The motion prevailed.
Senator McDonald Rivet’s statement is as follows:
I was hoping to stand up here and say good afternoon, but let me now switch that to good evening.
This substitute makes some good changes to the bill. The first is that it adds student growth to the evaluation process, up to 20 percent of the whole. The source of the growth data is locally negotiated and subject to local agreement. It prohibits the use of the MME exams which have been widely understood to be the wrong measure of student growth for these purposes. It adds due process in an appeal process, including mediation. And, lastly, clarifies a section of the bill that the 90-day window refers to kindergarten teachers only.
Senator Damoose’s statement is as follows:
I think we all need to take a step back and take a real hard look at where we are in terms of education in the state of Michigan. I’m proud that we’re providing more resources to our schools than ever before in history, but that’s only part of the solution. Any honest assessment will also take into consideration that our schools are ranked 42nd in fourth-grade reading. We’re beating only eight other states. We must take a look at the fact that we are ranked 36th in math. We’re 10th lowest in SAT scores. With results like that, now is not the time to consider relaxing our standards or weakening our evaluations. Imagine, in the face of such dismal performance, we just got rid of A-F school rankings. Let’s not also get rid of meaningful teacher evaluations on top of all of this. Teaching is not like most careers. Most other industries are simple. You perform well, you get to keep your job. You don’t perform, often you are given the chance to improve. You don’t improve, you are gone. I would have expected nothing less in my business. If I didn’t do the job and perform at a high level, my clients would leave. But the whole system of education is different.
We’ve made it so hard to take action when there is a poor-performing or mediocre teacher. Let’s be clear, schools don’t want to fire teachers — they can barely find enough as it is—but, getting rid of even the mechanisms for evaluating and measuring a teacher’s performance, and helping them improve, seems to fly in the face of all of our efforts to improve our schools. Maybe someday, maybe when we are ranked in the top ten nationwide, we can get rid of standards and evaluations, but right now we need every tool we can find to measure, encourage, and enforce high standards, and drive more performance for our schools. And that’s why I encourage all of my colleagues to join me in voting “no” on this bill.
The following bill was read a third time:
Senate Bill No. 396, entitled
A bill to amend 1937 (Ex Sess) PA 4, entitled “An act relative to continuing tenure of office of certificated teachers in public educational institutions; to provide for probationary periods; to regulate discharges or demotions; to provide for resignations and leaves of absence; to create a state tenure commission and to prescribe the powers and duties thereof; and to prescribe penalties for violation of the provisions of this act,” by amending section 4 of article I, sections 2a and 3b of article II, and section 3 of article III (MCL 38.74, 38.82a, 38.83b, and 38.93), section 4 of article I as amended by 2011 PA 100 and sections 2a and 3b of article II as added and section 3 of article III as amended by 2011 PA 101.
The question being on the passage of the bill,
The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows: