A Missouri advocacy group, Teach Great, is calling off a campaign to pass a referendum weakening teacher tenure in the Show-Me state, reports the Macon Telegraph.
The measure got enough signatures to appear on this fall’s ballot, but apparently isn’t polling well. So the organization won’t go forward with a multimillion-dollar campaign and instead will engage in a “listening tour” to build more local support for the ideas in the measure, the Kansas City Star reports.
“It has become clear that now is not the time to further pursue the Teach Great initiative,” Teach Great spokeswoman Kate Casas said in a statement.
The measure would limit teachers’ employment contracts to three years and require personnel decisions to be based on quantifiable measures of student progress. Earlier this month, the ballot initiative passed a major hurdle when a state judge dismissed a legal challenge against it on constitutional grounds brought by two teachers.
Missouri is among the dozens of states that have already taken action to revamp teachers’ evaluations, as we noted at Teacher Beat recently.