The NEA and the IEA. On the issue of testing and teacher evaluation, timing is everything.

Timing brothers and sisters. Timing is everything.

48 hours after the NEA RA passed its Proposal on Accountability and Teacher Evaluation the news breaks that the Atlanta school system is facing the worst test cheating scandal yet. It’s just the latest cheating scandal and it won’t be the last.

The NEA leadership will claim that the proposal does not support high stakes testing. But who is kidding who? The purpose of the proposal was to show that the NEA has finally joined the accountability movement. The NEA now supports the concept of linking teacher employment to student performance on measures that the public and politicians can understand. It is only a matter of time until that morphs into high stakes tests.

The IEA got the jump on things by drafting the legislation that the Illinois General Assembly passed that made linking individual student assessed performance to teacher evaluation and job security. Senate Bill 7, the bill that Stand for Children, the Civic Committee and the IEA jointly endorsed, is now the law. It replaces seniority with student assessment results as a basis for Reductions in Force.

The Illinois cheating scandal is just waiting to happen.