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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
An Argument : A 9 page paper. One of the more controversial issues in public education is the practice of teacher tenure. Tenure, originally adopted to protect teachers against unfair and arbitrary dismissal, now does little more than protect teachers' jobs regardless of the quality of their performance. It also keeps good teachers tied to an unfair pay schedule while giving incompetent teachers an automatic pay raise that has nothing to do with performance. There are many arguments for and against tenure but in today's world the arguments to abolish tenure outweigh the arguments to keep it. This essay presents both sides of the argument. Bibliography lists 10 sources.
Page Count:
9 pages (~225 words per page)
File: MM12_PGtchtn.rtf
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regardless of quality of performance? Tenure laws exist for K-12 public education and in nearly all higher education institutions, public or private. As we all know, it is nearly impossible
to fire a civil service employee; the same is true for public school teachers. Dismissing a teacher in the public school education system takes months to years and costs that
school district hundreds of thousands of dollars (Mcgee and Block, 2001; Briggs, 2003). Many have said that teacher tenure is one of the primary causes of the mediocrity of the
American public school system. for instance, Charles Sykes said: "Tenure corrupts, enervates, and dulls higher education" (Mcgee and Block, 2001). John Gierak, an attorney, said that the Michigans Teacher
Tenure Act is "the single biggest obstacle to correcting the problem of poor teachers in [Michigan] public schools" (Mcgee and Block, 2001). The first comment addresses higher education, the
second addresses K-12 public schools. Although tenure laws exist through higher education, this essay addresses issues only as tenure is concerned with K-12 public education. LaRue comments that even defining
tenure is a "tricky undertaking" (1996). The different terms used by different states include "continuing contract teacher," "permanent teacher," "career teacher," "professional teacher," and "tenured teacher" (LaRue, 1996). Each term
is reflective of rights of teachers under the statutes of different states (LaRue, 1996). Generally, they all mean the rights teachers gain once they complete the required probationary period in
that state (LaRue, 1996). The Michigan Federation of Teachers & School Related Personnel defines tenure as "After four years satisfactory service in an appropriate position, a certificated teacher automatically attains
tenure" (Michigan Federation of Teachers & School Related Personnel, n.d.). The probationary period is typically three or four years. In Michigan, it is four years and the probationary teacher must
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