Lawmakers Consider Changes to Illinois Labor Law

Springfield, ILLawmakers are considering making Illinois labor law changes that would associate teacher tenure with student test results, potentially making it easier to fire some ineffective teachers, the Wall Street Journal reports.

span itemprop="image" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" style="display:block">The legislation, which was debated during a recent Senate panel hearing, puts the state at the forefront of the battle to hold teachers more accountable for the test results of their students.

In 2010, as a result of President Obama's "Race to the Top" initiative to reward states overhauling education systems, at least 12 states changed their tenure rules and implemented new teacher evaluation regulations, the news source said.

Sandi Jacobs, vice president of the nonprofit National Council on Teacher Quality, told the news source that many states were continuing to change their education systems despite the fact that money from the initiative had already been awarded.

"I think there is a real acknowledgment that teacher evaluations have been divorced from evidence of student-learning for far too long," Jacobs said.