Another subject that was supposed to be removed from the purview of collective bargaining in 2011 was classroom observations of teachers. The state’s labor law eliminated the parties’ ability to bargain over:
Decisions about the format, timing, or number of classroom observations … decisions concerning the classroom observation of an individual employee, or the impact of those decisions on an individual employee or the bargaining unit.[23]
Prior to these reforms, it was common for collective bargaining agreements to tightly regulate the frequency and mechanics of teacher observations. Many districts kept these procedures in place for employees not regulated by Michigan’s Teacher Tenure Act, who are frequently carved out of the bargaining unit to operate under pre-2011 contract language.
Novi Public Schools’ current collective bargaining agreement provides an illustrative example, with observations for nontenure employees still heavily regulated. This includes restricting observations to “a reasonable amount of time” (recommended between 20 and 30 minutes), requiring a post-observation conference with the administration within five days of the observation, providing teachers the chance to formally object to an observer’s written findings and allowing employees to ask for a different evaluator.[24]
In our review, 5% of contracts contained terms that discussed classroom observations. Just more than 10% contained language that was questionably related to the topic or that could be interpreted as restricting a district’s discretion over observations. About 85% of contracts appeared compliant with the law by either not discussing this prohibited subject, carving out classroom teachers or expressly acknowledging that the term was a subject to be left to the district’s discretion. Overall, 24% of contracts contained language that either automatically revived terms that had been removed due to the 2011 reforms or could easily be adapted to do so.
Instead of simply reviving these formerly illegal provisions, districts should negotiate to allow school administrators to set the terms of observations at their discretion. Maintaining control over how administrators observe teachers in action will help districts identify high-performing teachers and ways to help all teachers improve. Overly prescriptive observations rules often make the process more performative than it is useful.