Exiting Ineffective Teachers Policy
In Indiana, new legislation considers teacher performance as the top criterion for districts to use in determining which teachers are laid off during reductions in force. The cancellation of teachers' contracts due to a decrease in the number of teaching positions is to be "determined on the basis of performance rather than seniority." In addition, if teachers are placed in the same performance category, the following may be considered to determine which teachers are laid off: 1) years of experience, 2) attainment of additional content area degrees or credit hours beyond the requirements for employment, 3) evaluation results, 4) instructional leadership roles, and 5) academic needs of students.
Indiana recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.
See National Council on Teacher Quality, "Teacher Layoffs: Rethinking 'Last Hired, First-Fired' Policies." (2010); The New Teacher Project, The Case Against Quality-Blind Teacher Layoffs (2011); Boyd, Donald; Lankford, Hamilton; Loeb, Susanna; and Wyckoff, James, "Teacher Layoffs: An Empirical Illustration of Seniority v. Measures of Effectiveness" The Urban Institute, CALDER (2010); Goldhaber, Dan and Theobold, Roddy, "Assessing the Determinants and Implications of Teacher Layoffs." Center for Education Data & Research, University of Washington-Bothell (2010); Sepe, Christina and Roza, Marguerite, "The Disproportionate Impact of Seniority-Based Layoffs on Poor, Minority Students." Center on Reinventing Public Education (2010).