Teachers’ jobs would be more closely linked to their students’ performance under legislation proposed Monday by Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
The legislation, which must be approved by the General Assembly, would open the door to up to $250 million in federal dollars for education reform as O’Malley stares at a $2 billion budget deficit.
The change would make Maryland the first in the Washington region to require student academic growth be a part of teacher evaluations. Virginia has been working toward similar measures, but efforts in D.C. Public Schools have been stymied by a stalemate between Chancellor Michelle Rhee and the Washington Teachers’ Union.
O’Malley’s proposal also would withhold teacher tenure until three years on the job, instead of two. “Highly effective” teachers in the state’s lowest-performing 5 percent of schools would be granted a hardship stipend.
The changes would qualify Maryland for a second round of federal Race to the Top funds — money doled to states based on plans for reform as defined by the Department of Education. Maryland did not apply for the first round of funds in January because its laws did not meet federal requirements.
“It is more important now than ever that we continue to protect our investments in education,” O’Malley said Monday.
In a similar move last week, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell proposed legislation to expand charter schools in his state — another green light for Race to the Top dollars.
Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute called O’Malley’s proposal “modest steps” in the right direction.
Maryland “tends to rank well on interstate comparisons, and there’s always less pressure on the lead dog to do something dramatic,” he said.
O’Malley’s proposal did nothing to clear the path for more charter schools or free them from requirements to unionize their teachers, for example.
Montgomery County officials worry that state requirements would impinge on their local efforts. The county already uses student data to evaluate teachers, and it tosses underperforming teachers from the classroom if a year of intense mentorship fails to bring about improvements.
“It’s reinventing the wheel,” said school board President Pat O’Neill, explaining that even well-intentioned state requirements often force the county to spend time and money on bureaucratic fixes.
John Ratliff, O’Malley’s director of policy, said the legislation is designed to offer flexibility to districts like Montgomery while providing a statewide framework.
“We were trying to be very sensitive to local innovations,” he said.
In Prince George’s County, Rosalind Johnson, a former teacher, union president and current school board member, praised the call for new evaluations, saying her district currently rates teachers only as “satisfactory or not satisfactory.”
“The evaluation system we have now is unacceptable,” Johnson said. “I want a system that will say if a teacher is excellent, good, fair or poor, and I want it to elaborate on why that is.”
