BY Adam Lisberg and Meredith Kolodner DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS September 27th 2010
Mayor Bloomberg vowed Monday to keep tenure only for the best city teachers – and allow the worst educators to be laid off.The reform steps were part of an education plan that also calls for doubling the number of City University of New York graduates by 2020.
“We’ll do more to support teachers and reward great teaching, and that includes ending tenure as we know it, so that tenure is awarded for performance, not taken for granted,” Bloomberg said on MSNBC as part of NBC‘s “Education Nation” program.
There are 6,300 city teachers up for tenure this year.
The mayor is advising principals to deny tenure unless their elementary and middle school students have made two years of progress on state tests.Principals have the discretion to recommend against tenure, although 89% of teachers got the lifetime job protection last year.
Union officials note that almost a third of teachers don’t make it to the third year when tenure is decided. “Tenure is not supposed to be granted automatically,” said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew. “Most teachers would welcome an objective tenure-granting process based on agreed-upon standards.”
City officials said they would announce those standards in the next few weeks.
Educate All Students, Support Public Education 