Teacher Tenure

Let's Talk About Tenure

How do you get the best teachers? Is it by offering them a job for life? Some people think this is necessary in order to "attract the best and the brightest". As a parent I contend that if the possibility that their job could have an end date due to poor performance stops the "best and brightest" from entering into the teaching profession, then they didn't belong there in the first place. Good luck finding those terms in any other job! Pay our teachers more, reward them for doing well, assist them when they are faltering, dismiss them when they arent performing their job well.

The momentum is high right now for doing something about tenure, exactly what is the question. Governors in Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Nevada and New Jersey have called for the elimination of tenure all together. While others While others, like Governor Haslam of TN, have increased the time it takes to get tenure from 3 to 5 years.  

Pro Tenure Rationale and a Parents Reply

• Tenure protects teachers from being fired for personal, political, or other non-work related reasons. Before tenure, teachers could be dismissed when a new political party took power or a principal wanted to make room to hire his friends. Women were dismissed for getting married, becoming pregnant, wearing pants, or being out too late in the evenings.

Institute strict human resources policies with an evaluation process that tracks performance. If a teacher with a good evaluation is fired, then there is a problem.

• Tenure prohibits school districts from firing experienced teachers to hire less experienced and less expensive teachers. The threat of economic firing has increased in recent years with so many school districts facing budget cuts. [8] Marcia Rothman, a teacher for 14 years, said at a Dec. 16, 2010 protest in New York, "They don’t want old experienced teachers who are too expensive. It’s a concerted effort to harass older teachers, so they can hire two young teachers."

Institute strict human resources policies with an evaluation process that tracks performance. If a teacher with a good evaluation is fired, then there is a problem.

• Tenure protects teachers from being fired for teaching unpopular, controversial, or otherwise challenged cirricula such as evolutionary biology and controversial literature. According to Edison State College teacher David McGrath, tenure "ensures academic freedom to teach important concepts such as evolution, and classic texts such as 'Huckleberry Finn,' 'To Kill a Mockingbird' or 'Catcher in the Rye,' all of which have been banned by some school districts, as recently as this year [2010], in America.".

Stick to the curricula of that school district.

• The promise of a secure and stable job attracts many teachers to the teaching profession, and eliminating teacher tenure would hamper teacher recruitment.Starting salaries for teachers are frequently lower than other occupations requiring similar levels of education and training.

Every profession would like a “secure, stable” job. The mission is to provide our students with good teachers, not provide teachers with lifetime jobs.Again, institute strict human resources policies with an evaluation process that tracks performance. If a teacher with a good evaluation is fired, then there is a problem.

• Instead of weakening or abolishing tenure, administrators should create a more thorough and meaningful teacher evaluation process. The existence of inadequate teachers should be blamed on the poor judgment of administrators, not teacher tenure. Administrators are responsible for evaluating teachers before granting tenure and helping to develop struggling teachers. According to a 2008 report by the National Council on Teacher Quality, not a single state has even "partly” developed a "meaningful” tenure-granting process.

“Inadequate teachers” should not be employed . There should be a probation process and then reevaluation. If that doesn’t work, they should go.

• Eliminating tenure will not reduce class sizes or make schools cleaner and safer. Tenure has become a scapegoat for problems facing education. If tenure is abolished, problems of underfunding, overcrowding, and lack of control over students’ home lives will persist.

Tenure is not a scape goat, it is one of the many issues that need to be dealt with in Public Education. So let’s deal with it.

• Tenure allows teachers to advocate on behalf of students and disagree openly with school and district administrators. Award-winning history teacher Kerry Sylvia said that without tenure, she would be afraid of being fired because of her public opposition to initiatives by administrators..

Like any other profession or job sometimes speaking out on certain issues makes things uncomfortable for you, but this is America and you have the right to. You shouldn’t be fired because of it either. Again, institute strict human resources policies with an evaluation process that tracks performance. If a teacher with a good evaluation is fired, then there is a problem.

• Tenure protects teachers from being prematurely fired after a student makes a false accusation or a parent threatens expensive legal action against the district. After an accusation, districts might find it expedient to quickly remove a teacher instead of investigating the matter and incurring potentially expensive legal costs. The thorough removal process mandated by tenure rules ensures that teachers are not removed without a fair hearing.

This is an important issue. It can be addressed by something other than tenure. Protection by district policy and/or the teachers union would be more appropriate.

• Tenure encourages the careful selection of qualified and effective teachers. Since it is difficult to remove tenured teachers, tenure encourages school administrators to take more care when making hiring decisions. Additionally, tenure prompts administrators to dismiss underperforming teachers before they achieve tenure and cannot be removed as easily.

Careful selection of teachers will continue without tenure. Remember the children?

• The formal dismissal process guaranteed by tenure protects teachers from punitive evaluation systems and premature dismissal. It allows under-performing teachers a chance to improve their skills rather than be hastily fired.

Institute a formal dismissal process and get rid of tenure.

• Many teachers work better when they do not have fears of being fired. [19] Without the anxiety and fear of losing employment, teachers can focus their efforts on providing the best education for students.

Who doesn’t work better without the fear and anxiety of being fired? No other profession gets to a “get out of getting fired” card, why should our teachers? Our kids deserve better.

Read more on teacher tenure
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/us/01tenure.html