The time has come for Alabama to hold bad teachers accountable

 

This story from Alabama captures one of the biggest problems plaguing our public schools (at least in places where the union is strong): the almost total impossibility of firing any tenured teacher, not matter how eggregious the behavior.  Of course teachers should be protected against arbitrary dismissals, but the pendulum has swung WAY too far the other way...  For slides on the importance of teacher quality, how many ineffective teachers there are, and the outrageous way in which teacher talent is distributed, see: http://www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/Teacherquality.pdf

Why is the Alabama Education Association afraid of a little accountability?

There's no other way to explain the teachers union's opposition all session long to House Bill 831, which would restore to local school boards the authority to dismiss tenured teachers without having each individual decision reviewed by labor arbitrators (typically from out of state).

It wasn't always this way. The law used to uphold the autonomy of school boards to fire a problem teacher. But in 2004, the Legislature passed a bill - at the AEA's urging - that installed arbitrators over school boards to hear appeals from any teacher with tenure. And every teacher, no matter how borderline, is awarded tenure after three years.

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The time has come for Alabama to hold bad teachers accountable

Sunday, June 10, 2007

RICHARD BERMAN

http://www.al.com/opinion/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/118146394954080.xml&coll=2

Why is the Alabama Education Association afraid of a little accountability?

There's no other way to explain the teachers union's opposition all session long to House Bill 831, which would restore to local school boards the authority to dismiss tenured teachers without having each individual decision reviewed by labor arbitrators (typically from out of state).

A third-grade assignment from a Ridgewood school that uses reform math, in which