BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - As many as 1,700 public school teachers in Louisiana have left classrooms because of the state’s tougher tenure law, according to a new report released Wednesday.
The Advocate (https://bit.ly/2lnRDQM ) reports that a review by Tulane University said many of those leaving the classroom were educators nearing retirement and teachers working in troubled schools. The study said at least 3 percent of the state’s teacher workforce has left since the 2012 law took effect.
The report was done by the Tulane-based Education Research Alliance for New Orleans. The group’s board includes officials of the state’s two teacher unions, charter school advocates and others.
The new law made it tougher for new teachers to earn tenure. It also tied job protections to annual ratings based mainly on student achievement. The study said the result was “substantial churn” of the state’s teacher workforce.
“Our estimates suggest that the tenure reform is responsible for the exit of 1,500 to 1,700 teachers in the first two years after the removal of tenure protections, a loss of 3.0 to 3.5 percent of Louisiana’s teacher workforce,” the review said.
The law was part of then-Gov. Bobby Jindal’s push to overhaul public schools, whose scores have lagged behind those of students in most states for generations.
Before the change five years ago, teachers routinely earned the job protection that tenure provides after a probationary period of two to five years.
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Information from: The Advocate, https://theadvocate.com
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