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In the wake of an intense contract negotiation, and against the backdrop of a district bankruptcy, multiple teacher strikes, and a wave of mistrust that veterans of the era still refer to as "rock bottom," the San José superintendent and the San José Teachers Association president decided to chart a different path forward. This report is the Executive Summary of a new report from the California Collaborative on District Reform, "From Combat to Collaboration," which explores the way in which the district and union laid the groundwork for a new way of working together, how leaders have continued to foster and deepen the partnership, the day-to-day policies and practices that allow the relationship to flourish, and how collaboration enables the district to better serve its students. The report concludes with a set of lessons that can inform other districts and unions seeking to develop a more productive relationship. [For the full report, see ED578860.]

Gov. Wolf has indicated his willingness to modify pensions for future Pennsylvania public sector workers by using a variant of the "stacked hybrid" design proposed in 2013 by Pottsville Republican Rep. Mike Tobash. Negotiations of a compromise pension deal, however, remain stalled because Senate leaders remain committed to their own redesign of Pennsylvania pensions, SB 1, passed by the legislature at the end of June but vetoed by Gov. Wolf. One criticism of SB 1 has been that, even with improvements proposed by Senate leaders, SB 1 would cut benefits by up to two thirds for career workers. This would leave three of six career workers examined by the actuary for the school employees' pension with annual benefits of less than $10,000. This brief offers a new perspective on the adequacy of SB 1's benefits by comparing them to (a) those provided by typical private sector 401(k) plans; and (b) other public sector benefits across the country.

Teaching quality is a crucial factor in student success, contributing to students' short- and long-term learning opportunities. High-quality teaching not only contributes to the improvement of student test scores and graduation rates but also gives students a "strong foundation from which to advance and achieve" in the future. Long term, students may have better chances of college and career success and to earn higher incomes, giving them greater ability to save for retirement and reside in higher income neighborhoods, according to evidence in a recent lawsuit. As states continue to grapple with choosing the best policies for ensuring high teaching quality, the use of tenure, dismissal and seniority policies remains a contentious topic. Understanding the debates playing out in "Vergara v. California" and similar lawsuits can help prepare state policymakers and education leaders for similar discussions in their states. This Education Commission of the States policy analysis uses the "Vergara" case as a means to examine the complexities of teacher employment policies and how they may impact student and teacher rights. The report closes with recommendations for policies that offer meaningful alternatives to the all-or-nothing approaches of retaining or eliminating teacher employment protection policies entirely.

An increasing number of states are mandating teacher performance be considered in educator employment decisions, including awarding tenure and layoffs, according to a 50-state policy review of teacher tenure laws. Tenure laws have historically granted job protections based on years of employment. The Education Commission of the States (ECS) released its last report on tenure laws in 2011 and reviewed reduction-in-force laws in 2012. This 2014 update gauges national trends on how tenure is changing across the states. The following contents are presented in this report: (1) Revisiting teacher tenure; (2) Using performance evaluations in tenure decisions; (3) Returning non-probationary teachers to probationary status; (4) Basing teacher layoff decisions on performance ratings; and (5) Defining tenure: What it is, what it's not and how it's granted.

Education policy often requires balancing the professional interests of adult employees with the educational needs and rights of students. Nearly everyone agrees, for example, that children deserve an education that prepares them for success in college and life, and that teachers should be afforded reasonable job protections. Yet these values and interests sometimes conflict. The recent verdict in the "Vergara v. California" case, which found California's teacher tenure laws unconstitutional, affirmed what many education leaders and policymakers have known for years: The balance of laws and regulations has swung so far toward job protection for teachers that students are suffering. Consistently ineffective teachers remain in the classroom year after year because laws make it virtually impossible to replace them. In most states, the due process protections afforded to teachers facing dismissal far exceed the protections extended to other employees. Tenured teachers have the right to a lengthy and legalistic hearing process that can drag on for months--including pre-hearing discovery of evidence, pre- and post-hearing legal briefs, and a requirement for districts to demonstrate exceptional efforts to remediate the teacher's low performance, before dismissal is even a possibility. In order for policymakers, education leaders, and school principals to put the focus back on helping hard working teachers improve and keep high performers in the classroom, difficult issues need to be addressed, and that begins with more balanced teacher tenure policies. Finding the correct balance would help millions of students across the country to succeed, and it would strengthen the teaching profession by putting to rest the legitimate concerns that poor performance is tolerated. TNPT is a national non-profit organization working to end educational inequality by ensuring that all students get excellent teachers. Eight specific changes to laws and regulations (and collective bargaining agreements, where applicable) have been proposed by TNPT and are detailed here. A list of current tenure policies is shown beside a list of more balanced tenure policies for comparison. The hope is that they will create a more balanced system and help districts retain teachers who have demonstrated the ability to improve student achievement.

