There's this myth perpetuated by education reformers, politicians and the media that "bad teachers" can't be fired, that once you become a tenured teacher, all you have to do to remain in the job is breathe and not get convicted of a felony.
The truth is far from the myth as this commenter at Perdido Street School blog writes:
Who'd want to become a teacher anywhere? I don't teach in a struggling
school (though its close) and the decision to come in to teaching ranks
as the biggest mistake of my life. Financially, psychologically, etc.
A toll is taken on the psyche when your profession is labeled as the
reason for almost all the negative issues going on in our society,
relentlessly, no matter how ridiculous. The volume of it and the
incessant nature makes one a bit twitchy. It was a stupid call. At
least working at Amazon, you are probably paid well for the few years
you survive....and then you can go get another job.
The thing
that isn't talked about so much, and should be, is that when a teacher
is drummed out, for any reason really, they will never teach again in
public school. It's an established, formalized, institutionalized,
fully-legal blacklisting. So a public school teacher falling under the
hatchet of reform faces a much steeper slope out of unemployment than
does, say, a corporate person who gets fired. As always, the
"accountability" and "disruption" on the corporate side is always
somehow lighter than they want to impose on the public side.
A fired
teacher is DONE....the one thing they have prepared and trained for is
no longer something they can tap on in their job search. (Unless they go
to work at a desperate private school that will pay them like $19k a
year.) Even admin....they leave or get booted somewhere, they get to
become admin somewhere else (see Elia). No deep institutional, legal
blacklisting for them! Even principals, AP's, Directors, etc in my
district who have been let go for deep incompetence always get another
job in Admin by the next school year in another district.
So
that's a thing and it matters. For teachers, our options become way way
way limited after being fired. We are the ultimate tightrope
walkers...no safety nets.
That's right -
as I posted this morning, get the "I" rating smeared on your head and you're pretty much done - administrators will look to drum you out (especially if you're a senior teacher higher up on the salary step ladder), the system will look to drum you out (and with two "ineffective" ratings in a row, that can be done in an expedited manner), and no one will look to hire you.
I am in my fifteenth year as a public school teacher, before that I was in grad school and working as both a per diem substitute teacher and an SAT tutor.
I haven't had a job outside education since 1999.
Let's say I get dinged two years running under the new iteration of Andrew Cuomo's APPR teacher evaluation system and get an expedited trip out of my NYCDOE teaching job by 2017.
What would I do for work then?
As the commenter above noted, my experience and my resume is stuffed to the gills with education-related credentials and work.
Good luck to me trying to get a job doing something outside education with that kind of resume, but good luck to me trying to get a job inside education with the "ineffective" scarlet letter.
Walmart greeter here I come.
Welcome to Walmart, welcome to Walmart, welcome to Walmart...
It's time to dispense with the media myth that tenure is a lifetime appointment to a teaching gig.
The truth is, tenure no longer exists and it doesn't take a whole hell of a lot to have your career taken from you in an expedited (and rigged) process.
Think I'm engaging in hyperbole?
Head on over to a receivership school and see where you are in two to three years.
