Colorado Senate Bill 140 is flying through the Senate and the House. Chances look good it will become law. What does it say?

This proposed law is designed to track how effective teachers in our public schools actually are. Or, opponents might say, it will track how well teachers prep students for the CSAP test. Either way, apparently legislators agree the people who teach in public schools must be accountable in a standardized, quantifiable way. Teachers need report cards, too. Their students' test scores on the CSAP offer data for just that purpose.

Sounds great. I couldn't agree more. No job I can name excludes an employee's personal accountability for performance. Why should the job of educating our children be different?

Here's the looming flaw.

Kindergarten students, first graders and second graders do not take the CSAP. If a deadbeat teacher roosts in those grades the poor third grade teachers have to perform virtual miracles to prep some students. If this bill becomes law, one of the unintended consequences might be schools and school districts will be forced to shift their incompetent teachers into the lowest grades, allowing them to fly under the radar.

How many know or recall at least one teacher in a child's school known to be awful? How many know a teacher, or, more unfortunately, have a child who has had a teacher, who yells? Demeans students? Cannot control the class? Doesn't grade papers? Fails to communicate with parents? Cannot engage students? Appears to have no idea what is going on? How many know a teacher who has been the subject of complaint after complaint only to be told, "They cannot get rid of that teacher now. He/she has tenure."

Imagine the worst teachers being shifted to the first three grades because firing is almost not an option for school districts.

Those first three years of school are arguably most critical. Foundations are built during those first years for lifelong learning. More important, those first three years often set the stage permanently for a child's feelings about and perceptions of education and school socialization, including enthusiasm, self esteem, trust and respect. If, during those tender first years, a child suffers boredom, bedlam and dread, as I have seen within inept teachers' classrooms, a very real risk to students presents itself. We cannot count on all third grade teachers to right the wrongs of kindergarten, first or second grade teachers.

I applaud with enthusiasm Colorado Senate Bill 140. We are on the right track. I am rooting for it to become law. But, my hope is the tracking of teacher performance in the first three grades will be addressed, too. How disturbing to think the worst teachers will end up there as an option to being fired because firing a tenured, incompetent teacher has simply become too tough.

We cannot afford to place an unfair share of CSAP prep on third grade teachers, or to cheat our children out of great first years in our public schools because the worst teachers might soon be hiding there.