SB 5242 would end "Dance of the Lemons" in teachers’ placements

Every public school principal is painfully familiar with being forced to send children to a classroom where she knows the teacher there is not the best fit, but the teacher's placement has been forced on the school by higher-ups at the central district. In an effort to improve classroom instruction, bad teachers are often shuffled from one school to another, an administrative tactic known among principals as "The Dance of the Lemons." The Seattle Times strongly endorses passage of SB 5242, sponsored by Senators Steve Litzow (R-Mercer Island), Bruce Dammeier (R-Puyallup) and Rodney Tom (D-Bellevue). SB 5242 would require that a school principal and teacher mutually agree upon the assignment of a teacher to a school. SB 5242 would also improve school governance, allowing principals to assume responsibility for school performance. A school principal establishes a school’s overall culture and approach to student learning. In order to establish a school culture of high expectations of teachers and students alike, principals must be able to choose the teachers in the school. Allowing bad teachers to be force-placed in schools not only harms a school culture, but it also undermines the work of the good teachers, because good teachers must work doubly hard to address deficiencies in student learning caused by the bad teachers. Governor Inslee campaigned on the promise of placing effective teachers in every classroom. Seattle Times reporter Brian M. Rosenthal wrote an excellent article describing his position on education. Here is an excerpt: “The research, Inslee said, shows that the most important factor in a child's education is an excellent teacher in the front of the classroom." To do that, he proposes a model for making personnel decisions that is similar to McKenna's: Student test scores would play a significant role in teacher evaluations, and evaluations would play a significant role in teacher hiring, firing and transfer decisions.” Governor Inslee did say he’d challenge seniority rules in order to improve the quality of teachers. He also said: “We have a quarter of our children who are sort of forgotten children, and that is going to be unacceptable when I’m governor.” Whether Governor Inslee will follow through on his education reform promises is uncertain. Yet there are still caring leaders working to help schoolchildren. These leaders are Senator Litzow (R-Mercer Island), Senator Dammeier (R-Puyallup) and Senator Tom (D-Bellevue). They introduced SB 5242 to allow principals the freedom to deliver effective teachers to every classroom in Washington.