The most popular of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
’s three initiatives set for November’s special election is the
proposition to increase the amount of time required for teachers to
earn tenure. A recent Field poll showed 61 percent of likely voters
favor this proposition, while the other two initiatives languish
with below-majority approval.
The most popular of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s three initiatives set for November’s special election is the proposition to increase the amount of time required for teachers to earn tenure. A recent Field poll showed 61 percent of likely voters favor this proposition, while the other two initiatives languish with below-majority approval.
The initiative would increase from two years to five years the “probationary” period for teachers. It’s much easier to fire a teacher during the probationary period than after tenure has been granted. We’ve heard quotes as high as $200,000 and time estimates of two years for school districts to dismiss a tenured teacher.
Given the snail’s pace at which most government bureaucracies, school districts included, operate, increasing the tenure period is probably a good idea. Teachers are where the “rubber meets the road” in the process of producing educated students, so it’s imperative that districts have a sufficient time frame in which to evaluate them.
But while we’re endorsing this initiative, we do so with a caution: it’s not a panacea, for the Morgan Hill Unified School District. It’s important that the district continue to improve its hiring and teacher evaluation processes.
The district needs to make sure it is hiring teachers whose guiding principle is educating students, not using the school system to right perceived social ills, to advance political causes, or to experiment with educational philosophies. If the MHUSD hires teachers whose only agenda is to educate students on the subjects they’ve been hired to teach, who demonstrate ability to communicate with students and parents and with a dose of common sense, then many of the issues that tend to plague the public school system in our country would dwindle.
Further, the district, like all public schools in California, must continue to refine its teacher evaluation process, and must insist that it be implemented uniformly at all school sites. Teachers must know what is expected of them, must be told clearly when and how they are and are not meeting those goals, must be given a path for improvement when needed, and there must be consequences when those goals are not met.
For non-tenured teachers, that can more easily include dismissal, but there must also be consequences for tenured teachers. Teachers who do not meet their job performance requirements can be assigned or reassigned to less-desirable classes or school sites, can be mentored by peers who are successful, and a culture of excellence can create peer pressure to improve or leave. Finally, that two-year, $200,000 estimate for dismissing tenured teachers must not frighten school administrators from firing tenured teachers who are damaging our students and our district.
Increasing the probationary period for teachers from two to five years is just one step in making sure that Morgan Hill – and all California public schools – place only qualified, competent, cooperative teachers in our kindergarten through twelfth grade classrooms.
