Teacher tenure is life-long job protection for teachers who have been employed as a teacher for one or more years depending on the state. The purpose of teacher tenure is to protect teachers from being fired for political or personal reasons. It also prevents school districts from eliminating experienced teachers in favor of less expensive teachers. The fundamental problem with teacher tenure is that it is given to a teacher after only one year on the job and requires little to no additional effort. The increased job security breeds complacency in many teachers who are teaching only to collect a paycheck. There is a need for teacher tenure but the program must be drastically reformed.
What is Tenure?
Tenure is a policy that basically gives teachers a lifetime contract. It prevents teachers from being fired for something small all the way up to severe misconduct or incompetence. . Tenure began in the early 20th century. It was meant to protect teachers from wrongful termination. In that time race, personal bias, and politics could get even very effective teachers fired. Women were often targeted when they got married or became pregnant. With tenure, even if a school district tries to fire an incompetent teacher or one who is guilty of misconduct it can become very difficult and expensive It also protected teachers whose research or teaching practices might be considered “out-of-the-box.”
The Positive Side of Teacher Tenure
Tenure is in place to protect teachers. Many teachers are very dedicated to what they do and go above and beyond what is required regardless of their pay scale; tenure is in place to protect teachers like this. Teachers that have proven that they are in the classroom to make a difference in the life of a...
... middle of paper ...
...1D719E1C22E61225AFDEB326CE13C0_1328848465905&start=1&publicationId=&urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B198818676
Garrett, Rose (2010). What is Teacher Tenure? Retrieved from http://www.education.com/magazine/article/what-is-teacher-tenure/
Sawchuk, Stephen (2010). States Strive to Overhaul Teacher Tenure. Retrieved from www.edweek.org
Otterman, Sharon (2011). Once Nearly 100%, Teacher Tenure Rate Drops to 58% as Rules Tighten, New York Times, 28 July, 2011. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.southuniversity.libproxy.edmc.edu/docview/879455669/fulltext?accountid=13931
Weisberg, D., Sexton, S., Mulhern, J., Keeling, D., (2007). The Widget Effect. Retrieved from http://widgeteffect.org/downloads/TheWidgetEffect.pdf
Wolpert-Gawron, Heather (2009). The Truth about Teacher Tenure. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/teacher-tenure-debate
McAdoo, M. (2013, January 31). Teacher attrition up after recession-driven lull. United Federation of Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.uft.org/insight/teacher-attrition-after-recession-driven-lull
He also argues that without tenure it would to be easier to fire the 10 percent of teachers that are poor performers. I personally agree with Matthew Miller’s proposal.
From the reading “Ethical and Legal Issues in U.S. Education”, there were three points that that surprised me. One point was that it is so surprising to me that there are so many steps that a teacher, on tenure, must go through before they get fired. It makes it so difficult to be fired and such a long process that they will never be fired unless they commit a major crime and I believe that this should change. As a teacher, we need to be at the top of our game at all times, and teachers with tenure seem like they do not always have to in order to keep their job. It is also surprising to me that student teachers do not receive the same rights as normal teachers in some states. Student teachers are practicing to become a teacher one day, and
Professors with tenure, contend Hacker and Dreifus, are not motivated to perform well and therefore will engage the students in the way Hacker and Dreifus believe they should. To correct this, Hacker and Dreifus advocate for tenures to be replaced with multiyear contracts to ensure professors work hard for their own benefit and for the benefit of the students’. Keep the teachers in the classrooms inspiring young minds rather than taking unnecessary paid vacations, assert Hacker and Dreifus, who believe sabbaticals should be limited. Hacker and Dreifus also agree that adjunct teachers, professors who teach at a college but do not receive the same benefits as their peers who are, in fact, faculty members, should receive similar benefits. Capitalizing on adjunct teachers should be discouraged, demand the authors. Presidents of colleges, on the other hand, should receive less, more reasonable compensation for their
Tenure is a type of job security that professors earn once they reach an exact level of expertise. Once a college professor has earned tenure, they need to be able to follow the teaching contract as long as they abide by the rules set forth in their contracts. It's believed that students are able to gain help from the expertise and skill of an untenured teacher. A number of the protections are extended to an irremovable teacher so that they can't be discriminated against their personal views, temperament conflicts, or any space that's not instructional. The statutes for academic tenure in higher education and dismissal vary from state to state, however altogether all are smart in standing and should be offered employment. This therefore will make sure professors won’t be fired for unnecessary issues. Tenure won't shield professors, but will help with those whom are ineffective or incapable.
