In a major policy shift, the nation’s largest teachers’ union will ask its local bargaining units to waive contract language that might hamper school districts from staffing troubled schools with highly qualified teachers, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The National Education Association has told Congress the 3.2 million-member union wants its local affiliates to eliminate restrictive contract language by entering into “memorandums of understanding” with their districts. NEA President Dennis Van Roekel testified that “we cannot cover up the fact that too often schools with the greatest needs are filled with the most inexperienced and least skilled teachers.”

Union officials said the change could involve a wide variety of contract language and, in some cases, the waivers might only be temporary. School administrators long have complained that collective-bargaining pacts often require them to fill job openings based on seniority, leading experienced teachers to transfer out of low-performing, high-poverty schools as soon as they can find an opening elsewhere in a district. As a result, students in such schools are more likely to be taught by teachers who have little experience or expertise in their field.

Filed under: K-12 Education News