Judge upholds new Florida rules tying professors’ tenure-style contracts to student results
A judge has upheld new Florida rules tying evaluation of professors’ achievements to professional rewards like continuing contracts.
Some of the affected professors are unhappy with the new, achievement-oriented direction.
An administrative law judge in Florida last week upheld new rules by the State Department of Education that require significantly more of state college faculty members – particularly in the areas of student success – for them to earn continuing contracts.
The ruling also upholds a change to the time it takes professors to earn their first contract. Instead of three years, faculty members will now only be eligible after five years of service.
Faculty members fear the changes – coupled with recent legislation eliminating mandatory remediation in math and English at Florida colleges – are an attack on the state’s equivalent of tenure.
“A lot of us have a lot of fears about it,” said a professor of English at one of the state’s colleges who did not want to be identified by name or institution for fear of retribution. “This is a possible perfect storm to come, if the retention and completion agenda were to be [tied to] a performance measure – especially in English and math courses, where we can no longer remediate.”
Catherine Leisek, a professor of fine arts at Broward Community College and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Education Association, called the changes “repulsive.”
…Colleges and universities nationally have been under increasing pressure to demonstrate their success as institutions in student learning. And there has been a strong push in some K-12 districts to evaluate individual teachers in part based on student learning gains as measured by tests, including in Florida. But the movement is unpopular with educators, who say that such systems tend to punish instructors who – however talented and committed they are – teach poorly prepared or disadvantaged students.In Florida, according to statistics from its Department of Education, about 37 percent of college students graduate within three years or 150 percent of “catalog” time for their programs. That’s above the national average of about 22 percent.
But Florida’s college professors are now under new pressure, thanks to a recent law making remedial math, reading and English courses optional for students starting in the fall. The state legislature passed the law last year to help boost completion rates; non-credit, remedial courses where students can get “stuck” are widely acknowledged as one of the biggest obstacles to finishing a degree.
Judge upholds new Florida rules on tenure and student success (Inside Higher Ed | News)
Comments
I’ve taught some of these college remedial classes. Many of those students should not be in college at all cuz it’s as though they skipped most of elementary and all of high school. Then there are those for whom it’s a brush up on necessary writing skills. These need a one year long regular freshman composition class. But then, the state of FL has decided that colleges should not prepare students for college work. That’s the purpose of freshman English, and I’ve had students be extremely grateful for the class because in other courses they had to write papers and the teachers did not provide such instruction.
The college system needs reform. Those who want to do research, let them go elsewhere. College should be no tenure and performance based with the first couple of years being annual contract review; the next should be a two year contract with renewal subject to review with a propaganda score as part of the review. Anything more than 10% should be a denial of contract. No complacency, only performance based on one’s discipline. Hopefully, that will eliminate the smug, tenure-based propagandizing.
It’s high time some legitimate fear came to the smug denizens of the academy.