Where the hell have you been for three years?: the decision-making processes of principals when recommending marginal teachers for tenure

Ever-increasing mandates regarding teacher tenure are meant to ensure quality teachers are in the classroom, but there continues to be circumstances of ineffective teachers receiving permanent status in our schools (Ingersoll, 1999). With ever-expanding accountability on the part of the teacher, it is necessary to examine how these marginal teachers earned their tenure (Oswald, 1989). This study examined the decision-making processes principals experience when making the decision to recommend marginal teachers for tenure. Through snowball sampling, participants took part in a semi-structured interview to determine the influences upon their decision-making as principals. The study was based upon the conceptual framework used in Kimball and Milanowski’s (2009) research. Limitations to the study occurred as a result of using a semi-structured interview format. Sample size and method may also have been a limitation to the study. Additional limitations may have occurred as a result of the level of participant comfort due to being interviewed in person and in a region near their employment. This study was significant because the results indicate that school principals have the will and skill necessary to remove those teachers (Cooper, Ehrensal, & Bromme, 2005). It is within the context of the micro-political background that principals, particularly novice principles, struggle with making the decision to remove marginal teachers. Novice principals feel conflict between their desire to be educational leaders and the necessity of being school managers (Cooper, Ehrensal & Bromme, 2005). Those novice principals, in particular, need to be protected from the micro-political ramifications they may face when making the decision to not renew a marginal teacher. This study holds implications for both future research and policy and practice. Researchers should probe more deeply and more broadly into the influences that shape principals’ decision-making behaviors. Future research should also inform the reshaping principal training principal mentorship programs to provide support for new principals faced with the task of recommending tenure. The implications for policy imply that current measures used to evaluate teacher efficacy may not be the most helpful means for preventing ineffective teachers from obtaining tenure. Instead, attention needs to be focused upon the evaluators themselves and on school districts providing the support school principals need to remove marginal teachers from their positions.Ed. D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Jessica Howlan