How to redefine teacher tenure

04-27-2011

Opinion by Gary M. Chesley/Education Week

Gary M. Chesley is the superintendent of schools in Bethel, Conn.

We are witnessing a national search for a scapegoat. The conversation shifted from Wall Street and the banks, to mortgage brokers and politicians, and now to public-service unions and teacher tenure. The media must explain a struggling economy, budget deficits, political dysfunction, and a failure to compete globally. Through all this noise, teachers and the tenure laws present a fertile target for bombast and demagoguery. The word tenure is derived from the Latin tenere, meaning “to hold” or “to keep.” Tenure, designed to protect the teacher from political reprisals or arbitrary dismissal, started in 1866, when Massachusetts communities enacted such teacher-protection laws. In 1909, New Jersey became the first state to adopt a tenure statute. The purpose of teacher tenure was to provide the same protection deemed essential to judges and university professors. These professionals were to be unencumbered by undue influences when making decisions about the law or instruction. Teachers of the day needed protection from boards of education and administrators who summarily replaced them to reward cronies or as punishment for curricular, instructional, or disciplinary decisions drawing ire. There have surely been periods of societal upheaval that justified tenure protection. (more...)

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