'Evergreen' Contracts: A Reasonable Alternative to Tenure

By James B. Van Hoven

Tenure can be an insidious impediment to needed change – particularly when a mature faculty is set in its ways.

As an educator who has divided his 32-year career almost equally between the public and private sectors, I believe I bring a unique perspective to the debate on tenure, having lived in school settings where it was a bedrock of the educational culture and in others where it was nonexistent.

I am currently serving my fourth year as the superintendent of a small school district in the suburban New York metropolitan area. I previously served for 15 years in New Jersey and Wisconsin as the head of two private schools. Before that, I also served as a public school assistant superintendent in Connecticut and as a middle school principal and assistant principal in New York state. I have also taught social studies in both...