Teacher Seniority Essay

587 Words3 Pages
The Importance of Educator Performance Over Seniority Lawmakers, School Administrators, Teachers and Students are all working together. They are working for the future of everyone enrolled or enrolling in schooling around the world. Budget cuts are leading those involved in education to think about several values that were not generally considered in the past. One of those values is the great value of an effective teacher in the classroom. Teaching staff should be determined by teacher performance rather than seniority, throughout education. Common sense seems to dictate that if a person was more capable than another for a job, the more capable person would be hired. According to the seniority system, this is not true. Teaching seniority states that if an educator has worked several years in a school, their position is firm, disregarding their effectiveness on students. In the letter “New Teachers Support Seniority Rights”, written by the Newer Teachers of New York State, educators who have worked five or fewer years in New York schools, express their appreciation and support for senior teachers. The Newer Teachers of New York State insist that “As newer teachers, we rely on our more senior colleagues for guidance and support.” In addition, “Teacher experience is one of the most reliable predictors of student learning.” By focusing on the thought that senior teachers are helpful to newer teachers as well as students, these supporters of seniority overlook the deeper problem that not all senior educators are effective in the classroom. The lack of teacher effectiveness in experienced teachers is all too often overlooked. According to an article from Teachers Union Exposed, titled “Protecting Bad Teachers“, Sonny Bunch suggests educators are granted tenure before proving their eligibility help students improve. Bunch states, “Tenure as we understand it today was
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