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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 2000)
Measure 95 defines teacher job performance ■While some say Ballot Measure 95 would hurt schools, others argue that it would improve teaching Lindsay Buchele Oregon Daily Emerald Ballot Measure 95, designed to base teachers’ salaries on the per formance of their students, will po tentially threaten job security and create competition between teach ers, Oregon Parent Teacher Associa tion President Kathryn Firestone said. Proponents, however, argue that such accountability will im prove the quality of teaching in Ore gon’s public schools. Supported by Bill Sizemore of Oregon Taxpayers United, Mea sure 95 will require student learn ing, not a teacher’s seniority or ed ucation level, to determine their pay Oregon currently has the “Fair Dismissal Law,” designed to protect teachers from being unfairly fired. Seniority plays no part in a teacher’s employability, said Ted Heid, head of the Human Resource Department for the Eugene School District. Supporters of the measure argue that seniority does exist and is keep ing unqualified teachers employed. They suggest that teacher’s unions are working to keep teachers em ployed through seniority so the unions have more power. “From the moment teacher’s unions have been in existence, they have been focused on keeping teach ers employed because of seniority,” said Becky Miller, the measure’s sponsor and an Oregon Taxpayers United employee. “Since then, stu dent learning has gone down.” The measure does not specify how students’ learning will be measured. In fact, such details have been purposely left out of the meas ure so that each school district can determine its own form of measure ment, Miller said. Bob Bruce, of the Oregon Univer sity System’s Chancellors office, said that the proposed legislation would have no bearing on higher education, as the language of the ballot speaks to public schools. “Professors at the university are on merit-based pay anyway, so it wouldn’t affect them,” hie said. It is assumed that student per formance will be tested through standardized tests given at the be ginning and the end of the school year, Firestone said, though the ac curacy of the tests in determining student learning is debatable. “Standardized testing is not a rea sonable evaluation,” Firestone said. “To most kids, tests mean nothing.” Firestone said he feels that using standardized tests will cause stu dents of all levels to suffer. “I’ve had a number of parents come to me and tell me their ldds just don’t test well,” Firestone said. “Also, for those kids in special educa tion classes, a good day is when they don’t lash out at a fellow classmate. No test can show progress like this.” Miller argues the ballot defines job performance as the degree to which the appropriate knowledge is learned. “Students will be measured on what they are expected to learn,” Miller said. “Children in special ed ucation classes will not be expect ed to meet the same criteria that, say, a child from another school is expected to learn.” Miller also argues schools will end up with the best teachers, thanks to the results of the student evaluations. Firestone disagrees, saying that if teachers are fired because of their student’s performances, they will start to compete with other teachers for honors classes. “Teachers will only want to teach the AP [Advanced Placement] and honors level classes so that their students do well,” Firestone said. Miller said that rather than com peting for jobs, teachers will be more likely to request better mate rials and resources to help students learn better. Both sides said parents should play an active part in the process, whether or not the measure passes. Registration continued from page 1 don’t want to let other people de cide students’ futures.” Kevin Iervolino, a senior sociology major and registered voter, added that students who don’t vote should n’t be surprised if candidates and leg islators don’t pay much attention to student issues in the elections. “People complain that the candi dates don’t address our issues,” he said. “But they don’t have the right to complain if they’re not voting, be cause they aren’t swaying the elec tion.” For the past few weeks, the leg islative team has been reaching out to students by visiting student-pop ulated areas such as the University Commons, greek houses, residence halls, and the west University neighborhood. The ASUO has also talked to representatives from the Guinness Book of World Records, and is planning to set the record for the world’s largest ballot box to draw students to vote. The box, which will be built by the Carpen ter’s Union, will be 21 feet tall with a 7-to 8-foot base. On Friday, the University had about 4,700 registered voters, mak ing it first in the nation in terms of total number of students registered to vote. State Affairs Coordinator Brian Tanner said this year’s cam paign has been one of the most suc cessful ones in recent history. This year, the Oregon election will be held exclusively by mail. Students who are already registered in Oregon can update their address and other information up to elec tion day, but Tanner said students should make their changes by Tues day as well. Tanner said students may not receive ballots in time to vote if they wait too long to change their information. For the next three weeks, the leg islative team will focus its efforts on educating voters, and will give pre sentations about seven ballot meas ures — 7, 8, 9, 88, 91, 93 and 98 — which deal with financial funding and directly impact students. Tan ner said that although many of the election issues don’t seem to apply to students now, they will be impor tant in the long run. “Since we’re usually the youngest, we have to live with die election re Jackson continued from page 1 “!t was just good timing," Tanner said. “It just landed in our laps as of [Sunday] morning." Jackson planned to be in the northwest already, but Tanner said he wasn’t sure what hap pened for Jackson to come to campus on such short notice. He said he’d like to think he’s com ing because of the number of stu dent voters the ASUO has regis tered this fall. suits the longest,” Tanner said. “Right now people over the age of 60 with a high school education are more like ly to vote than a college student. But at some point, our generation will be running the country, and by the time we get there we don’t want to have our hands tied by previous genera tions ... We want candidates to real ize that our needs need to be ad dressed for the future because we are the future.” ClickRadio live and on campus. Tuesday, October 17 10:30am to 3pm Get a free ClickRadio CD with 600 great songs, and learn how you can work with ClickRadio. don’t listen, choose. ClICKRRDIO ’2Q0G- ClickRadio . Inc ■ www.clickradio.com PC on uo computing center _p electronics shop ’eonputer repiirs • op^rtdes • custom systems 346-3548 151 Grayson Hall Annex hardwarehelp@oregon.uoregon.edu http://cc.uoregon.edu/e_shop.html (ftpfeopfe. fiw. y/eV pyfpt'ptcp Don't miss out. Work for your college paper. For more information on how to freelance for the Oregon Daily Emerald call .346-5511. i I t 4.1 Mi f f J I PAT GRANEY COMPANY Wed, October 181 7:00 PM * Gerlinger Theater» UP campus Take a closer look at the choreog raphy of the Pat Graney Company s> m $ * * m m m w # •* with a lecture/demonstration by Graney and Company dancers. G an y 'll sha th* d and Inspiration that shape the themes of women's issues in her work. Company dancers will perform excerpts of the bold, athletic choreography the company is known for, complete with costume changes. Don't miss ah opportunity to get inside the choreographer's mind and glimpse the visually stun ning work of this company before its performances of Tattoo at the Hult Center on October 20 and 21. sored by theUO 4 Dance and Women's Studies Departments and the Hult Center for the Performing Arts1 Community Involvement Program. SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS’* ‘AT GRANEY 4ptistic Director
