Before delving into the pros and cons of teacher tenure, it is imperative that the definition of tenure be discussed. Tenure varies from state to state and Wisconsin has no tenure for teachers.  Teacher tenure occurs after a number of years of closely examined performance. Attaining tenure simply makes it more difficult, but not impossible for schools to dismiss teachers. 
While state laws vary as to the number of years, most of the laws created by the state legislators include specific rights for tenured teachers.

The tenured teacher can only be dismissed for specific reasons named in the state statutes. The tenure laws give the teachers with tenure the right to bump non-tenured teachers if their position is eliminated and they are qualified for the non-tenured teacher’s position. It also requires written notice given to the tenured teacher with reasons for terminating them. Tenured teachers can receive a hearing before the board of education in most states and can then take the matter to the Supreme Court for a hearing if they choose.
As early as the 1990s, states began to look more closely at the tenure laws. Schools were failing students and status quo no longer could be endured. However, the teachers hold a strong front and their union has adequate funds to maintain a fight for the teacher tenure.
There are good reasons to maintain that status quo. Tenure insures the teacher the right to speak out on political issues that directly affect the schools.  Since teachers are closest to the front lines, they often have informed opinions on legislation and changes that benefit the schools. Without tenure, the school board could easily dismiss the most vocal of teachers.
However, political issues do not constitute the most dangerous part of eliminating tenure. Financial issues are the key reason tenure continues. It simply makes sense for a financially strapped school corporation to release the more expensive teachers in favor of less seasoned but far more inexpensive new ones. Without a requirement for justification of dismissal, this is one potential.
On the other side of the issue is the negative effect that tenure has to maintain inadequate teachers and those whose behavior is uncomely in the school situation. It costs money to dismiss a teacher that chooses to fight back. Thousands of dollars are wasted each year when the school board dismisses tenured teachers that wish to fight their decision. Even if the evidence is overwhelming, the legal expense to support that decision is still a drain on the school corporation.
Because of this, often corporations choose to overlook failing teachers that have received tenure.  This often favors those that do inadequate jobs in the classroom and the real losers are the students. There are however, solutions to the problem.

Extending the tenure probationary period is one solution. Some states, such as California, have extremely short probationary periods. These shorter periods often do not give the schools an opportunity to review the performance of the teacher adequately before they grant tenure. By extending the period of probation, it would allow the schools to more easily weed out those teachers performing poorly.
Superintendent Frances Gall fired the entire staff of the Central Falls High School because the union failed to work with her on implementing changes to the contract. Central Falls High School was labeled the worst performing school in the state. Gallo intended to change this and identified areas that needed work. She wanted to include extra duties for the teachers without additional pay. While the changes were minimal, the union representative declined them and Gallo fired everyone.
While the actions of the Rhode Island superintendent were dramatic, to say the least, they reflect the urgency the administration felt in improving the education of the students in that district. Perhaps status quo is no longer a choice in the educational world where America is falling behind other nations in providing a sound educational foundation for tomorrow citizens.

Click Here!

The teacher must have a love for knowledge and the desire to impart it. They also must have a strong intuitive sense and caring nature. Most of all, teachers must expect that their students will learn and believe in not only the students, but also their own ability.

Classroom management skills are important as are subject matter mastery. Here is where education and mentoring help the novice teacher. Often they face situations that they never considered while attending university classes. The seasoned teacher not only can help them through these times but also provide a working model for the novice to mirror to avoid crisis in the classroom.

The core requirement to good teaching is belief and a firm grasp on classroom management. The teacher sets the pace for each child in the classroom. The more the teacher believes in the child’s capability to conquer subject matter, the more successful the student is. This is the Pygmalion effect, also known as Rosenthal’s self-fulfilling prophecy.  The higher the expectation of the teacher, the more the child tends to accomplish.

While this optimistic attitude may not be natural for many of the new teachers, the teacher can learn to do this with practice.  It involves first, identifying the need to see each student as capable. The teacher learns the importance of this concept in college or with a mentor. Once the novice teacher understands this, they then need to make a concerted effort to see each student as capable. They need to understand that the ability to learn is within each child, the key is finding the method to unlock that ability.

Teachers need to be able to sell the concept of the child’s capabilities to the child and their family. In order to do this, they must be able to spot even the most minimal of growth and take the time to call parents and tell them of the child’s achievement for the day. Often, parents seldom hear from the teacher unless their child is unruly. This positive technique builds not only the esteem of the child, but also a cooperative attitude in the parents.

