Everyone remembers a teacher they had in school who not only instructed them but also inspired them to learn and grow, and perhaps even altered the trajectory of their lives for the better.
Most people probably also remember a few teachers who were so inept or bored that they had the opposite effect, slowing their pupils’ educational advancement and dulling their desire to learn.
It has become difficult in recent years to fire teachers who don’t do their jobs. A new study by the Thomas B. Fordham entitled “Undue Process: Why Bad Teachers in 25 Diverse Districts Rarely Get Fired” illustrates this problem.
The authors studied 25 school districts in 23 states. In five districts, researchers found that it was “very difficult” to fire bad teachers, based on a 10-point metric gleaned from three questions. Those districts included some of the nation’s largest, New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. Another 13 districts made it “difficult” to fire bad teachers. Not one school district had an “easy” process to get rid of the worst teachers in their schools.
The study confirmed the obvious fact that teacher tenure prevents the worst incompetents from being removed from the system where they blight the education of the children subjected to them. In 17 of 25 districts, failing grades for teachers do not prevent those “educators” from securing tenure. Lest anyone forget, tenure broadly means being allowed to keep your job no mater how badly you do it. In nearly half of the districts in the study, it takes at least two years to get rid of a bad teacher. In L.A. and San Francisco, it takes at least five years. In the private sector, most people don’t get five year contracts. In these blighted portions of the public education sector, teachers get five years even after they’ve been found to be incapable or unwilling to do the job they’re paid to do. To see that in terms of a child’s prospects, it means a student might start eighth grade with a teacher who has been found incompetent, and still be taught by that teacher right through their senior year of high school.
The appeals process poses a problem. In 11 districts, teachers have to be observed at least six times before they can be dismissed. In almost all the districts, teachers can appeal dismissals multiple times.
Struggling teachers deserve a chance to improve as long as it doesn’t come at the expense of their students. The study authors say a streamlined process needs to be introduced to fire the worst 5 percent of teachers.
Tenure should be a reward only to exceptional teachers. It shouldn’t be something bestowed on those who simply manage to hang around long enough without getting canned. Because once teachers receive tenure, it’s nearly impossible to get rid of them.
When New York City instituted a system in which principals had to make the case that teachers who were up for tenure deserve it, approval for tenure dropped from 94 percent to 56 percent. That’s as it should be, except the tenure rate is still too high. Where else do more than half of employees secure their job effectively forever?
The report recommends that states pass tenure laws that encourage districts to create procedures for sacking dud teachers.
Teaching is a noble profession. Those called to it, however, should be made to accept responsibility that corresponds to their huge kudos of preparing children’s minds for the adult world. As the saying goes, good teachers are costly, but bad teachers cost even more. One study found that bad teachers cost each of their students a quarter of a million dollars in lifetime income. And money is not necessarily the best way to measure the cost of a blighted mind.
Teachers are not just conveyors of knowledge. The best ones imbue students with a love of learning, and also develop their characters. This is especially important at a time when too many parents have abdicated their responsibility to be their child’s first teachers and role models.
Because teachers have so much power to shape the youngest generation, they should be held to high standards. Those who see their profession as just a salary check and the summer off, should be fired.
