Alabama educators are surviving through a tumultuous state legislative session. Currently, the legislators are considering the PREP Act, which would create value-added measures to count for 25% of a teacher’s yearly evaluation. The 25% would be based on student test scores. The act would also extend the length of time a teacher works to gain tenure from 3 years to 5 years.

In other news, State Superintendent Dr. Tommy Bice has decided to retire after 4 years of service as state superintendent. His retirement is official as of March 31, 2016.

From www.clas.org:

Relating to public education; to create thePreparing and Rewarding Educational Professionals (PREP) Act of 2016; to provide a procedure for observing and evaluating teachers, principals, and assistant principals on performance and student achievement; to make an appropriation of $10,000,000 from the Education Trust Fund to the Legislative School Performance Recognition Program, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2017, to fund rewards earned by schools pursuant to that program; to amend Sections 16‐6C‐3 and 16‐24C‐4, Code of Alabama 1975, to require implementation of the Legislative School Performance Recognition Program before September 1, 2016, and to increase the number of years of service required to attain tenured status pursuant to the Students First Act of 2011, from three to five consecutive years with three consecutive ratings of satisfies expectations, exceeds expectations, or significantly exceeds expectations; to allow a governing board to evaluate a tenured teacher every other year; to subject a tenured teacher who receives a rating of below expectations or significantly below expectations to two consecutive annual evaluations immediately thereafter; to subject a tenured teacher who receives two consecutive ratings of below expectations or significantly below expectations pursuant to this act to personnel action by the governing board; to establish the Alabama Teacher Recruitment Fund; to make an appropriation of $5,000,000 from the Education Trust Fund to the Alabama Teacher Recruitment Fund, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2017; to establish the Alabama Teacher Mentor Program; to make an appropriation of $3,000,000 from the Education Trust Fund to the Alabama Teacher Mentor Program for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2017; to establish the Legislative Teacher Advisement Committee to make recommendations to the Legislature, State Board of Education, and State Superintendent of Education regarding classroom instruction and school performance rewards; and in connection therewith to have as its purpose or effect the requirement of a new or increased expenditure of local funds within the meaning of Amendment 621 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, now appearing as Section 111.05 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended.