Reductions in Force: Maine

Exiting Ineffective Teachers Policy

Goal

The state should require that its school districts consider classroom performance as a factor in determining which teachers are laid off when a reduction in force is necessary.

Meets goal in part
Suggested Citation:
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2011). Reductions in Force: Maine results. State Teacher Policy Database. [Data set].
Retrieved from: https://www.nctq.org/yearbook/state/ME-Reductions-in-Force-10

Analysis of Maine's policies

In Maine, the factors used by districts to determine which teachers are laid off during a reduction in force consider a teacher's seniority and are decided at the district level. The factors negotiated at the district level "may include, but shall not be limited to, seniority."

Citation

Recommendations for Maine

Require that districts consider classroom performance as a factor in determining which teachers are laid off during reductions in force.
Maine should give districts the flexibility to determine their own layoff policies, but it should do so within a framework that ensures that classroom performance is considered.   

State response to our analysis

Maine recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis. 

Research rationale

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).