Good Reasons to Save Teacher Tenure

[tonysam]

This link is from the Georgia Association of Educators, so the law mentioned in the article is Georgia law; however, this lawyer makes some great points.

I want to excerpt the end of this piece because EVERYBODY IN THE COUNTRY needs to know about the truth regarding termination hearings:


It is relatively easy to fire a teacher, even for mediocrity, contrary to misrepresentations by some legislators and journalists of this fact. The Fair Dismissal Act provides minimum due process protections: the teacher can be fired for "any good and sufficient cause;" the hearing is held before the teacher's employer (the local school board decides the outcome); the decision is always upheld on appeal if there is "any evidence" in the record to support it; and decisions are therefore rarely reversed. In my experience, fewer than 100 teacher dismissal hearings are held per year statewide. Many more teachers with tenure elect to resign without invoking their right to a hearing because of the evidence against them. Of the 40 or so teacher dismissals that are appealed each year, over 90% are upheld. If an administrator is doing his or her job, and has a "good reason," then it is relatively easy under these rules to fire any teacher. This is a small price to pay for a fair hearing, and for protections that hold the line against arbitrary, political, and unfair firings.

Does the Fair Dismissal Act make it impossible to fire an incompetent or even a mediocre teacher? Of course not. All an administrator has to do is evaluate and document teacher performance. This isn't brain surgery. School systems have three full years—540 classroom instructional days--in which to observe and judge a teacher before granting hearing rights. If a school administrator can't figure out in 3 years whether a teacher is going to make a contribution to student progress and achievement, then maybe it's the administrator who should be held accountable. Thereafter, if an administrator doesn't have the competence or integrity to build a case against a teacher who ought to be fired, then perhaps the administrator should be fired.

Fair dismissal is not about protecting bad teachers. The solution to the problem of the "bad" teacher is not the abolition of a fair hearing for all teachers. The hearing process protects good teachers from arbitrary, retaliatory, political, and discriminatory actions. We should all support that goal.
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The system is rigged in favor of principals, no matter how shitty or unjust they are. Decisions are ALWAYS upheld because districts can falsify a case against a teacher, including allowing perjured testimony and forged documents. Teachers really need to skip the hearings and sue a district's ass.

link

[femmocrat]

1. So true.

The latest trend of getting rid of non-tenured teachers to save money is disturbing, too. Once a young teacher is eligible for tenure, he or she will be let go. They then hire some fresh-faced, grateful newbie to replace the experienced teacher, and keep repeating the process. This way, no one ever climbs up the salary ladder.

On a personal note: I was furloughed (several years ago) based entirely on lies. They wanted to cut staff and had no just cause against me, so they cooked up some phoney "enrollment" numbers to eliminate my position. I was tenured, with seven years (of perfect ratings) in the district!

[tonysam]

2. It's all because districts want to save money on pensions as well as salary

Get rid of the veteran teachers so they get less in retirement benefits, can teachers like myself who just get retirement vesting and cook up a phony excuse, refuse to continue a newer teacher's contract in order to cheat the teacher out of retirement vesting.

It should be much harder to fire teachers than it is now. And much, much easier to fire principals and other administrators.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. Too late to R, so here's a belated K. Best single point:

>>>.If a school administrator can't figure out in 3 years whether a teacher is going to make a contribution to student progress and achievement, then maybe it's the administrator who should be held accountable.>>>

Mmmm... talk about "belaboring ( what should be ) the obvious."

[tonysam]

4. Of course it is the administrator who never is held accountable,

and that's why public schools are so dysfunctional. There is a giant power imbalance between teachers and principals/administrators, and the unions are totally inadequate to help with this imbalance.