Retaining Effective Teachers Policy
Factors to Consider: Virginia requires that a district's reduction-in-force decisions "shall not be made solely on the basis of seniority but must include consideration of, among other things, the performance evaluations of the teachers potentially affected by the reduction in workforce."
Require that districts consider teacher effectiveness as the most important factor in determining which teachers are laid off during reductions in force.
Virginia should strengthen its policy and ensure that teacher effectiveness is the most influential factor in layoff decisions.
Virginia asserted that it meets this goal because it requires school districts to consider classroom performance as a factor in determining which teachers are laid off when a reduction in force is necessary.
To earn full credit for this goal, states must ensure that teacher performance is the top criterion in reduction-in-force decisions.
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.