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TEXAS AFT LEGISLATIVE HOTLINE--MONDAY, AUGUST 10,
2009 Districts in Denial: Pay Raise, Grading Policy Pay Raise: The 2009-2010 school year starts this month, but a number of school districts are still having trouble understanding their obligations under new state laws. Just in the past couple of days we've had two examples brought to our attention, one involving the state-mandated pay raise for teachers and certain other professional staffers, the other involving the legislature's new directive to districts regarding grading policies. While many districts now seem to be implementing the pay raise as the legislature intended, some continue to claim that they do not owe their teachers a step increase in addition to the pass-through of the state-directed pay raise. They are basing this claim on the argument that their 2008-2009 salary schedule gave employees no guarantee of a step increase in 2009-2010 or 2010-2011. The problem with this argument is that the new state law trumps local intentions regarding step increases. It is the new salary requirement enacted by the legislature, not local discretion, that determines what use will be made of the 2008-2009 salary schedule. And what the new legislation requires is that teachers and others covered by the local 2008-2009 salary schedule receive step increases in 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, just as if that 2008-2009 local salary schedule were in full force for the next two years. (Then, on top of that step increase, comes the state-directed pass-through pay raise–the greater of $800 or the maximum uniform amount the district can provide to covered employees using $60 per weighed pupil, less any resulting higher costs to the district for TRS or Social Security.) Please let us know at info@texasaft.org if your district is not providing step increases in accordance with its 2008-2009 salary schedule or is not also adding $800 or more to salaries at each step. Grading Policy: This year state Sen. Jane Nelson, Republican of Lewisville, got fed up with school districts that were requiring their teachers to give students artificially inflated grades. So she passed SB 2033, which she explained was "intended to ensure that our students are receiving grades based on the merits of their work" and that "grades reflect students' performance on assignments." The bill won unanimous support in both houses of the legislature, and it takes effect with the start of the 2009-2010 school year. The bill says school districts must establish a grading policy that requires teachers to grade students' assignments based on their relative mastery of the assignment. The bill also expressly states that districts "may not require a classroom teacher to assign a minimum grade for an assignment without regard to the student's quality of work." Yet now we hear that at least one school district is trying to get around the new law by claiming that it can still dictate to teachers they must give a minimum grade for each grading period as a whole, regardless of the student's actual grades on individual assignments. This gambit is a clear attempt to nullify the new state law. The result would be to do exactly what Sen. Nelson sought to rule out, overriding teachers' legitimate grades with phony grades dictated from above that do not reflect the merits of students' work. This attempted end run around the new state law, if any district goes through with it, is unlikely to survive a legal challenge. The new law already contains a flexibility provision,
authorizing district grading policies to allow students a chance
to make up or redo a class assignment or test if they received a
failing grade. But the district's flexibility regarding
students' grades extends no further than that under SB
2033. |
