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Total Disaster

State board plan endangers teaching profession

Imagine being pulled before your superintendent for disciplinary action because another teacher accused you of failing to “encourage high standards.” Imagine being disciplined or subject to losing your teaching certificate because you overheard a coach use an “inappropriate” word on the sideline during a football game – and you didn’t turn him in to the principal. Imagine your teaching certificate being placed in jeopardy for elusive standards that could have as many interpretations as there are people around you.
The State Board of Education (SBE) is contemplating action that could toss the teaching profession into chaos by fostering distrust and dissention among educators by setting disciplinary actions against teachers or principals based on subjective interpretations rather than objective standards by which to judge behavior.
“There is no state in the country that uses this type of disciplinary enforcement for teachers through a code of ethics,” AEA’s Dr. Paul Hubbert said. “There is no enforcement of standards in any other profession that is fundamentally based on subjective standards. All other states of which I am aware have measurable criteria that are applied by objective standards for license or certificate revocations and have a better hearing process before the revocation of a certificate can occur.”

State Board may act soon
As early as July 14, the SBE could start the process to put in the Alabama State Administrative Code the “Alabama Educator Code of Ethics.” If successful, that act would allow administrators to recommend disciplinary action, even up to the revocation of your teaching certificate, based on any number of vague and abstract breaches of the Code of Ethics. You could be in trouble for not meeting such vague requirements as “failing to encourage and support colleagues, failing to respect fellow educators,” or “failing to engage in a variety of individual and collaborative learning experiences.” (To review in full the Alabama Educator Code of Ethics, click here.)

EDUCATEAlabama

On May 14, 2009, the Alabama State Board of Education passed a resolution to adopt EDUCATEAlabama as the Personnel Evaluation System for Alabama’s teachers. EDUCATEAlabama will replace the Professional Education Personnel Evaluation (PEPE) Program.

The initial implementation of EDUCATEAlabama will be Fall 2009, for classroom teachers only. EDUCATEAlabama is a formative evaluation system that will create a collaborative culture for Alabama’s educators, as it encourages the use of more dialogue and opportunities for feedback between administrators and classroom teachers. More information…