North Carolina Dumps Tenure for Public School Teachers

Perform or get lost

North Carolina has become the latest state to overhaul its teacher tenure rules, directing school administrators to offer four-year contracts to top performers but one- or two-year contracts to everybody else.

Previously, all North Carolina teachers with five years of experience were eligible for tenure, which granted them a right to due process before dismissal. Now, longer-term job security will be limited to the 25 percent of teachers who are ranked most effective, based on yet-to-be-determined criteria.

Republican lawmakers who pushed for the tenure changes said the old system allowed too many ineffective teachers to remain in classrooms.