Virginia House Approves Abolition of Teacher Tenure
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| Bound and Gagged (Image from Flickr by Kouk) |
The Virginia House of Delegates voted to end tenure-related job protections for public school teachers on Monday, the Washington Post reported, a measure that was pushed by Gov. Robert F. McDonnell in order to “improve” public education. The Senate, however, rejected the measure on Tuesday. The Senate could still vote on the House’s version of the bill, but approval would be unlikely without garnering more votes.
Virginia teachers currently must work for three years without any job security or due process
The Sky is Not Falling After All: US Schools Rank High Internationally
It is commonly believed that public education in the U.S. is in miserable shape, with terrible teachers causing high dropout rates and worse educational outcomes than our trading partners. There are test scores (PISA) that confirm this, with the U.S. ranking lower than countries like South Korea, Finland, Japan and Hong Kong. And Ed Deformers have glommed onto such data as proof that the system needs a dramatic makeover and use the data to justify everything from privatization schemes to the dismantling of teachers’ unions.
A new analysis of international data by Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution suggests that the U.S. may not be as far behind their counterparts as previously thought, according to U.S.A. Today.
The rankings tend to be given in raw numbers such that countries with statistically