One sign that principals were beginning to heed Chancellor Joel I. Klein’s call that they get rid of ineffective teachers before they earned job protection: More New York City public school teachers were denied tenure this year, the Department of Education said on Thursday.
Principals have the power to make tenure decisions for every third-year teacher, using classroom observations to make their decisions. This year, for the first time, they were told to take student improvement on standardized state tests into account wherever possible.
The number of teachers not granted tenure remained small, 3.7 percent of those who reached the end of their three-year probationary period, up from 2.3 percent last year. An additional 7.2 percent of teachers had their probations extended by a year, up from 4.5 percent the year before.
John White, the deputy chancellor in charge of labor issues, said the city was “extremely proud” that principals used the evidence from test scores to make their decisions.
“This is part of a process of a culture shift of using evidence of student learning to make decisions for the school,” Mr. White said in an interview. “Principals know best who is high performing in their school and who should be in front of a classroom teaching.”
