Teachers rally at Capitol on tenure measure

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

About 300 teachers were in Jefferson City lobbying lawmakers over a measure that includes phasing out the state’s teacher tenure system.

The teachers held a brief rally Tuesday the Capitol rotunda Tuesday. Among other things, the bill would not allow the state’s tenure law to apply to teachers hired after June 2013.

Ralf Trusty, president of the Missouri State Teachers Association, said teachers are an important part of a child’s development. He said teachers need to know their jobs are secure so they can do those jobs well. Missouri teachers generally receive tenure after teaching in a district for five years.

Supporters of phasing out tenure contend it has allowed some teachers to remain longer than administrators prefer.

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wyriontair 1 year, 2 months ago

And who was teaching the kids Tuesday while 300 teachers were lobbying????

tonto_goldberg 1 year, 2 months ago

Why ask a silly question? Substitutes were in the classrooms, obviously. Whether the kids did better or worse than with their regular teachers might be a better question to ask.

spelchek 1 year, 2 months ago

"...teachers need to know their jobs are secure so they can do those jobs well."

Performance based employment motivates not only to keep your job but to be rewarded monetarily based off said performance. Mr. Trusty's quote promotes quite the opposite. If I know I don't have to worry about my job, where's the motivation to do my job well as he states?

I can't believe that: a. people by this logic b. this man is involved with education

Sequoia 1 year, 2 months ago

I think the issue is the relationship between performance standards and actual teacher quality. For example: If a teacher's classes have consitently high test scores, that doesn't tell us whether she's a great teacher, or just a lucky teacher with a classroom full of rich kids with good parents. I think what this guy is getting at is that we don't want a teacher worrying that his future is based on some bureaucrat looking at stats out of context and out of that teacher's control. We can agree that performance standards are good, but that doesn't get us very far. The details are the problem.

And, the fact is that bad teachers, generally, don't make it to tenure. Bad teachers are fired or quit long before they get tenure.

tonto_goldberg 1 year, 2 months ago

A. The only people who get paid based on their merit are commissioned salespeople. Every other form of performance based employment is a con job, foisted on us by people who can't do actual work. Instead, they design and sell expensive performance management systems. I get lots of junk mail from them.

B. You are especially fortunate to have not spent much time around teachers. A teacher's formal evaluation in a school setting is a loopy pretense based on their clique membership, their attendance and presentations at teacher meetings, and the number of parental complaints. Whether there is any learning going on or whether the parent complaints are justified don't matter.

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