The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) has agreed to drop its lawsuit against Stand for Children, a group that, in turn, withdrew a November ballot initiative that would have drastically changed how teachers are evaluated in the commonwealth.
Instead, the two groups are hoping legislators will pass a compromise bill before the July 3 deadline for removing questions from the November statewide ballot.
Westfield Education Association President Lori Hovey, a sixth grade teacher with three decades of experience, said the MTA “has entered negotiations” with Stand for Children.
“We’ve managed to move past an impasse on the evaluation process and rates for recall,” Hovey said.
The group behind the ballot question, Stand for Children Massachusetts, said the compromise would guarantee that every public school in Massachusetts gives priority to a teacher’s effectiveness rather than seniority when deciding whom to place and keep in the classroom.
The group also said the compromise bill also creates a data reporting system to ensure accountability in the new evaluation system and provides $13 million to school districts to ensure administrators and teachers are properly trained in the new system.
Jason Williams, executive director of Stand for Children Massachusetts, said the bill is “critical for recognizing the work teachers do, guaranteeing a great teacher in every classroom, and closing our state’s wide achievement gap.”
The group had collected more than enough signatures to get the question on the ballot.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association helped negotiate the compromise with Stand for Children.
MTA President Paul Toner said the proposed bill narrows the scope of the ballot question, which he said would reduce collective bargaining rights, weaken due process rights for teachers with professional teacher status and curtail rights for part-time teachers.
“No teacher or union leader wants anything but qualified and excellent instructors in our classrooms,” Toner said. “A ballot fight would be divisive and costly, diverting public attention and resources from narrowing the achievement gap, improving education funding and other priorities to help students succeed.”
Hovey agreed.”Nobody wanted to be tied up in a huge legal battle and take away from what teachers do, which is educate kids,” she said.
Stand for Children was founded in 1996 by Jonah Edelman, the son of a legendary civil rights leader and a top aide to Robert F. Kennedy. Stand for Children’s mission is to ensure that all children, regardless of their background, graduate from high school prepared for, and with access to, college and career training. To this end, they educate constituents, advocate for relevant policies and funding, monitor the implementation of policies and funding, and elect leaders aligned with their priorities.
According to the MTA website, the MTA opposed the ballot question because “the proposal opens the door to favoritism, nepotism and age discrimination – all problems that a more objective system is designed to counteract. An experienced teacher in good standing who is at the top of the pay scale could be laid off to make room for a less expensive teacher with far less classroom expertise. An outspoken, experienced teacher could be replaced by a more compliant novice educator, or one who is well-connected to a local politician or school official.”
Hovey said the bill is a good compromise.
“Massachusetts has come up with a new evaluation tool, so keeping that in mind we’re looking at what Stand wants. However, we want to make sure our own evaluation tools remain autonomous,” Hovey said. “We made them understand what we wanted, and we knew what they wanted.”
