“I’m saying that seniority is not an appropriate way to manage the assignment of teachers based on what we know in the 21st century,” he said. “It’s no longer about teacher preferences. It’s about whether the teacher is the best match for that particular student.”

With that strongly worded statement, Peter McWalters, the retiring RI Education Commissioner, let the Providence School district know that teacher vacancies must be filled based on qualifications rather than seniority, and that “bumping” of less senior teachers in favor of more senior ones will cease. This is a major victory for the common sense idea that a school principal and its community should have the right (and the responsibility) to determine how to build their educational team.

There will be a lot of noise about this from the teacher’s union, which has yet to offer up a clear argument as to why seniority should trump all – already the comments list on this Providence Journal article is the longest I’ve ever seen. What the union hasn’t accepted is that, until they remove their contract provisions that work counter to student achievement at the individual school level, they won’t be able to credibly work with parents to hold schools and their administrations accountable for the resources that will produce better results.