Accountability in Schools

It used to be a widely accepted fact that public school teachers had to “burn the school down” to be fired from their teaching positions. However, over the last few years there has been a push various public school systems to hold teachers' accountable for the performance of their students. One article highlighted this push in New York City public schools with regards to granting tenure.

The New York City Department of Education has implemented a grading system that ranks a teacher based on their effectiveness as an educator. The four possible scores are: highly effective, effective, developing, and ineffective. If a teacher receives a score of “ineffective”, he or she will not receive tenure and will be recommended to be dismissed. Teachers can only be granted tenure if they show progress with students for two years in a row. This measure aims to send a message to all educators that they are being held accountable for the success of their students, a notion which needs to be emphasized in public school systems across the country.

Since I attended public middle school and private high school, I have a unique perspective on the major differences between publicly-run and privately operated schools. While I do not want to discredit the amazing teachers I learned from in middle school, it is quite apparent that private school teachers are held much more accountable than public school teachers. For example, the teachers at my high school were hired on a year-to-year basis, so the concept of job security was nonexistent. If a teacher received complaints from students or parents regarding his or her teaching practices (or lack thereof), the administrators would sit-in on classes and determine whether they should extend the teacher a contract to come back the following year. Out of the two horrible teachers I had in high school, both did not come back to teach the following year.

So why can’t public schools mimic this practice?

MONEY (the root of all our problems).

According to another article published by The LA Times, firing tenured teachers is so costly and time-consuming that principals rarely make the effort. Joseph Walker, a former principal of a public school in Van Nuys, solidifies this harsh reality when he says “You're not going to fire someone who's not doing their job. And if you have someone who's done something really egregious, there's only a 50-50 chance that you can fire them”.

While President Obama claims he will create a nation that “nourishes good teachers and casts out the bad ones”, it may be a change that will take time and money to fix. I commend the New York City Board of Education for taking a step in the right direction, but other schools cannot follow suit until the benefits of removing a teacher from their position will outweigh the immense costs in finding a proper replacement.