Ringing the Bell for K-12 Teacher Tenure Reform

States have done remarkably little to reform their policies by which new teachers are granted tenure, according to a new report by the Center for American Progress. The extremely low rates of dismissal for chronically low-performing but tenured teachers means that most tenured teachers are essentially employed for life regardless of their success in teaching their students. These findings come from a new report written by political science professor Patrick McGuinn called "Ringing the Bell for K-12 Teacher Tenure Reform." The report provides new data on teacher dismissal; analyzes current and past teacher tenure reform proposals; and highlights recommendations for policymakers.

The report also presents for the first time new state-by-state data from the U.S. Department of Education's Schools and Staffing Survey that shows that school districts dismiss or decline to renew the contracts of only 1.4 percent of tenured teachers each year. In Michigan, districts on average dismiss 2.6. percent of tenured teachers and 12% of non-tenured teachers each year. The extremely low rates of dismissal for tenured teachers, and the fact that dismissal is generally pursued for egregious conduct violations, means that tenured teachers in most states enjoy the functional equivalence of employment for life.

The report also finds that both the tenure granting and tenure revocation processes ultimately depend on the underlying district teacher evaluation systems to function effectively, but these are also deeply flawed. Unfortunately, in most states teacher tenure processes remain largely disconnected from teachers' performance in the classroom or student achievement.

Read the full report (pdf)
Read the executive summary (pdf)

Recommendations include:

• The federal government should leverage education funding to push states to develop more meaningful teacher evaluation systems based on a clear definition of teacher effectiveness. The U.S. Department of Education should fund demonstration programs that will provide empirical evidence of how effective different kinds of teacher tenure policies are on raising teacher quality and student achievement.
  
  
• Empirical evidence should be the basis for a serious—and unprecedented—conversation among policymakers as well as the general public about the costs and benefits of teacher tenure and the circumstances under which it should be granted and revoked.
  
  
• States should reform their tenure laws to explicitly mandate that teacher retention and dismissal decisions incorporate teacher effectiveness data.