There is a growing body of research on the validity and reliability of value-added measures, but most of this research has focused on elementary grades. Driven by several federal initiatives such as Race to the Top, Teacher Incentive Fund, and ESEA waivers, however, many states have incorporated value-added measures into the evaluations not only of elementary teachers but of middle and high school teachers as well. Almost all states have committed to one of the two Common Core assessments that will test annually in high school, and there is little doubt that value-added will be expanded to the grades in which the new assessments are introduced. In order to assess value-added and the validity and reliability of value-added measures, it is important to consider the significant differences across grades in the ways teachers' work and students' time are organized. This document provides evidence that there are differences in the validity of value-added measures across grades for two primary reasons. First, middle and high schools "track" students; that is, students are assigned to courses based on prior academic performance or other student characteristics. Tracking not only changes our ability to account for differences in the students who teachers educate, but also the degree to which the curriculum aligns with the tests. Second, the structure of schooling and testing vary considerably by grade level in ways that affect reliability in sometimes unexpected ways. The problems are partly correctable, but, as shown herein, more research is necessary to understand how problematic existing measures are and how they might be improved.

Better teacher evaluation should lead to better instruction and improved outcomes for students, but more accurate classification of teachers requires better information than is now available. Because existing measures of performance are incomplete and imperfect, measured performance does not always reflect true performance. Teachers who are truly high-performing may be classified as lower-performing and vice versa. Teacher classification is of course a necessity, and policymakers and practitioners must decide who is eligible to teach in which classrooms and how teachers are promoted or compensated. School leaders have commonly used such measures as academic degrees, teaching experience, classroom observation ratings, and assessments by principals to make these decisions. Less common is the use of "value-added" estimates. Value added measures, however, are being used more and more as data systems are better able to make that student-teacher link. As they are, the measures are raising concerns about the implications for misclassification. Given the risk of misclassification, it is tempting to limit the number of personnel decisions that rely on these imperfect measures. Yet personnel decisions are unavoidable, and they hold significant potential for improving schools. This knowledge brief presents a discussion of what is known about errors in classifying teacher effectiveness, and asks what more needs yet to be known about this issue. The brief touches on what cannot be resolved by empirical evidence on this issue, and advises how and under what circumstances this issue should impact the decisions and actions that districts can make based on teacher evaluations. Better measures of teacher effectiveness, both value-added and other kinds, could reduce both types of error. Given that misclassification is inescapable, reducing the consequences of the problem is an important additional goal and one with potentially large payoffs--particularly for students.

There is growing evidence that, of all school resources, teachers have the largest impact on student achievement. Principals arguably play the most important role in ensuring that excellent teaching occurs in their school. How principals hire teachers, assign them to specific positions, evaluate them, and provide growth opportunities for them likely have major ramifications regarding teacher quality. For this reason, New York City, Washington D.C., and numerous other districts have undertaken large reforms to enable principals to hire higher-quality teacher candidates and use teacher evaluations to fire poorly performing instructors and identify and reward exceptional ones. This report provides key findings from a study of 30 principals working in charter and conventional schools in two northeastern states. In doing so, it aims to inform policymakers regarding how principals could exert a more positive influence on teacher quality. Overall, three key findings emerge from this research. First, principals in the sample reported more latitude on some human capital functions than others. Second, some principals felt more constrained than others in their efforts to hire, assign, evaluate, dismiss, and develop teachers. Third, whether charter or conventional, schools that were smaller, enrolled elementary students, exhibited a strong identity according to principals, and were supported in key ways by their districts seemed to offer principals fewer barriers to conducting these important human capital processes. These findings suggest that policymakers would be wise to address four major barriers to principals' ability to improve teaching quality in their schools: (1) Economic influences; (2) Contractual limitations; (3) Interpersonal challenges; and (4) Cultural impediments. The report is organized as follows: It begins by grounding the study in select research findings. It then describes the methods employed to identify the sample and collect and analyze data. It then presents the study's findings regarding hiring and assignment; evaluation and dismissal; and professional development and induction. It concludes by discussing these findings and laying out implications of this research that policymakers might consider. Data sources and analysis are appended. (Contains 1 table and 15 endnotes.)

