The continuing debate statewide and nationally over teacher tenure underscores the fact that it is a longtime controversy that sorely needs to be addressed.
Tenure is a system born a century or so ago to stop the practice of firing public-school teachers for no good reason. Too often, teachers were replaced because they were of a certain ethnic background, held certain beliefs or simply weren't as chummy with the bosses as someone else. Clearly, a remedy was called for.
That remedy was tenure, by which, typically, after three years of employment a teacher was granted a status that offered protection from arbitrary dismissal.
The trouble with that turned out to be that dismissal for even good and valid reasons became next to impossible. The result was that some teachers who were mediocre or worse enjoyed virtual lifetime protection, to the detriment of the students and the community.
Tenure protections were applied to the extent that districts had to go to extraordinary legal and financial lengths to drum a bad teacher out.
In this region, that complaint has often been uttered by attorneys representing school districts. Unions have sometimes rushed to the defense of teachers with vulnerabilities, fearing that if they didn't, all teachers would wind up at risk.
An Associated Press story in the Press-Republican Jan. 25 noted that a trend is building in which states are more frequently and more vigorously assailing tenure. Some are dismantling it altogether, insisting instead that when layoffs are necessary, they be accomplished through competence and performance rather than seniority and tenure.
Teacher unions bark at this, arguing that teacher morale and due process are being jeopardized and that older teachers are being targeted.
Rating teachers has never been easy. The great ones and the bad ones are easy to spot, but, closer to the middle, the disparities are harder to identify, as they are in any profession.
New York state is pressing districts to establish teacher evaluations, even threatening to withhold funds unless systems are established. But schools say the state isn't offering enough guidance on how to establish performance reviews that are fair. They shouldn't be too heavily tied to test scores, because student achievement can be influenced by far more factors than the teacher alone. But conceiving a better system for establishing ratings is a challenge.
If the tenure issue is becoming as heated as is being portrayed, it's time to address it. As the state and school districts focus on teacher performance, the time seems right to evaluate the tenure system and how it can be improved to include better accountability. We don't think it should be eliminated — it still offers necessary protection — but a better means of addressing failing teachers is needed so they don't drag our schools down with them.
