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State Impact: Principals Won’t Fire Bad Teachers
Recent analysis has found that even when they are given the option, principals are not inclined to dismiss bad teachers from the classroom.
While many see teachers unions as yielding an unfair amount of power over school boards and preventing bad teachers from being fired, a recent study has found that unions aren’t able to prevent principals from holding on to bad teachers.
As the research shows, even when principals are given permission to fire bad teachers, they choose not to. Matt Di Carlo at the Shanker Blog writes:
“Principals don’t let go of a lot of teachers because they don’t want to, not because they can’t.”
Economist and education policy professor Brian Jacob was one of the report’s principal authors. He analyzed a 2004 change in the Chicago Public Schools’ teacher contract that “dramatically reduced the costs of firing a probationary teacher in the district,” writes Kyle Stokes at State Impact.
“Existing teacher contracts in many large, urban school districts actually provide considerably more flexibility than is commonly believed and yet administrators rarely take advantage of such flexibility. The apparent reluctance of many Chicago principals to use the additional flexibility granted under the new contract may indicate that issues such as teacher supply and/or social norms governing employment relations are more important factors than policymakers have realized.”
Chris Tessone at the Fordham Institute agrees:
“The professional culture in most public schools still sees firing as an extreme response to bad performance, instead preferring endless remediation. The supply of decent job candidates is probably not up to demand in CPS, either, meaning the labor market is a barrier to implementing better policies around teacher performance.”
While the study doesn’t include tenured teachers whose contracts certainly offer more robust protections, Di Carlo believes that constantly blaming teachers unions isn’t correct:
“We should be careful not to reduce the complexity of employment policies and labor markets to a simple narrative in which personnel policies are the only impediment to improvements in teaching quality…
“There is little support for the idea that principals are just dying to fire at will — or that, once dismissed, teachers can easily be replaced by “better” alternatives — despite sometimes being taken for granted in our education debates. Although they are far from conclusive, and pertain only to probationary teachers, the descriptive results discussed above tentatively suggest that the supply of appropriate replacements may not always be quite as robust as is often assumed – and/or that there may be some other reasons for low dismissal rates that are not entirely a function of the difficulty of doing so.”
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Comments
You mean it wasn’t the big bad mean unions keeping bad teachers in the classroom? It was the fact that getting someone into a classroom to teach for crappy salary and no actual recgnition for the job you’re doing is difficult? Well, color me shocked.
This just shows that when you fish up administrators from the same pool as the teachers, they retain their union loyalty to an unacceptable degree.
The article addresses some of the reasons why some schools have lower quality teachers. The schools can only select from those that apply for the jobs. In the current economic condition the quality of the job candidates should be higher. In addition the dismissal of an employee hired by an administrator asks the question as to the reasons why that individual was initially hired by that administrator.
The quality of candidates might be higher now (and I even doubt that) but the minute the economy shows a glimmer of life, all new teachers with even middling talent will go to better paid and more rewarding jobs elsewhere. Hey, you are setting up this Darwinian system, don’t complain later when your kids can’t add or read. Teaching is a rare talent indeed and if you think they don’t deserve to have job security and a good salary, you get what you pay for.
I am yet to see a study that links this entire cadre of “horrible teachers” that people keep complaining about with the problems in the education system. Show me some facts that the teachers are the problem, and then I will support the idea that we should be able to get rid of teachers on a whim.
wow joe, your ignorance knows no bounds
how about this, the percentage of teachers fired annually in unionized states is higher then the percentage of teachers fired annually in non union states.
how does that fit in with your warped world view?
You are so funny, TT. What are facts to Joe?
No kidding! Teaching in a high poverty area is HARD. And the pay SUCKS. I’m only two years in and I’m already seriously questioning my choice. Thanks to RTTT and Arne Duncan, many of my seasoned colleagues who had been committed to urban education are fleeing for the suburbs now that pay will be tied to test scores. I have no idea who will take their places. TFAers?! Maybe for a year or two. Sign this petition to send a message to Obama – Duncan has got to go.
http://dumpduncan.org/
Joe has dogma-why would he need facts?
[...] “There is little support for the model that principals are just dying to heat at will — or that, once dismissed, teachers be able to easily be replaced by “better” alternatives — malice sometimes being taken for granted in our cultivation debates. Although they are far from clinching, and pertain only to probationary teachers, the descriptive results discussed too proud for tentatively suggest that the supply of appropriate replacements may not through all ages. be quite as robust as is ofttimes assumed – and/or that there may exist some other reasons for low dismissal rates that are not entirely a occupation of the difficulty of doing thus.”Source [...]