On Tenured Teachers in the School System - Research Paper Example

Research on Tenured Teachers in the School System Education is essentially one of the most important areas of human activities. It ensures the future of human civilization by securing the deliverance of knowledge, and thus often becomes the subject of public discussion given the variety of controversial subjects it bears. Tenure teaching debate is one of such subjects that concern not only the teachers and politicians but also society in general. The interest in this problem was piqued after the reform several years prior, which identified the boundaries and possibilities of tenure for teachers. All around the United States, public reacts differently to the framework of teacher tenure. In regard to the discussions, there are people who are prone to supporting tenure for teachers stating it protects teachers’ rights, as well as those who oppose it straightforwardly due to the fact that it does not allow to fire teachers even with the lowest professional competence. According to the poll conducted by the “Time” magazine, currently, the population of the U.S. is mostly opposed to tenure, with two-thirds of people expressing their doubts in the necessity of a lifetime job security for teachers (Time, 2010). In order to understand the details of the discussion and provide the basis for evaluation of this problem, it is necessary to consider the arguments of either side that provide the comprehensive explanation of what is tenure for teachers and what are its possible manifestations in practice. This essay will aim to research the pros and cons of the teacher tenure in the school system to identify the major arguments that this problem raises currently. In order to understand and evaluate the utility of tenure for teachers, it is first important to define what tenure is and how it is being currently displayed through the education reforms of the latter years. Teacher tenure is “a system in which teachers who have successfully completed a probationary period […] can only be fired through a lengthy and complicated process that is laid out in the state tenure law and the local collective bargaining contract” (McGuinn, 2010, p. 4). It is essential to further note that part of the problem of evaluation of the utility of tenure is enclosed in the fact that definition of tenure and its understanding varies in different school institutions around the country. Still, the basics is the same: the teacher is given a probation period, during which they are obliged to demonstrate positive effects and their professional competence. The probation period is different in different institutions, which depends on the legislation of the state: for example, generally the probation is about three years, however, in Mississippi, tenure can be provided after one year of teaching and in Ohio it will get seven years to end the probation period (Parker, 2012). After it comes to an end, the teacher can be proposed a tenure, which guarantees they will have a job. Moreover, the guarantee is that such a teacher with tenure will not be fired without a just cause, which means vital protection of their professional rights. The general justification of tenure for teachers and its first significant advantage is enclosed in the understanding of permanent contract that is being guaranteed for teachers after a set term of their employment (Parker, 2012). Firing a teacher with tenure only becomes possible after careful regard of their performance, which deprives the school board or other authorized persons to fire the teacher for inappropriate reasons, such as political, personal or other, not related to professional issues, as well as protects teachers from false accusations (Mathis, 2010). Yet another essential detail to be considered is delivered through the understanding of cost as a relative good. Teachers with good reputation and solid experience are often expensive, which can be regarded by school administration as a shortcoming. Tenure protects experienced teachers from being dismissed for this reason. On the other hand, this same issue of protection becomes the primary disadvantage of tenure when doubts of the teacher’s competence raise. Due to tenure, it might become a problem to fire such a teacher without primarily addressing a lot of bureaucratic issues at hand. Moreover, another disadvantage that should be addressed here is that undergoing the legislatively fixed procedure of firing a teacher is costly and thus a lot of institutions might ignore the necessity of dismissing a teacher based on this consideration alone. In order to avoid this problem, some institutions are prone to secrecy by providing a teacher to dismiss certain sum of money (Mathis, 2010). This allows the schools to avoid disclosure and the expensive, long and difficult process of firing a tenured teacher. There is a set of other pros and cons that should be considered when talking about teacher tenure. Among the pros, there is a notion that tenure is actually quite a useful and beneficial instrument when used correctly (McGuinn, 2010, p. 26). Tenure can create the environment that allows the teachers to improve as it creates healthy competition and motivates teachers without tenure to work harder to get