Exiting Ineffective Teachers Policy
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."
As a result of Virginia’s strong reductions in force policies, no recommendations are provided.
Virginia recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.
LIFO policies put
adult interests before student needs.
Across the country, most districts utilize "last in, first
out" policies in the event of teacher layoffs.
Most states leave these decisions to district discretion; some 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.
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.
Reductions in Force: Supporting Research
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); D. Boyd, H. Lankford, S. Loeb, and J. Wyckoff, "Teacher Layoffs: An Empirical Illustration of Seniority v. Measures of Effectiveness", Calder Institute, July 2010, Brief 12; D. Goldhaber and R. Theobald, "Assessing the Determinants and Implications of Teacher Layoffs." Calder Institute, Working Paper 55, December 2010; C. Sepe and M. Roza, "The Disproportionate Impact of Seniority-Based Layoffs on Poor, Minority Students." Center on Reinventing Public Education, May 2010.