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Public sentiment against teacher tenure may have risen due to the highly publicized Vergara v. California case, in which Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu ruled California teacher tenure laws violate the state’s constitution in regards to equality of education.

Tenure laws vary across states. A teacher is tenured in Missouri after teaching in the same district for five years. Tenure laws encourage a system in which school districts undergoing layoffs must keep low-quality, tenured teachers and fire high-quality, non-tenured teachers. This is an ineffective system, as research shows teacher performance has a strong correlation with student achievement.

In a 2013 StudentsFirst poll, Missourians overwhelmingly favored tenure reform—74 percent of those surveyed reported that they would favor a system in which teachers had to demonstrate performance in order to earn or keep tenure. Show-Me Institute Distinguished Fellow James Shuls found that even Missouri superintendents are in favor of teacher tenure reform.

If Missouri wants to be among the top 10 performing states by 2020, tenure reform should be a priority. Teacher tenure may protect good teachers, but it also protects bad teachers. To ensure every child receives a quality education, student welfare must take precedent over the interests of low-performing school employees. This is what the Vergara lawsuit taught the nation.

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Missouri teachers are tenured, or become permanent teachers, once they have taught for five consecutive years within the same district. According to the American Federation of Teachers, a Missouri tenured teacher may be fired only in the following circumstances:

(1) physical or mental condition unfitting him to instruct or associate with children;

(2) immoral conduct;

(3) incompetency, inefficiency or insubordination in the line of duty;

(4) willful or persistent violation of, or failure to obey, the school laws of the state or the published regulations of the board of education of the school district;

(5) excessive or unreasonable absence from performance of duties; or

(6) conviction of a felony or a crime involving moral turpitude.  

This law is meant to protect Missouri teachers, but does it provide Missouri students with protection from bad teachers? A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge recently considered this question.

Judge Rolf Treu found on Tuesday that teacher tenure protections “disproportionately affect poor and/or minority students.” The ruling cited Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court case that declared segregated schools are not equal. Judge Treu said:

All sides to this litigation agree that competent teachers are a critical, if not the most important, component of success of a child’s in-school educational experience.  All sides agree that grossly ineffective teachers substantially undermine the ability of that child to succeed in school.

California’s teacher tenure laws may differ from Missouri’s, but the problems are the same. One Missouri superintendent reported, “Teacher tenure is the greatest restraint to student performance!” If we hope to provide all students with at least a chance at success, we must consider Missouri tenure reform.

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Several representatives saying they’d like to see intervention even earlier when a school’s scores are dropping #moleg #MOTransfers

— Alex Stuckey (@alexdstuckey) April 9, 2014

There is a lot of talk these days in Jefferson City about being proactive in public schools. Currently, when a school drops below a set performance mark, the district becomes unaccredited. Students are then able to transfer out of the district to a nearby accredited one. Many view this as a reactive, nuclear option. What we need, they say, is early intervention. We need to be proactive when a school starts to struggle. I hate to get tied up in semantics, but by definition, targeting schools that are struggling is reactive, not proactive. It is a reaction to their declining performance.

Lawmakers have their hearts in the right place, but they place too much confidence in their ability to dictate solutions from Jefferson City. After I testified before the Missouri House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee about the student transfer issue, one representative asked me what lawmakers should do to help those struggling school districts.

“What advice would you give us?” she asked.

“I would tell you that you cannot mandate excellence and you cannot dictate innovation,” I said.

“You would have us do nothing?” she asked.

“No, I would have you get out of the way,” I said. “Remove unnecessary restrictions and burdensome regulations. Free the local schools to innovate.”

Missouri could:

Reform teacher tenure policies; remove Last In, First Out provisions; and reform teacher pensions so schools have more flexibility in staffing decisions.

Change seat time and class restrictions that inhibit some blended learning and online learning models.

Try something like Kentucky’s “Districts of Innovation,” where school districts can become “exempt from certain administrative regulations and statutory provisions.”

