Stupid question? School have to look at certification - programs being offered or dropped and many other factors. Teacher contracts are there for a reason - it is tough to arbitrarily judge teacher performance taking into consideration ability of students etc. Seniority is a fair way to look at layoffs. You confuse the issue - ineffective teachers can be removed if administrators do their job.
SAHD - 14 years ago
As in the business sector, the performance of the employee should be the major criteria by which layoffs are determined. Without this factor, tenured teachers do not need to do any more than the minimum to get by. There are many teachers with 20 to 30 years of service that do a fabulous job, but there are also many who have lost the motivation to improve each year and coast by. If these teachers knew they could possibly be laid off they would improve or leave on their own. We owe at least this much to our children.
Stupid question? School have to look at certification - programs being offered or dropped and many other factors. Teacher contracts are there for a reason - it is tough to arbitrarily judge teacher performance taking into consideration ability of students etc. Seniority is a fair way to look at layoffs. You confuse the issue - ineffective teachers can be removed if administrators do their job.
As in the business sector, the performance of the employee should be the major criteria by which layoffs are determined. Without this factor, tenured teachers do not need to do any more than the minimum to get by. There are many teachers with 20 to 30 years of service that do a fabulous job, but there are also many who have lost the motivation to improve each year and coast by. If these teachers knew they could possibly be laid off they would improve or leave on their own. We owe at least this much to our children.