Public School Teachers and Administrators: How should we fire them?

[Igel]

77. The problem is in the question and defintions.

This is often the case.

How to fire bad teachers? The process is awkward and time consuming. And rare.

But, we object, since there's no way that 99% of those hired will be at least average, esp. since public school faculties pull disproportionately from the bottom 1/3 of college graduates, how can most teachers be acceptable? Don't we need a streamlined, efficient way of dealing with bad teachers? I mean, think of the kids? Something must be done and must be done now about all the bad teachers.

Well, that needs unpacking.

First, there's a huge washout rate in teacher certification programs. So the group isn't a random sample. They self-select, and then the certification program removes some inappropriate candidates. Student teaching programs have a notably high washout rate. But bad teachers get hired--and often drop. If you don't student teach, by the end of your second or third year, when you'd be up for tenure, you've had a drop-out rate as high as those who entered the student teaching program.

It's really unnerving to get up and teach what you don't know. It's even more unnerving to see low test scores come back from your students or to stand in the middle of an out of control classroom. Your psyche says to either run for the exit or the strychnine. And, if you don't, you often just don't get tenure.

So the question has to be, How is it possible that most of the tenured teachers do an acceptable job? Because 30+% of those entering the field drop out and a few percentage points more are never given tenure and are forced out. If "average" is 10-15 points of that magical 50% line, there's most of your answer.

But some bad teachers stay. They're hired by accident or out of need or whim. They're tough or stupid enough to not care that they're hurting students. Fire them? Probably not. In good districts they're trained and sent off to professional development. In some cases, it's decent PD. In others, not so decent. But content knowledge can be added if classroom management is there; classroom management isn't just a gift or talent but also a set of skills that can be taught to most people.

That leaves bad tenured teachers who slip through the cracks or who become bad teachers. Some get burned out and stop caring. Usually they leave soon thereafter. Some are assigned classes they have the certification to teach but that's 20 years old or marginal. They can learn or revert back to what they know. In some cases the demographics change, and a good teacher becomes bad because the students change. Such teachers usually leave; some are retrained.

In some schools the administrators have little choice. I know a school in a neighboring ISD that has a job opening. It's been open for 3 months. No applicants. The administrators are afraid that some other marginal teachers will leave because if they can't fill the current opening, how are they going to fill 4 or 5 openings? The response has been to crack down on the teachers and reorganize and rearrange them. Surprise! Mid-semester the bell schedule goes from 7 periods a day to a block schedule! At the semester break, students are all reshuffled to put more problem students in good teachers' classrooms, and then those teachers suddenly all want to leave.