This article introduces the Faculty Appointment Security Typology which combines the variables of Permanent Faculty (tenured, tenure-earning), Contingent Faculty (non-tenure), Full-Time, and Part-Time. The research question is, are female and minoritized faculty overrepresented in less secure faculty appointment types, and has the phenomenon…

There is considerable variability in the design and quality of resource provided to teachers. There is also a lack of empirical backing guiding the process of curricular resource design, specifically as it relates to teachers in different stages of their careers. The purpose of this study was to explore curricular resource use by Florida SBAE…

In January 2023, the AAUP announced the establishment of a special committee to review an apparent pattern of politically, racially, and ideologically motivated attacks on public higher education in Florida. Since then, the undersigned members of this special committee have interviewed more than forty faculty members and a former president at…

During the 2021, 2022, and 2023 state legislative sessions more than one hundred and fifty bills were introduced seeking to actively undermine academic freedom and university autonomy. This includes nearly one hundred academic gag orders affecting higher education, such as those restricting the teaching of "critical race theory" (CRT)…

To best train and support school leaders in their evolving roles, they require high-quality preparation and in-service pipelines that both address the changing demands on their positions and acknowledge the cascading effects that well-prepared leaders have on both student outcomes and in school culture and retention. Including school leaders in…

The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to explore if and to what extent a correlation existed between school administrators' leadership styles and tenure of school special education teachers in schools in Southwest Florida School District. This study was conducted within the theoretical framework of McGregor's Theory X/Y and…

In November 2022, Florida governor Ronald DeSantis, won reelection by a decisive margin and the Republican party gained supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature. During the governor's first term and after reelection, the Florida House and Senate passed legislation and the DeSantis administration took executive actions that further…

Just a few years ago, tenure appeared low on the reform list for state policy makers and district administrators, viewed as too hot an issue politically to challenge. But it was front and center in the 2014 landmark "Vergara v. California" lawsuit, which challenged teacher tenure and related policies. Yet whether to grant tenure or not…

This report seeks answers to a straightforward question: "How hard is it to dismiss an ineffective veteran teacher?" Toward that end, the authors constructed a ten-point metric based on three subquestions: (1) Does tenure protect veteran teachers from performance-based dismissal? (2) How long does it take to dismiss an ineffective…

In the last few years, all but a few U.S. states have rushed to enact tougher teacher evaluation systems. Spurred by the incentives offered by two federal education initiatives--Race to the Top and the ESEA Flexibility Program--these states have designed teacher evaluation systems designed to "remove ineffective tenured and untenured…

In this report, the authors examined the elimination of teacher tenure in Florida to better understand how job protections for teachers affect students. The authors focus on identifying the effect of removing tenure as part of Florida's 2011 Student Success Act on student outcomes, and in particular the effect if this legislation on student…

Debates over the efficacy of tenure are longstanding but tenure reform is now more prominent in the public eye given recent high-profile legislative battles in states like Ohio and Wisconsin. This focus on tenure also is a natural outgrowth of the large body of research showing that differences between individual teachers can have profound effects…

Community colleges are under pressure to educate a growing student population while economic resources in higher education are diminishing. One measure of success for colleges is the ability to retain students. Due to the varied nature of the community college population, measuring student retention is challenging. One facet of student retention…

Tenure is under fire. Conservatives have long attacked such policies as tenure that constrain the ability of managers to fire whomever they want, but the latest assaults on tenure have invoked liberal egalitarian ideals. With all the problems in education, why are we so fixated on teacher tenure? What is really going on? How did tenure get its…

This paper analyzes a 2002 policy change in Florida allowing teachers to choose between a traditional defined benefit pension plan and a 401k-style defined contribution plan. The authors were able to track who chose which plan, what subject they taught, how effective they were in the classroom, how long they remained teaching, and whether the…