Bad Teachers In America

When one is a teacher they know that they need to teach the material that is needed for students succeed and excel during testing. Teachers should have no fear in being dismissed if they are doing the job that they were hired for. In the other hand, if one is not doing their job teaching then that is simply one owns fault when getting fired. There are many workers who work hard to get what they deserve such as high pay and benefits. Then why do are there laws which protects teacher’s jobs only? In school districts across America there are stories as found in an article from Meghan Mathis as she writes, “New York faced intense scrutiny and criticism in 2009 when it came to light it had been paying full salaries to nearly 700 tenured teachers who had been accused of poor performance or wrongdoing. These teachers were paid not to teach, but rather to sit in a guarded room from start to finish of each day.” How is the government benefitting our society by using tax payer’s dollars to pay for teachers to idly sit in a room when these dollars could be used to introduce new programs into the classroom or better yet a teacher willing to do the job?

This paper will effectively detail the issues surrounding policy as it pertains to teacher reform for New Jersey Tenure Laws. I will discuss why this new reform has made it impossible to terminate non-effective teachers because of the protection that TEACHNJ provides. I will also discuss inaccuracies as it pertains to accountability and transparency under the new tenure laws. Lastly, I will discuss the teacher rating system and evaluation system that rates teachers in four categories, from highly effective to ineffective. Teacher evaluations would be based on measures of student learning, such as improvement of state test scores, student work, and other practices linked to student achievement. The New Jersey Education Association has proposed streamlining the legal process for removing teachers, but has adamantly defended the basic job protection of tenure, saying it prevents unfair dismissal, favoritism and attempts to save money by firing expensive veterans. The state’s largest teacher’s union also vehemently opposes judging teachers largely on test scores, saying that doing so penalizes teachers with the most difficult students, and that the data is unreliable. Teachers are fearful of losing their jobs if they don’t raise test scores, teachers will redouble their test-preparation efforts, and quality instruction will be sacrificed,” NJEA President Barbara Keshishian said in a statement. “Parents should be alarmed and dismayed at this proposal.” (Brody)

Finally and foremost, school districts need to get rid of tenure. It is absolutely insane to allow a teacher to have absolute job security no matter how badly they perform. If a teacher can teach they will always have a job. Tenure does not protect high performing teachers as it was intended to do instead it protects low performing teachers. This is vital in getting rid of horrible teachers like Mrs. Eicher who is immune to job loss as a result of how long they have worked at the school.

The state of California should analyze the enormous complexity of this issue, including the impact of teacher quality on student achievement, the evidence that teachers regularly migrate out of low-performing schools, and the potential solution that lies in offering incentives to well-qualified teachers who commit to work in struggling schools (ca.gov).

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.

Teacher tenure is life-long job protection for teachers who have been employed as a teacher for one or more years depending on the state. The purpose of teacher tenure is to protect teachers from being fired for political or personal reasons. It also prevents school districts from eliminating experienced teachers in favor of less expensive teachers. The fundamental problem with teacher tenure is that it is given to a teacher after only one year on the job and requires little to no additional effort. The increased job security breeds complacency in many teachers who are teaching only to collect a paycheck. There is a need for teacher tenure but the program must be drastically reformed.

Sometimes in every school environment, a teacher may find themselves competing with many factors. In many cases a school is given some type of state test. With each test come standards that students need to meet. The government is constantly putting pressure on schools to meet these standards. The schools then place that pressure on the teachers. If a certain teacher is the center of blame for students doing poorly on an exam, it can put a lot of pressure on them. A teacher can find themselves in the balance of having a job or not. It may seem a

The protection tenure and due process gives teacher’s is still needed. Due process ensures that, teachers cannot be fired for erratic reasons

Tenure was instituted as a means to protect teachers from capricious firings without just cause. Tenure proponents point out that job security is one of a few benefits a teacher can count on and that the practice is important for recruitment and retention in a field where turnover is high. In a profession where salary is still largely determined by years on the job, tenure is defended as protecting more veteran teachers from losing their jobs to lower-paid, novice teachers, discussed Jacobs, S. (2016).

