Our textbook defines tenure as "a legal safeguard that provides job security by protecting teacher dismissal without due cause" (257). But, theres a fine line between job security and allowing teachers to be careless without consequence. Two major problems many have with tenure is its effect on the quality of public education and how easily it seems to be awarded to teachers. It 's worth noting that many people see strong points in tenure. It was put in place in order to bring stability to the teaching career and make sure that teachers are fired only on professional ability or lack there of. "Proponents counter that it is neccessary to protect teachers '... ability to express opinions on controversial issues in the classroom" (257). But, …show more content…
Refering to tenure policies, the Los Angeles Times also had this to say: "They too often allow uncaring or incompetent teachers to stay in their jobs, which has a direct effect on learning and engagement". No matter how young a student is, whether they be kindergarten or high school aged, they can tell when a teacher doesn 't care for the work that they do, and the students morale will decrease along with their grade point average. It 's easier for a teacher to lose their drive to care and engage their students when their paycheck doesn 't depend on it anymore. According to the textbook, the public is undecided on the need for tenure, and when polled on tenure policies "nearly half (47 percent) believe that these have hurt the quality of public education (Bushaw & Lopez, 2011)" (257). It isn 't called public schooling for no reason; it 's the children of the public who are affected by tenure policies, so it seems like the public should be more on board with something that affects their lives and those of their children 's to such a degree. There was even a courtcase in California that attempted to challenge tenure. The plaintiffs in the case (Vergara v. California) were nine students and their families who claimed that "this process protects senior, and potentially ineffective, teachers at the expense of newer, more competent ones" (Kauchak, 258). Just because a teacher is new to a school environment doesn 't mean they 're less competent than those teachers who 've been in the same school for years. In fact, new teachers often come in with fresh ideas to introduce to their students that older, tenured teachers who 've been stuck in their ways for so long would never think to try. It 's unfair to base teacher
He also argues that without tenure it would to be easier to fire the 10 percent of teachers that are poor performers. I personally agree with Matthew Miller’s proposal.
1. Summarize the main point of this episode on The Story of American Public Education
The single salary schedule as well helps in avoiding favoritism and bias. In that respect, it helps in eliminating discrimination amongst teachers with equal level of experience and ones that have completed an equal number of coursework at the university (Podgursky, 13). It helps in ensuring that teachers with the same experience earn equal salaries.
It was protect them from losing their jobs, which at first is grand for the low paid teachers, but instead of doing good it causes education become impossible to teach. According to New York Times, a well known newspaper, states that “Firing a bad teacher could take anywhere from two to almost 10 years and cost $50,000 to $450,000 or more” (New York Times). This tener law, makes it a time consuming and money spending process that the schools are not worth taking. In the movie, “Waiting For Superman” , by Davis Guggenheim- a well known director who made many other successful non-fiction films-The film claims “That if only the bottom 1/5 of bad teachers in the US were fired and replaced by only average teachers, our national test scores would reach those of Finland, more than a dozen places higher on international exam scores” (Guggenheim). So we just edited the tenure law then we can rid of the ineffective teachers and replace them, so that the students will receive the tutelage need. In recent news on tenure-article by New York Times- a Los Angeles County Judge Rolf M. Treu began to fix tenure law stating, “the practices are unconstitutional, for teachers can receive lifetime tenor. The process of getting rid of teachers is long process and money spending. So it is hard to rid of tenor teachers” ( Treu). Judge says, “Ruling is stayed pending an appeal by unions and
In my experience, the majority of my teachers were dedicated and caring people to their work. I previously thought that maybe I had gotten lucky with my instructors in which classes I participated in, or maybe I am a more open minded person than those who criticized our educators. Now I see that teachers are scapegoats for other complications outside of their control. Even if some are no longer of a higher caliber, a reason for the decline could be disheartening caused by their limited resources and general disrespect year after year. The government may not be willing to reverse past changes, but now the system whose purpose is to prepare the children of today to become the adults of tomorrow is being annexed by business behemoths striving for ever greater profits to fill their
From the reading “Ethical and Legal Issues in U.S. Education”, there were three points that that surprised me. One point was that it is so surprising to me that there are so many steps that a teacher, on tenure, must go through before they get fired. It makes it so difficult to be fired and such a long process that they will never be fired unless they commit a major crime and I believe that this should change. As a teacher, we need to be at the top of our game at all times, and teachers with tenure seem like they do not always have to in order to keep their job. It is also surprising to me that student teachers do not receive the same rights as normal teachers in some states. Student teachers are practicing to become a teacher one day, and
As mentioned the authors did argue some strong logical points. One of their strongest points just might be when they mentioned how tenure should be replaced with multiyear contracts. “Professors who possess it have no reason to improve their teaching, take on introductory courses, or, in fact, accept any tasks, not to their liking.” (Hacker and Dreifus 181). Some might argue better yet some will argue that “if he/she has been teaching a long time then they deserve to be granted tenure”, but wouldn’t it be better for our future and our children’s future if those who continues to teach well
Kowal, Julie, Joe Ableidinger, and Bryan C. Hassel. "Tenure Reform Options in K–12." By Emily Hassel. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Teacher Tenure Reform. Public Impact. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. .
According to one of many tenure debates lead by teachers themselves, tenure no longer fits the original criteria to why it was started in the first place (because of gender, race, religion, political stands, etc.). However, some may think otherwise. It is true that change will always be a problem in the world one way or another. There is still discrimination in society.
Professors with tenure, contend Hacker and Dreifus, are not motivated to perform well and therefore will engage the students in the way Hacker and Dreifus believe they should. To correct this, Hacker and Dreifus advocate for tenures to be replaced with multiyear contracts to ensure professors work hard for their own benefit and for the benefit of the students’. Keep the teachers in the classrooms inspiring young minds rather than taking unnecessary paid vacations, assert Hacker and Dreifus, who believe sabbaticals should be limited. Hacker and Dreifus also agree that adjunct teachers, professors who teach at a college but do not receive the same benefits as their peers who are, in fact, faculty members, should receive similar benefits. Capitalizing on adjunct teachers should be discouraged, demand the authors. Presidents of colleges, on the other hand, should receive less, more reasonable compensation for their
... the amount of extra procedures and paperwork a teacher is required to do that could be spent teaching. According to research the school staff often state beliefs that IDEA protects children and parents but not districts, schools and teachers. Also, parents request services for their children for which their children do not qualify based on local, state and federal guidelines. Teachers and administrators often have to deal with anger from parents who do not understand or agree with the regulations by which the school must abide.
The question to be answered in this paper is rather faculty tenure should be eliminated within higher education. The debate with faculty tenure goes back some 70 plus years. In the past twenty years the face of tenure has changed, which has led to the need to re-evaluate the issue in higher education. As stated by Schloss & Cragg (2013);
Fischer, L., Schimmel, D., & Stellman, L. (2007). Teachers and the law (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
...tention and turnover rates for minority teachers highlight the discrepancy that exists in education programs that are unsuccessful at keeping educators in the classroom. Dilworth makes a bold move by addressing these concerns as the problem currently has failed to be acknowledged or directed.
There is no more critical role in our current society than that of a teacher’s. Teachers help shape the minds of the future. Tomorrow 's engineers, scientists, politicians, and educators are all greatly influenced by today 's Instructors. Without teachers society would not be anywhere near where it is now, and only a select few would have access to learning. Sadly however important teachers are in human civilization, they are still drastically understated, unrecognized and under paid. Although some people may argue that performance pay is good, performance/merit pay is bad because it will result in teachers doing much less personalizing of the curriculum, and spending that time doing only what things need to teach in order to keep their student’s