Steven Brill writes in the New Yorker about “rubber rooms,” where Big Apple teachers accused of incompetence spend years sitting around collecting paychecks while their cases are adjudicated. But that’s only a symbol of what reformers think is the larger problem: namely that virtually no one is ever fired for poor job performance after their three-year probationary period is up and they have tenure.
In seven years […] unsatisfactory ratings for tenured teachers have risen from less than one per cent to 1.8 per cent. “Any human-resources professional will tell you that rating only 1.8 per cent of any workforce unsatisfactory is ridiculous,” [Dan] Weisberg says.
Is this prima facie evidence that the system isn’t working? Based on my experience, I’d say yes. On the other hand, I’d also say that, at least in the places I’m familiar with, virtually everyone who got fired was let go within the first year or two they were with the company. Very few who had been around for more than three years got fired. On the third hand, occasional layoffs often provided excuses to get rid of poor performers, so perhaps that shrank the pool of people who would otherwise have eventually been axed.
So….I dunno. Opinions?
