Don't Tenure Current Teacher Tenure Law

Capitol Confidential ^ | 12/7/2010 | Jarrett Skorup

[MichCapCon]

The Michigan Legislature recently debated a modest teacher tenure reform bill that passed in the Senate but then died when the House failed to act. The issue will surely return in the 2011 session, and when it does, lawmakers should consider the following:

Under current law, it is nearly impossible to fire a tenured teacher, no matter how ineffective.

Everyone from Mackinac Center staff to Michigan Education Association union members knows that all our public schools teachers are not above average, and indeed, some are downright poor. No one disagrees that bad teachers should be removed, so the only question is how.

The documentary film "Waiting for Superman" provides some insights on the magnitude of the problem. It notes that every year nationwide, one out of every 57 doctors and one of 97 lawyers loses his or her license for malpractice. In contrast, only one out of every 2,500 unionized, public school teachers with tenure gets fired in any given year.

More evidence comes from the nation's second-largest public school system, Los Angeles, which has over 45,000 teachers. Between 1990 and 2000, the district fired exactly one tenured teacher. Any private-sector business operating in a competitive marketplace that was this unresponsive to employee quality would certainly fail, but in the public education sector, the consequences are instead imposed on students...

[Leaning Right]

There are bad teachers, to be sure, but this situation is not as cut-and-dry as it first appears.

Let me give you an example. Suppose there are three teachers (A, B, and C) who are all teaching 9th grade math in the same school. Teacher A has the honors class.

Let’s say these are the results on a standardized test:

A’s honors class: 72%
B’s class: 47%
C’s class: 85%

Who is the worst teacher here? Who is the best teacher?

Think about how you would answer that question, then suppose:

A’s class has three bright yet very disruptive students. The principal refuses to discipline those three students.

B’s class has quite a few immigrant children who speak little or no English. Many have poor attendance.

C’s class, by the luck of the schedule, only has 10 students. The other two classes have 30 each.

Now, who is the worst teacher here? Who is the best teacher? Who should get a bonus? Who should be fired?

[absolootezer0]

start by getting rid of the standardized test crap.
it’s ridiculous that teachers spend only cursory time on parts of the curriculum, but exhaustingly cover other parts based on what’s going to be on the test.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks MichCapCon.

...every year nationwide, one out of every 57 doctors and one of 97 lawyers loses his or her license for malpractice. In contrast, only one out of every 2,500 unionized, public school teachers with tenure gets fired in any given year.

[Ouderkirk]

It not a matter of performance appraisals for teachers who are performing. In such a case as you have shown in your post, it would have to be a rolling value based on three years worth of data to normalize the variations from year to year.

The key is not to grant tenure at all, or but make such a grant be after 10 years of performance as opposed to three.

[Leaning Right]

Even rolling values can be quite skewed. One extremely disruptive student in a class two years in a row will destroy test grades.

IMHO, the main problem with most public schools is not the inability to get rid of bad teachers (although they certainly do exist).

It’s the inability to get rid of chronically disruptive students.

By the way, you can substitute “lack of will” for “inability” in my post. Same thing.