Classroom management is a task that requires a well thought out plan ahead of time. Classroom rules with rewards and consequences need assessment so the teacher can put them into written form before the first bell rings on the opening day of school. Children need to be aware of the rules immediately. The use of a mentor helps to identify the necessary rules to maintain classroom order.

Establishing the classroom routine the first day of school is also another way to help the class run smoothly. Again, the help of a mentor to create a manageable program is beneficial. Children that know what is required of them and what to anticipate next often find learning easier than those who have to anticipate what happens next.

Effective teaching requires organization, identification of goals and rules but it also requires the strong belief of the teacher that it is all possible. The most effective teachers are those that don’t give up in the face of adversity but look for ways to use the new information they gleaned from it to make their classroom more effective for learning.

Click Here!

Linda Brown lived in a school system that segregated its students based on race. This eight-year-old child had to travel miles across Topeka, Kansas to attend her grade school, simply because she was black. Her white friends from the same neighborhood simply walked a few blocks to their school. The law at the time allowed this because it followed the separate but equal doctrine.

However, Linda’s parents didn’t believe that she received equal treatment and took the issue to court. Lower courts ruled in favor of the school system based on the separate but equal doctrine. The parents then took the issue to federal court stating that the facilities for black students was far from equal to that of the white students. Thurgood Marshall argued the case in court and found that even though the facilities may have been equal, the simple act of segregation caused an inferior label placed on the black student.

This was the end of not just school segregation but also segregation of public facilities in general. It also was the beginning of efforts to create racially balanced classrooms, often at the expense of children’s well being and educational processes.

Many corporations today put their students into the same situation that Linda Brown had to endure. The reason, however, is the exact opposite of Linda’s. It is in an effort to provide racially balanced classrooms. While the segregation of races created long travel time for Linda to attend her school, the desegregation attempts now create similar situations for many urban children.

America has always had neighborhoods populated with those of similar ethnic backgrounds. The populace of the neighborhood could be recent immigrants of a particular country or those of a particular race.  Many times, you’ll find a large black community in one area and a white community equally as large across town.

If children attended the school closest to them, the ethnicity of the neighborhood dictated a racial unbalance. Schools across the country attempted to create artificial balance by bussing students to other schools a distance from their home. The problem creates not only expense of bussing but also cuts many students out of before and after school activities because of the distance and lack of transportation.

The ruling of Brown vs. The Board of Education attempted to stop the useless bussing of students simply based on race. Today, school corporations use that ruling to promote the bussing of students based on race, even though it’s an attempt to balance the race. The results are fewer dollars for the classroom and disruption in the lives of children bussed. What initially was a case to stop unnecessary travel based on race now promotes it. While these corporations follow the letter of the law, they would be better to follow the spirit of the law and use the funds they save on bussing to improve the quality of education.

Some of the reasons for the drop out rate exist within the system. Students often see themselves as stupid or incapable because others labeled them so at an early age. Whether it is a parent or a teacher makes no difference, the child is a product of the self-fulfilling prophecy. Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson tested this theory on grades 1 through 6 at a predominately lower middle class school.

They told the teachers that the test was one that identified children about to have a significant spurt in academic growth. After they administered the tests, they identified to the teachers those randomly selected as top ten performers.  While the only difference between these particular students and any others was the fact the teacher believed they were about to make huge gains in academic learning, testing at the end of the school year showed that they actually made these gains.

The observer-expectancy effect, now known as Rosenthal’s Self Fulfilling Prophecy effect took place. The biggest growth was at the first and second grade level for the students randomly identified as educationally blossoming. The study shows how the attitude of both teachers and parents has a huge effect on the capabilities of the students.  It is one way to detour drop outs at an early age and examines the potential for searching for and reporting even small gains in learning to parents. It also is a reminder to teachers to discontinue using labels, particularly on school records.

Not all students drop out because of negative labeling at an early age. Some students simply face social pressures in school that make it difficult to function at a peak level and ultimately lead to school avoidance behavior and finally dropping out of school. This type of pressure can be either negative influences or aggression upon the student in the form of bullying.

Negative influences have to do with the prevailing attitude of education.  If students with good grades are viewed with distain in the neighborhood or education is seen of little value, then the system begins disadvantaged and drop out rates continue to soar. The challenge here is to use the school incentive program to enhance the image and purpose of a good education. Social norms require change but it’s a tall order for most schools and requires a special connection to the students and community to offset the effect.

Bullying is also part of the reason for the dropout rates. Bullying takes place when some students feel the need to control their environment. They often feel they don’t have any say in their future so they select a random victim they can control with bullying. Indentifying the bullies and those bullied early can reduce not only school dropout rates but also in-school violence.

