With all the fuss about reforming public education, you would think by now there would be some talk about those who are teaching it. Why are there K-12 teachers out there who are protected by tenure, yet don’t deserve to be?

  According to a website about tenure, “Teacher tenure is the increasingly controversial form of job protection that public school teachers in all states receive after 1-7 years on the job. As of 2008, 2.3 million teachers have tenure.”  On one hand, tenure is a logical way to secure jobs for teachers who have been doing exceptional work for years.  But when abused, it may end up protecting substandard (or even dreadful) teachers simply because of their years on the job, which could ultimately harm students’ educations (teachertenure.procon.org).

   According to commentary on a study published in Education Next, “The fundamental finding is that good teachers have an extraordinarily powerful impact on the future lives of their students. Symmetrically, the researchers show the lasting damage that poor teachers have on the lives of their students…. [and] evidence shows that bad teachers cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost income and productivity each year that they remain in the classroom” (hanusshek.stanford.edu). Poor teachers are bad for the students and bad for the education system.

   Teacher tenure first started in New Jersey in 1909. According to the website of the American Federation of Teachers, “…tenure rights came out of the progressive good-government movement as a way to improve the quality of teaching and education for children” (aft.org). Though the initial reasoning behind tenure was meant to support education, it now seems to be hindering it. That is not to say that all teachers who have taught for a long time are substandard — in fact many get better as they gain experience — but rather that we need to have a more aggressive approach to ensure that teachers are performing at high levels throughout their educational careers.

   We should hold teachers accountable for the way they teach and how well they do so, not just for how long they’ve been on the job. “According to the pro-education reform documentary Waiting for ‘Superman,’ one out of every 57 doctors loses his or her license to practice medicine. One out of every 97 lawyers loses their license to practice law.  In many major cities, only one out of 1000 teachers is fired for performance-related reasons” (teacherunionexposed.com).  It is necessary for teachers to be held responsible to similarly critical standards, just like others in similarly important jobs.

  Schools and districts should implement ways to measure teachers’ skill levels and abilities. Salaries and job security should be tied to teaching quality, not quantity (in years). According to a website looking for a better solution, “…the current tenure-based system is not a good model…. The best option is a renewable contract system,” which involves teachers creating a “portfolio of items that justifies contract renewal,” such as a sample of their “most effective instructional activities.” With a multi-platformed way to judge teachers’ skills, we will be able to achieve a better state of education (edge.ascd.org). Test score improvements and evaluations by administrators, parents and students should also be considered as factors for determining teacher compensation as well as firing.    

   According to an article in the New York Times, “It’s the classic driver of, ‘I taught it, they didn’t learn it, not my problem.’ It has a decimating impact on morale among staff, because some people can work hard, some can do nothing, and it doesn’t matter.” When all teachers are paid using the same scale, regardless of performance, there is no incentive work harder, improve or even maintain standards. The good teachers who remain good teachers do so for the love of teaching, and there just aren’t enough of those out there who are willing to do this when morale is low and pay doesn’t equal the work load (nytimes.com).

   Senior Nicole Garcia stated, “I think it is important that teachers are judged on how well they teach.”   

   If we want a better education system, we need to confront the tenure issue in various ways. Schools need to focus not only on student performance, but teacher performance as well.