The Myth of Teacher Tenure

Guest Blogger: Marian Hoffner 

    An article that appeared in January in The New York Times summarizes the efforts of several Republican governors to eliminate teacher tenure in their states. These governors argue that it is virtually impossible to fire ineffective teachers based on the tenure laws as they exist. They also argue that the seniority that comes with tenure forces districts to furlough young, motivated, enthusiastic teachers and hang on to those burned-out teachers at the top of the salary scale. I would like to take issue with both of these arguments.
   First of all, how will a district decide which teachers are ineffective? Will they base their decision on the results of a single standardized test such as the PSSA? That would suggest that no one and nothing is accountable when a child does not do well on that test except for the child's teacher. It absolves the child's home life, parents, economic background, societal conditions, even the child's health and state of mind on the day of the test, from any responsibility for that child's performance. And since most standardized tests evaluate only math and reading, how will a school assess the performance of a phys ed teacher or a foreign language teacher or a physics teacher? Or perhaps a teacher's effectiveness will be judged by an administrator through classroom observations. The problem with this is with the administrator conducting the observation. Unfortunately, being a good teacher is not a prerequisite for becoming an administrator. Too often, it is a teacher who could not handle the classroom or who has had limited classroom experience who chooses to go into administration. Can such an individual fairly decide who can and cannot teach?
    My biggest argument, though, is with the idea that young, motivated teachers are being tossed aside while burned  out teachers with more seniority hang on to their jobs.  As a teacher for 34 years, I am offended by the premise that all of my experience means nothing. A good friend told me once about a piece of research that showed that on the average, a teacher makes more than a thousand decisions in a day. Some of these are as simple as deciding which of the fifteen hands waving in the air should be chosen to answer a question. Others are as complicated as deciding what to do when a student tells you she is being bullied on the playground or abused at home. Every decision has consequences, some of them life-changing. To make the right decision, a good teacher must rely on the wisdom that comes from experience. Not the experience from college classes or in-service training, but the experience that comes from day after day, year after year, making these decisions and learning from their consequences. If all of the older, experienced teachers were gone, who would the younger teachers go to for advice when they have to make these decisions?
   Eliminating teacher tenure might make these Republican governors feel good about themselves because they are taking on the big, bad teachers' union. But it will do absolutely nothing to solve the problems that face the American educational system today.