While the incentive program is a start, it is imperative that teachers begin early to help reduce the dropout rates in the schools. These less educated students lower the statistics for the American schools and as a result infuse many unprepared adults into the workforce. Without the basic education necessary for an adequately paying position, the productivity of the country is at stake.

Debates abound in different countries as to what extent the government should involve itself in the affairs of public schools. While some feel that the government should be deeply involved, others feel that the government should limit itself to formulating policies, guidelines and developing curriculum and leave the management and running of public schools to the local community through their local elected school board committees.

While investigating to what extent the government should involve itself in public schools, it is prudent to clearly state that governments’ involvement in public schools in developed countries is less compared to developing countries.

Whether in developing or developed countries, one thing remains clear, public schools are funded through a country’s exchequer and it is tax payers’ money that is used in their running and management through budgetary allocations.

Education, being key to any country’s development, is taken seriously by any government. Any government will try as much as it can to get involved in the management and running of public schools knowing very well that it’s survival depends partly on the success of the country’s education system.

Developing countries have well-structured education systems and advanced schools’ infrastructure. Governments in developed countries involve themselves in school’s infrastructure development, provision of learning aids and materials, teacher recruitment and training, school inspection services and appointing a representative to the school board committee. The local community is left with the responsibility of appointing a school management team and recruitment of other necessary support staff through the elected school committee board.

In developing countries, governments are deeply involved in public schools, right from the construction of new public schools and maintaining them, equipping the schools, recruiting and training teachers, conducting national examinations, running and managing the schools through teachers who in most cases do not have managerial skills.

A good example of deep government involvement in public schools can be found in Kenya. The government introduced a policy eight years ago that made primary education free and compulsory. This saw the number of children enrolling in primary schools rise from about 1 million to 3 million in just the first year. This was a very positive move by the government since it also subsidised secondary education and provides bursaries to needy students. However, with little budgetary allocations, the standards of learning have reduced, as the teacher-pupil ratio stands at about 1: 70. It is important to note that Kenya’s efforts in ensuring education for all it’s citizens freely or at subsidized rates is bound to translate in huge gains for the country. Kenya’s efforts have attracted the attention of world organizations such as UN and other Non-organizations have stepped in and are providing funding.

So, to what extent should the government get involved in public schools? From the afore stated, it cannot be generally stated that governments are deeply involved in public schools or not. This depends on a particular country you are reviewing. While a country in a developed part of the world has little government involvement in public schools, a government in a country in the developing part of the world finds itself forced to shoulder all responsibilities in relation to public schools.

One school corporation in Indiana had large numbers of teacher layoffs. At the same time, they interviewed to fill a position that required expertise in the area of insurance. The school board required an insurance licensed candidate to represent the school corporation.  The salary was higher than any compensation for the teaching professionals and three times that of a beginning teacher. Considering the high salary, you would believe that the job entailed selecting the right company and negotiating to receive the best price for the school corporation’s insurance. In reality, the teacher’s union was empowered with that position.  This representative simply explained the package to the staff once a year, made themselves available for questions and provided forms. Since every insurance company has a representative to do the same job, that’s why they get commissions, the need for this high paid position boiled down to providing forms, something that any clerical help in the main office could handle.  This is one example of misdirected funds.

The new superintendent of schools for Kansas City, Kansas, Cynthia Lane, identified the problems with the budget immediately. She organized a list of ways to save money without cutting the people directly in contact with the children. Her solution was to make changes to her office and reorganize to save money, reduce attorney fees, forestall equipment replacement and one other almost unheard of solution, lower her own wages.

Lane proposed salary cuts of three to five percent for everyone making over $67,000 a year in order to save money and provide much needed services.  However, to make certain everyone knew that she too was willing to suffer the cut; she agreed that if salary cuts occurred, the board should reduce hers by five to eight percent, depending on the plan chosen.  The reduction in salary of the highly paid, forecast to save that corporation between one-half million and three quarters of a million dollars.

Other corporations now institute practices once reserved for the private sector. Some of these corporations now look for leaks in their budgets. Some of these leaks involve the cost of utilities. Simply changing the light fixtures to more cost-effective ones is one method of corporations lowering their utility bills. Other ways they save is through an effort to make certain they receive the lowest price for those utilities and something as simple as turning out the lights at the end of the day.

Other schools, particularly smaller corporations, find that outsourcing certain tasks save them valuable dollars. In Minnesota, Fridley, Brooklyn Center and Columbia Heights are three smaller corporations that now look to a management service to replace the in-house business manager. This outsourcing costs close to half of the previous salary of their business manager and that doesn’t include the benefits the in-house manager received.

