Should Incompetent Teachers Be Protected?

By Frank Eccles

Over the past decade or so a rising concern about the quality of education in America has generated calls for a great variety of reforms--site-based management, curricular revisions, increased use of technology, cooperative learning, school choice, a longer school year, and national standards, to name a few. Many of these reforms have much to offer. But what about the teachers?

The classroom teacher is the central element in providing formal education below the college level. Yet we've heard amazingly little discussion about practical ways to improve the professional quality of today's teacher force.

School systems try to strengthen teachers by offering them in-service training, encouraging them toward graduate education courses, or by requiring recertification and the like. These measures can be helpful in supporting the professional...