The Conversation Around Teacher Tenure
For the past few years, teacher tenure has come under increasing attack. Advocates claim tenure provides a valuable counterweight to arbitrary firings of competent professionals. Detractors argue that tenure stalls effective personel decisions and keeps ineffective teachers in classrooms.
Many people participating in the debate are surprisingly unaware of exactly what tenure is, why it was implemented, and what value it has (or was intended to have).
Tenure, in most districts, is normally granted to teachers after three years of adequate service, following a series of administrative evaluations. Within the first three years of their career, teachers are subject to much swifter termination. Once tenure has been granted, the school district is required to submit evidence that the teacher should no longer be in the classroom. There is usually a hearing and an arbitrator to help decide whether the teacher is, in fact, unfit to teach children. In other words, tenure grants teachers due process rights - the right
Many people participating in the debate are surprisingly unaware of exactly what tenure is, why it was implemented, and what value it has (or was intended to have).
Tenure, in most districts, is normally granted to teachers after three years of adequate service, following a series of administrative evaluations. Within the first three years of their career, teachers are subject to much swifter termination. Once tenure has been granted, the school district is required to submit evidence that the teacher should no longer be in the classroom. There is usually a hearing and an arbitrator to help decide whether the teacher is, in fact, unfit to teach children. In other words, tenure grants teachers due process rights - the right
