Teacher Challenge Classroom Competence

Sat., Sept. 7, 1996

Put yourself in a school principal’s chair. The telephone rings. It’s a parent complaining that Johnny’s teacher doesn’t collect homework, tolerates profanity from students and calls the children dumb.

It’s the third complaint you’ve had about Mrs. Jones. What do you do? If you haven’t yet noted the problems in her twice-a-year evaluation reports, you’re in for two years of work that will either help Mrs. Jones improve or get her out of the classroom.

If the school board isn’t ready to support you, it’s not worth your time.

Now put yourself behind Mrs. Jones’ desk.

You haven’t really enjoyed your job lately. No one trained you to deal with so much anger and rudeness from students and their parents.

Today, Johnny vowed to get you fired. What do you do?

Starting Sunday, The Spokesman-Review’s three-part series, Teacher Challenge, examines how hard it is to fire a bad teacher, what role unions are playing to improve teaching and options schools are pursuing.

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Teacher Challenge Classroom Competence

Jesse Tinsley

Jim Meehan

Molly Quinn

Rob Curley

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