Responding to government failure with more government action is not being proactive. Policies like the ones cited above are proactive. They put the power into the hands of the school leaders on the ground. A proactive system is one that gives school leaders the freedom to be innovative and gives parents the ability to choose.

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In New York City, it is incredibly difficult to remove a tenured teacher. There are, however, many differences between teacher tenure laws and policies in New York City and those in Missouri. In New York, teachers are granted tenure after their third year of teaching. In Missouri, it is five years. New York City has a cumbersome collective bargaining agreement; collective bargaining is a relatively new concept for Missouri teachers. Still, teacher tenure remains an important and contentious issue in Missouri.

Missouri statute says teachers earn an “indefinite contract.” However, state laws also allow school administrators to remove teachers for reasons of misconduct or incompetence. The question really is, how difficult is it to remove a tenured teacher for his or her performance in the classroom? And should it be easier?

On one side, teachers’ unions say state laws simply grant due process. On the other, some claim removing a tenured teacher is a herculean task. In a recent policy study with Kacie Barnes, I explored this question. We wanted to find out from the group that should know best — superintendents — how difficult it is to remove a tenured teacher.

We surveyed 192 Missouri public school superintendents about the topic. According to superintendents, it is not impossible to remove a tenured teacher, but it is certainly not easy, either. Nearly 75 percent indicated it was either “somewhat” or “very difficult” to remove a tenured teacher. This difficulty primarily comes from the time and paperwork necessary to navigate the bureaucratic process.

Administrators also must consider important political dynamics and the cost involved. Because the circumstances can vary greatly, estimates of the cost involved to remove a tenured teacher can vary widely, from very little to hundreds of thousands of dollars. For these reasons, among others, very few tenured teachers are removed for their performance — three-tenths of 1 percent, by our estimates.

Should we reform teacher tenure? According to superintendents, yes. Ninety-two percent of superintendents in our survey indicated they would be supportive of some type of teacher tenure reform. One superintendent unequivocally stated, “Teacher tenure is the greatest restraint to student performance!”

A possible solution many superintendents in our study mentioned is multiyear contracts. Ultimately, it seems more superintendents would like the ability to develop local policies that best meet the needs of their teacher labor force.

We may not have rubber rooms, but Missouri superintendents recognize that teacher tenure is an issue that should be addressed.

James V. Shuls, Ph.D., is the education policy analyst at the Show-Me Institute, which promotes market solutions for Missouri public policy. You can find the full policy study, “The Power to Lead: Analysis of Superintendent Survey Responses Regarding Teacher Tenure,” online at showmeinstitute.org.

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The National Center for Education Statistics webpage has NAEP data for each state. It shows that Missouri students ranked about average in comparison to students from the other states and the District of Columbia:

Fourth-grade reading: 32nd

Eighth-grade reading: 25th

Fourth-grade math: 28th

Eighth-grade math: 33th

Missouri is a wonderful state, but sadly, not every student is above average.

Wood made these statements to argue that the state does not need to remove teacher tenure. He notes that the current process for removing teachers is “concise and inexpensive” if handled properly. Make no mistake, however, MSTA does support tenure reform; tenure reform that benefits its members:

Indeed, there are reforms that can be made to the tenure law in Missouri. Currently, Missouri has the longest probationary period for teachers. MSTA would support the lowering of the probationary period to three years. Along with this, MSTA would support making changes to the hearings during the termination proceedings . . . MSTA would propose that hearings be held before an independent hearing officer. This would ensure that both the teacher and the school district present fair and relevant information for an impartial, trained, and qualified official who would then render a decision.

Apparently, to MSTA, tenure reform means making it easier to get tenure and more laborious to fire teachers. That type of system may be great if every teacher were above average, but sadly, we do not live in Lake Wobegon.

To read more Show-Me Institute blog posts on teacher tenure, click here, here, or here.

