I realize this isn’t exactly a new idea, but a large chunk of the “bad apples” in education do occur as a result of tenure. That said, rather than abolishing it outright, why not have a “strikes” system in place. That is, after students or parents file (this number is obviously debatable) 5 complaints against a specific teacher in a single school year, their tenure is suspended until the next school year. Thus, any complaints after this temporary suspension are treatesd as though the teacher has no tenure, and is thus easier to fire if they are truly a bad teacher.

Can someone please explain what’s wring with this idea?

As a 24 year old typical American, I can say I have dealt with a wide array of teachers. Half were totally average. They cared, but usually more about the subject matter than the students – they knew their material, just not their audience. Of the other half, about 30% were total mooches, and were pty clearly phoning it in 4+ days per week. These people would’ve made excellent white collat managers, but just aren’t cut out for a job that doesn’t welcome sociopaths. They kept their head low, got tenure, and shelled out discioplanary infractions on a whim just because they felt like teaching a smaller class that day. The remaining 20% are like my 8th grade science teacher. We had 34 students in that class. I was new of 5 she had on a special curricukum. We’d be given chaoters to read just like the other kids. The next class, she’d ask us each a totally random question, and it was usually very, very specific. No way to skim those answers. If we got them right, we got to spend the class goofing off on a classroom computer that day. However, ALL of us had to get our question right, else we ALL spend the class listening too the lecture. I actually got mine wring twice because some of her lectures where that good, but usually we all made a point of living with 20 minutes of bring text each night because it meant an hour less boredom the next day.

This was an innovative technique she used on then smartest kids in the class. Hiwevwr, it eventually inspired many of my classmates to also study harder. I came back the next year for a visit and she had improved the program. Now, after each test, she chose the top 5 scores to participate in the program rather than a static 5 each year. A month from the end of the achol year, she said her test scores were uip almost 40% overa

In otherwords, she knew her students. She realized that if given a proper incentive, they’d put in the effort. In this case, she had a class full of two kinds of people. Those who wanted to learn, and lost causes. By using laziness as an incentive, she motivated both. In the end, the kids learned more, enjoyed the class more, and I heard the got a raise 2 years later.

Anyhow…badly off topic, but if we’d structure tenure to give an oppritunity to fire the worst teachers, then rehire more teachers like my 8th grade science teacher, I think it’d make the system better for everyone.