Tenure : Tennessee
Identifying Effective Teachers Policy
Analysis of Tennessee's policies
Tennessee is on the right track in connecting tenure decisions to evidence of teacher effectiveness.
Tennessee has recently increased its probationary period to five years, and now requires probationary teachers to receive an overall performance effectiveness rating of "above expectations" or "significantly above expectations" during the last two years of the probationary period.
A tenured teacher who receives two consecutive overall ratings of "below expectations" or "significantly below expectations" may be reverted to probationary status until they receive two consecutive ratings of "above expectations" or "significantly above expectations."
Because Tennessee's teacher evaluation ratings are centered primarily on evidence of student learning (see Goal 3-B), basing tenure decisions on these evaluation ratings ensures that classroom effectiveness is appropriately considered.
Recommendations for Tennessee
Ensure sufficient evidence is considered in tenure decisions.
To ensure tenure decisions are based on sufficient evidence of teacher effectiveness in the classroom, Tennessee should consider basing decisions on cumulative evidence of performance, rather than just two years' ratings.
State response to our analysis
Tennessee recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.
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Tennessee
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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers
- Admission into Preparation Programs
- Elementary Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading Instruction
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Mathematics
- Middle School Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation in Science
- Secondary Teacher Preparation in Social Studies
- Special Education Teacher Preparation
- Assessing Professional Knowledge
- Student Teaching
- Teacher Preparation Program Accountability
Expanding the Pool of Teachers
Identifying Effective Teachers
- State Data Systems
- Evaluation of Effectiveness
- Frequency of Evaluations
- Tenure
- Licensure Advancement
- Equitable Distribution
Retaining Effective Teachers
Exiting Ineffective Teachers
Research rationale
For evidence on the potential of eliminating automatic tenure, articulating a process for granting tenure, and using evidence of effectiveness as criteria for tenure see D. Goldhaber and M. Hansen, "Assuming the Potential of Using Value-Added Estimates of Teacher Job Performance for Making Tenure Decisions." Center for Reinventing Public Education. (2009). Goldhaber and Hansen conclude that if districts ensured that the bottom performing 25 percent of all teachers up for tenure each year did not earn it, approximately 13 percent more than current levels, student achievement could be significantly improved. By routinely denying tenure to the bottom 25 percent of eligible teachers, the impact on student achievement would be equivalent to reducing class size across-the-board by 5 students a class.
For additional evidence see Robert Gordon, et al., "Identifying Effective Teachers Using Performance on the Job," Hamilton Project Discussion Paper, Brookings Institute, March 2006.