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The Show-Me Institute is in the process of researching the impact of Missouri’s existing teacher tenure laws. We have made hundreds of information requests to school districts throughout the state to discover just how many teachers have been terminated in the past decade. Generally, we are seeing few — and in some cases no — teacher terminations. Clearly, some of these school districts continue to employ bad teachers.

I have listed teacher termination statics that we have received from school districts that fall within Engler’s Senate district. Three districts report that they have not terminated a single teacher since the year 2000.

Senator Kevin Engler’s Area:

Arcadia Valley R-III: Reports terminating one teacher since 2000.

Belleview School District: Reports that the district has not terminated any teachers since 2000.

DeSoto School District: Reports terminating one teacher since 2000.

East Carter County R-II: Reports terminating one teacher since 2000.

Potosi R-III: Reports that the district has not terminated any teachers since 2000.

Van Buren School District: The superintendent writes that “There were no teachers [since 2000] that were asked to leave, terminated, or were fired by the district.”

Legislators should remember that the purpose of public education is not to employ as many teachers as possible; it is to provide education to Missouri students. As we have pointed out on this blog, we must acknowledge the uncomfortable truth that not all teachers are above average. A consistent finding in academic studies is that teacher quality matters. In fact, a study by Eric Hanushek of Stanford University found that students can learn three times as much from a good teacher than they do from a bad one.

Restricting school districts’ ability to fire bad teachers ensures that some Missouri students are receiving a poor education. As shown in the school districts from the area Engler represents, some districts rarely terminate teachers. Is this practice the best for Missouri students?

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Related Articles

Op-ed: Teacher Tenure: Why Should Educators Be Different? By Audrey Spalding and Ben Barnes

Blog Post: One Hundred Days of Bad Teaching (Or More)

The post Teacher Tenure: Time for a Change appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

All the children in Lake Wobegon are above average. In the past 10 years, the Parkway School District in Saint Louis County, which employs more than 1,200 teachers, has terminated five teachers. Perhaps all the teachers at Parkway are above average. More likely, poor-performing teachers continue to teach Parkway students.

Teachers can make all the difference in a child’s education. This is precisely why we should reward our best teachers while encouraging teachers with a track record of failure to find another job. The only way to do this is to reform Missouri’s existing teacher tenure law.

The Missouri Legislature is considering a bill that would end teacher tenure and help districts and school boards implement performance-based evaluation systems.

If the bill passes, teachers could be fired for doing a bad job. For most of us, consistently doing bad work means losing our job. Not so for teachers. Current laws state that a tenured teacher can be fired only for egregious conduct, such as willful or persistent violations of the school laws, excessive or unreasonable absences, and felony convictions. Even then, a severely truant (or criminal) teacher receives generous procedural protections. Teacher tenure reform would allow schools to dismiss teachers for unsatisfactory performance.

The reform bill would eliminate “permanent” teachers and indefinite contracts. Most of us operate with at-will employment. Again, not so for teachers. Currently, a teacher who survives a five-year probationary period becomes “permanent personnel” with an indefinite contract. Even if a district reduces staff due to budgetary constraints, school boards must thin the ranks on a last-in-first-out basis. The most senior teachers stay on the job regardless of their teaching ability.

The proposed legislation gives school administrators more discretion to retain the best teachers. Schools could contract directly with teachers for up to four years, but the board would retain the power to terminate a multi-year contract if the teacher scores poorly on evaluations. The last-in-first-out policy would be eliminated and school boards would be required to base staffing decisions on teacher performance.

Teacher tenure reform would ensure that teachers get paid for what they do, not how long they have done it. School districts currently are prohibited from basing salaries on performance-related criteria. Instead, districts pay their teachers based on length of service and level of education. The proposed bill removes this prohibition and requires school boards to consider teacher evaluations when making decisions related to pay, retention, promotion, and dismissal.

