"Tenured Teachers Costly to Fire"

This title is from an article in the Teacher Magazine where they report some astounding figures.  In New York City it costs $250,000 to fire an incompetent teacher (they give examples of law-breakers as well as those not competent in the classroom). Last year they fired 10 teachers - that's $2,500,000 worth. It's also one out of every 5500 teachers or 0.00018 percent, so it's not a condemination  of the profession. The cost, however, is significant and unnecessary. I believe that there are heavy legal costs, quite often due to a conflict in definition and judgments about what constitutes good teaching. Those conflicts, and the associated anguish and costs, can be greatly reduced using the Data-Based Observation Model (made even easier with the eCOVE Software).

The full process would include all vested parties making the language of their standards clear and in observable terms (I'd love to help with that). Once that's done,  objective data collection is implemented using eCOVE Software or pencil/paper/stopwatch, and professional discussions begin. When the criteria is clear and the evaluation is based on objective data, reaching consensus on the quality of the teaching is much, much easier.

Where there is conflict about the data collection, the two parties agree on a neutral third party to observe and gather the objective data. That removes the observer bias or agenda (perceived or real). These decisions are hard on everyone involved, and doubly hard on the kids until they are made. The tools are available to make the entire operation more equitable and less costly.