There is a long debate of whether or not Last in First out should continue or go under reform. The basic idea of Last in First out is that if you are a brand spanking new teacher and your school goes under budget cuts, you will be the first one to get ‘excessed’. Now the matter of this being fair or not is still under scrutiny. As a new teacher, I feel as though it is unfair to judge us based on time in, but I can definitely see where the older generation want some sort of job security.
Should a school firing be based on performance…yes and no. If you are given a struggling class, how can you judge if the teacher is being effective or not? How can you measure success with troubled students?
My personal experience is that it sucks. I was excessed (see let go) two times in one year due to this Last In First Out policy. I busted my butt to get these students to learn while I see older, more ‘experience’ teachers literally do nothing. Is that to say that all ‘experienced’ teachers are like that? No, definitely not. However, I found it appalling that a few of the teachers got a way with it and everybody knew it. Conversely, one teacher was feeling scared of losing his job due to his long tenure in the public education system. He was at his max pay that is allowed in the DOE, and the principal saw him as too high of an expense. The principal then in turn started pressuring him to leave the school and gave him poor marks to fire him. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Ultimately, he did get fired and I had to leave the school by the end of the year. Is this fair? Hardly, but the system right now allows for such happenings to occur on a daily basis.
follow: Tweet with me
