Give Principals more power to fire....

      I came across this article while going through the newspapers yesterday afternoon. There have been a few articles with reference to schools and this one is no different. See what you think!

     "Public education is one of the few industries that deny management the ability to evaluate employees annually so that the top performers are rewarded and the ineffective ones dismisses."
     "Not all employees fit the job for which they were hired. Thus most managers review their employees yearly and provide feedback on strengths and weaknesses. If the employee does not imporve within the specified time, most managers can dismiss the employee."
      Gee, now that is a novel idea! Why do so many believe that when they have the opportunity to be employed by a particular industry it is theirs for life. People are hired and fired every day of the week, that is why we have the classified section in any local newspaper.
      Opportunities of employment listed in the classified section of any newspaper is usually there for two reasons. Either the person who had the position before you was fired or they moved on. It is very seldom that a new position is invented by an employer unless it becomes necessary. Employers want to cut costs not increase them, right?
      With regards to teachers, there is a disconnect throughout the system. Good teachers are shunned and made to remain quiet and bad teachers are allowed to contaminate young, unmolded minds.
     "But teachers are on probation for their first three years and then essentially given tenure. Current law and rules make it virtually impossible to remove ineffective teachers. Red tape, documentation requirements and multilple levels of appeal leave principals little ability to manage their staffs."
     "Learning suffers with ineffective teachers. A Tennessee study concludes that students with strong teachers for three consecutive years achieve fifty percent more than students with weak teachers. The study also confirms that strong teachers help students erase the achievement gap associated with race, ethnicity and income within three to five years."
      I know from my own experiences with schools and teachers that you are fighting a losing battle, to say the least. What happens when a teacher is finally removed from a classroom or from a school? Ever wonder about that?
     Well, they may be sent home, but they will continue to receive their salaries for another ten years before they are forced to teach again. Does that make any sense? When you have been fired from a place of employment are you still kept on payroll for a period of ten years? No, of course not. Why should it be any different for those teachers who are not quite up to par?
      In my humble opinion it is time for schools to be run as any other business. A principal should most definitely have the power to hire and fire teachers based on performance. Maybe then the good teachers will have an opportunity to shine and excel instead of being kept silent in the background.