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NEW YORK CITY IS MAKING IT HARDER FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS TO GET TENURE, requiring their students to show progress in consecutive years before instructors gain the coveted job protection.
Traditionally, in New York City as in other places, tenure is granted to teachers three years and a day after they begin working. Critics have complained that the protections that tenure accords ineffective teachers makes them hard to remove. Before a teacher reaches tenure, principals can more easily fire them—but they rarely do.
Five years ago, fewer than 1% of New York City teachers were denied tenure. But last year, 11% of teachers were denied tenure or continued on probation, amid a push by schools Chancellor Joel Klein for greater teacher accountability.
Monday's announcement, which was made by Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a New York education conference, goes a step further—by creating new rules for when principals can grant teachers tenure, rather than leaving it up to their subjective judgment or inaction.
Starting with the 6,300 teachers who are up for tenure this year, the city Department of Education will implement a four-point grading system similar to the one passed by the state Legislature earlier this year: highly effective, effective, developing, and ineffective. Under the new rules, principals can only grant tenure if a teacher shows progress with students for two years in a row.
Teachers who are rated "developing" will get a chance to earn tenure after a year of professional development and support, and "ineffective" teachers will not be granted tenure and the chancellor will recommend that they be dismissed.
The teacher's union president, Michael Mulgrew, shrugged off the plans.
"There's less in the mayor's proposals than meets the eye," said the head of the United Federation of Teachers in a statement. "Right now a principal can deny tenure to a teacher for any reason. Most teachers would welcome an objective tenure-granting process based on agreed-upon standards."
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Wonderful example of teachers' commitment:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/education/28school.html?_r=1&hpw
How many tenured teacher have ever been let go in Plainview?
ReplyDeleteteachersunionexposed.com/protecting.cfm
One New Jersey union representative was even more blunt about the work his organization does to keep bad teachers in the classroom, saying: “I’ve gone in and defended teachers who shouldn’t even be pumping gas.”
In ten years, only about 47 out of 100,000 teachers were actually terminated from New Jersey’s schools. Original research conducted by the Center for Union Facts (CUF) confirms that almost no one ever gets fired from New Jersey’s largest school district, no matter how bad. Over four recent years, CUF discovered, Newark’s school district successfully fired about one out of every 3,000 tenured teachers annually. Graduation statistics indicate that the district needs much stronger medicine: Between the 2001-2002 and the 2004-2005 school years, Newark’s graduation rate (not counting the diplomas “earned” through New Jersey’s laughable remedial exam) was a mere 30.6 percent
Tenure Keeps Annual Teacher Firing Rates Too Low
•Chicago: Principals say that 83 percent of bad tenured teachers “rarely or never” get fired
•Columbus: Teachers union admits tenured teacher firings can cost up to $50,000
•Dallas: 0.78 percent of tenured teachers are terminated annually
•Idaho: It can cost “$100,000 or $200,000” to get rid of a bad tenured teacher
•Illinois (not including Chicago): Two out of 95,500 terminated -- it costs $219,504 to fire a bad teacher
•Los Angeles: Eleven out of 43,000 considered for termination
•New York State: Seventeen tenured teachers annually -- it costs $128,941 to fire a bad teacher
•Tucson: About one out of 2,300
In most states, teachers are awarded tenure after only a few years, after which they become almost impossible to fire. Union leaders insist that they support archaic tenure laws because they ensure “due process” for teachers. But these laws actually help bad teachers keep their jobs.
In 2003, one Los Angeles union representative said: “If I’m representing them, it’s impossible to get them out. It’s impossible. Unless they commit a lewd act.” Between 1995 and 2005, only 112 Los Angeles tenured teachers faced termination -- eleven per year -- out of 43,000. And that’s in a school district whose 2003 graduation rate was just 51 percent.
One New Jersey union representative was even more blunt about the work his organization does to keep bad teachers in the classroom, saying: “I’ve gone in and defended teachers who shouldn’t even be pumping gas.”
In ten years, only about 47 out of 100,000 teachers were actually terminated from New Jersey’s schools.
New York State: Seventeen tenured teachers annually -- it costs $128,941 to fire a bad teacher
ReplyDelete