I think we can all agree that some teachers are excellent – even life changing for their students. And that some teachers are suck-tastic. Driving the love of learning out of a student and making them hate school. This has nothing to do with tenure.
That said – experienced teachers tend to be better at classroom management (keeping control of the class and keeping them focused on learning.) This is because if they haven’t mastered classroom management by a few years in – they will be driven batty and be driven to quit, themselves.
I’d live to see ALL districts run a program like the Map tests. I know PUSD uses it – and San Diego unified does not. This is a test administered at the beginning of the year, and at the end of the year. It measures where a kid’s level is. And by comparing the end of the year to the beginning of the year you can tell if improvement was achieved.
This is important for kids who are not in the middle of the bell – you want your bright kids to improve – but they may be starting out ahead of their grade level… teaching them topics they already know won’t lead to improving… just stagnation. Conversely remedial students may be starting out behind grade level. It’s unreasonable to expect them to achieve the same end of year levels as someone who’s at grade level at the beginning of the year.
These tests could be used to show if a teacher is effective… Improvement for all kids assigned to that teacher.
It requires the teacher to differentiate more than the current system does… but that helps the students.
In SDUSD – there have been some high profile cases of principals being punished for taking on their bad teachers. Dr. O at Lincoln is a recent example. I’ve heard through the grapevine that the principal at CPMA middle might be in a similar situation.
Currently there is no recourse for principals to fire bad teachers in San Diego Unified. I don’t think it’s a union thing – I think it’s a structure thing in the district. I’d like to see teachers have a voice in any discipline – but I’d also like to see principals able to effectively run their schools.