Over 2000 teachers in the state of Washington received reduction-in-force (RIF) notices in the past two years. The authors link data on these RIF notices to a unique dataset that includes student, teacher, school, and district variables to determine the factors that predict the likelihood of a teacher receiving a RIF notice. They find a teacher's seniority is the greatest predictor, but (all else equal) teachers with a master's degree and teachers credentialed in the "high-needs areas" of math, science, and special education were less likely to receive a RIF notice. Value-added measures of teacher effectiveness can be calculated for a subset of the teachers and these show no relationship between effectiveness and the likelihood of receiving a RIF notice. Finally, simulations suggest that a very different group of teachers would be targeted for layoffs under an effectiveness-based layoff scenario than under the seniority-driven system that exists today. (Contains 3 figures, 7 tables and 68 footnotes.)

This policy brief, a quick look at some aspects of the debate, illustrates the differences in New York City public schools that would result when layoffs are determined by seniority in comparison to a measure of teacher effectiveness. Due to data limitations and an interest in simplicity, this analysis employs the value added of teachers using the 4th and 5th grade math and ELA (English Language Arts) achievement of their students. Unsurprisingly, the authors find that layoffs determined by a measure of teacher effectiveness result in a more effective workforce than would be the case with seniority-based layoffs. However, they were surprised by facets of the empirical results. First, assuming readily available measures of teacher effectiveness actually measure true teacher effectiveness, an assumption to which they return in this brief, the differences between seniority and effectiveness-based layoffs are larger and more persistent than they anticipated. Second, even though seniority-based layoffs imply laying off more teachers, the differential effect on class size is very small in their simulations, though it would be larger for larger budget reductions. Third, there is a somewhat greater school-level concentration of layoffs in a seniority-based system, though with a few notable exceptions, both methods result in fairly dispersed layoffs, with the vast majority of schools having no more than one layoff in grades four and five combined. As a result of the limited applicability of teacher value-added measures to the full population of teachers as well as concerns about potential mismeasurement of effectiveness associated with using value-added measures even when available, neither seniority nor measures of value added to student achievement should be the sole criterion determining layoffs. However, ignoring effectiveness measures completely, as seniority-based systems do, is also problematic. Instead, the use of multiple measures of effectiveness for layoff decisions holds promise for softening the detrimental effect of layoffs. Teacher Value-Added Estimation is appended. (Contains 1 figure and 9 notes.)

This recent brief from the National Council on Teacher Quality is concerned with the question of what factors should be considered when school districts must decide which teachers to lay off during periods of tight budgets. Most districts, according to the brief, base these decisions primarily on long-standing "Last Hired, First Fired" teacher seniority policies. The main point of this brief is to argue that seniority is not a fair, useful, or cost effective criterion; instead, teachers' quality and performance could and should be the main criteria used to make these employment decisions. The brief's arguments and recommendations are straightforward, reasonable and commonsense. However, proposals to measure, recognize and reward differences in teacher quality and utilize these in employment and promotion decisions are neither new nor unique. As the history of education reform has shown, implementing such proposals is challenging and often reform attempts have met little or no success. To its credit, this brief recognizes some of the many hurdles and difficulties that need to be overcome or addressed. A useful contribution of the brief is to document wide variations among districts in their layoff criteria and mechanisms and to summarize specific options and concrete alternatives used in particular districts. (Contains 11 notes.) [This paper reviews the following document: "Teacher Layoffs: Rethinking "Last-Hired, First-Fired" Policies" (ED512675).]

