EDUCATION MINNESOTA OPPOSES LAYOFF
REGULATIONS IN SF473/HF2 AND SF97
Education Minnesota has serious concerns about the approach to teacher
layoffs described in SF473/HF2 and SF97. They include:
• The one-time funding for the 2011 Teacher Development and Evaluation law, on which
both proposals are based, runs out for about half the teachers in the state at the end of
the current fiscal year. Teachers will have little trust in personnel evaluations done on the
cheap, by overextended school administrators, in these mostly small and rural districts.
• The Teacher Development and Evaluation, or TDE, law is in its first year. The law
says teachers will receive a summative evaluation at least once every three years,
with peer reviews the other years. While educators are generally optimistic their
local TDE plans will lead to improved teaching and learning, they also know large
government programs tend to have unforeseen problems in their first years.
• No one claims better teacher layoffs, however defined, will significantly improve teaching and learning
in Minnesota schools. So we believe no decisions should be made until there’s an official estimate of
the costs to local districts, “which could be significant,” according to a state estimate of the cost to
state government. When there’s no crisis, a deliberate weighing of the costs and benefits is appropriate.
• The bills say districts must give teachers “performance ratings” or sort them into
“performance categories.” When budget cuts force layoffs, the teacher with the lowest
rating relative to other teachers in the same licensure area will be let go first.
ƒƒ The terms “performance rating” and “performance category” are not in the TDE law, so
hundreds of school districts may have to change their evaluation plans. These districts must
define the ratings and re-train their teachers, human resources staff and evaluators.
ƒƒ While Minnesota considers imposing performance ratings on teachers,
many large companies are moving away from them because the unintended
consequences are ultimately damaging to the organization.
ƒƒ Organizations with performance ratings tend to replace collaboration with
competition between colleagues. In the private sector, this has led to internal
sabotage. Among the companies to back away from performance ratings recently:
Adobe, Cargill, ConAgra, Gap, Intel, Microsoft, Medtronic and Sears.
ŒŒ This situation may actually be worse in Minnesota schools because summative evaluations may
happen only once every three years. A teacher may be stuck with a high-stakes, mediocre rating
for three years, regardless of how much he or she improves in the second and third years.
41 Sherburne Ave., St. Paul, MN 55103
651-227-9541 800-652-9073 Fax 651-292-4802
www.educationminnesota.org
Education Minnesota is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers,
the National Education Association and AFL-CIO.
Unfortunately, the serious debate about the usefulness of layoffs as a teacher
quality program has acquired three “red herring” topics. They are:
• The 40 percent. An analysis of teacher contracts by Education Minnesota found
that about 40 percent of them included layoff language that departed from strict
seniority, such as exceptions for teachers with special training or skills. All current
contracts were negotiated before the TDE law went into effect in fall 2014.
• Coin flips. A review of teacher contracts by a newspaper found three small school districts,
Milaca, Braham and Albany, use coin flips as the final step in a series of tiebreakers when
it comes to teacher layoffs. Less than 1 percent of Minnesota teachers work in those
districts. The newspaper hasn’t reported arbitrary tiebreakers, including coin flips, have been
essentially unenforceable since an attorney general’s opinion in 1975. Education Minnesota
President Denise Specht has said, “I’ve never heard of a layoff that got through enough
tiebreakers to get to coin flips, so this language probably never came up in negotiations.”
• Layoff numbers. Comparatively few teachers are laid off every year, even during recessions.
The most recent data from the Minnesota Department of Education’s teacher supply and
demand report says nearly six teachers resigned for each one who was laid off in 2012-13.
Resignations more common than layoffs for teachers
2,002
2000
1,565
1,158
1,297
1,478
1,512
1,384
1,188
1000
1,004
700 667
691
464
533
436
101
0
601
43
2008-09
350
98
41
776
631 574
51
19
2009-10
115
40
116
17
2010-11
74
25
2012-13
Reasons teachers left their jobs
Retirement
Staff reduction (layoffs)
Resignation (personal or unknown reasons)
Became educator outside Minnesota
Became educator in another district
Other educational occupation
Not offered re-employment for reason other than layoff
Death
Source: 2015 Teacher Supply and Demand Report prepared by the Minnesota Department of Education
Note: Attrition data for 2011-12 and 2013-14 are not complete.
Education Minnesota believes the TDE law is the best vehicle for improving the quality of teaching in the
state. The law encourages collaboration and provides support so every teacher can improve each year. It
also includes a clear path out of the classroom for struggling teachers who can’t, or won’t, improve. Local
teachers and school boards already have the freedom to negotiate layoff language that includes
performance measures from their TDE plans. We believe these decisions should stay local.