February 17, 2020 An Ethics Complaint Has Been Filed Against Me. What Do I Do?!? You just received notice that an ethics complaint has been filed against you and will be investigated by the Arkansas Department of Education’s Professional…
July 28, 2016 What Happens if I Break My Teacher’s Contract? It’s hard to believe, but another school year starts in Arkansas in less than three weeks. Even at this late date, some school districts are…
May 5, 2016 RIF Policies and the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act I’ve summarized the Arkansas Teacher Fair Dismissal Act (TFDA) in a previous post, but since that time, I’ve received several phone calls, emails, and comments…
June 19, 2015 The Future of Student Assessments in Arkansas It’s no secret that the Common Core State Standards are controversial, both here and throughout the country. I still don’t fully understand why, and…
August 27, 2014 Teacher Evaluations and Student Growth The new school year marks the first year of full implementation of the state’s new Teacher Excellence and Support System, a state-wide, mandatory teacher…
June 30, 2014 Special Session Starts Today I’ve written briefly about the problems with teacher health insurance in Arkansas in the past here, here, and here. Last fall, Governor Beebe called…
June 25, 2014 Why Inappropriate Relationships Between Teachers and Students are Still Prohibited. I’ve received a few questions lately from school administrators and educators concerning the current state of the law with regards to student-teacher relationships. Specifically,…
May 20, 2014 An Overview of the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act This time each year, I often get questions from readers and clients regarding the requirements of the Arkansas Teacher Fair Dismissal Act (TFDA). As…
March 31, 2014 California Tenure Law Challenged A hotly contested lawsuit in California could pave the way for teacher tenure law reform across the country. The education advocacy group, Students Matter,…
December 16, 2013 Court Rejects First Amendment Arguments and Upholds Teacher’s Dismissal In 2012, Bryan Craig, a tenured guidance counselor and girls’ basketball coach at Rich Central High School outside of Chicago, self-published a book containing…