Budget cuts and rising costs may be a dilemma for many corporations but it also might be the turning point to identify the waste once accepted as normal for the business of operating a school corporation. It creates opportunities for corporations to focus on the glut and waste of earlier years and eliminate it.

However, the ability to maintain discipline in the classroom is dramatically thwarted by the rules and regulations faced by teachers today. Simply touching a child on the shoulder has a potential to be misconstrued and leaves the teacher in a position where they must defend their actions.

Teachers can discipline the room and teach at the same time, however, the teacher must establish the discipline in the classroom first for this to occur. Discipline doesn’t necessarily mean abusive punishment. That has no place in the education of the children.

The job of establishing and maintaining classroom discipline is not an easy one. Many students come from homes where the parent is emotionally as immature as the child is. They offer no guidance to their children since they have none of their own.  Other children come to the classroom equipped with the necessary skills to begin the job of learning. They have age appropriate behavior and the ability to focus for the appropriate length of time necessary to absorb the material presented.

Unfortunately, teachers must contend with both styles of children in the same classroom. Without outlining strict codes of behavior expectations and consequence if the students don’t live up to the code, the teacher finds that not only the student with no classroom behavior skills becomes unruly and unmanageable, those that come equipped to learn tend to follow the lead of the unruly.

The quiet, yet effective, use of touch is no longer a viable tool in classrooms across the country.  Many school districts consider the simple touching of a student on the shoulder as a subtle reminder from the teacher to cease bad behavior an inappropriate action.  Keeping children after school is not an option for the teachers nor are many other forms of enforcing the classroom rules.  This leaves the teacher unarmed in their attempt to maintain order.

The problem is no longer whether the teacher should be responsible for maintaining discipline and teaching, the problem is how to maintain discipline with no power.  In an effort to make certain that no child feels emotional pain, teachers still have the ability to set limits but no longer have the tools to enforce the rules.  Without some type of repercussions for bad behavior, there is no incentive for some students to maintain good behavior.

While positive reinforcement is a strong and effective tool for most students, a minority of students do not respond to this type of tool immediately. These children can disrupt the behavior of the entire classroom if there is no alternative solution for the teacher.  Once the control of the classroom leaves the hands of the teacher, it requires massive effort to regain it. During that period, no effective learning takes place.

The teacher is the focus for learning and discipline. Each educator needs to outline the minimum required behavior for the students at the beginning of each year and identify the punishment for breech of the rules, then follow through in a dedicated fashion. The rules must identify specific actions such as no talking while another is speaking without moral lecture on rude behavior.  Through a cooperative effort with the administration, when implemented effectively and strictly, the teacher will have control of the classroom and dedication of time to discipline will be minimal.

Most school corporations raise their funds from taxing property owners in their district. State income tax also provides additional funds to operate the school corporations. At times of economic downturn, these sources of revenue slowly decline and dry up to the point that school corporations have to make dramatic cuts in their staffing and programs.

During a recession, when many students often require even more services from the schools, often the budget restraints demand that fewer services are available to the students. Student that come from families who lose their homes to foreclosure, now face the dramatic change to homeless without the aid of counseling, since many schools eliminated those positions.

Parents, often faced by looming bills and no money to pay them often face dilemmas that include the purchase of appropriate school wear, food, shelter and medical care. The stress that results creates a tense environment for students, at best and a dangerous one at the other end of the extreme.

It is often difficult for students to face the overwhelming effect of poverty when attending school. Lower grades and humiliation go hand in hand with economic disaster to the family. While some parents have the ability to maintain a positive attitude during tough economic times and pass this on to their children, it is rare to find these individuals.

Foreclosures also often mean change for students in other ways. If the family has the resources, they can find local housing to rent at a lower outlay. Some also face moving in with other family members until they find work or a higher paying position. Those who have neither option often look at the homeless shelter as their only alternative.

All of the options available to the family that suffers foreclosure due to the recession often uproot the child and have a negative effect on their educational process. The child resumes the educational process in not only a new school, but also as a student with the additional stresses, which come from not having enough money.

During the times of recession, however, often programs such as counseling are cut and the students have limited sources to turn to when they need them most. Parents, of course, always provide the pivotal foundation for the student, but they often find themselves also overwhelmed in difficult economic times and therefore often unavailable to provide the necessary support.

In times of a recession, teachers and school administrators need to be more aware of the problems faced by the student because of economic disaster in their family unit. While counselors may seem expendable during these times, they often are far more necessary. If the school doesn’t provide them, it should be imperative that teachers receive help in understanding and implementing techniques to aid the student of the newly poor families.

