Teacher Tenure Essay

Teacher tenure is a commonly argued topic among all secondary schools across the United States. It is thought of as a program that protects teachers’ intellectual freedom or human rights, so that he or she will not be fired after a certain amount of years in a particular school system, without a just case involved. It is a common concern in today’s time because some teachers abuse the loopholes that tenure has to offer and it is seen as a barrier to the well being of the students and society as a whole. This issue is simple to resolve, as the time period of tenure should be longer. Teacher tenure should be under constant revisions and a solution should be proposed in order to solve the problems tenure creates such as, creating complacency among teachers, making it difficult to remove unsatisfactory teachers from the work force, and requiring schools to make long-term spending commitments due to the majority of those who abuse the union laws of tenure in secondary school systems.

Teacher tenure creates complacency among teachers who do not fear losing their jobs. Once a teacher becomes certified after a certain amount of years in a school system, he or she becomes satisfied with the way they teach and act towards their students. Nixon, Packard, and Douvanis stated that some teachers have more of the ability to help care for and see students’ succeed than others might, “as some do not have any incentives to perform better than others” (Philips 2). This point also relates to the fact that “when teachers become tenured most try to only get by with the bare minimum of teaching and do not prepare in depth lessons because they believe tenure gives them a heightened sense of job security” (Philips). Furthermore, allowing teachers to bec...

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In conclusion, studies show that tenure creates complacency among teachers because they become satisfied with the way he or she teaches, makes it difficult to remove unsatisfactory teachers from the work force due to the majority of those who do not fear losing their jobs, and requires schools to make long-term spending commitments because it requires a lot of time and effort to rid of a teacher in a school system. These laws have been implemented throughout the United States for many of centuries; now it is time to do something about them and make a change to better our school systems being affected by these tenure regulations. This proposal of adjusting the probationary period will allow a new path for tenure in the years coming, in order to help students succeed and have enjoyable schooling without the burden of having poor, undesirable teachers.