November 2012


www.hamptonroadsmessenger.com


Continuing Contracts for Virginia Teachers Fuel New ‘Tenure’ Battle


BY KENRIC WARD FREDERICKSBURG —


Teachers unions say Virginia has a rigorous performance-evaluation regimen, but statistics indicate that contracts for instructors are virtually automatic, even in low-achieving school districts.


A Watchdog.org survey


found that only a minuscule percentage of instructors last year failed to earn “continuing contracts” — Virginia’s version of tenure — after a three-year probationary period.


Earlier data from the National


Center for Education Statistics and the National Council for Teacher Quality showed just 1.32 percent of the Old Dominion’s teachers were let go due to poor performance in 2007-2008 — one of the lowest percentages in the 50 states.


Gov. Bob McDonnell pushed hard


last session for legislation to toughen teacher assessments by linking them to student achievement. His plan was narrowly defeated in the Senate, and the governor is poised to try again in January when lawmakers reconvene in Richmond.


“We have had a number of


forums and conferences to hear from legislators and stakeholders about their ideas for K-12 education. The governor is very focused on teacher profes- sionalism and ensuring all students have the opportunity for a quality education regardless of ZIP code,” said McDonnell spokesman Jeff Caldwell.


Steve Greenburg, president of the


Fairfax County Federation of Teachers, said politicians should be careful what they ask for.


“If you expect too much with not


enough time, people don’t do their jobs as well. Overwhelming principals (with more involved teacher evaluations) will mean they aren’t done properly,” Greenburg predicted.


The union leader said teachers are


“watched very carefully” in their first three years.


Without giving statistics, he said


“a lot of teachers” are “non-reappoint- ed.”


But a Watchdog.org sampling of local districts shows otherwise.


At Portsmouth city schools, all


68 instructors eligible for continuing contracts received them last year.


In Mecklenburg County, 308 of


325 teachers were granted contracts. Only one instructor seeking a continuing contract did not earn one — and that was due to “licensure deficiencies.” The other 15 retired, resigned or were laid off, officials said.


In Fairfax, the state’s largest


school system, 58 teachers received “conditional appointments,” but two of those were “dismissed for cause,” said spokesman John Torre. He did not report how many total teachers were eligible for continuing contracts.


Rural Pulaski County awarded


three teachers continuing contracts while denying three others. Those denials, however, were not based on classroom performance, but failure to complete required course requirements, district officials said.


Norfolk City School District —


home to three campuses on the state’s “warning” or “conditional” list due to academic deficiencies — said it would charge $32 an hour to research the contract data, and that the process would take five working days.


Educators say the overwhelming


percentage of teachers receiving continuing contracts is a reflection of good human-resources work when hiring new instructors.


But skeptics argue that the nearly


automatic bestowal of contracts after three years on the job ties the hands of administrators by effectively granting lifetime employment to teachers.


States with high tenure rates


similar to Virginia’s have begun to tighten their evaluations. Florida, for example, abolished K-12 tenure last year. Except for veteran teachers who were grandfathered in, all Sunshine State instructors now work on year-to-year contracts with no guarantee of reappointment.


Virginia’s strong tradition of


local control of schools has made such changes difficult to enact legislatively. It also had led to varying standards, with little overall accountability or transparency. The state Department of Education, for example, does not track what percentage of teachers earn continuing contracts.


Greenburg said Fairfax ties


40 percent of its teacher evaluation program to the “assessment of students.” Yet that assessment does not have to involve actual student testing. Other districts are free to use a lower percentage — and many do.


“There’s a huge and long tradition


of devolving decision-making to the local level. That leads to a lack of transparency,” said Chris Braunlich, a member of the state Board of Education.


Traditionally, Braunlich said


teacher evaluations were not based on whether students were successful.


“It was strictly a licensure issue,”


he said. But Braunlich said times have


changed, and he suggested that Virginia needs to change with them.


“We have the capacity to track


student performance,” he said, and education reformers say that tool should be used with teachers as well.


Manhattan Institute researcher


Marcus Winters said he believes his recently developed “value-added” assessment system — which links student performance and teacher rewards — would work in Virginia’s classrooms.


So far, New York, New Jersey,


Tennessee, Colorado and Washington, D.C., are using variations of the model to deny tenure to instructors receiving


The Hampton Roads Messenger 3


below-satisfactory performance ratings in two consecutive years.


House Speaker Bill Howell,


R-Falmouth, said Delegate Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, is looking at proposing “something similar” to the value-added model. Cox could not be reached for comment.


