Because politics have failed them, a group of Newark Public School parents asked New Jersey courts to enforce their children’s fundamental right to a thorough and efficient public education. In a lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of the state’s “last-in, first-out” (LIFO) teacher layoff law, these parents argue that the quality-blind teacher layoff and re-employment mandate—which requires school districts to lay off teachers based on seniority alone when conducting a reduction-in-force—unjustly leaves ineffective teachers in classrooms. LIFO not only defies common sense, but it also contradicts empirical studies, which have shown that teacher seniority is not a stand-in for classroom effectiveness.
Effective teaching, of course, is the gateway to student learning. Research studies have consistently established that teacher quality is the most important in-school factor affecting student learning. Students with high-quality, effective teachers enjoy long-term benefits. They are more likely to graduate from high school, more likely to attend college, more likely to have good jobs and higher lifetime earnings. They are also less likely to become teenage parents.
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