In late 2008, Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) participated in The New Teacher Project's (TNTP's) research for a national study, "The Widget Effect," published in June 2009. In summer 2009, CPS, the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers (CFT) and the Cincinnati Association of Administrators and Supervisors (CAAS) asked TNTP to explore a broader range of topics and identify policies and practices that prevent teachers from maximizing their impact on student learning. The areas TNTP examined included selection, hiring, placement, evaluation, professional development, compensation, retention, dismissal, leadership and working conditions. Based on their findings, TNTP makes five recommendations: (1) Strengthen teacher effectiveness; (2) Retain and leverage most effective teachers; (3) Swiftly turn around chronically low-performing schools; (4) Improve or exit persistently less effective teachers; and (5) Optimize the new teacher supply.

This CED report examines teacher pay and other compensation issues. Schools must be able to compete effectively for college-educated workers who have more career choices and see themselves as more mobile professionally than did earlier generations. Traditional compensation policies for teachers (salary schedules that reward only longevity and academic credentials, and pension policies that penalize mobile teachers and those who do not spend a lifetime career in teaching) are out of sync with the objective of expanding the pool of talented individuals who are willing to teach. (Contains 8 tables, 10 figures, 20 footnotes, and 100 endnotes.)

In this policy brief the authors present an overview of the current state of school leadership in California. They examine the challenges that California must overcome to recruit, hire, train, and retain strong and talented principals, with a particular focus on the limitations of current state and district policies. They also propose a set of actions that policymakers can take in order to ensure that great principals are providing leadership in all of California's schools. (Contains 4 figures.)

Local school administrators, board members, and unions are in the best position to devise the compensation, evaluation, and professional development models that work for their communities. Many changes in personnel policy will be the subject of negotiations between school boards and local unions. But the state also has a vital role to play in encouraging innovation by providing financial and other incentives to districts that are willing to experiment with alternative policies. The state should not mandate specific strategies but can nevertheless implement a set of coherent, cohesive, sustainable policies designed to enhance the quality of teaching and attract and retain able teachers, especially in high-needs fields and priority (low-performing) schools. The state can also ensure that new and innovative policies are carefully evaluated, and that new knowledge about what works and what doesn't is widely shared across schools and school districts. This policy brief makes the case that the state can intervene in six teacher-related policy areas to improve the prospects that there will be high-quality teachers in all of California's classrooms. (Contains 2 figures.)

Public school teachers (N=189) role-played as members of school councils making principal selection decisions by rating simulated candidates for principal vacancies. The independent variables were principal candidate job experience, candidate person characteristics (communication, management, instructional leadership), and teacher school level. The dependent variable was teacher rating of the job candidate. A three-way ANOVA detected a significant main effect (F [2, 162] = 7.34, p < .001) for candidate job experience. Teachers rated the most experienced candidates higher than the least experienced candidates, but failed to rate the medium experienced candidate higher than the least experienced candidate or the most experienced candidate higher than the medium experienced candidate. The findings from this investigation should cause school reformers to revisit personnel policies with respect to principal selection. Study results strongly suggest that teachers on school councils, who lack administrative experience in the personnel function, have difficulty making optimal principal selection decisions that will maximally benefit the school. Results of such poor decision-making can jeopardize school performance and school reform. This study uncovered new knowledge about principal selection and did so using an innovative simulation approach that may serve to guide future selection investigations. (Contains 46 references and 3 tables.) (RT)

A study explored downsizing from the perspective of the person separated from the job and its connection to violence and peace studies. Literature on downsizing, violence, peace studies, and organizational studies was reviewed. Participants were 28 white-collar employees, including the researcher, separated from the same organization. Data were derived from a demographic profile form, individual interviews, journaling and field notes, electronic communication among the colleagues in transition and the researcher. Findings indicated people experienced downsizing differently based on individual perspective and context; language used to describe gradations of violence can be positioned along a continuum between violence and peace, disorder and order, social injustice and social justice, barbarity and civility, according to the way in which the downsizing was perceived; experiences of downsizing described a gap between potential and actual realization of one or more basic human needs; stories of the downsizing suggest corroboration of personal, structural, and cultural violence to render it acceptable; most employees affected by the downsizing believed there was nothing they could do to alter the decision; few participants considered alternatives to downsizing by forced separation; and the common element of these participants' downsizing experience was separation. (16 references) (YLB)

