Teacher Tenure Research

Before Massachusetts introduced teacher tenure in 1886, women were sometimes dismissed for getting married, becoming pregnant, wearing pants, or being out too late in the evenings

In a June 1, 2009 study by the New Teacher Project, 86% of school administrators said "they do not always pursue dismissal" of poorly performing teachers because of the costly and time consuming process

MYTH #1: "There is a tenure law in California for K-14." The truth is, California dismissal law doesn't refer to tenure. The concept of tenure as it developed in the medieval university has no connection with current practice, which provides only dismissal procedures guaranteeing due process rights and pertinent reasons for dismissal actions. Tenure has become a popular term used as a scapegoat for the real problems, which are ineffective evaluation of instruction, poor administrative practices, and inadequate investment by the public schools in experimentation, research and development, and in-service education.

MYTH #3: "You can't fire a tenured teacher in California." The truth is that teachers are fired every year under the dismissal laws in California. In addition, when difficulties in dismissing teachers arise under the law, it is inadequate application of the law by administrators, and not the law itself, that is at fault.

MYTH #4: "Tenure is designed to protect teachers." The truth is that due process was developed and exists primarily to protect pupils and schools from political, social and economic interference with pupils' right to a continuing program of quality education. The major function of due process is to insist that decisions about the quality of instruction in the schools be based on educational reasons, rather than on prejudicial or inappropriate selfish reasons.

MYTH #6: "A good teacher doesn't need tenure." The truth is that teachers who perform satisfactorily need the protection of due process and it is the competent teacher who is most needed to maintain and improve the quality of education for pupils. Every educational employee is entitled to due process. The broad spectrum of instructional practices require that differing methodologies require equal protection guaranteed under California laws. The competent teacher needs the due process laws!

MYTH #2: "Tenure is a lifetime guarantee of employment." The truth is that teachers have permanent status, not tenure. Within permanent status there is a procedure for dismissing teachers which guarantees due process and impartial consideration of the facts when disagreement about the facts exists

Although we can wish it wasn't so, by working so closely with young people, teachers place themselves in situations that can be abused by students and parents with their own agendas. Although rare, examples of students manipulating teachers to get them fired (or reprimanded) do exist. Additionally, parents trying to protect their children often blame teachers for perceived wrongs before they hear both sides of the situation. Tenure offers teachers protection from a situation where a district might be tempted to fire a teacher facing an expensive legal battle rather than investigate the matter and work with them through the lengthy legal process.

The concern of being fired if the principal decides to observe you on a day when a lesson goes poorly or the students decide to act up causes a lot of anxiety for new teachers. With no idea when the principal or department supervisor might be popping in to watch your class, teachers working toward tenure often fall back on lessons that the know work at least moderately well rather than branching out and trying something new. By giving qualified educators the knowledge that their job is secure as long as they continue to do it well, it removes that anxiety and allows them to focus on providing excellent educational experiences for their students.

One of the biggest complaints supporters of tenure make is that the problems facing tenure are often due to administrators not using their evaluation system appropriately. Currently, almost 99% of tenured teachers evaluated receive "satisfactory" ratings. This means that when a district wants to dismiss an under-performing education, it has to explain how the poorly performing teacher received "satisfactory" ratings for so long. This is one of the main causes for the expensive and lengthy legal battles. Tenure supporters state that if principals and administrators would evaluate all educators more reasonably, then teachers who are not doing their job would have the opportunity to improve (and would have more feedback on what exactly they needed to do to improve) and, if they did not, it would be far easier to dismiss them.