it. This same consideration is true regarding the fact of receiving tenure, which should be difficult in the first place: only the teachers competent enough should be able to get tenure, which further justifies why it is so hard to dismiss the tenured teacher. Furthermore, the understanding of protection for teachers allows them to concentrate on their educational duties since they do not need to think about being fired. Academic work is no exception as job security allows to take time for research and study of their area of competence further. This might concentrate their efforts into the right direction, as well as allow them to experiment with the new materials, information technologies and educational techniques without the fear of being fired for it (Mathis, 2010). In the modern world, this seems to be a justification reasonable enough since a lot of schools actually perform poorly in regard to their rigidity toward changes and innovations. This issue, of course, has a shortcoming of its own as tenure not only encourages teachers without tenure to work harder but also teachers who already got tenure to relax and feel too comfortable. Complacency as such becomes a common argument as the poll from “Time” (2010) indicates: over half of the interviewed Americans believe tenure does not motivate the teachers to work hard and thus their professional competence of lacking, thus harming the educational system in general. Curiously enough, this same point of view is being defined not only for the public but for the teacher and administrator community, as well. As the statistics indicates, over forty percent of the teachers recognize there are tenured teachers who deliver poor instructions and even should be dismissed based on this fact, even though it is not a common practice (McGuinn, 2010, pp. 5-6). The fact also is that lessening of tenure protections is most commonly supported by the new teachers with less experience (Parker, 2012). Overall, with this awareness at hand, the benefit of competition can be seriously compromised, especially with current understanding that tenure is an ‘all-or-nothing proposition’, which should not obligatory be the case. The identified problems and possibilities of tenure that are explained through pros and cons of the system allow to further research the probability of elaboration of the framework for the system to be beneficial. Today, there is still no single thought about the utility of tenure given the variety of pros and cons described above. However, the scholars mostly agree that there is a need to introduce multiplicity of details in order to solve the problem, including salary protection, department elimination, post-tenure review, and so on (McPherson & Schapiro, 1999, pp. 88-91). The majority of details considered, it is possible to create the system of tenure that would be less harmful in the variety of situations regarded. Moreover, the mere fact that tenure for teachers allows this much issues to be introduced, despite the complicated and time-consuming nature of the system, appears to be an advantage as it provides the fundament for further research in the sphere that might benefit the school system altogether through eliminating the problems and promoting the gains of tenure. To conclude, the issue of teacher tenure is currently among the hottest for broad debate, being discussed by politics, teachers and general public alike. It is justified by the controversies of the issue and the necessity of change to take place if tenure to still hold its place in the educational sphere in the U.S. The points of view differ from arguments of its benefits to the necessity of eliminating teacher tenure altogether. Most common justification of tenure covers the understanding of protection for the teachers that comes after certain probation period. This introduces job security that allows the teachers to work within their competence sphere without fear of being dismissed, experiment with new materials and techniques, etc. On the other hand, while competition is also regarded as a benefit, there are cons of complacency and laziness that might appear for the tenured teachers. As such, there are different perspectives on tenure, yet the scholars mostly agree that it is necessary to regard tenure as a more comprehensive and multi-dimensional instrument in order to solve the problems currently existing through elaborating the appropriate framework of conduct. References Mathis, M. (2010). Teacher Tenure Debate: Pros & Cons. TeachHub.com. Retrieved December 5, 2015, from http://www.teachhub.com/teacher-tenure-pros-cons McGuinn, P. (2010). Ringing the Bell for K-12 Teacher Tenure Reform. Center for American Progress. McPherson, M., & Schapiro, M. O. (1999). Tenure Issues in Higher Education. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 13(1), 85-98. Parker, S. (2012). Pros and Cons of Teacher Tenure: What You Didnt Know. Takepart.com. Retrieved December 4, 2015, from http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/11/09/pros-and-cons-teacher-tenure Time. (2010). Americans’ Views on Teacher Tenure, Merit Pay and Other Education Reforms. TIME Poll Results. Retrieved December 5, 2015, from http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2016994,00.html Read More