This study documents trends in the number and quality of applicants for superintendency over time and the success rate of female applicants throughout the search process. Substantial data indicate a gender bias in selecting superintendents. Data collected in New York in 1999 were compared to 1995 data to determine if the size and quality of the applicant pool is changing, ascertain factors that correlate to pool size, reveal percentages of women candidates, document evidence of gender bias, and learn if recruitment strategies change to address projected shortages. The data indicate both the quality and size of the applicant pool continues to decline. Women comprise only 21% of the pool and minorities average less than one applicant per search. Once in the applicant pool, women are slightly more likely to be hired than are men. Salary and socioeconomic status are important factors making superintendency attractive to applicants. Recruiters are becoming more aggressive, but this approach may be counterproductive, unless definitions of professional experience and competence are broadened, because searches will focus on professional qualities likely held only by traditional candidates, and neglect nontraditional applicants. (Contains 29 references.)(TEJ)

The controversial discussion of "atypical" forms of employment overlooks the fact that all parties involved can benefit from greater flexibility in the employment relationship. It all depends on what is made more flexible and how this greater flexibility is achieved. Employment relationships are built on a variety of factors (remuneration, operating hours, working time, and employment security). In principle, stability in one area of employer/worker relations (e.g., dismissal protection) demands flexibility in other areas (e.g., working hours or wages). Increased flexibility of working hours can create the potential for flexible models of annual working time by reducing or avoiding overtime or for creation of new part-time jobs. More scope for wage flexibility would enable a subtly differentiated adjustment of wage costs, oriented toward employment objectives. A possible starting point for this would be in profit-related remuneration components. Wage-dependent social security contributions could be limited to relieve the costs of the work factor by financing social security more from taxes. Laws regulating atypical employment relationships should help promote the creation of desired, voluntary atypical employment agreements but preclude any agreements being entered into on a nonvoluntary basis or limit the number of reasonable exceptions. (YLB)

This paper provides an overview of the development of the school-personnel administrator role. It first describes the influence of the science-management and human-relations movements and the behavioral sciences on personnel administration and human resource management. It next discusses the role of the personnel-performance-appraisal system and identifies four types of evaluations: summative, formative, norm-referenced, and criterion-referenced. The last part describes the factors involved in compensation administration and lists teacher benefits offered by most districts across the United States. (Contains seven references.) (LMI)

An audit was done of selected expenditure controls at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook University Hospital particularly payroll costs and procurement practices. The Hospital reported an operating loss of $24 million in 1992. The audit reviewed Hospital management and staff and applicable policies and procedures as well as records of expenditure transactions. Overall findings were that certain purchasing practices could be improved. More importantly the Hospital is not adequately controlling payroll costs for oncall and recall services and is making unnecessary payments to some employees. Employees oncall receive $2.25 an hour for time oncall. employees on recall receive time and a half for a minimum of one-half day or hours worked, whichever is greater. The audit found that many employees are scheduled and receive payments for oncall status but are rarely recalled. Questionable and improper practices identified include payments to employees for working overtime or on recall basis while they are being paid for oncall status, recalling staff who are not oncall while staff on oncall in the same unit are never recalled, and staff use of sick leave during normal shifts while also remaining oncall. The original audit was in January 1992. A return visit in June 1993 found many of the same practices in place. Comments of SUNY officials are included. (JB)

