Grading teachers’ performances not easy

Jessica Garrison

NEWPORT-MESA -- Ask any teacher. Conflicts between teachers,

parents and principals come up all the time -- over grades, sick days, or

even curriculum.

That’s one reason teachers’ unions have developed such strong systems

of tenure.

In the days before tenure, said school board President Serene Stokes

-- who is also a former teacher and principal -- it was not unheard of

for a teacher to lose her job if she called in sick, or if she clashed

with a principal or influential parent.

But in light of a long, bitter battle between an Andersen Elementary

School teacher and the school district -- a battle that seems sure to end

up in court -- some parents and board members are looking more closely at

the district’s system of evaluating its employees. They are also looking

at what parents and administrators can do if a teacher doesn’t live up to

their expectations.

Last spring, parents at Andersen launched a petition drive against

second-grade teacher Patricia Wood, alleging her eccentric habits made

her unfit for the classroom.

The parents said they resorted to such a radical, public step because

they felt district officials were not responding to their concerns about

Wood, a 30-year veteran teacher who has tenure, as well as a doctorate

degree in education.

Unlike a first- or second-year teacher, a tenured teacher cannot be

dismissed from his or her position unless district officials are able to

give clear, compelling, and well-documented reasons why that person

should no longer be in the classroom.

The parents ultimately got their wish: Wood is not teaching at

Andersen this year -- though she is still a paid employee of the

district.

And she is not leaving her classroom quietly. Her attorney, Greg

Petersen, said he planned to seek a court injunction Friday that would

order the district to return her to Andersen as soon as possible.

Petersen said that in removing Wood from the classroom, district

officials violated the due process rights entitled to Wood by her tenure

status.

Andersen parent Angela Kraus called the case “a delicate balance

between a teacher’s right to teach and students’ right to obtain an

education in a non-threatening, secure environment.”

In this case, Kraus and other parents at Andersen feel vindicated.

Wood is gone.

But many parents say they never thought it should have been so hard to

get her out.

“I am shocked and appalled that she was able to come back on campus

this academic year after what happened last year,” Kraus said over the

summer.

Linda Mook, the president of the district’s teachers’ union, countered

that district officials must follow “due process” when dismissing

teachers. “You can’t remove a teacher simply because a majority of people

don’t like that person.”

Though confidentiality laws prevent district officials from commenting

specifically on Wood’s case, they said the district’s tenure laws provide

security for teachers, but do not allow them to stay in a job they cannot

do properly.

“If you commit murder, or drink in the classroom, or brought drugs to

school, we could move very quickly [to dismiss a teacher],” said Skip

Roland, the district’s director of human resources.

“Where the gray line appears is if you don’t have a significant event.

If what you have is an accumulation of smaller events, you need to work

through a process that provides an employee with due process rights,” he

said.

In evaluating teachers, Roland said the district is guided by state

and federal laws, the state education code, and its contract with the

district’s teachers’ union.

Once a teacher has taught in the district for two years, the teacher

has tenure. Teachers then are evaluated every two years.

Teachers given unsatisfactory evaluations can be transferred to

another school and given further chances to improve.

But principals must work with teachers to improve their work before

giving them unsatisfactory evaluations.

“The whole system is designed to make sure that arbitrary and

capricious actions can’t be taken,” Roland said.

And what if -- as in Wood’s case -- district officials are absolutely

determined that a teacher should leave, and the teacher is equally

determined to stay?

“The answer is, it depends what we do,” Roland said. “That sounds like

a weak answer, but there are a variety of things to do.”

Usually, Roland said, administrators will attempt to “counsel a

teacher out of the profession.”

Other times, Roland said, teachers stay in education, but are assigned

to other posts.

“Let’s say a person is good with writing, but poor with people, they

might be assigned to writing curriculum or grants,” he said.

Stokes said board members do not take teacher dismissals lightly.

“We try all the options -- everything we can. And if the person

doesn’t fit in, we may go for dismissal,” she said. “Teachers are very

very important, but we also have to protect the children in the

classroom. The bottom line is if it doesn’t work, we really need to go

ahead with dismissal.”

Both Mook and Roland also noted that the district, along with every

other district in the state, in January will add a new element to teacher

evaluations: peer review.

One of Gov. Gray Davis’ education initiatives, the peer review program

calls for teachers to review each others’ performances. The idea, Roland

said, is not to encourage teachers to rat each other out, but to enable

them to help each other improve their teaching.

But even that will take some ironing out, Mook said, and it is one of

the issues on the table as the district and the union negotiate a

contract.

“Traditionally, teachers teach and administrators evaluate,” she said.

The new program, while it could benefit teachers, principals, and

ultimately students, “is a break with tradition and is discomforting to

some teachers.”