Listen, I don’t have a problem with firing teachers. I just don’t think the common perception of “infinite job security” for teachers is accurate.
A much larger and more concerning issue - in my opinion - is that we have very poor measures for teacher effectiveness. This is problem in at least two major ways. It inhibits districts from dismissing poorly performing teachers. It likewise prevents teachers from improving their performance because it often isn’t clear what problems might exist in their curriculum and instructional practices.
I also believe that if we were able to make teacher designed and administered assessment more universally trustable (as their results are now only [sometimes] trustable within the context of that specific teacher’s coursework) we could start to address some of these problems.
A much larger and more concerning issue - in my opinion - is that we have very poor measures for teacher effectiveness."
If bad teachers, by your own admission, are not being fired, teachers have the very job security you claim they lack. If being fired for bad performance is unlikely and schools are much less likely to run out of funding than a company (if run even semi-responsibly), these jobs may not have "infinite job security" but they're as close to that as can reasonably be found. After all, what is job security if not confidence you will not be fired?
Elaborate systems have been made measure and quanitfy teacher effectiveness; however, it’s not a solved problem. Obviously problematic teachers do get dismissed. Like I said elsewhere in this discussion, my first three years of teaching I could be fired without cause. After that, I could be dismissed after two poor performance reviews or with cause.
You’re arguing that teachers known to be “bad” are being protected from firing. I don’t believe this is true - at least in my experience as a teacher in the Midwest.
I’m saying that once you get beyond a certain threshold for quality it becomes very difficult to separate teacher effectiveness from other noise in the process. Because of this, there are some teachers who may be more effective than others (and possibly some who are only marginally effective); however, we can’t accurately identify them or what makes them better/worse.