Teacher Dismissal

School Administrator, May, 1995 by Michael E. Ward

The Impact of Tenure, Administrator Competence, and Other Factors

The topic of teacher dismissal N provokes a strong response from educators and any number of public school stakeholders. Tenure is integral to the dialogue, but other variables significantly impact a school administrator's propensity to address the issue of unsuitable teacher performance.

In spite of the controversy surrounding these issues, the debate remains largely uninformed, at least in terms of quantifiable data regarding the number of teachers who are removed, the reasons for which they are terminated, and the methods by which they are involuntarily separated. The prevailing belief seems to be that this type of information is so sensitive that school administrators will not disclose the data.

My recently completed doctoral dissertation focused on dismissal and the factors that influence the removal of unsuitable teachers. For this research, I was able to afford superintendents the level of confidentiality necessary to procure hard data about these sensitive issues. Thirty districts (approximately one-fourth of North Carolina's public school systems) were included in the random sample, which was stratified to include high-wealth and low-wealth districts, small and large districts, districts that attract large numbers of teacher applicants, and districts that do not.

The results of the research are instructive. This article describes the proportions of teachers being removed from classrooms, the variables that impact the involuntary separation of teachers, opinions regarding tenure, administrative competence, methods used to accomplish the removal of unsuitable teachers, and implications for policy and practice.

Influential Factors

For this study, the term "involuntary separation" denotes not only the dismissal of a teacher but also those instances in which teachers resigned or retired in lieu of dismissal.

Invariably, tenure is viewed as the predominant obstacle to the removal of ineffective teachers. However, tenure, albeit a potent factor, is only one of many variables influencing involuntary separations. The variables described in research literature can be grouped in four major categories: contextual variables, situational variables, employment status, and teacher characteristics.

Contextual variables are conditions that define the general environment in which public schools operate. Such variables represent influences external to the immediate school district environment and largely are beyond the district's control. Tenure is a powerful contextual variable. In addition to tenure statutes, the literature suggests that district wealth, district enrollment, and scarcity of teacher applicants are contextual variables that are related to the involuntary separation of unsuitable teachers.

Situational variables are internal to the school district and thug subject to greater district control and influence. The impact of these variables can vary significantly from district to district, and even within a given district. Such factors include administrative competence, the willingness of administrators to pursue unpleasant personnel actions, the intervention of teacher unions or professional association, and the intervention of boards of education.

Teacher employment status impacts the incidence of involuntary separation. The literature is replete with assertions that the likelihood of removal varies according to a teacher's status as interim, probationary, or tenured.

The reasons for such variation are not complex; the safeguards of procedural due process include dramatically as a teacher moves from one employment level to the next. Thus, removal at each successive level increases the burden of proof that falls upon the district.

Teacher characteristics I represent the final category of variables influencing the propensity to remove ineffective teachers. Subject-area certification is an example of such a characteristic. The present study found disproportionate rates of involuntary separation by race and gender, suggesting that these characteristics also may impact the incidence of involuntary separation.

The specific performance problems demonstrated by an individual teacher represent yet another teacher characteristic that can influence the likelihood of removal; cases involving certain performance problems--immorality, for example--are often easier to document and act upon than others.

Small Numbers

This research covered a three-year period from July 1989 through June 1992. During this time 170 probationary teachers (those in their first three years of teaching) were involuntarily separated in the 30 randomly selected districts in North Carolina. Forty career (tenured) teachers were involuntarily separated. The number of teachers employed in the 30 districts averaged 12,297 annually for the period investigated.

The research findings confirm what many suspect already--relatively few teachers are being separated for poor performance. The average annual proportion of teachers dismissed or persuaded to resign was 0.64 percent, less than 1 percent. This figure is consistent with the national data that can be inferred from a 1991 study by Sharon A. Bobbitt for the U.S. Department of Education that examined the reasons why public school teachers left their positions.