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CHARLOTTE -- Almost 400 Charlotte Mecklenburg teachers could be out of a job next year. Tuesday night, the school board approved guidelines that determine who will get a pink slip.

"The morale is at an all time low," Mecklenburg County Association of Educators representative Mary McCray said.

Performance is the primary way to determine who stays and who goes. However, school leaders are concerned that state evaluations don't go far enough in measuring id students are learning anything in the classroom.

"We have to stand up and say we got to have data. We got to have data to make good judgments and good decisions. Without that it's just an opinion," CMS Superintendent Dr. Peter Gorman said.

That's why by 2014, the district will implement a $2 million plan that includes creating standardized tests for students in every subject. The idea is that test scores along with other factors will determine who the good teachers are. The plan is not primarily for layoffs but to link performance to teacher's pay.

More tests are not good news for more than 100 families who have signed Mecklenburg ACTS, an educational advocacy group, online petition.

"We want them to succeed, and we want there to be high expectations but we don't believe putting more pressure on standardized tests is the way to accomplish that," organization founder Pamela Grundy said.

Grundy fears more tests will add tension and negatively effect student learning.

"There's an inevitable pressure to teach to the test and I don't think teaching to a standardized test is excellent education," she said.

More pressure Grundy says in an already tense environment.