Observers Cite "Sea Change" For Teachers From Recent Legislation

Education Week (7/13, Heitin) reports on the spate of state legislature passed this year having "a notable impact on teachers. Building on the momentum from the previous two years, in which lawmakers began aggressively pursuing teacher-related reforms, about a dozen states passed laws since January that curb or otherwise modify teacher tenure, teacher evaluations, last-in-first-out policies, and collective bargaining." The piece quotes Jennifer Dounay Zinth of the Denver-based Education Commission of the States calling the legislative wave "a 'sea change'" and notes that "at least a dozen" states passed laws "altering teachers' conditions of employment. Actions affected collective bargaining, seniority, evaluations, and tenure, among other policies. In some categories without checkmarks, similar legislation by that state may have taken effect in previous years. And some states' actions on tenure, seniority, and evaluation could ultimately have an influence on collective bargaining."