At the LFT Convention in November 2020, JFT delegates took a stand to demand more equity and fairness in teacher evaluations this year.
In the Spring of 2020, students and teachers were pulled out of school with very little to no time to plan for alternative learning options. Since then, they have juggled non-traditional education and COVID-19 safety protocols amidst the trauma of a global pandemic. Teachers and their students have had to adapt to a completely new educational model that continues to change.
We have already asked teachers and school employees to bear an impossible burden this year. JFT’s resolution seeks to protect teachers from being punished on top of it.
In the last legislative session, JFT and LFT were successful in passing common sense changes to VAM to ensure that teachers would not be unfairly penalized by circumstances outside of their control.
In November 2020, Jefferson Federation of Teachers brought a resolution to the LFT Convention calling for a moratorium on teacher and student evaluation for the 2020-2021 school year. It also insists that SLTs be agreed upon by the evaluator and the educator and calls on BESE to apply for a waiver to ensure that suspension of these testing metrics wouldn’t negatively impact Louisiana’s eligibility for federal programs.
That resolution has directly led to SB 35. LFT worked with Senator Troy Carter to propose legislation that would hold teachers and students harmless for student growth measures for the 2020-21 school year.