Enacting a performance-based scheme would be a big change for Missouri school districts. But the bill addresses implementation as well as substance. It requires districts to create a performance evaluation system, and mandates that certain criteria be considered in teacher evaluations, while allowing school boards and administrators to tailor the system to fit their own needs.

Not surprisingly, teachers’ unions have criticized tenure reform. Missouri National Education Association President Chris Guinther told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that “we’ve got to be given the protection that we need to give those kids the quality education that they need.” Teachers do not need protection. They need accountability. A bad teacher can teach bad classes for years. Year after year, students cycle through this teacher’s classroom, only to receive an inadequate education. Wouldn’t these students have a better education if teachers were held accountable?

Teachers do not have a right to their jobs. The Missouri Constitution gives students the right to a public education, and they should have good teachers.

Audrey Spalding is a policy analyst and Ben Barnes is an intern at the Show-Me Institute, which promotes market solutions for Missouri public policy.

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Eric Hanushek, of Stanford University, found that a good teacher can help a student learn one and a half years of material during a single academic year while a bad teacher might only be able to help a student learn half a year’s worth of material. In other words, a good teacher can help a student achieve three times as much educational growth as a bad teacher. A push for teacher tenure reform is not just about holding teachers accountable, it is about creating a way for school districts to get rid of ineffective teachers in order to help students learn more and from better teachers.

It appears that teaching is one of the most secure jobs in the state of Missouri. According to national data, few Missouri teachers are terminated in a given year.

But, I am curious about specific school districts, not just an estimated average across numerous schools. For school districts throughout the state, what number of teachers were terminated during the past 10 years? Are most dismissed teachers new to the profession (and have not yet achieved tenure), with very few being dismissed after achieving tenure? We are still doing research on this issue, but the preliminary data looks like teaching has an extraordinary level of job security.

Consider the following:

• In the past 10 years, the Cape Girardeau School District, which employs approximately 350 teachers, has terminated just two tenured teachers.

• During the same time, the Parkway School District, which employs more than 1,200 teachers, has terminated five.

• The Springfield School District, which has more than 1,600 teachers, has terminated fewer than 10 teachers in the past five years.

• The Van Buren School District, in its response to a Sunshine Law request, noted that “no teachers …were asked to leave, were terminated, or were fired by the district” during the past 10 years.

• The Shelby County R-IV School District has not terminated any teachers during the past 10 years.

• The last time the Gilman City R-IV School District terminated any teachers was during the 2002-03 school year. That year, two teachers were terminated.

Perhaps Missouri is inundated with high-quality teachers to the point that, over a 10-year period, some school districts have termination rates of as little as 0.4 percent. But, the case may be that poor teachers continue to teach at school districts that cannot (or will not) terminate them for performance reasons. And this means that some Missouri students will continue to receive a low-quality education.

Instead of keeping on the best and the worst teachers, it is time let school districts encourage the worst teachers to find new jobs, while rewarding the best teachers with pay boosts. Missouri House Bill 1526 is certainly a step in the right direction.

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1. Teachers could be fired for doing a bad job.

Most of us live in a world where doing consistently bad work means you lose your job.

Not so for teachers.

Under the current laws, a tenured teacher can be fired only for egregious conduct, such as willful or persistent violations of the school laws, excessive or unreasonable absences, and felony convictions. Even then, a severely truant teacher would get generous procedural protections from termination: a majority of the school board must vote to fire the teacher, and the teacher can appeal the board’s decision through an administrative hearing.

If this bill passes, boards could not only fire convicted felons, but they could also dismiss teachers for unsatisfactory performance.

2. No more indefinite contracts for teachers.

Most of us also have to live with the reality of at-will employment.

Again, not so for teachers.

Under the current laws, a teacher who survives a five-year probationary period becomes “permanent personnel” with an indefinite contract to teach.

