Teacher Evaluation: Spotsylvania County Public Schools

To illustrate, a tenured teacher challenged her dismissal that was part of a RIF plan arguing that she had a right to be recalled before the untenured teachers who were also part of the RIF. She also claimed that she had a right to be recalled before a new teacher was hired to fill her former position. An Illinois appellate court upheld the tenured teacher’s dismissal reasoning that her recent unsatisfactory performance rating was a legitimate reason for the district to choose not to recall her (despite her tenured status).

Hoskins (1987) advocated that the process of teacher evaluation is multilayered and is affected by several complex and continually changing variables. The evaluation of teachers’ classroom performance has evolved tremendously over the last 100 years. Teacher evaluation has transformed along with emerging research pertaining to the role of teachers, effective teaching, and theories of student learning (Ellett & Teddlie, 2003). Regardless of the changes and increased emphasis on national and state standards, supervision and evaluation continue to be average at best and inadequate in assisting teachers to modify their pedagogy for the benefit of their students (Howard &

Freddie Watts and Jimmy Brothers were put in a very tough and uncomfortable situation, as principle and vice principal, when Ann Griffin made a racial comment. Watts and Brothers administered a primarily African American school. Ann Griffin is a Caucasian teacher who made a racial remark to the principle, Freddie Watts, and vice principal, Jimmy Brothers, of the school she was administered to. She stated that she, “hated all black folks.” This required them to question her ability to perform her job correctly without having a racial bias towards black students. A decision must be made regarding her removal. Ann Griffin does have the right to free speech however, discrimination could also effect her students in a negative way.

Throughout history there have been various influential court cases involving Education. These important cases and their outcomes act as milestones on the road to a successful education System in the United States. Topics such as race, religion and gender equality within schools have all been vigorously debated upon and have ultimately played major roles in shaping today 's education system. By examining civil rights and acting upon these rights many important educational court cases have allowed many students a greater chance for efficient and equal learning opportunities in the classroom.

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)

Perhaps the most unsettling thing about Bell v. Itawamba County School Board, regardless of the final decision in favor of Bell, is the shockingly little attention the courts gave to the allegations made in the song. However, it is fairly reasonable that the court did not address the misconduct, as it was not the action in question. Perhaps a more unsettling aspect of this case is the lack of school response to the allegations made about the coaches. Bell’s reasons for writing the song, as expressed in his testimony, were the complaints he had heard from female students at the school that they had been sexually harassed by the two coaches. Bell claimed that the reason he wrote a song rather than presenting this problem to administration was

(Evans-Marshall vs. Board of Education, 2010). Any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress. (42 U.S. Code § 1983). The District Court employed three elements to show whether Evans-Marshall was (1) engaged in a constitutionally protected activity, (2) the School District’s action would have an effect and cause the same injury on an ordinary person and (3) the School District’s action was in retaliation to her First Amendment rights protected by the U. S. Constitution. (Evans-Marshall vs. Board of Education, 2010). The District Court held Evans-Marshall passed the first and second elements of the three-prong test but denied the third. (Pickering vs. Board of Education,

The success of American Students lies in the hands of teachers. Since, this is such a great responsibility, we have to make sure that we are employing the right teacher for not only the students’ growth but also our nation’s growth. Hard working teachers should be appreciated and celebrated and neglectful teachers should be fired. Unfortunately, the firing of teachers is not possible. In most states, there is no legitimate evaluation process to be met for the teaching position and after a few years, the teaching jobs becomes permanent. The most important step in reforming tenure is to have an effective and an accurate evaluation process. The No Child Left

Test scores in the United States have flat lined; while funding for schools has increased. Some students and parents have experienced teachers that have abused the power of tenure to keep their job while not teaching the students.

Reimagining tenure reform from a teacher’s perspective is about teachers wanting to see some changes to the tenure system. Many teachers enjoy the protection that the tenure system provides, but believe that there could be some changes to it to make it more effective. The tenure system today is viewed as weak. This weak system is discouraging new college graduates and preventing professional growth. New graduates see how teachers are scrutinized and know there are not a rigorous process to help them become better teachers (Hoffman, 2016). A few things that teachers felt should be changed or evaluated are; states should oversee the requirements and guidelines for the teachers rather than the school districts, set a minimum for years of experience,

The parents say that they are disappointed in the court’s decision and claim that the teacher tenure laws protect certain racist teachers who have been known to practice segregation in the classroom. These parents say that this interferes with the rights of these students to a good education and is unfair to the students.

According to data gathered by the National Center for Education Statistics in 2015, there are about 50.1 million public school students and 3.1 million teachers in the United States. When the number of teacher is not enough for teaching requirement. We have to improve our teachers’ quality as well as academic freedom. Before tenure, teachers could be fired by personal, religious, race, political reasons, or the teachers’ public speak-outs. In the early 19th century, the National Education Association introduced tenure. Tenure is just a contractual right to protect teachers from unfair expulsion for arbitrary or wrongful reasons (Robertson, 465). Furthermore, tenure is granted to the excellent teachers after a reasonable working period. By the way, we shouldn’t eliminate tenure system because it protects teachers from unfair dismissal, helps school administrators’ works more effectively, and attracts people to the teaching profession.

Many states have created tenure policies to protect competent teachers from malicious accusations, and these policies can vary state to state. In this report there will be an exploration on the tenure and termination policy as it applies to the state of New York, an examination on an allegation against a school teacher based on facts and

The education field represents the one of the largest industries in the United States. Due to the enormous capacity of professionals, many supervisors and managers intend to set clear standards for every educator. Therefore, teachers embody the strict guidelines to accept the recognition of an exceptional educator. Teaching symbolizes effort, care, and knowledge, characteristics that exemplify a small portion of every educator. Along with great accomplishments, responsibility and ethics impact an educator’s action. As a result, ethics and moral standards influence future generations at a higher level every time.

Over the last decade, the United States has fallen behind in world education rankings while other first world countries have improved. The call for education reform in America is greater now than ever before. However, unlike previous reform, experts are looking at how teacher performance is evaluated rather than making evaluation more frequent (Ripley). Traditionally, teacher performance is evaluated based on student test-score improvement, principle sit-in evaluations, and, in some cases, an analysis by an outside observer. This evaluation alone doesn 't provide a reliable representation of a teacher 's performance throughout the school year. Recent research shows a more accurate evaluation can be made from what students have to say about their teachers. Since students spend countless hours with their teacher, they have reliable insight very useful for an evaluation. A teacher performance survey is distributed during class to gather student intuition. Teacher assessment is made based on the results of this survey. I believe student surveys are beneficial to the learning process and should be used to evaluate teacher performance.