HB 162-TEACHER TENURE  9:23:33 AM CHAIR STEVENS announced the consideration of HB 162. LES MORSE, Deputy Commissioner, Department of Education and Early Development (DEED), Juneau, Alaska, answered questions related to HB 162. SENATOR GARDNER asked if the department has a position on the bill. MR. MORSE said the department does not have a stance on the bill because tenure does not affect the department. It does affect teachers and districts. SENATOR HUGGINS asked if tenure is portable after a teacher moves to a new district. MR. MORSE said there is a two-year waiting time after moving to a new district. SENATOR HUGGINS asked about the psychology of that provision. MR. MORSE explained that the statute provides that the teacher must meet the performance standards of the new school district. Local boards can check to see that these are met. 9:28:04 AM CHAIR STEVENS asked if the bill affects that 2-year tenure provision. MR. MORSE said the provision is currently in statute. CHAIR STEVENS noted Representative Wilson suggested that tenure should be up to the district. 9:28:57 AM DIANE HIRSHBERG, Director, Center for Alaska Education Policy Research, Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), University of Alaska-Anchorage, Anchorage, Alaska, provided information related to HB 162. She referred to a survey about whether tenure would affect teachers' perception about their jobs. She described the parameters of the survey, which had close to 1,600 responses. For rural first-year teachers, 155 out of 558, or 19 percent, said tenure rules would impact their decision to stay or go. Another 39 percent said "maybe." She assumed many of those teachers don't understand the impact of tenure rules. She pointed out that teacher turnover rates are very high in rural districts. She related that when surveying teachers in the five urban districts, of 890 teachers, 16 percent said tenure rules would affect their views, and 22 percent said they were not familiar with the proposal. Of 109 first year teachers, 20 percent said it would affect their views, 30 percent said they did not know enough, and 18 percent said "maybe." She concluded that the 20 percent was significant in there is currently not a turnover problem in urban districts. She opined that measuring the quality of teachers needs to be done in partnership with the university and with districts without making teachers more anxious. She said many teachers left the profession when the teacher evaluation video taping system was initiated. She emphasized that changes do affect how teachers view whether or not they will stay on the job. She questioned if teacher support should be part of the bill, such as strengthening professional development. 9:34:52 AM CHAIR STEVENS thanked Dr. Hirshberg. He noted public testimony would be continued at a later date. CHAIR STEVENS held HB 162 in committee.