Melinda Gates says states should dump seniority layoff policy

In an interview with Yahoo's Anna Robertson, education reformer Melinda Gates reiterated her criticism of last hired, first fired union policies. Under these contract agreements, school administrators who want to reduce staff are obligated to first lay off teachers who have been on staff the shortest amount of time.

Gates said school districts that are struggling with budget shortfalls should lay off poorly performing teachers, regardless of how long they've been in the profession. You can watch the interview, conducted in New York, where Gates is speaking at Tina Brown's Women in the World Summit, below:

"What we're trying to say is don't take the things that look easy--furloughing teachers, that's not a great way to change your education system," Gates said. "Look at the way, if you need to lay off teachers, look at how you're doing it. It shouldn't just be the last teachers into the system should be the first ones out. We see great teachers going into the system who maybe have only been there two, three years, they may be the best teachers in the school district and yet because of seniority rules, they're laid off first. And we're saying, look at who the most effective teachers are and keep those in the system, those are the ones you want to fight for and keep in the system."

Teachers' unions and their supporters would counter that administrators have no proven way to objectively evaluate teacher performance, so years served is a more fair way to decide layoffs. The Gateses favor evaluating teachers based on how much their students improve on standardized tests--but independent studies have found test scores can fluctuate for reasons beyond teachers' control, a factor that critics say makes such evaluations unreliable.

The Gates Foundation is studying how best to gauge teacher performance right now, and will be out with the results of that study within the year. The study's preliminary results endorse using test scores as an evaluation measure.