Academic Tenure

Today, there seems to be a push to change the policy of teacher tenure. “Roughly 2.3 million public school teachers in the United States have tenure—a perk reserved for the noblest of professions (professors and judges also enjoy such rights).” (Stephey) Tenure refers to a policy which gives teachers a permanent contract that effectively ensuring them a guarantee of employment for life. Stephey continues to state, “Though tenure doesn’t guarantee lifetime employment, it does make firing teachers a difficult and costly process, one that involves the union, the school board, the principal, the judicial system and thousands of dollars in legal fees.”

Webster's dictionary defines tenure as, “the act, right, manner, or term, of holding something (such as a landed property, a position, or an office); especially :a status granted after a trial period to a teacher that gives protection from summary dismissal. In other words, educators receive due process protection from accusations or charges against them.Years ago, educators who acted in destructive and abusive demeanor sidestep meaningful ramifications due to tenure safeguards .However, the supreme protection granted to tenured teachers diminished greatly as of July 2011. Michigan stripped the unassailable security of tenure and the world of education in Michigan altered permanently.Forlornly, educator Kathleen Goulouze failed to adhere to modifications of the updated teacher tenure decree.

Chavella T. Pittman, research the conversations African Americans were having with the counterparts Carcusicans faculty members in a predominantly white university in his research he found there was a underrepresentation and distribution of African American with only 4.9%of tenuretrack

The ability of teachers to earn tenure has sparked debate for many years. Whether it is an individual who is for or against teacher tenure, both sides present valid points. First, teacher tenure was established to provide security for teachers and prevent them from being fired for political reasons, personal reasons, non-work related reasons, or to hire new teachers at a lower salary to replace veteran teachers. Challengers to the teacher tenure law argue that it makes teachers complacent, and inhibits schools abilities to get rid of bad teachers. Tenure does not actually make it impossible to fire a teacher who has earned tenure or what is called a non-probationary status. It does however create a costly and lengthy process for dismissing a tenured teacher if the school system cannot prove that the individual has engaged in certain acts.

A non-tenure employee is a temporary worker. They can be fired, and rid of very quickly. On the other hand, there is the tenure employee who is a permanent worker with job security. Over the years the number of non-tenure employees at the university almost doubled and the number of tenure employees is slowly decreasing. The reason for this is because it is way cheaper to have non tenure employees than tenure ones. Also,

Richard Kahlenberg, the author of the article Tenure said that tenure was to protect students’ education and those who provide it. He goes on to say that before we can start digging into tenure we should first define what it is. Tenure, for American teachers is awarded after three years, and when it is awarded they have the right to know why a discharge is being sought out by the employer. They also have the right to have the issue decided by an impartial person. Kahlenberg listed why tenure is still necessary, some of them being; it strengthens legal protections, protects a range of people who may be discriminated against that the race and gender antidiscrimination laws do not, and tenure gives teachers the confidence to stand up to outsiders

Tenure is something that teachers get that protects them from the possibility of them losing their jobs. I feel like this is a bad thing and that teachers shouldn’t be able to get. I didn’t know this but now it makes sense how there are alot of teachers that don’t do nothing in class and just hand out worksheets to students. I have always believe that without teachers we wouldn't be successful in life but tenure is something that needs to change its not fair for the schools and students. In conclusion, Have you ever ask yourself why a bad teacher still teaching or why they haven’t fired that teacher it's because a policy restriction called

What is tenure? Academic tenure refers to a policy which gives professors and teachers a permanent contract, effectively ensuring them a guarantee of employment … for life (Garrett 2013). Tenure prevents schools from dismissing teachers without cause or due process in the K-12 school systems. Teacher tenure is the increasingly controversial form of job protection that public school teachers in all states receive after 1-7 years on the job (ProCon n/a). How tenure is attained, protections it provides, and impacts it may have on institutional structures are key factors when researching tenure. The ultimate question is should tenure be required for teachers in the K-12 school systems?

Over the years, Tim Stephens has been approached by universities to serve on boards, speak, and even become a faculty member. Despite his strong credentials, each time he would politely decline. It wasn’t because of a lack of interest, rather he didn’t feel comfortable.

Although there are many varying opinions on what revisions should be made to the tenure system in America, I believe that even though there are many complaints, Tenure needs to be maintained in order to promote academic freedom and educational security. Tenure is defined by Mathew Finkin as “At the expiration of a period of probation, commonly not to exceed six years of full-time service, a faculty member is either to be accorded “tenure” or to be given a terminal appointment for the ensuing academic year. Thereafter, the professor can be discharged only for “just cause” or other permissible circumstances and only after a hearing before a body of his or her academic peers” (Finkin 3). Tenure, in recent years, has become a point of heated

Before reading the article and attending Tuesday evenings class I did not know much about the tenure process, I knew that it was a form of job security for professors but not much more. Reading the National Education Association article gave me an understanding of what the tenure process is and what the importance is of being a tenured professor other than having a sense of job security. The area that stood out to me in the reading for this week was the fourth myth in the article, that most professors have tenure. This was surprising to me because when reading the reality section the author stated that most positions are more than often filled with part-time faculty and rarely put on the tenure track, colleges like to use students as their

CRT utilizes narratives to provide real life accounts of the experiences of people of color (Taylor, 2006), and these narratives provide voices for the voiceless and nameless (Lynn & Parker, 2006). People of color are marginalized and isolated in academia, and these narratives are crucial for whites to understand the experiences of minority faculty members at PWIs. For example, one African American was denied tenure because her white chairman thought her research lacked rigor (Turner et al., 2011). She reminded her chairman about the college’s mission to promote diversity and multiculturalism. However, he stated that he was not a champion of affirmative action. Thereby, this white male upheld the white supremacy of society by denying tenure

Dr. Cynthia Watcher, an RST instructor, said “Why this is important to me, I would say it is really about respect…. I would like to see a place on the table for the non-tenure track faculty members to discuss at an equal footing.” This points to the inherent issue at hand, that a less qualified or less experienced professor at UIUC could be safer in terms

Please accept this letter of application, as my formal request, for tenure at the rank of Assistant Professor within the School of Arts and Sciences at Grand Rapids Community College.

Think of it this way, experience is important. Tenure is one way to reward experience.