Why Do Teachers Gain Tenure?

Tenure in school systems has been a highly controversial topic lately. Tenure refers to the job security of teachers after they have worked at a certain school for three years. When teachers earn tenure, it is very difficult to take away their jobs. This is especially true in higher education. According to the Washington Post, 32 states grant tenure after three years, nine states grant tenure after four or five years and four states never grant tenure at all. Granting tenure to all teachers gives everybody a job for life which should not be the case. Under-performing teachers should not have definite job security. America should remove academic tenure, replace it with a different system, and re-evaluate school teachers and professors.

The new changes No Child Left Behind laws were passed earlier in 2010 stresses the importance of education has to be our main concern to ensure that our children are getting quality education. The legislation is called “Performance Counts,” It reevaluates tenure laws and evaluation. This means that teachers are evaluated and being laid off because of their performance in the classrooms. No matter how long the teacher has been in his/her position that still wouldn’t keep them in their position because of their low performance. Over the next 10 years the focus will be to prepare hundreds of new teachers in STEM science, technology, engineering, and math (Mclatchy, 2010). The program is to encourage students in the STEM field or alternative teacher certification programs to switch their careers if they choose to. For

Removing a teacher from his or her position is very difficult to do. “Tenure benefits the state by helping to create a permanent and qualified teaching force” (Underwood, Webb 36). This makes it difficult to let a teacher go even when it is to make the school a better environment for the students. Although teachers do have the right to freedom of speech and are able to exercise their First Amendment right, that freedom is in a way limited by the school board. Pickering v. Board of Education (1968) is a great example of this. A high school science teacher was terminated by the board of education because a letter he wrote was published in one of the community’s newspapers. The letter discussed the unequal funding between academics and athletics. After

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.

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.

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?

"Unions don't grant tenure - administrators do. Too many school boards and superintendents attack tenure rather than hold their own managers accountable for hiring and supervising teachers and, if necessary, removing those who don't make the grade. Tenure is granted by the board of education on recommendation of the superintendent -but many schools do a poor job of evaluating and supporting teachers…Tenure's not about protecting ‘bad’ teachers; it's about protecting good teachers. What would happen to teachers without tenure? They could - and would - be fired for virtually any reason. It’s not hard to imagine teachers being dismissed because they failed the daughter of an influential businessman or because the school board president's nephew needed a job. In these fiscally troubled times, what would stop a school board from replacing a veteran teacher at the top of the pay scale with a first-year teacher - simply to save money? Tenure is the first line of defense against attacks on academic freedom. Teachers can engage their students in a free exchange of ideas only if they are protected from arbitrary dismissal for doing so. Tenure prevents school boards from arbitrarily dismissing teachers for holding political, religious or social views with which they disagree.[Tenure] protects academic freedom the way the First Amendment protects freedom of the press” (NYSUT). Although that is the position that I

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

Why should teachers get tenure? This is one of the most controversial issues which is being discussed everywhere. Is it to help low-fund schools keep their good teacher or help some teachers not get fired? In my opinion teacher’s tenure isn’t the best choice because even though some teachers deserve it, some of them just don’t. What I am trying to say and I will explain in the paragraphs below is that teacher’s tenure has been misused and it needs to be removed or maybe changed.

Firstly, we should eliminate Teacher Tenure because it jeopardizes our students' education. We cannot let unqualified teachers teach our hard working students. Good teachers get the lessons or syllabuses conveyed to the students and teach in a correct manner. However, bad teachers tend to be ineffective and do not teach the students much. Students do not need teachers that teach in an ineffectual way. Al Shanker, the former president of the American Federation of Teachers, stated, “A lot of people who have been hired as teachers are basically not competent...” You see even the former head of the teachers says that many teachers are hired and protected by tenure, even if they are bad teachers!

Teacher Tenure began more than a century ago. Teacher tenure, requires due process be pursued before a teacher protected by tenure are fired. In order for a teacher to gain tenure, they must have completed a probationary period of 3 years. Once the teacher has acquired tenure, they will then have the right to due process which gives them a justified reason as to why they are being fired and their dismissal will be decided by an unbiased party. Tenure, does not stop a teacher from getting fired, but ensures that the employer shows substantial reasons for the teacher’s removal through due process.

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

First of all most should know that teacher tenure has a system of due process, checks, and balances so that teachers can be fired--just not to easily. Before argueing that teacher tenure should be abolished, one should listen to a few points.