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Students Should Be Able to Petition to Fire a Teacher
DR. WALLACE: You told a student that he would be wasting his time trying to get a teacher fired by getting fellow students to sign a petition urging the school administrators to dismiss her because she was a terrible instructor.
Are you not aware that petitions are a nonviolent way to accomplish a goal? That student has every legal and moral right to do what he can to get an ineffective teacher fired. After all, if a teacher is not effective, it's the students who suffer. —Mary, Boston, Mass.
MARY: My problem with complaining about a teacher by petition is that it means very little. Students are as likely to dislike a teacher for foolish and immature reasons as they are for valid ones. For instance, teachers who are firm disciplinarians and demand that their students work hard to earn good grades are likely to be unpopular, even though, in reality, they are terrific teachers.
I do think students have the right to seek redress or try to get a teacher removed if he or she is, indeed, a "terrible" instructor. A far better tactic than a petition drive is for a group of students to meet with the principal and have an open and honest discussion. That way the principal can evaluate the nature of the complaints and make an informed decision regarding the teacher's effectiveness.
YOU ARE NEVER TOO OLD TO LEARN
DR. WALLACE: A 19-year-old daughter was trying to discourage her 40-year-old mother not to return to college to earn her teaching degree because she thought her mother was too old. Hurray for your answer that, indeed, her mother was not too old, and that mom could become a wonderful teacher because she would have an abundance of life experiences to add to her formal college experiences.
Life really does begin at age 40! I earned my college degree and, at the same time, earned my teaching credential when I was 41. That was my goal. I then taught English and Geography for two years, during which time I got a school counselor's license. After that, I got an administrator's credential and was a high school assistant principal for 10 more years. During that time, I learned to water ski, square dance, play an electric organ, and I also traveled through the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa. At age 86, I am still having a great life! —Eleanor, Riverside, Calif.
ELEANOR: Congratulations on your exciting and wonderful life. I am a firm believer that if people have the determination to succeed, they can reach their goals. You are living proof! Continue to have your great life. You earned it!
Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at rwallace@galesburg.net. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2013 CREATORS.COM 
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Comments
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7 Comments | Post Comment
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LW1 - A teacher is not an elected office. You cannot "recall" a teacher by petition. Students can register their protest, but labor laws and union regulations are likely to override any petition. That is something Dr. Wallace, as a former school principal, is very likely to be aware of.
Comment: #1
Posted by: Ariana
Sun Apr 21, 2013 10:05 PM
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LW1: Exactly right, Ariana. I think that's what Dr. Wallace was referring to when he said "complaining about a teacher means very little." It's a whole lot of work, it's a whole lot ineffective AND it can have unanticipated consequences.
My SIL signed a PARENT-sponsored petition to remove an athletic director from a small-town high school. At the time, she had no kids in the athletic program -- but what she heard from the parents of her daughter's friends who WERE involved was pretty bad. Because of the pressure, the AD, who'd been coaching varsity football, was relieved of his football and AD duties.
They moved him instead to coaching freshman boys basketball the following year -- the same year my nephew, a was trying out for the freshman team. He didn't make it. I'm pretty sure the fact that he was cut had more to do with his mother's signing the petition the previous fall (they share a distinctive surname) than with his skills. He'd been a standout player for his 8th grade team, and the school's JV coach was dismayed to learn the freshman coach had cut him.
Comment: #2
Posted by: hedgehog
Mon Apr 22, 2013 10:15 AM
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LW1: I agree with Dr. Wallace that the petition process can be abused and as hedgehog points out could have unintended consequences, even if the charges were founded but (in the example she cites) the teacher/coach is merely "reassigned."
That said, I do think the idea of parents and students sharing with the principal, guidance counselor, etc. concerns about teachers who don't seem to be doing the job is a far better idea. Perhaps there have been several complaints about this teacher from not only students and parents, but his/her co-workers as well ... and prompt the principal to closely monitor the situation and perhaps take steps to have the bad teacher removed.
Even then, however, be warned that unlike many at-will jobs where poorly performing employees can be fired at any time for any reason without notice, the teaching profession seems to be different, thanks to what Ariana points out unions and labor laws that "protect" the bad teachers. Not only will the union override any petition, but any founded complaint, negative evaluation or other evidence showing that the teacher doesn't belong in the classroom.
In all my years of newspapering, I've done exactly ONE story on a teacher being removed from the classroom and it wasn't because he was bad (in fact, by all accounts, he was a good teacher), but because he didn't have proper certification. I've never even done a story on the major reason for an on-the-spot firing of a teacher, that being improper conduct with students. (There was a situation in the community where I worked where a coach resigned under pressure after allegations he made inappropriate comments to athletes, but this was never publicized and it happened before I began writing for that newspaper.)
