From newsadvance.com in Lynchburg:
Teacher contracts and uranium mining will get Gov. Bob McDonnell’s attention during this General Assembly session.
McDonnell said he will ask legislators to require all teachers undergo performance reviews every year, and “remove the continuing contract status from teachers and principals.”
Instead, annual contracts would be offered to teachers, McDonnell said.
“This will allow us to implement an improved evaluation system that really works, and give principals a new tool” for managing schools, McDonnell said during his State of the Commonwealth speech to the Senate and House of Delegates.
Del. Ben Cline, R-Rockbridge County, said he expects to support many of the governor’s education-reform proposals, but the continuing-contract idea was a new one.
I don’t see doing away with continuing contracts as “teacher reform.” In the first place, principals aren’t on continuing contracts as principals. They are on continuing contract as teachers. Why does McDonnell think that yearly evaluation will make better teachers? A full evaluation, usually done triennially for continuing contract teachers is very time consuming on the part of the teacher and the evaluator. Why would taking away the aspect of a continuing contract make for better teachers? I say it would not.
