Teacher Tenure

What is tenure? It is a policy which gives teachers a permanent contract ensuring them a guarantee of employment like for life. Tenured teachers cannot be fired unless for just cause such as gross misconduct, or incompetence. Proponents of teacher tenure say that it is good. They argue that tenure prevents teachers from being fired for inappropriate reasons; tenure protects teachers from false accusations; tenure reduces teacher anxiety and allows them to become even better educators; properly used, tenure creates an environment where teachers are encouraged to improve; and lastly tenure protects good but veteran teachers from being fired for being too expensive. Opponents of teacher tenure say that it is bad. They argue that tenured teachers if they are ineffective are often extremely difficult to dismiss; dismissing tenured teachers takes a long time and is often extremely expensive; almost every k-12 teacher receives tenure whether they have earned it or not; and last but not least teacher tenure leads to complacency. The purpose of the book is not to further debate the pros and cons of teacher tenure. Rather it examines the critical elements to better prepare teachers for the tenure application and the tenure decision makers to make better informed evaluation. Teacher Tenure: An Analysis of the Critical Elements begins with an unlikely introduction of a story that uses rhetorical comparison of the shoe experience to connote the wisdom of the teacher tenure process.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A groundbreaking history of 175 years of American education that brings the lessons of the past to bear on the dilemmas we face today—and brilliantly illuminates the path forward for public schools. “[A] lively account." —New York Times Book Review In The Teacher Wars, a rich, lively, and unprecedented history of public school teaching, Dana Goldstein reveals that teachers have been embattled for nearly two centuries. She uncovers the surprising roots of hot button issues, from teacher tenure to charter schools, and finds that recent popular ideas to improve schools—instituting merit pay, evaluating teachers by student test scores, ranking and firing veteran teachers, and recruiting “elite” graduates to teach—are all approaches that have been tried in the past without producing widespread change.

The definitive career guide for grad students, adjuncts, post-docs and anyone else eager to get tenure or turn their Ph.D. into their ideal job Each year tens of thousands of students will, after years of hard work and enormous amounts of money, earn their Ph.D. And each year only a small percentage of them will land a job that justifies and rewards their investment. For every comfortably tenured professor or well-paid former academic, there are countless underpaid and overworked adjuncts, and many more who simply give up in frustration. Those who do make it share an important asset that separates them from the pack: they have a plan. They understand exactly what they need to do to set themselves up for success. They know what really moves the needle in academic job searches, how to avoid the all-too-common mistakes that sink so many of their peers, and how to decide when to point their Ph.D. toward other, non-academic options. Karen Kelsky has made it her mission to help readers join the select few who get the most out of their Ph.D. As a former tenured professor and department head who oversaw numerous academic job searches, she knows from experience exactly what gets an academic applicant a job. And as the creator of the popular and widely respected advice site The Professor is In, she has helped countless Ph.D.’s turn themselves into stronger applicants and land their dream careers. Now, for the first time ever, Karen has poured all her best advice into a single handy guide that addresses the most important issues facing any Ph.D., including: -When, where, and what to publish -Writing a foolproof grant application -Cultivating references and crafting the perfect CV -Acing the job talk and campus interview -Avoiding the adjunct trap -Making the leap to nonacademic work, when the time is right The Professor Is In addresses all of these issues, and many more.