Mass. Board Gives Principals Authority Over Teachers’ Professional Development
Revised guidelines unanimously approved by the Massachusetts state school board will give principals a greater say in teacher recertification.
Under the current system, mandated by the state’s 1993 Education Reform Act, the state education department reviews teachers’ credentials and determines whether they have sufficiently met recertification guidelines. Among other provisions, the current guidelines require that teachers acquire at least 120 professional-development points every five years.
But beginning Dec. 1, teachers must earn 150 professional-development points every five years. Moreover, it will be up to principals, rather than the state, to ensure that teachers have met those and other recertification requirements.
Under the new policy, teachers whose principals deny their recertification requests can appeal to the state.
--Kerry A. White
No Accountability Deal in Delaware
The Delaware legislature met in a special session last week, but declined to consider a far-reaching educator-accountability plan backed by Gov. Thomas R. Carper.
The bill, which would have created a new evaluation system for educators tied to student performance, was hashed out over a recent four-month period. The legislature had struck down another such accountability bill last spring and requested that a group representing legislators, teachers’ unions, administrators, the business community, and the governor’s office come up with a compromise.
The Democratic governor believed an agreement had been reached. But administrators’ groups apparently were not on board and lobbied hard to defeat the measure. Mr. Carper is considering calling another session.
—Joetta L. Sack
