Proposition 74 at a Glance

Comments (16)

The Associated Press

Published: October 10, 2005

Proposition 74 would increase the probationary period for beginning teachers from two years to five. Only Indiana and Missouri have such lengthy probationary periods for teachers. In most states, teachers work three years before gaining permanent status.

If approved by voters, the initiative also would:

-- Require annual performance reviews during the five-year probation period. School districts could choose not to rehire a teacher without offering a specific reason during this period.

-- Allow a school board to fire a teacher who received two consecutive unsatisfactory performance evaluations. The teacher would have 30 days to request a hearing before an administrative law judge.

-- Ease the burden on school administrators to provide extensive documentation of poor performance. Instead, they would need only two poor reviews.

"I like Arnold. I do not agree with this proposition."
-> Posted by thundrwagn / Nov 03, 2005

"hey!!!!!!!omg luven this site, and I luv arnold tooo!!!!!!!=]"
-> Posted by Susan Tran Dan Annie / Oct 28, 2005

"hi i luv u"
-> Posted by Lola Liao / Oct 28, 2005

"I think that proposition 74 has it's ups and downs. The ups are that the teachers would have more training. The downs are that not all teachers need lot of training to be good at what they love to do."
-> Posted by Lola Liao / Oct 28, 2005

"Prop 74 would require a new teacher to serve 5 years to become a permanent teacher, but would not require a new administrator to stay in the regular classroom more than the 3 years presently required. If 74 passes, you could have the permanent job status of a new teacher decided by a new administrator who had never earned permanent status as a teacher himself. How smart is that?"
-> Posted by Arnoldstein'sRINO / Oct 16, 2005

"There are teachers who do feel smug and secure. Some because they are the idiots everyone else thinks they are. Others are secure precisely because of school politics. They know where the principal's vulnerabilities are and that they will never be held accountable under any circumstance. And there are teachers whose family connections in the community make them virtually untouchable. Then, there are the rest of us, working our butts off and already feeling vulnerable without Prop 74."
-> Posted by Arnoldstein'sRINO / Oct 14, 2005

"Teaching is more than merely presenting information and then testing to see how well that information was received. There are complex dynamics involved in the working relationship between teachers and students. Those dynamics get more complex as students get older. Teaching high school, like I do, is very demanding. I work very hard at my job and I obey every directive but do I feel smug and secure? Not really. There are always politics in schools, even under current rules."
-> Posted by Arnoldstein'sRINO / Oct 14, 2005

"The unions are just using scare tactics to keep the system the way it is. To keep the status quo. The way the system is now it is almost imposible to fire a bad teacher. Granted, the school administration is very blotted and also needs reforming; but we have to start somewhere. Prop 74 is not about politics!"
-> Posted by JD / Oct 13, 2005

"Under the current system an administrator has to have about 150 pages of docs to even suggest firing a teacher. Under the new system they only have to document two bad performance reports. Then the school board, not the principle, makes the decision to fire the teacher. which one of these systems sound like more work?"
-> Posted by JD / Oct 13, 2005

"If Arnold were serious about school reform, he would have gone after the "Dog and Pony Show." Informal evaluation creates a better administration-faculty relationship because you know that every transaction you have as an employee with every student and adult counts on your evaluation.
Prop 74 is not about reform but pay back."
-> Posted by Arnoldstein'sRINO / Oct 11, 2005

"Schools like mine with drop-in, informal evaluations evaluate all teachers every year already, but other schools with formal visitation by appointment evaluations don't. We call that type of evaluation "the Dog and Pony Show." It requires a pre-observation conference, the observation and the post-observation conference along with a lot of documentation. It will bury administrators under Prop 74."
-> Posted by Arnoldstein'sRINO / Oct 11, 2005

"The Union does not interfere with the termination of genuinely poor performing teachers, but they do get involved when a good teacher is being railroaded for political reasons. And Prop 74 itself is just politics as usual, so plan on lots of lawsuits if it passes, especially since it is retroactive."
-> Posted by Arnoldstein'sRINO / Oct 11, 2005

"If these people are going to sue over termination or bad evaluations, they can do it without Prop 74.

So they are doing less than one evaluation per year now then? This is what you imply. Seems like teachers should be evaluated at least once a year. If they get two bad ones in a row, they are shown the door and given 30 days to appeal. Wow that sounds totally unreasonable and puts an undue burden on the teachers to do their jobs with minimal accountability."
-> Posted by Toby in Sacto / Oct 11, 2005

"Permanent teachers who receive poorly written bad reviews or feel that they were evaluated using faulty methods of evaluation will almost certainly go to court and sue their principals and districts, further diminishing funds for students and classrooms. Prop 74 will be a new source of income for trial lawyers for years to come."
-> Posted by Arnoldstein'sRINO / Oct 11, 2005

"Also, Prop 74 will result in numerous lawsuits because it is retroactive. Teachers who were hired last year and would finish their probationary periods in June 2006 will have to work 3 more years as probationary teachers under Prop 74. Many of the affected teachers will go to court to overturn that provision of the law if it passes."
-> Posted by Arnoldstein'sRINO / Oct 11, 2005

"Prop 74 will not "ease the burden on school administrators." Many districts are considering hiring addition administrators for the sole purpose of doing all the additional evaluations that Prop 74 would require of them. Each new administrator costs as much as 2 new teachers, which means larger classes and less money for supplies."
-> Posted by Arnoldstein'sRINO / Oct 11, 2005