Dear Editor of the Tiger Pride, Teacher tenure is the increasingly controversial form of job protection that public school teachers in all states receive after 1-7 years on the job. As of 2008, 2.3 million teachers have tenure. Teacher tenure allows teachers to become better educators because without the anxiety and fear of losing employment, teachers can focus their efforts on providing the best education for students. The concern of being fired if the principal decides to observe you on a day when a lesson goes poorly or the students decide to act up causes a lot of anxiety for new teachers. With no idea when the principal or department supervisor might be popping in to watch your class, teachers working toward tenure often fall back on lessons that the know work at least moderately well rather than branching out and trying something new. By giving qualified educators the knowledge that their job is secure as long as they continue to do it well, it removes that anxiety and allows them to focus on providing excellent educational experiences for their students. Also, teacher tenures are a good way to reward teachers for several years of positive evaluations by school administrators. Administrators are responsible for evaluating teachers before granting tenure and helping to develop struggling teachers. The existence of inadequate teachers should be blamed on the poor judgment of administrators, not teacher tenure. According to a 2008 report by the National Council on Teacher Quality, not a single state has even "partly” developed a "meaningful” tenure-granting process. There are some people they think teacher tenure should be dismissed because the
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