It’s back! Mandatory Administrator Certification Back on the list of reforms

By Jim Ballard
Executive Director

It’s back!
 
Required principal and assistant principal certification has become a key component of the legislation needed for the Race To The Top (RTT) application. Who knew?
 
At an educator recognition function last Tuesday, the Governor said mandatory administrator certification was the first priority in Michigan’s application for the RTT monies. Huh? Really?
 
Oh, well, both chambers have required administrator certification in their differing RTT legislation.  Both have a grandfather section for those in position currently.  The Senate’s version, and the one that MASSP likes, has an alternative route to obtain an administrative certification that goes through your professional association rather than the university.
 
Both the House and Senate versions tie principal evaluation with student performance.  We like the House version more because it ties ALL certified personnel responsible for educational programs to have their evaluation linked with student performance.  The Senate’s version just lists teachers and principals for evaluation. The Senate allows us to have a voice in how this will be done. They were trying to give us a voice in the process I guess.
 
Who knew the “no school start until after Labor Day” would become such a big deal. House Education Committee Chair Rep. Tim Melton (D-Auburn Hills) said in order to compete for federal "Race to the Top" funding, the state has to demonstrate it has given locals the flexibility to have provide more instructional hours and eliminating the Labor Day start gets to the heart of the issue.  Well that brought out the water-park and hotel/motel guys.  You’d thought this was going to be the continued ruination of Michigan.  Who saw that coming?
 
Tenure reform. It took three votes on the floor of the Senate, a place that is not usually a warm and fuzzy place for teacher union issues, to pass a tenure reform bill.
 
The hard fought legislation for reforming teacher tenure says, “For the purposes of this article, a determination that a teacher on continuing tenure is consistently ineffective in teaching, is considered to be REASONABLY AND ADVERSELY RELATED TO THE ABILITY OF THE PERSON TO serve in an elementary or secondary school and is sufficient grounds to support the discharge or demotion of a teacher on continuing tenure.”  This took three days?  And, “the State Superintendent of Public Instruction shall develop and publish standards for a Controlling board to use to determine whether a teacher on continuing tenure is consistently ineffective in teaching.”  (I like to throw a snowball – see MASSP cartoon.)
 
Is all the above done and ready for the principal’s use?  Not hardly!  The House and Senate versions will be taken into a back room and hashed out to reach a compromise.  In that room will be legislative leadership and I imagine Superintendent Flanagan.  Their work will be the real deal.  After an up or down vote in the legislature then we’ll know if we are going to have some real reform.  Reform that RTT demands to be considered.
 
Those in the legislative galleries, watching the process are betting, “It ain’t going to get done” in time.  Who knows?