Tenure: New York

Identifying Effective Teachers Policy

Look at National Findings

Goal

The state should require that tenure decisions are based on evidence of teacher effectiveness.

Best Practice

Suggested Citation:
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2015). Tenure: New York results. State Teacher Policy Database. [Data set].
Retrieved from: https://www.nctq.org/yearbook/state/NY-Tenure-71

Analysis of New York's policies

Recent legislation has extended New York's probationary period to four years.

To earn tenure, teachers must be rated effective or highly effective for three out of the four years.

Teachers who are rated effective or highly effective for the first three years of the probationary period but are rated ineffective in the fourth year will not receive tenure. However, teachers are eligible for a one-year extension to show progress.

Because New York's teacher evaluation ratings are centered primarily on evidence of student learning (see "Evaluation of Effectiveness" analysis), basing tenure decisions on these evaluation ratings ensures that classroom effectiveness is appropriately considered.

Recommendations for New York

As a result of New York’s strong tenure policies, no recommendations are provided.

State response to our analysis

New York noted that its teacher evaluation ratings include evidence of student learning.

Licensure Advancement

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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers

Expanding the Pool of Teachers

Identifying Effective Teachers

Retaining Effective Teachers

Exiting Ineffective Teachers

Pensions

Research rationale

Tenure should be a significant and consequential milestone in a teacher's career.
The decision to give teachers tenure (or permanent status) is usually made automatically, with little thought, deliberation or consideration of actual performance. State policy should reflect the fact that initial certification is temporary and probationary, and that tenure is intended to be a significant reward for teachers who have consistently shown effectiveness and commitment. Tenure and advanced certification are not rights implied by the conferring of an initial teaching certificate. No other profession, including higher education, offers practitioners tenure after only a few years of working in the field.

States should also ensure that evidence of effectiveness is the preponderant (but not the only) criterion for making tenure decisions. Most states confer tenure at a point that is too early for the collection of sufficient and adequate data that reflect teacher performance. Ideally, states would accumulate such data for four to five years. This robust data set would prevent effective teachers from being unfairly denied tenure based on too little data and ineffective teachers from being granted tenure.

Tenure: Supporting Research
Numerous studies illustrate how difficult and uncommon the process is of dismissing tenured teachers for poor performance. These studies underscore the need for an extended probationary period that would allow teachers to demonstrate their capability to promote student performance.

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, "Assessing the Potential of Using Value-Added Estimates of Teacher Job Performance for Making Tenure Decisions." Calder Institute, February 2010, Working Paper 31. 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 R. Gordon, T. Kane, and D. Staiger, "Identifying Effective Teachers Using Performance on the Job," The Hamilton Project Discussion Paper, The Brookings Institute, April 2006.

State Teacher Policy