For some students, even though they can get high scores in exam, but that’s all they can do. They just memorize the solution and don’t try to understand and absorb the real knowledge behind the exam, for these kinds of students we can’t say that their teachers do well. Comparing with this, some students have really penetrating understanding to the knowledge, their know how to use them even though it can’t reflect on their exam scores sometimes, but their teachers still deserve higher paid. There is no doubt that we can’t tolerate keeping low-performing teachers in classrooms because it hurts everyone, but the method used to evaluate teacher performance should be sophisticated enough to consider all factors that can affect a child’s success in classroom before they can be used to as a standard to punish or award teachers. Chicago strike also evokes a debate toward salary problem. Chicago teachers have the highest average salary of any city at $76,000 a year before benefits, compared with the median household income in Chicago is $46,000 (BBC News: para 4). So many people couldn’t understand that teachers rejected a 16 percent salary increase when most occupations are not getting and raises and many people are under unemployment. There are two reasons that CTU still raise salary debate even though teachers already get enough paid. Firstly, CTU considered the law aspect. According to Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act, it is illegal for teachers to strike on all

There is a consensus among the concerned stakeholders that the quality of teachers is the leading factor in determination of student performance. In the case of United States, the student performance can only be given an impetus by the efforts which the state can make, under all costs, to develop and retain high quality teachers. The measures undertaken determine the level of turnover of the school teachers. Lazear (2009) similarly argues the length of employment is a critical factor in averse risks of employment a trend contrary to teachers treatment. The turnover of public school teachers will refer to the rate at which the state, which is the teacher’s

Public school systems should not allow teachers to have tenure. The documentary “The Lottery” tells a story about young children trying to get into a charter school for a better education and better teaching styles. Not to mention if certain kids don’t get in, they could always try again later. In addition to the documentary, it explains in one scene that in the school system, they had to let go about ten or more teachers. “The Lottery” documentary wanted to tell how well students can achieve with teachers who are passionate to help children in need. From Dictionary.com, Tenure is “The Holding or possessing of anything”. Tenure should be taken away from the public school systems, so that students can have a teacher that loves what they do. Not only for teachers, who are good or bad at their job they can’t be protected. In public school systems tenure should think about what is best for any student’s education. Tenure system should be eliminated because giving an education is important to students should be more important.

The tenure is a contractual right to protect teachers from being terminated for political or personal reasons. According to the “Vergara V. California” case, nine students file a lawsuit in California state courts about the teachers has an insufficient teaching method in schools. Student claim that they can’t get a quality education because this system has created an issue. However, teachers are not the only reason that affects students. There are many aspects that may influence students in a negative way, such as the student environment, family, and school resources. If people look at those aspects, they will notice that with poorly performing teachers, people start to take aggressive actions towards the tenure system, which is unfair to the union or CTA. Society should consider the pros and cons to make the decision about whether the tenure system should be eliminated or not. The pros of the tenure system are, it prevents teachers from being fired due to unfair reasons. It can also help teachers perform better in school as a result of being freed from the stress of being fired. On the other hand, tenure makes it difficult to remove inadequate teachers because of the long paper work, along with it is the costly fees to remove deficient teachers. After considering this, the pros of the tenure are the reasons that the tenure system should not be eliminated because it proves tenure is benefits to schools. In addition, there are no guarantees that schools will become better,

The tenure is the employment contract created to protect teachers from being fired by the political or personal reasons. According to “Vergara V. California” case, this system has been created an issue that with the support of Student Matter, nine students file a lawsuit in California state courts about the inadequate teaching of teachers in schools. Furthermore, Students claim they can’t get a quality education. It’s clear that inefficient teachers can’t give a good education, however teachers aren’t the only reason that affects students. There are many aspects that may influence student in a negative way, such as student environment, family, and school resources. If people look at those aspects, they will notice that with poorly performance teachers, people start to take aggressive actions toward the tenure system are unfair to the union or CTA. Society should consider the pros and cons to make the decision about the tenure system should be eliminated or not. The pros of the tenure system are, it prevents teachers from being fired due to unfair reasons. Furthermore, it helps teachers perform better in school as a result freed from the stress of being fired. On the other hand, tenure makes it difficult to remove inadequate teachers because of the long paper work, along with it is the costly fees to remove deficient teachers. After considering it, the pros of the tenure are the reasons for the tenure system should not be eliminated because it proves tenure is benefit to

McGuinn, Patrick. "Ringing the Bell for K-12 Teacher Tenure Reform," American Progress. www.americanprogress.org, Feb. 9, 2010. Web. Feb 18, 2016.