Meantime, critics of Virginia’s


current contractual program see a troubling disconnect. They point to this year’s math scores, which fell as much as 40 points in some districts, while districts routinely award tenure status.


Though 100 underperforming


schools around the Old Dominion have been placed on a state “warning” list and are in jeopardy of losing their accreditation, teachers across the state are granted continuing contracts at a better than 95 percent rate.


The National Council on Teacher


Quality takes a dim view of such liberal licensing practices in the face of obvious academic deficiencies. NCTQ’s latest report gave Virginia an F in “identifying effective teachers.”


With districts divulging few, if any, academic reasons for the rare cases


in which they do not grant a continuing contract, reformers are pushing for measurable instructional benchmarks.


“In most school systems, the


required ‘due process’ is so burdensome — and has so small a chance of success — that in practice, poor performance is rarely a firing offense. This is why poor classroom performance is so rarely cited as a reason for dismissal,” Winters said.


McDonnell’s 2012 bill would have


extended teachers’ probationary period to five years and replaced continuing contracts with three-year contracts. At the end of every three years, an administrator could let a teacher go without cause.


The Virginia Education


Association, the state’s largest teachers union, helped to beat back that bill in the Senate. One VEA official told the Washington Post that McDonnell’s plan would expose instructors to arbitrary dismissal based on personality conflicts or other petty reasons.


But the governor isn’t backing


down. Looking ahead to January, he called the setback “a delay, not a defeat.”


Sharp Rise in Diabetic Eye Disease Makes American Diabetes Month Ever More Important


BY DR. PAUL A. SIEVING Diabetes is the leading cause of


blindness among working-age adults in the United States. According to recent studies funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI), diabetic retinopathy, one of the most common and debilitating complications of diabetes, increased by 3.7 million new cases over the last decade. Approximately 7.7 million Americans are now affected by diabetic retinopathy. Even more alarming, the rate is projected to climb to 11 million by 2030. People with diabetes are also at greater risk for cataracts, which is a clouding of the eye lens, and glaucoma, which damages the optic nerve. But diabetic retinopathy is by far the most common sight-threatening condition among people with diabetes and is the leading cause of blindness in adults aged 20 to 74 years.


In its early stages, diabetic


retinopathy has no symptoms. The disease begins to damage the small blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensing layer of tissue in the back of the eye, causing them to leak fluid and blood. As the disease progresses, blood vessels become blocked and rupture or new vessels grow on the retina, leading to permanent and sometimes profound vision loss.


Fortunately, there are effective


treatments to help prevent vision loss from diabetic eye disease, but early detection and timely treatment are critically important. During American Diabetes Month this November, the National Eye Institute, a part of the National Institutes of Health, encourages people with diabetes to take steps to prevent complications of diabetes. In addition to controlling blood glucose and blood pressure through healthy eating, adequate exercise, and medication, people with diabetes should have annual dilated eye exams to identify early signs of diabetic retinopathy and other diabetic eye disease. Comprehensive dilated


eye exams allow eye care professionals to monitor the eye, including the retina, for signs of disease. Ninety percent of diabetes-related blindness is preventable through early detection, timely treatment, and appropriate follow-up care.


NEI currently dedicates about 40


million dollars in research funding each year to better understand, prevent, and treat diabetic retinopathy.


The NEI Diabetic Retinopathy


Clinical Research Network (DRCR. net) is a collaboration of more than 300 physicians at more than 100 clinical sites across the United States. Since 2002, DRCR.net has coordinated 18 clinical studies investigating treatments for various diabetes-related conditions, including a condition that causes central vision loss called macular edema.


A 2010 DRCR.net study of


people with diabetic macular edema, a consequence of diabetic retinopathy where fluid accumulates on the retina, showed that about 50 percent of participants treated with eye injections of the drug Lucentis combined with conventional laser treatment had dramatic improvements in vision, compared to about 30 percent of participants who received laser treatment alone. This is the first new treatment for diabetic eye disease in 25 years. Based on these findings, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Lucentis for the treatment of diabetic macular edema.


The Action to Control


Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes Eye Study, sponsored in part by the NEI, showed that intensive control of blood glucose and blood lipids, including cholesterol, slows the progression of diabetic retinopathy.


Through its National Eye Health


Education Program (NEHEP), NEI provides free English and Spanish language resources to educate and increase awareness about diabetic eye disease. During American Diabetes


DIABETES MONTH PAGE 14


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