Teachers began negotiating their safeguards to rise to the strike. Salaries have been regarded as the main reason for the strike. But there are still some other concerns about the cause of the strike. Such as large classes, lack of administration of the students’ behaviors, union rights, benefits and job security, and the evaluation of performance. All the factors were reasonable to result in a strike.
As mentioned the authors did argue some strong logical points. One of their strongest points just might be when they mentioned how tenure should be replaced with multiyear contracts. “Professors who possess it have no reason to improve their teaching, take on introductory courses, or, in fact, accept any tasks, not to their liking.” (Hacker and Dreifus 181). Some might argue better yet some will argue that “if he/she has been teaching a long time then they deserve to be granted tenure”, but wouldn’t it be better for our future and our children’s future if those who continues to teach well
Kowal, Julie, Joe Ableidinger, and Bryan C. Hassel. "Tenure Reform Options in K–12." By Emily Hassel. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Teacher Tenure Reform. Public Impact. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. .
During the late 18th century, tenure was passed in order to protect teachers against discrimination, such as race, gender, political stands, age, ethnical backgrounds, and religion. Today, society is more accepting of people’s differences than ever before. Since the world is so equal today, why do we still have tenure? The same discrimination can happen with any other job, too. What makes teachers so special?
It was protect them from losing their jobs, which at first is grand for the low paid teachers, but instead of doing good it causes education become impossible to teach. According to New York Times, a well known newspaper, states that “Firing a bad teacher could take anywhere from two to almost 10 years and cost $50,000 to $450,000 or more” (New York Times). This tener law, makes it a time consuming and money spending process that the schools are not worth taking. In the movie, “Waiting For Superman” , by Davis Guggenheim- a well known director who made many other successful non-fiction films-The film claims “That if only the bottom 1/5 of bad teachers in the US were fired and replaced by only average teachers, our national test scores would reach those of Finland, more than a dozen places higher on international exam scores” (Guggenheim). So we just edited the tenure law then we can rid of the ineffective teachers and replace them, so that the students will receive the tutelage need. In recent news on tenure-article by New York Times- a Los Angeles County Judge Rolf M. Treu began to fix tenure law stating, “the practices are unconstitutional, for teachers can receive lifetime tenor. The process of getting rid of teachers is long process and money spending. So it is hard to rid of tenor teachers” ( Treu). Judge says, “Ruling is stayed pending an appeal by unions and
Besharov, Douglas. "Teachers Performance: A Review ." Journal of Policy Analyis and Management (2006): 1-41.
Effective teachers are inadequately rewarded in the United States. School districts, such as those in California, are just starting to implement merit pay. According to a study conducted by the National Center of Performance Incentives (NCPI), only about 500 school districts out of the 14,000 districts in the US implement merit pay for teachers. These numbers do not include private schools. Unfortunately, teachers, parents, and students hurt because many schools, private and public, base teacher pay on seniority and degrees rather than achievement and performance. Under such a system, novice teachers, are laid off during budget shortages. Moreover, with the current “single salary schedule” system, teachers are inadequately paid, especially when compared to other professions. Because the single salary schedule creates many issues, a solution needs to be proposed. Merit pay, a system based on performance, solves such issues. With this system, teacher performance outweighs teacher seniority. As a result, quality teachers will be rewarded adequately in terms of money and recognition. Outstanding teachers will no longer face unreasonable layoffs and will finally be paid more than their ineffective peers.
Fischer, L., Schimmel, D., & Stellman, L. (2007). Teachers and the law (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
When choosing one's profession, there are always two important questions to ask yourself. Is it what you love doing, and is the pay going to be enough to support you? For me, the second question has never had much of an impact on my decision, along with most others who are educators or wish to become one. Teaching is not a job that one chooses to be rewarded for by the pay. It is a job that is chosen for the rewarding feeling of knowing that it is the most effective, and most enjoyable way one can change the world; therefore, if teachers are noble enough to sacrifice such a huge aspect just to better our future generations, then don’t you think they should be paid what they deserve?
In many states, teachers are underpaid. Though money is not the motive for most teachers, without enticing salaries, many are lured away from the teaching profession and graduates looking for a first year teaching position are not given much to look forward to. So, since teachers are not paid adequately, raising the pay scale would ensure that our children are left in the hands of quality educators. One way teachers can be sufficiently compensated is by merit pay. The formula is simple; as test scores and evaluations rise, so would the teachers’ salaries. Although controversial, it is just one of many