Teachers with Seniority Keep Their Jobs, More Effective Teachers Get Booted. Again.
12th July 2011
Breaking news: If you base teacher layoffs on seniority rather effectiveness, you wind up firing some really good teachers and keeping some teachers who are pretty meh.
Not that anybody in the teachers’ unions care. Their priorities are (1) the organization, (2) the existing members of the organization, (3) politicians who are friends of the organization, (4) possible future members of the organization, and (5) the nominal reason why the organization exists in the first place.
OK, that’s not breaking news. But a new study by Dan Goldhaber and Roddy Theobald from the University of Washington does the important and depressing work of quantifying just how many effective teachers (as measured by value-added scores) are getting the boot—and how many senior teachers are handing around until their pensions kick in—thanks to powerful teachers unions and the “last in, first out” policies they favor.
My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.
July 13th, 2011 at 21:57
Teachers unions are not about students. They’re not about Teachers. They’re about Teachers Unions.