Keeping Our Best Teachers

Sometimes, district and state budgets will necessitate layoffs in our public schools. We believe the “last in, first out” (LIFO) policy for layoffs wreaks havoc on our schools and our students. As teachers, the last thing we want is to see any of our colleagues laid off. But when our state is in financial crisis, New York needs a system that protects our students.

If teacher layoffs happened tomorrow, teachers would be laid off in order of reverse seniority – the most recently hired would be the first to go. The system, as of 2011, is quality-blind, ignoring the fact that teacher effectiveness is the single most important factor impacting student achievement. Given the dramatic variations in teacher quality, when making these tough decisions, we need to do so in a way that keeps the best teachers in the classroom. Furthermore, schools with large percentages of newly hired teachers, often in the lowest-income communities where students need the most support, would be the most severely impacted.

Recommendations:

• Prioritize dismissal for teachers who are chronically absent, received unsatisfactory ratings from their principals or who have been in the Absent Teacher Reserve Pool for more than six months.

• If further layoffs are necessary, principals should make the decision, providing documentation and rationale, based on factors that impact teacher effectiveness, such as classroom management, instructional performance, years of experience, license areas, contribution to school community and student performance data.

To address possible layoffs in New York City, we have proposed a set of criteria that uses 3 objective factors to determine how teachers should be laid off.