>I’m glad to see that nobody was fooled by that article: Readers remain very skeptical of the Bergen Records Sunday piece ,”In North Jersey, teacher tenure is no sure thing”
All I can say is “That’s nice, but irrelevant”. The discussion is not about the three years spent busting your butt to get tenure, it’s about the next 40+ spent being essentially unfireable. At the High School level, no less.The article quoted is probably a plant by, the NJEA to build sympathy.
Readers were also highly skeptical of the use of the term ‘highly qualified”. It is a misnomer that many of our teachers are categorized as ‘highly qualified’, unless by qualified, you mean “compensated”.About half my children’s teachers each year are no longer effective and some are just biding time.Thank you, ‘no sure thing’ tenure.
The problem with tenure is not who gets it, but the fact that once a teacher gets it they are guaranteed a job for life. People change,needs change, and there is no way to guarantee that your best performers on day one, will be your best performers in 5, 10, 20or 30 years. Tenure needs to go. Teachers should be evaluated based on performance every year, just like other professions, which is the only way to keep standards up and costs down.
When it comes to tenure most readers thought critical results based annual evaluations are needed for teachers – no tenure, no guaranteed job for life. Teachers who work in more challenging districts should have evaluations different from those who teach in districts like Ridgewood where there is parental support for the schools and parental involvement in education…not all kids are so lucky.
