[JURIST] A Missouri appeals court on Thursday rejected a challenge to a ballot proposal requiring teachers to be evaluated based on student performance [opinion, PDF]. A panel of judges for the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District [official website] turned down claims that the measure improperly amends the state constitution. The measure would require [AP report] that schools evaluate personnel and base employment decisions on student performance data. The measure would also bar unions from collectively bargaining over the details of the new evaluation systems, and would end tenure protections for new hires by limiting contracts to three years. Missouri citizens will vote in November on the initiative.

Legislation surrounding education and teachers are controversial throughout the US and abroad. In June, a judge for the Los Angeles County Superior Court ruled that the state’s system for tenure and seniority for public school teachers is unconstitutional [JURIST report]. Last September the Mexican Senate [official website, in Spanish] approved a bill [JURIST report] requiring periodic evaluations of teachers. A Bahrain appeals court upheld convictions [JURIST report] of two teachers in October 2012 for organizing a teachers’ strike. In August 2011 a Missouri state judge issued a preliminary injunction [JURIST report], preventing the state from implementing a law that would ban teachers from communicating with students through social media. A New York State Supreme Court judge in January 2011 allowed [JURIST report] the New York City Department of Education to release performance data on 12,000 teachers.