Personnel policies on unified schools agenda

Board asked to link students’ test scores to tenure

The unified Memphis and Shelby County school board will be asked at its meeting Tuesday to link students’ performance on standardized tests to teacher promotions, tenure and raises.

That and other changes to the personnel policies for the unified Memphis and Shelby County school district, some of which are associated with the Gates Foundation-funded Teacher Effectiveness Initiative, will be on the agenda.

It will be the third meeting in the past eight days for the board, which is reviewing policies and practices recommended by the Transition Planning Commission and the in-house Transition Steering Committee in a hurried attempt to prepare for the start of the district’s inaugural school year in August.

Pressure to complete that task increased last week when U.S. Dist. Judge Samuel “Hardy” Mays expressed displeasure with the pace of the consolidation and signaled an inclination to appoint a special master in the school merger lawsuit.

The proposed policy says that the new system for teacher evaluations “shall be a factor in employment decisions, including … promotion, retention, termination, compensation and the attainment of tenure status.”

If approved, the policy would make it clear that data from the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System, which sets out to measure teacher effectiveness through student progress on standardized tests, will be a factor in the evaluation of teacher performance.

Principals and assistant principals in the new district also will be subject to evaluations, if the policy is adopted, that could affect their future employment.

Another proposed policy sets out to “ensure all teachers and principals receive professional development that is substantive, meaningful and differentiated by individual need.”

The slate of new policies also sets out the criteria that will determine whether teachers achieve and retain tenure and establishes guidelines for conducting employee background checks and layoffs.

Criteria for the evaluation and retention of employees in noncertified positions also are scheduled to be addressed in Tuesday’s meeting, which begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Memphis City Schools Teaching and Learning Academy, 2485 Union. It will be covered live by The Commercial Appeal on Twitter from @writerk.