The proposed bill, on the other hand, gives school administrators more discretion to retain teachers they actually want teaching in their schools. Schools could contract directly with teachers for up to four years; and what’s more, the board would retain the power to terminate a multi-year contract if the teacher scored poorly on evaluations.

3. Teachers will get paid for what they do, not how long they have done it.

That is right, teachers do not live with the reality of performance-based pay either.

Under the current laws, school districts are prohibited from basing salaries on performance-related criteria. Instead, districts pay their teachers based on length of service and level of education. The proposed bill removes this prohibition and requires school boards to consider teacher evaluations when making decisions related to pay, retention, promotion, and dismissal.

Not surprisingly, the unions started speaking out against HB 1526 before it was even proposed. Missouri National Education Association President Chris Guinther told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch last week: “we’ve got to be given the protection that we need to give those kids the quality education that they need.” Wouldn’t our kids be getting a better education if school boards could dismiss failing teachers more easily, like this bill would allow? The problem with the union perspective is that it focuses on teachers, not on kids. Tenure is not about having due process, as Susan McClintic, president of the Columbia Missouri National Education Association, told the Columbia Missourian last week. On the contrary. Teachers do not have a right to their jobs; it is the students who have a right to a public education, and they should have good teachers to boot.

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There also was good news for some teachers in Dieckhaus’ 2011 legislation. The proposal called for the best teachers to be paid at least twice as much as the poorest-performing teachers. While this may seem like common sense (why not pay the best teachers more, as a reward for their effort?), it runs contrary to the current system of paying Missouri public school teachers.

The 2011 legislation did not pass. However, Dieckhaus is considering submitting tenure reform legislation again this year. The bill is not yet available, but I have listed two areas of reform that are needed to help improve student academic achievement in Missouri. Our priority should be educating  children, not rewarding those who happen to have been teaching for the longest period of time.

Let’s pay good teachers more: In Missouri, teachers are paid under what is known as a “teacher salary schedule.” Broadly, teachers who have more years of experience and higher levels of education are paid more (here is an example). At many school districts, these are the only components of teacher pay — teachers who teach difficult subjects, at-risk students, and teachers who have the best track record of helping students learn do not get a pay boost.

Teachers who do a poor job of teaching students can actually earn more than the good teachers if the poor teachers have a higher education level and/or more years of teaching experience.

Dieckhaus told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2011 that “It’s time we move away from paying people based on how long they’ve been teaching and what piece of paper they have hanging on the wall.” I certainly agree.

Paired with the issue of teacher compensation is the question of how to deal with teachers who have a track record of failing to teach students. Right now, those teachers can stay at a district for years, if not indefinitely.

Let’s help school districts get rid of bad teachers: State law awards teachers “indefinite contracts” if they have taught at the same school district for at least five years. These “permanent teachers” can be terminated, but only through a lengthy process. If a school district terminates a teacher (after going through all of the notification requirements specified by state law), that teacher can appeal the termination, triggering a court case. If the teacher wins in court, the school district must pay that teacher all of the compensation he or she would have received had he or she stayed at the district during the period of appeal.

I suppose that if you are trying to discourage teacher termination, the above makes sense. But, as a state, our concern should not be to hire and keep on as many teachers as possible. We should instead be concerned with how to provide quality education to students. Allowing failing teachers to continue to teach students does nothing to help students, and may be hurting them.

It is an uncomfortable truth, but one we must acknowledge. As U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan put it, “We can no longer pretend that all teachers or all principals are from Lake Woebegone where everyone is above average.” Many academic studies have shown that teacher quality matters. Eric Hanushek, an education economist at Stanford University, has shown that good teachers can teach students three times as much as bad teachers — in a single year. Improving student academic achievement can be achieved in part by attracting more good teachers to the profession, and encouraging the bad teachers to leave the field.

I hope that the 2012 teacher tenure reform legislation can help enable school districts to have more autonomy when it comes to rewarding good teachers and terminating the worst teachers. When the full text of the bill becomes available, I will post my take on it here.

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