 10% above the statewide average. Because the cost of maintaining the small comprehensive district means a slightly higher per-student cost, the state MUST reduce the amount of education aid going to that town.
• The bill also removes the requirement of Superintendents to hold certification, which would allow people from outside education (such as the business community) to become school superintendents without any educational background or experience. (Section 13 allows the commissioner of education to waive the certification requirement for superintendent ANY PERSON whom he or she deems to be “exceptionally qualified,” without regard for educational experience).