This study on integrating women in the navy analyzed approximately 400 surveys collected by the U.S. Navy Steering Group relevant to Women in Non-Traditional Work Roles, results of a focus group, and a review of the literature. Surveys were sent to various U.S. Navy facilities where female employee responses were solicited and documented. The study analyzed problems reported by these women in their work environments, their coping strategies, and their recommendations for improving their work environments. The study's goals involved identifying validated practices regarding effective cohesive work environments and development of recommended intervention strategies to enhance the acceptance, integration, and utilization of women in the navy. Survey responses were categorized into eight basic areas: (1) super woman mentalities; (2) subduing and de-emphasizing individual femininity; (3) siege mentalities and outlooks; (4) the "don't make waves" attitude; (5) non-intrusive and invisible personalities; (6) training; (7) two strikes syndrome; and (8) accelerated stridency and militancy. The study's conclusions addressed: communication, especially concerning directives from upper command; the need for more training in interpersonal/multicultural diversity skills; the need for a comprehensive mentoring program; management performance appraisals; the dispute resolution process; and support systems and networks. (Contains 17 references.) (CK)

Secondary analyses of data collected in the Mothers in the Workplace study examined how family-relevant workplace policies and practices may influence childbearing women's labor force participation during pregnancy and after childbirth. It focused on 2,375 women who held wage and salary jobs during pregnancy and 1,761 of these women who were reinterviewed following childbirth. Findings confirmed previous research: working in a low-wage job, working part-time, being in a nonprofessional/nonmanagerial occupation, being a relatively new hire, working for a smaller organization, and working a nonstandard shift each were independently associated with reduced access to family-friendly policies in the prenatal period, with respondent characteristics such as education controlled. Employers who offered health insurance and related benefits had more job-satisfied and productive employees who worked longer into pregnancy, reported reduced absenteeism, and planned to return to work sooner. Employers who offered time flexibility benefited in increased productivity, earlier planned return, and increased job satisfaction among pregnant employees. Women with job-protected leave, higher prenatal earnings, and greater flexibility in when they started and ended work were more likely to remain attached to the labor force and their prenatal employers. Flexible time policies and practices were central in mediating the relationship between social support at work and problems arranging child care, work to home interference, and job satisfaction. (Appendixes include lists of 38 references and 4 related reports, surveys, and data tables.) (YLB)

An increasingly diverse work force is a definite trend in the United States, and a number of companies have linked valuing and managing diversity to increased productivity. Equal employment opportunity and affirmative action are pointed to as foundational to the development of formal programs for valuing or managing diversity in the workplace. The sense of urgency in the literature about valuing and managing work force diversity is not so much about getting diverse people into the labor force but about retraining and developing good workers at all organizational levels. Two different approaches to organizational programs for dealing effectively with diversity are valuing differences, which suggests efforts to develop attitude changes through awareness and sensitivity training, and managing diversity, which focuses on behavioral changes. A number of authors approach work force diversity as an organizational change issue and present either a training model or an organizational development model for effecting the change. Research on organizational culture suggests that a program for managing or valuing diversity might not effect real change in an organizational culture without addressing the need for long-term efforts that would increase awareness of deep-seated values and assumptions that underlie the organization's norms and individual behaviors. The system for valuing and/or managing diversity is a subsystem of the human resource system within the larger interactive organizational system. (Contains 38 references.) (YLB)

An emerging U.S. employment system is the Security, Employee Involvement, and Training (SET) system. The system is characterized by the following: (1) a high degree of employment security based upon flexible job assignment; (2) employee involvement in problem solving and continuous improvement; and (3) continuous training of all employees. Case studies of five firms that are attempting to establish or maintain SET indicate variation in the degree of successful transition to a SET system. A working SET system is in place at Together Manufacturing and Valley Life; Traditional Manufacturing has been unable to put together all the elements of SET; Hi-Tech's plants range from successful SET factories to traditional ones; and CommEx has been in retreat from SET. The study discovered the following: (1) the maintenance of strong employment security practices at Together and Hi-Tech; (2) repeated decreases in the work force and weakening of employment security provisions at CommEx; and (3) a one-time downsizing at Valley Life. Together's commitment to employment security has been successfully tested by a period of reduced product demand; Hi-Tech's has not. Hi-Tech has instituted a new basic skills test as a minimum standard for employees. Together and Valley Life have made learning a part of daily work. Companies that have successfully instituted SET systems have put all three parts of the SET triangle in place. Research suggests implications pertaining to initial education, further education and training, and restructuring of the work process within schools. (50 references) (YLB)