Approxmately 400 Houston ISD (HISD) teachers could be at risk of losing their jobs if their performance doesn’t improve. In February, HISD became the first district in Texas—and quite possibly the nation—to approve a plan to fire teachers whose students aren’t making the academic gains the district believes they should based on their past progress on standardized tests.
HISD uses a complex statistical formula it calls the “value-added system” to measure the academic progress of students of 3rd- to 8th-grade core-subject teachers. The district has used the formula for the last three years as a means of awarding performance bonuses to teachers. The district uses other performance measures to award bonuses to teachers not in this group.
Beginning next year, the district will include value-added scores in teacher evaluations. Teachers whose students fail to meet academic expectations over a period of years could be fired. It is unclear how much weight value-added scores will have in the evaluation process.
HISD Superintendent Terry Grier, hired in 2009, has a reputation as a reformer and is wasting no time in his effort to turn Texas’ largest school district around academically. He noted that last year, .3 percent of the district’s teachers were fired for performance reasons, a miniscule number considering the district’s academic shortcomings. “Quite frankly, if we’re that good, why do 100,000 of our kids read below grade level?” Grier remarked.
Grier has stressed the district will offer training and mentoring to teachers who struggle in an effort to help them improve. He has also indicated that one year of poor scores won’t put a teacher’s job in jeopardy. Consistently poor performance is what the district says it will focus on. “I cannot imagine a parent in Houston or anywhere else that would want their child in a teacher’s classroom who had a long history of not being able to help a student learn at a significant level,” Grier said.
Teachers on probationary contracts (teachers who are new to the profession or the district) are in line for extra scrutiny under the plan. Grier sent a letter to clarify the proposed policy to board members in early February. In it, he indicated that he intends for principals to flip the “burdens” in the process of awarding term contracts. Principals will no longer be able to recommend that marginal teachers get contracts as a means of avoiding the nonrenewal process. If a principal wants to grant a term contract to a teacher with a regressive value-added score and other indicators of ineffective performance, he or she will need to be able to provide “a compelling reason” for the action.
The dozens of parents and business leaders who attended the meeting unanimously applauded the policy and thanked the board for “taking a stand for our children.”
Hundreds of teachers were there to speak out against the policy. Teachers said that they do the best they can in light of their students’ circumstances: many live in poverty and lack parental support. They called the plan “unfair and unjust” and criticized the lack of transparency of the value-added system.
Houston teacher organizations have been hard at work to defeat the policy since the board began discussing it. Texas AFT opposed the use of the value-added system for teacher bonuses. The district’s decision to raise the stakes by tying teacher scores to employment decisions was not well-received, to say the least.
In addition to questioning the validity of value-added scores, Houston Federation of Teachers President Gayle Fallon has raised the issue of the district’s ability to legally fire teachers based on low value-added scores. She noted that a Dallas ISD teacher was fired for the poor achievement of her students based on a statistical method in use in that district but won her job back when the state’s education commissioner said the school’s environment was likely to blame for poor test scores.
Their opposition hasn’t hindered the HISD board, which has been squarely behind the change in spite of the controversy it has created. It voted unanimously to approve the new policy on February 11 (two board members were absent). Before the board cast its final vote, trustee Harvin Moore said the district will likely fire more teachers in the future but that it is not conducting a witch hunt. “…This policy is not going to result in thousands of teachers losing their jobs…that’s not what this is about. But we do have an obligation to our children to give them the very best teacher that we can,” Moore said.
—“HISD passes teacher dismissal plan,” by Ericka Mellon, Houston Chronicle, Feb. 12, 2010.
—“HISD spells out teacher dismissal process, part II,” by Ericka Mellon, School Zone blog, Houston Chronicle, Feb. 8, 2010.
—“HISD moves ahead on dismissal policy,” by Ericka Mellon, Houston Chronicle, Jan. 14, 2010.
—“HISD may fire teachers over test scores,” by Ericka Mellon, Houston Chronicle, Jan. 11, 2010.
