Reductions in Force: Missouri

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

Analysis of Missouri's policies

In Missouri, the factors used by districts to determine which teachers are laid off during a reduction in force consider a teacher's tenure status as well as teacher performance. Nontenured teachers are "placed on leave of absence" first, and tenured teachers "are retained on the basis of performance-based evaluations and seniority (however, seniority shall not be controlling) within the field of specialization."

Citation

Recommendations for Missouri

State response to our analysis

Missouri 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).