The focus on using the courts to abolish tenure is a distraction from the important work of improving teacher quality. Unfortunately, the recent decision of Vergara v. California has only perpetuated the mistaken notion that only after tenure is abolished can underperforming teachers be removed. But the authors contend that administrators,…

If we want to attract the best and brightest and those with the biggest hearts into the profession that educates all others, we must show today's college graduates that they have something to look forward to if they choose to be a teacher. We want them to know that teaching is intrinsically gratifying but that there also are tangible rewards and…

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…

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…

Teachers in Japan earn tenure on their first day of employment--not after two years of experience based on evaluations of teaching performance or student test scores. This is almost too good to be true. If tenure is so easy to attain, how do the Japanese make sure their teachers, especially novice teachers hired with little teaching experience,…

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…

As the Every Student Succeeds Act is returning authority over teacher evaluation policies back to the states, policy makers at the state level have the opportunity to revise their policies. But who will they listen to when it comes to potential reforms? The author surveyed education policy makers to determine to what degree teachers, education…

Americans want higher professional requirements for teachers and believe teacher pay is too low, but they don't like tenure, according to the newest PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes To­ward the Public Schools. Public school parents trust and have confidence in the nation's teachers, and they said communicating with their child's teacher…

Value-added models (VAMs) are becoming an important tool in improving teacher evaluation. VAMs' premise is that they can statistically isolate a teacher's effect on a student's test score. In other words, we can attribute a student's growth to a particular teacher, and VAMs' proponents contend that they should be used to make a host of personnel…

Discusses problems in teacher certification, tenure, and retirement benefits that teachers encounter when they relocate to other states. (MD)

Teachers in Dade County, Florida, voted to eliminate tenure in favor of a negotiated labor contract emphasizing a diagnostic-prescriptive approach to improving teacher performance and due process safeguards. (Author/IRT)

Two recent court decisions provide different answers to the question of whether university faculty members have the right to confidentiality when voting on a colleague's promotion or tenure. The controversy over these decisions should lead colleges and universities to consider carefully the appropriateness of secrecy in promotion and tenure…

After providing examples of how different reward systems impact on institutional and individual productivity, the authors present four strategies for changing the way promotion and tenure decisions are made in school of education. (IRT)