People that do not operate in the educational system in many cases are surprised whenever they learn about the tenure system. After all, in many professions an individual is held accountable for their skills, initiative, and effectiveness, it doesn’t matter how long to remain employed. New plus more experienced employees alike are anticipated to call home up to the expectations with their job every single day, without there like a certainty of continued employment. However, in public school systems and colleges, it’s merely the new teachers who appear to be held accountable. After a teacher or professor becomes “tenured,” their job is pretty much guaranteed.
Tenured Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Effective
Besides a general, not enough accountability, the tenure system has the effect of retaining the older and tenured educators, while the becoming more popular educators are often released as a result of budget constraints. Many of these new teachers and professors are fresh away from college themselves, and so are quite enthusiastic and passionate about the field of education. However, many times it’s these passionate educators that end up beyond employment. Instead, the school or college is left with the tenured teachers, many of whom could have lost their “fire” and enthusiasm years ago. Although many tenured teachers indeed remain on the leading edge from the educational process, many simply do not.
Lack of Accountability
In plenty of ways, education has changed into a business. Instead of emphasizing the needs with the students, schools and colleges tend to be more about budgets, numbers, and in many cases politics. Some defend the tenure system as a way of ensuring freedom of speech for educators, without them the need to concern yourself with losing their job because of their opinions. While this can be quite a positive thing, also, it implies that one is not necessarily held accountable for virtually any shortcomings they might have been an educator. After all, if you knew your task was secure it doesn’t matter what learn about… or didn’t do… would you be as motivated to complete a great job?
What Can Be Done?
Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be a simple reply to the tenure dilemma. This system has been doing location for a very long time, and change often doesn’t come easy to established educational systems. However, there’s something that could be implemented to help encourage the accountability of all teachers and professors. In public schools, it can be getting increasingly common to have an open enrollment system, and therefore trainees just aren’t limited by one specific school. The fact that students and parents have choices may serve as a type of a “checks and balances” system.
The result of the form of strategy is a renewed interest in the teacher’s systems and educators to perform a great job, so they “earn” the students that can for their school. The problem isn’t so easily addressed in colleges, however. If the tenure system remains, there needs to be a greater emphasis on making sure that tenured educators aren’t just taking advantage of the fact that their job is virtually guaranteed. Instead, there should be a renewed desire for a system supporting the great teachers, no matter if they’re tenured or otherwise not.
