Welcome

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

To Tenure or Not to Tenure...that's the question

I am in charge of new teacher support. I affectionately call my group of teachers "The Blue Crew". Our Blue Crew members range from having 1 year to 3 years of experience in the classroom, and it is my responsibility (and major project) to ensure that they have the resources and support necessary to be successful in the classroom. Two of my Blue Crew members are up for tenure this year, and my principal wants to know what I think. Herein lies the rub...

Teacher A: She teaches lower grades, and so to me does not possess a sense of urgency when it comes to education at all. She used to be our school's PreK teacher and was amazing, so my principal offered her a K/1 position so she could loop with her kids and get higher pay. Needless to say, these past two years have not been anywhere near as amazing as her year in PreK. Her struggles that we work through are (1) designing her own curriculum versus having one created for you as is done in PreK, and (2) knowing what is rigorous of K/1 students and not limiting them which is also done in PreK. Overall, I think she just lacks the drive behind being a career educator and is doing it until something else better comes along...But, is that reason enough to not tenure someone? She shows up to work, and does alright, but is it too much to ask for excellence?

Teacher B: This girl is a box of chocolates - you never know if she is going to cry in front of her kids, be out for 2 weeks, walk out of the room in a panic, or get into an argument with a parent. Despite all of this, her scores are ridiculously high, her students are some of the most behaved in the building, and she is highly effective. Not to mention, I think it is tough finding such an amazing, fifth grade teacher who can handle our students so well. But, she is completely unreliable, emotional, and inconsistent. Should her professional character even influence the tenure process?

                                      

I owe my principal my final decision about the two, but I feel like I still don't even know how to make this decision or even if I am basing my decision on the correct information. I have read a lot about tenuring awesome teachers, bad teachers, and how that effectively it is almost impossible to non-renewal an ineffective educator: http://teachertenure.procon.org/ (for all sides of the debate).

Here is what I think I will recommend...
Teacher A: She can have one more year since she did PreK, and I would option that year. In that year, her students must show growth, and she must demonstrate her instructional development and professional learning if this is her chosen profession. If she is not capable of demonstrating those things, then I would non-renew her.

Teacher B: I would say yes, but I would also inform her that her professionalism will prevent a lot of things from happening to her in the future. For example, she really wants to be grade level chair, but it is hard to make someone so inconsistent a grade level representative. So, I would tenure her for certain but make sure that she is growing professionally as well.

What would you do? Tenure or not tenure...?

3 comments:

  1. Hi, Kolt. Disclaimer: My background - academically or professionally - is not early childhood. That being said, is Teacher A a second- or third-year teacher? Is it possible that she's still trying to get her classroom legs? I can vividly remember my first few years teaching & how much I struggled with planning; I know I made my job a lot harder, oftentimes by reinventing an already perfected wheel. How is she with her classroom environment? Is she in a team/community that can help her?

    As for Teacher B, I agree with your recommendation, especially after having a talk about professionalism; I feel that is one area that we tend to overlook, & I wonder why that is...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Josh!
    Teacher A is the trickier of the two. My boss basically said that not everyone is a superstar and that we should tenure her because while she knows she isn't a total Rock Star, she still gets the job done. For me, that is like settling with a C when some A's could be out there. I don't know...I just feel like we should hold higher expectations for teachers so that students get quality. It has to be about more than filling a space. But, then again, she did make the great point that the teacher you know and can work with is better than the teacher you don't know.
    But, yeah she is a first grade teacher, and has had 3 years to get those classroom legs together. We are going to give one more year of a non-tenured position to either show out or the other option would kick in.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. One thing you may consider with teacher B. If she is a good teacher, she really should get tenure. However, those other issues are major issues. I would recommend documenting them and making her aware of your concerns. If problems persist, it is certainly possible to terminate her for the reasons you mentioned.

    ReplyDelete