SB 263

Senator Sokola introduced legislation last week to support one of the commitments that Delaware made in the Race to the Top application, to ensure that only effective educators receive tenure-like protections.  Technically Delaware does not have a tenure law, but educators receive a Continuing License after three years and get basically the same benefits as tenure – job security, due process, etc. — just under a different name. Currently they receive these benefits after three years with a satisfactory evaluation, which nearly everyone receives regardless of whether the students in their classrooms are making academic growth. SB 263 changes this by requiring that educators must earn that Continuing License, and all of the due process benefits that go with it, by getting an effective rating in two of their first three years in the classroom, and that effective rating requires that student achievement is going up.

Colorado recently moved in this direction with legislation of their own, hoping to better position themselves to win in Round 2 of Race to the Top. 

This legislation, combined with the regulation changes to DPAS II in January, puts students and their academic success at the forefront of educator quality discussions in Delaware.