Veteran teachers may soon find their jobs more at risk, should a new Minnesota teacher evaluation bill be made into law.

A bill that passed the Minnesota House March 5 would include several changes with the goal of favoring effective teachers over teachers with seniority when considering layoffs.

However, it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of a teacher with a single method.

Measuring the performance of teachers based on their students’ grades only encourages grade inflation.

Measuring teacher performance by standardized test scores is unfair because classes vary within schools and schools vary throughout the state.

In addition, standardized test scores are largely a matter of socioeconomic status, setting up teachers working with disadvantaged students to be judged as ineffective.

The current “last in, first out” rule is in place to establish fairness and prevent schools from firing senior teachers to save more money during layoffs.

Judging teachers by individual performance also disrupts the collaborative environment of a school and pits teachers against each other.

A competitive environment such as this encourages teachers to look out for themselves as opposed to for their students.

Other provisions in the bill would simplify the process of licensing out-of-state teachers and  allow non-licensed “community experts” to fill positions when licensed teachers are unavailable.

One third of teachers leave the profession in their first five years, according to Gov. Mark Dayton, therefore the main goal in reforming our public school system should be recruiting and retaining strong teachers as opposed to pushing out seasoned ones and trying to save money.

We need to reward our most dedicated teachers by opposing this misguided bill.