States Strive to Overhaul Teacher Tenure

Over the past year, a handful of states have begun to overhaul their tenure-granting processes by increasing the number of years it takes teachers to win due process rights, and by trying to improve the evaluations that are supposed to guide determinations of whether a teacher qualifies for the benchmark.

The recent efforts differ in several ways from prior waves of reform. With the lone exception of Florida, the states seek to change the tenure-granting process, rather than abolish it. The revisions are also being coupled with movements to tie tenure to student academic achievement, reflecting an increased emphasis in national policy circles on the importance of gauging teachers’ impact on student learning.

“More has happened in terms of tenure reform in the last six to 12 months, probably, than has ever happened before,” said Patrick J. McGuinn, an associate professor of political science at Drew University and the author of a recent paper on teacher tenure. “Some of this is simply the result of advances in the collection of student-achievement and teacher-performance data. That’s totally changed...