
By Teachers, For Teachers
A California judge ruled that state’s teacher tenure, dismissal and layoff laws unconstitutional, contending that the legislation protected bad teachers and punished good ones. The decision could ignite nationwide reverberations, as tenure laws affect far-reaching groups, including unions, students, parents and politicians. Read more about the California ruling.
View a teacher tenure infographic
As a school law instructor and tenured associate professor of educational leadership, I perhaps have a different view of tenure than most K-12 teachers. As we look to what the future of tenure may be, I believe that it’s important to recognize a few key issues that will shape the discussion and form of tenure in the years to come.
Education reforms and new "union-busting" legislation around the country make this issue even more relevant. As educators and workers lose some of their rights at the bargaining table, it's important to understand how outsiders see teachers' rights and teacher tenure.
Before we begin, it may be helpful to have a quick overview of the history of tenure. Tenure was created to protect teachers against the personal and/or political whims of school administrators (and, sometimes, parents).
Initiated by New Jersey in 1910, educator tenure laws gradually spread across the country. Today most states extend some kind of tenure protection to teachers. Protections typically vest for P-12 educators after two or three years in the profession, unlike their postsecondary counterparts, whose own vesting usually only accrues after six to ten years of probationary status. More recently, a few states have actually eliminated teacher tenure or discussed doing so.
Read about the pros and cons of teacher tenure
So, with that background quickly covered, let’s get into the big issues. Note that the points outlined below don’t address whether or not teacher tenure is ideologically or educationally desirable. Instead, they highlight popular belief systems about the practice.
As a result of these and other issues, many Americans don’t really understand or support tenure. Instead, they see tenure as a refuge for incompetence and a platform for political lobbying that’s perceived as often being only marginally related to education. They wonder why the talented untenured teacher gets fired while the marginally-skilled veteran gets to take over her classroom just because she’s been around longer. They take the low teacher termination rates in most school districts and compare those to the number of poor teachers their children experience over the years. And they shake their head in dismay.
If you pulled aside your average non-educator American citizen and inquired about his support for tenure, I would venture that such support would be fairly low. In other words, I think it is safe to say that regardless of whatever benefits there still may be for teacher tenure, those arguments are losing in the court of public relations.
I don’t think the education profession is going to be able to withstand the lack of public support for tenure for too much longer. Teacher tenure is too easy a political talking point and too easy to mock with soundbites and statistics. Without compelling rationales for continuing the practice – ones that resonate both intellectually and emotionally with the American public and politicians – it’s only a matter of time before tenure inexorably disappears from the educational landscape.
So if tenure is worth preserving – and many think it is – the challenge for American teachers is to somehow address the issues delineated above and sway the American public back in favor. Right now, I don’t see that happening in any substantive way. Even if teachers made this a major PR push over the next few years, I think it’s an uphill battle.
Scott McLeod is an Associate Professor, Coordinator of the Educational Administration program, and Director of CASTLE, at Iowa State University. He blogs regularly about technology and school leadership issues at www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org. For those of you who are wondering, yes, he’d give up his own tenure.
Where do you stand in the teacher tenure debate? Share your opinion in the comments section!