Don't Take Away Tenure

Some of the material in this post was adapted from an article by Karen E. Magee in the timesunion.com newspaper.


Most people outside of the education world are very confused about tenure.  They think it means that a teacher cannot be fired.  This is NOT what tenure means nor was tenure put in place for this purpose.  Tenure entitles teachers to due process to a fair hearing before an impartial third party if a district seeks to discipline or fire a teacher.  This is the same protection given to police officers, firefighters, and other public servants.   It prevents teachers from being dismissed as a result of an arbitrary or capricious whim.


In  most districts, everyone,  except employees hired under civil service and the superintendent, is eligible for tenure.  In New York State teachers and administrators earn tenure after a three-year probationary period. In public education, teachers, administrators, and other school staff must be free to speak out on important issues without fear of reprisal.  Teachers and administrators must be able to advocate for their students without fearing they can be arbitrarily dismissed for doing so.


Picture what would happen if teachers---maybe even your child's teacher---could be fired at will.  Currently, teachers are voicing their opinions about excessive standardized testing.  They are able to ask about budgets and budget cuts.  Most importantly, in communities where rising property taxes are triggering loud opposition, they don't have to worry that their school board will simply lay off the most expensive teachers---even if they happen to be the best and most experienced---so that the district saves money. 


Tenure has been loudly criticized because it has become such a burden to discipline or fire a teacher.  In New York that process has been streamlined.  In 2012 the law was amended to require all disciplinary hearings to be completed within five months.  Most cases are settled before it gets that far.


Tenure allows teachers to teach and administrators to do their jobs.  It creates an atmosphere of academic freedom--an environment in which the entire school community will thrive.

Open the GATE

    

Much of the material here is adapted from an article by Walt Gardner from November 14, 2011.


GATE or Gifted and Talented Education needs some attention in this country. According to the National Association for Gifted Children or NAGC (2007) just two cents of every $100 of Federal money in education is given to gifted education.


     What is gifted education?  Who does it target?  That is up to individual states and individual districts.  Different school districts do different things.  Only 5 states in the US require any training in gifted education. Except for Massachusetts and South Dakota all states have a definition of giftedness, but very few states provide resources and programs for the gifted. 
    
     Only in the U.S. are gifted children treated as stepchildren. Despite their growing numbers, which are now estimated at 3 million, they have no strong lobbies in Congress. As a result, they remain underresourced and underchallenged even though they are a national treasure. A report by the National Association for Gifted Children found that the brightest students are falling behind their international peers on math and reading tests ("Brightest Stall, Low Achievers Gain," The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 12). This squandering of talent is hard to understand and even harder to defend.

Up until the 1990s, gifted students were taught in separate classes. But this approach was considered elitist. Consequently, they began to be mainstreamed. However, even before then, the only initiative at the federal level to provide resources for states was the Jacob Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act. Although it was passed in 1988, it largely languished in the shadows. Passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, which focused almost exclusively on the lowest performing students, further hastened its obscurity. According to the National Association for Gifted Children, only 31 states require schools to identify gifted students, and just 23 earmark funding for them.


     Gifted students require differentiated instruction.  They should be taught by teachers with certification in methods proven to be effective with this population just as special education students are.  It is not elitist.  Appropriate education is different from equal education. About 3-5% of any given population will be gifted.  Right now our population is approximately 318 million people.  That means there may be about 15,900,000 gifted people here.    Now consider China.  They have a population of 1.3 billion. Their gifted population is 65 million or about a fifth of our entire population. Contrary to the American system of education, China spends a great deal of money identifying students who are gifted and providing them with great resources to develop those gifts.


     We should be identifying our gifted students and providing them with opportunities and instruction in leadership, academics, character education, and the arts.  They are our most precious resource.  They are the future of our country. I would not want the brightest people in the world to have no schooling in character ed. or leadership or citizenship.  Would you?