This afternoon the Senate Ways and Means Committee heard Senators Tom and Zarelli's bill, SB 5959, which would ban contract provisions like this one:

 "The performance ratings (evaluation) of employees shall not be a factor in determining the order of layoff under this Section."  See page 111 of Seattle's 2010-2013 collective bargaining agreement.

Last year Seattle's new collective bargaining agreement was widely touted as an historic improvement in teacher evaluations. This agreement created a process to make teacher evaluations more deliberative and meaningful than the process used in the past. 

However, under the radar, teachers' union lawyers inserted new provisions to undermine these new evaluations. School principals seeking to remove poor teachers from classrooms must jump through new hoops, perform additional observations, create a Support Plan if requested, offer $500 to develop an improvement plan, and fulfill other paperwork requirements, above and beyond the already onerous observations, paperwork and probationary period required by law. See page 105 of agreement. 

This is the reality of what districts across Washington are up against. Union interests are determined to render meaningless these teacher evaluations.  Bring on the evaluations, they say, but don't use these evaluations to determine wages, benefits or remove the worst teachers from classrooms.

SB 5959 would make provisions like the one above illegal.  SB 5959 is a necessary first step to link teacher evaluations and performance to layoff decisions.