Teacher tenure seems to be a topic of many talks these days. Regardless if they are professionals or not, most people seems to have an opinion about this controversial subject. Moreover, it can be difficult to come up with something to speak when you encounter a person with a strong opinion one way or the other. With this in mind, here is a list of the pros and cons of teacher tenure that would help you get a good insight:
List of Pros of Teacher Tenure
1. It protects teachers from being fired for personal or non-work related reasons.
Before tenure, teachers were dismissed when a principal wanted to make room to hire his friends or a new political party took seat. Also, women were dismissed for becoming pregnant, getting married and even wearing pants.s
2. It helps guarantee teaching innovations.
Without the protection of tenure, teachers may feel the pressure of using the same lesson plans and teaching directly to standardized tests.
3. It is a justifiable reward for many years of good evaluations by administrators.
School administrators are responsible for performing evaluations among teachers before granting them tenure and helping those who are struggling to develop. The poor judgment of administrators should be blamed upon the existence of inadequate teachers, and not teacher tenure.
4. It allows teachers to be advocates of their students and to openly disagree with district and school administrators.
According to the award-winning history teacher, Kerry Sylvia, without tenure, she was concerned about being fired for her public opposition to her school administrators’ initiatives.
5. It encourages careful selection of effective and qualified teachers.
Due to the fact that tenured teachers are very difficult to remove, school administrators are encouraged to take more care when making recruitment decisions. In addition, tenure urges administrators to dismiss under-performing teachers before they achieve tenure.
List of Cons of Teacher Tenure
1. It creates complacency.
Because teachers know they are unlikely to lose their jobs, tenure creates complacency. Plus, it removes incentives for teachers to exert more effort and focus on improving their work.
2. It can make the removal of under-performing teachers difficult.
How? The process involves months of legal wrangling by many individuals, from the principal to the court. As found by a study by the New Teacher Project, a huge percentage of all school administrators hesitate to pursue teacher dismissals because of the time-consuming and costly process involved.
3. It does not grant academic freedom.
When the No Child Left Behind in 2001 placed more emphasis on standardized tests, it took away much academic freedom. According to a survey published by Planning and Changing, more than half of school board presidents disagreed with the statement that teacher tenure ensures academic freedom.
4. It lets experienced teachers pick easier assignments and leaves the difficult ones to the newer teachers.
It is observed that senior teachers choose to teach more less-challenging and resource-rich populations, rather than classrooms that would benefit the most from them.
Considering all the pros and cons mentioned above, are you a proponent or an opponent of teacher tenure? By having sufficient information on this matter, you can surely come up with a well-informed decision.