Retaining Effective Teachers Policy
Factors to Consider: New Jersey determines which teachers are laid off during a reduction in force using a teacher's seniority in the context of "standards to be established by the commissioner with the approval of the state board" and cannot consider "residence, age, sex, marriage, race, religion or political affiliation."
Require that districts consider teacher effectiveness as the most important factor in determining which teachers are laid off during reductions in force.
New Jersey should give districts the flexibility to determine their own layoff policies, but it should do so within a framework that ensures that teacher effectiveness is the determinative factor. Further, although it may be useful for New Jersey to consider seniority among other criteria, the state should also consider performance so that it does not sacrifice effective teachers while maintaining low performers.
New Jersey recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.
9E: Layoffs
"Last In, First Out (LIFO)" policies put adult interests before student needs, yet most districts across the country still use these policies in the event of teacher layoffs. While most states leave these decisions to district discretion, other states require layoffs to be based on seniority. Such policies fail to give due weight to a teacher's classroom performance and risk sacrificing effective teachers while maintaining low performers.[1]
Policies that prioritize seniority in layoff decisions can also cause significant upheaval in schools and school districts. As teachers who are newer to the classroom traditionally draw lower salaries, a seniority-based layoff policy is likely to require that districts lay off a larger number of probationary teachers rather than a smaller group of ineffective teachers to achieve the same budget reduction.
States can leave districts flexibility in determining layoff policies, but they should do so while also ensuring that classroom performance is considered. Further, if performance is prioritized, states need not prohibit the use of seniority as an additional criterion in determining who is laid off.