Teacher-tenure trap: States' harmful school rules

[CrimsonWhite]

Tenure is the biggest problem with our education system.

WHAT does it take to lose your job as a public- school teacher in America?

That's a question worth asking as state education leaders bat around the idea of appointing a commission to study how school systems award tenure to New York teachers.

One way is to threaten to blow up your school, as a teacher in the Bronx did Friday, reportedly because he was upset about having been disciplined by his principal for assaulting a student.

Another is to be nominated for your state's Teacher of the Year award -- but have less seniority than some other teacher.

Yes, that's what happened in Hampton, NH, earlier this month. Christina Hamilton, an eighth-grade social-studies teacher, was told she was being terminated as part of a restructuring of her middle school even though she is up for New Hampshire's Teacher of the Year award. Hamilton earlier was told her job was safe for next year, but then came the dreaded call on her cellphone to inform her it was gone.

TEACHER-TENURE TRAP - New York Post

 

[ItsFairmont]

Go ahead and eliminate teacher tenure.

Your kid will still be behind because you didn't read to him and take his education seriously.


Blame the teachers all you want. You get to live wtih the kid.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Go ahead and eliminate teacher tenure.

Your kid will still be behind because you didn't read to him and take his education seriously.


Blame the teachers all you want. You get to live wtih the kid.

I am fully in favor of parental responsibility as far as giving the child the correct attitude toward learning.

And in the interests of full disclosure, I home-school my children.

But for most if not all parents, there will come a point where the curriculum will be beyond
the ability of the parent. Teachers are necessary, and the balance between tenure and performance is yet to be determined.

But my question is why is the university off the hook? Every teacher is prepared for the career by an education department. Why isn't accreditation of the university ed department pulled if their teacher-canditates fail at the job?

How difficult would it be to computer-track teachers and the university that trained them?

 

[Annie]

Tenure is the biggest problem with our education system.

WHAT does it take to lose your job as a public- school teacher in America?

That's a question worth asking as state education leaders bat around the idea of appointing a commission to study how school systems award tenure to New York teachers.

One way is to threaten to blow up your school, as a teacher in the Bronx did Friday, reportedly because he was upset about having been disciplined by his principal for assaulting a student.

Another is to be nominated for your state's Teacher of the Year award -- but have less seniority than some other teacher.

Yes, that's what happened in Hampton, NH, earlier this month. Christina Hamilton, an eighth-grade social-studies teacher, was told she was being terminated as part of a restructuring of her middle school even though she is up for New Hampshire's Teacher of the Year award. Hamilton earlier was told her job was safe for next year, but then came the dreaded call on her cellphone to inform her it was gone.

TEACHER-TENURE TRAP - New York Post

Another teacher here asked me what I thought. Well I'm in a parochial school, no such thing as tenure. Indeed, even our contracts are flexible. I may find out in Aug. that they will not pay me what they said they would last week.

So, if I was in public schools or at university level, I'm pretty much with tenure, though I think there should be caveats that are NOT there now. Bad teachers, meaning those who do not teach, are abusive, etc., should not be so hard to fire. One-five complaints do not a bad teacher make. Five or more, in the same week? Would be worth more than a look. Doesn't happen and that is wrong.

Related would be pay increases to performance. The same sort of rub. If I'm teaching a class with 20 kids, 15 are low income or ESL if most of them come out at grade level, I should be considered a 'wonderful teacher.' On the other hand, if teaching in a well-to-do suburb, with kids of mostly college grads and those kids are 100% at grade level, I'm doing something wrong. Has nothing to do with the kids innate abilities, has everything to do with the marks I'm setting and trying to hit.