No one, especially another teacher, wants bad teachers in classrooms. Yet, based on a recent newspaper series that argued that "teacher tenure" keeps insufficient numbers of Illinois teachers from being fired, some might think otherwise. They would be wrong.
The false premise is rooted in a lack of understanding of what "teacher tenure" means.
Every new teacher has a probationary period, during which the teacher can be dismissed for any reason. This safeguard winnows out those incapable of teaching at a "satisfactory" (the term used in the state statute) level. Every year thousands of people not cut out for a teaching career leave Illinois classrooms during their probation.
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