Update, 10:35 a.m.: The Maine House has voted 77-66 in support of the Senate amendment to L.D. 1799.

--

The most contentious of the three bills meant to bolster Maine's position in the national Race to the Top education reform competition is headed back to the Maine House in stripped-down form.

The state Senate tonight passed L.D. 1799, a bill meant to strike down the legal barrier that prevents the use of student achievement data in the evaluation of Maine teachers and principals. Eliminating that firewall is a key ingredient in Maine's application for up to $75 million from the more than $3 billion left in the Race to the Top pot. Without striking it down, the Pine Tree State can't even apply.

But the version of the bill that made it through the Senate limits how school districts can evaluate their teachers and principals using student testing and assessment data, rather than simply allowing them to opt for student performance-based evaluations.

Sen. Justin Alfond, D-Portland, crafted a last-minute amendment favored by the state teachers' union, the Maine Education Association, that sets up a five-member task force (with representatives from the teachers' union and groups representing superintendents, school boards, principals and special education directors) to vet the evaluation models school districts can opt to use.

In other words, school districts are free to choose whether they evaluate their teachers using student testing data. But if they choose to do so, they have to use one of the models vetted and approved by the five-member task force.

Senate debate on Alfond's amendment split among those opposed to rating teachers based on student performance, those resistant to changing policies in response to federal incentives, those in favor of the limited step toward those evaluations and those skeptical that the amended bill would herald any meaningful reforms in teacher evaluation.

"I think this is a very good first step," Alfond said. "I think this is a thoughtful step."

"Teachers are apprehensive. They're fearful of what's ... coming down the turnpike," said Sen. Gerald Davis, R-Falmouth. "This at least gives them some say in how they're going to be evaluated."

But Sen. Carol Weston, R-Montville, called the measure "restrictive."

"We are taking away decisions from our local schools," she said. "We are saying a group of bureaucrats is going to decide the policy in your schools."

The Maine School Superintendents' and School Boards' associations opposed allowing a task force approve a slate of evaluation options, saying the move would border on infringing on local school districts' policymaking rights.

"You're putting the union in charge of vetoing the system by which they are assessed," said Sen. Peter Mills, R-Cornville.

"I'm worried about the future of education in Maine. We're going to rate teachers on how they dress, whether they brushed their teeth and whether they combed their hair, because if you take away student performance, what do you have left?"

But a number of senators doubted whether teachers could be fairly evaluated based on their students' performance on standardized tests and other assessment tools.

Impoverished students, for example, are "thinking about surviving more than they're thinking about learning in school," said Sen. David Trahan, R-Waldoboro.

"There's no way to tie student achievement with teacher assessment," said Sen. Margaret Craven, D-Lewiston.

Alfond's amendment passed by a 22-12 margin. Now, the bill returns to the House, where its original version gained initial passage by a 72-71 margin last week.

The other two pieces of legislation meant to boost Maine's Race to the Top position -- one would let Maine sign onto the Common Core national academic standards initiative and the other would allow so-called "innovative," district-run schools instead of charter schools -- have passed both chambers.

Archives