The schools face a financial crisis and part of the problem in the preparation of students for work comes from that shortage. Many schools that once offered curriculum that included vocational arts, computer science and other specialties, including college preparation now face cutbacks and a watered down curriculum. Those that still offer true vocational arts programs, however, deal with issues of helping the student make their skills marketable by increasing the communication ability of the students.

Even with the programs in place, students still leave the high school with few marketable skills for the jobs. For those in a general education course, often the basic math capabilities, reading and communication skills are limited at best and totally absent at worst.  This leaves the student ill prepared for any position, such as store clerk, that requires not only the ability to communicate effectively but also some basic math.

In order to attack the problem of sending illiterate and ill-prepared students into the job market, most schools adopted a core curriculum.  The core curriculum is one year of college preparatory courses and includes a foreign language, more focus on English, science and mathematics. This movement is now nationwide.

The focus on core skills occurs because many students are not yet ready to make a decision on their future occupation. It also addresses the fact that Johnny simply can’t read or write intelligently after he successfully received his diploma and threw his mortarboard into the air. The tug between a focus on vocational and practical arts programs and core curriculum still leaves many students with watered down versions of both.

In an attempt to face the issue, many schools have adopted alternative programs that involve internships and work experience in areas such as health care, auto mechanics, electrical occupations, computer science and construction. These programs allow the child to utilize more time in school for core instruction while attaining experience and education in job they wish to explore.

The dilemma of the ill-prepared students does not begin at the high school level but earlier in the learning career of the child. The failure of the school system at the upper grades is simply a reflection of the failure of the system and curriculum at the primary education level.

Schools no longer teach but simply control the masses of children. They face an overwhelming task of accommodating every potential special needs child with kid glove empathy and making certain that no one feels failure. In an attempt to do this, they fail the students by allowing children to pass the grade without the basic skills, simply because they have a special situation.

This biased and unfair practice tells those children they don’t have the capabilities to learn. Instead of insisting on basic skill levels in the classroom, teachers adjust grades for the short falls of the student. This is the most insidious form of insult, not only to the educational system but also to the student himself. The teacher no longer believes that there is hope to teach this child, and because of it, all learning ceases.

Compensation for attention deficit, English as a second language, at risk children or other blocks to learning should not become the rallying point for lower expectations. Instead of lowering the bar for these students and admitting defeat, the school corporation needs to focus on setting standards of excellence and doggedly sticking to them.  The schools can only accomplish this task by a more stringent belief that students can meet expectations and accept no excuse for failure.  Only then will the schools provide students prepared to enter the work force.

In far more progressive schools and corporations, good ideas come from all sources, parents, students and teachers. This process is educational empowerment. It draws upon resources often neglected in the traditional schools and by that act, unites the school and community for an exciting and effective union.

Everyone has something to offer when it comes to the child’s education.  In early times, parents were often responsible for their child’s educational process. They knew their student and taught them the knowledge they had in a manner that normally worked well for their children. The creation of large school corporations took that ability away from parents and in most situations even from the teacher.

Empowerment gives back the control of the educational process for the benefit of all involved. As a parent, if you feel that what you have to add to your child’s education is valued, you tend to value the system higher and support it more thoroughly.

As a teacher, empowerment gives you the ability to use the skills you spent hours honing and flex your creativity in the classroom for the benefit of the students. The added freedom means the use of creative learning techniques, more input into the creation of curriculum, more job satisfaction and an increased desire to work toward perfection.

As a student, empowerment gives you a voice in finding what works best for you. While you may fight some of the new changes, often you’ll find they are far more beneficial than the status quo techniques and help you to not only improve your test scores but also find they include exciting and interesting ways to make that happen.

Empowerment focuses on everyone’s involvement to help Johnny read better, Susie understand math and George identify all the states of the union. Many of the newer programs depend on everyone’s involvement to help the student. They require the dedication of all to the acquisition of excellence.

The reduction of drop outs, revamping of No Child Left Behind and the Race to the Top are examples of the government opening up the challenge for school reform. While competing for large school grants, as outlined in the Race to the Top program, may seem a bit out of the traditional sense of decorum for many schools, it brings the competitive nature of school corporations to the foreground. This was only witnessed before in athletic endeavors. It also creates an environment ripe for innovation and creativity. This method of fund competition forces many different political entities to take a second look at change for the schools under their auspices.

With the new changes in legislation and governmental programs, the potential for empowering teachers, parents and students is ripe. This is a time to take action, speak out and have your voice heard. If you choose not to, you may loose this important opportunity forever.