The Importance Of Tenure In Public Schools

Few reforms promise to do more to fundamentally alter the structure of public education in America than school choice. Yet proponents and opponents alike are at a loss to describe just how those changes will manifest themselves. Low student performance and graduation rates at one Los Angeles Unified School District school provide an opportunity to examine important issues surrounding school choice and alternatives for reform. Although the school provides an educational makeup according to district standards, the unique identity and location of the school generates outcomes that are below the district average. This may be due to low performing teachers or possibly the community itself.
School choice and educational options are keys to helping
Teacher quality comes with strong, data-driven, performance-based accountability systems that ensure teachers are rewarded, retained and advanced based on how they perform in adding value to the students who they teach, measured predominantly by student achievement, along with skills and responsibilities. Tenure is a policy which protects teachers from getting fired for “just cause” purposes. Tenure is an incentive for teachers, that within current statutes have deemed detrimental to the education community in low- performing, low economic schools. With the overturn of current statutes, tenure should be offered to qualified teachers who opt to educate at low performing, low economic schools within the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Charter: With an estimated per enrolled pupil costs for Alliance charter high schools of $10,649 compared to $15,372 per year for students at traditional public high schools, the California Policy Center concludes that LAUSD Alliance charter high schools provide better outcomes at lower costs than comparable LAUSD traditional operated public schools in the same area, “within LAUSD, that is, we find a per pupil cost differential of 44% in favor of LAUSD Alliance charter schools” (Joffe & Ring,