But again, we're talking about firing a teacher who is simply unable to be a good teacher ... and there seems to be no good recourse anyone students, parents, administrators, school board members ... anyone has to remove them, even with overwhelming evidence they should not be in the teaching field.
Comment: #3
Posted by: Bobaloo
Tue Apr 23, 2013 6:23 AM
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But again, we're talking about firing a teacher who is simply unable to be a good teacher ... and there seems to be no good recourse anyone students, parents, administrators, school board members ... anyone has to remove them, even with overwhelming evidence they should not be in the teaching field.
***************
I'm not sure we ARE talking about firing a teacher who is "simply unable to be a good teacher" though. Part of the problem is that students, as a whole, are unable to evaluate a teacher. You can check this out on any of the college professor rating sites -- the profs who are funny and easygoing and assign little homework tend to get high ratings where, as Dr. Wallace says, teachers who require a LOT of their students often are unappreciated by those kids until much, much later. As an adult, I look back and KNOW it was the teachers who set the highest standards that made it possible for me to advance as far as I have, even if I didn't like the idea of the weekly quizzes and hours of reading each night at the time.
Bobaloo, in MY years of education reporting across 5 school districts, I saw teachers whose contracts were not renewed, for reasons not made public. Sometimes "budget cuts" were blamed. Sometimes it was ineffective teachers who were removed or shuffled into positions where they had less contact with kids -- along with good teachers who were legitimately let go because declining enrollment could no longer justify, for example, a third foreign language. IMO, it's inappropriate to discuss an individual's job performance publicly, absent a clear and present danger to the students' well being.
I've seen more very good teachers than very bad ones. And I can say, too, that it was extremely difficult for my boss to remove another reporter in my work group who was lazy and incompetent, not to mention who managed to tick off any number of sources doing something as innocuous as a feel-good feature story. The company was deathly afraid of being accused of discriminating against her based on age and her physical disability, and needed to document everything within a certain time window. People got tired of calling to document her wrongdoings, because it seemed their complaints went nowhere.
Comment: #4
Posted by: hedgehog
Tue Apr 23, 2013 6:34 PM
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hedgehog:
I've also seen teaching layoffs for many of the same reasons you state -- budget cuts and reasons not make public, leaving the public to speculate. I don't know what state you're in or if it's rural or urban, but here in the rural Midwest they call it retirement incentives (a portion of the salary plus health insurance for a year). I've dealt with comparably few pink slips that went through. (One year they had several pink slips issued but almost all of them were recalled, if not all.) Many of the layoffs in the one district I worked had most of its layoffs in the 1980s, during the farm crisis. Most others in the years since wee simply not filled due to attrition.
Yes, I'm aware of some of those same websites which "rate" teachers. I don't really take much stock in those ... and for the same reasons you give. Same with many of the reasons kids may not like good teachers -- but I've always noticed it's some of those "good" or heck even great teachers are respected and held in high esteem is because they inspire. Students will probably overlook the homework and pop quizzes.
I don't know, though. Yes, a student can complain about a legitimately bad teacher, but it's like I've said before -- perhaps the admin is already starting the process.
Comment: #5
Posted by: Bobaloo
Tue Apr 23, 2013 8:44 PM
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I'm suburban Midwest. The community I'm in, and the other suburban districts around it, experiencing budget problems in public schools for the last 15-20 years, thanks to restructuring of school finance that shifted much of the financing from local taxes to state aid, based on enrollment. Despite an excellent reputation as some of the state's best schools, these districts have been experiencing declining enrollment as younger families have moved to outlying communities (in other districts) with more land available to build their McMansions.
So I regularly watched the pink slips go out in April, and many staff members, but not all, called back in August.
Comment: #6
Posted by: hedgehog
Wed Apr 24, 2013 7:20 AM
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Re: hedgehog (#6)
I've noticed the same problem, too. In the state I'm from, they're still haggling over what the allowable growth rate the best way I can explain it is "the percent that a school district can allow its budget to grow from year to year" will be. Lawmakers have come to a number of different proposals, but from what I've read and heard, nothing has been firmed up yet. (And this is well past the deadline when they're supposed to have it determined. There's a holdup for a number of different reasons, in part due to the governor wanting a reform package approved.)
Indeed, the restructuring of school finances in recent years has hurt, especially the smaller rural districts. Really and especially the smaller, rural districts.
One other point about how the teachers targeted for pink slipping are picked I've no clue. I've had a number of different theories in mind tenure, performance, random but never thought to ask. That said, if it is "performance" related, then yes the administration sure wouldn't say because it would hurt that teacher's reputation (i.e., it'd be a personnel issue). I'd sure be curious to know, however.
P.S. Sorry for all the grammar errors in my #5 typing on an iPhone with web capabilities is quite the challenge.
Comment: #7
Posted by: Bobaloo
Wed Apr 24, 2013 9:45 AM
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