Teachers’ Perceptions of Professional Incompetence and Barriers to the Dismissal Process

Abstract

The problem of teacher incompetence is a serious one, affecting large numbers of American public school students. There is a significant discrepancy between estimated rates of incompetent teachers and the number of teachers actually dismissed on grounds of incompetence. This study sought to uncover the perceptions of teachers regarding a definition of professional incompetence, strategies used with incompetent teachers, and barriers to the dismissal process, through the use of a survey with more than 200 elementary school teachers in Virginia and follow-up interviews with seven of these participants. The researcher found that teachers rated classroom behaviors to be the most important factors towards a definition of professional incompetence. The teachers involved also rated the commonness of strategies used with incompetent teachers, placing dismissal among the least common actions taken by administrators, and revealed that they believed union protection, legal and other expenses, and difficulty providing documentation prevented administrators from dismissing incompetent teachers.

Appendices

Appendix A

Survey

Section A

Definition of Incompetence

The purpose of this section is to identify what behaviors or characteristics teachers believe to be factors that contribute to professional incompetence.

Please indicate your opinion of the importance of items 1–19 to the definition of professional incompetence by checking your response on the scale of agreement from “Little or no importance” through “High degree of importance.”

	Little or no importance	Some importance	Good deal of importance	High degree of importance
1. lack of subject matter knowledge	□	□	□	□
2. inability to express content clearly	□	□	□	□
3. failure to teach curriculum prescribed	□	□	□	□
4. poor reading, writing, or skills	□	□	□	□
5. lack of lesson planning	□	□	□	□
6. low levels of student achievement	□	□	□	□
7. excessive student drop-out or transfer rates	□	□	□	□
8. weak classroom management skills	□	□	□	□
9. behavior causing low morale or fear among students	□	□	□	□
10. weak or absent communication with parents	□	□	□	□
11. large number of parent complaints	□	□	□	□
12. negative relations with colleagues	□	□	□	□
13. negative relations with superiors	□	□	□	□
14. resistance to school- or district-wide initiatives	□	□	□	□
15. refusal to obey school rules	□	□	□	□
16. poor professional judgment	□	□	□	□
17. lack of professional development	□	□	□	□
18. poor attitude toward teaching responsibilities	□	□	□	□
19. other (please specify)	□	□	□	□

Section B

Strategies Used with Incompetent Teachers

The purpose of this section is to identify what teachers believe to be strategies administrators use with incompetent teachers. Items 20–39 explore specific strategies which may be used with incompetent teachers.

Please indicate your opinion of how commonly these strategies are used with incompetent teachers by administrators in general by checking the response on the scale of agreement from “Very uncommon” through “Very common.”

	Very uncommon	Somewhat uncommon	Somewhat common	Very common
20. successful remediation/improvement	□	□	□	□
21. voluntary switch to another teaching assignment in the school	□	□	□	□
22. involuntary switch to another teaching assignment in the school	□	□	□	□
23. voluntary switch to a non-teaching assignment in the school	□	□	□	□
24. involuntary switch to a non-teaching assignment in the school	□	□	□	□
25. voluntary transfer to another school in same district	□	□	□	□
26. involuntary transfer to another school in same district	□	□	□	□
27. transfer to another district	□	□	□	□
28. assignment as a substitute teacher for district	□	□	□	□
29. assignment as an itinerant teacher for district	□	□	□	□
30. promotion to central office position	□	□	□	□
31. increased workload to encourage teacher resignation	□	□	□	□
32. provision with monetary settlement to leave/contract buy-out	□	□	□	□
33. counseling or encouragement to leave the profession	□	□	□	□
34. voluntary departure from the profession without administrator intervention	□	□	□	□
35. retirement based on age or years of teaching	□	□	□	□
36. early retirement	□	□	□	□
37. forced resignation	□	□	□	□
38. dismissal	□	□	□	□
39. other (please specify)	□	□	□	□

Section C

Barriers to the Dismissal of Incompetent Teachers

The purpose of this section is to identify what teachers believe to be barriers to the dismissal of incompetent teachers. Items 40–49 explore specific barriers administrators may perceive and which may be present when attempting to dismiss incompetent teachers.

Please indicate your opinion of the strength of the barriers to the dismissal of incompetent teachers, as perceived by administrators in general. Use the barriers listed below by checking the response on the scale of agreement from “Little or no strength” through “High degree of strength.”

	Little or no strength	Some strength	Good deal of strength	High degree of strength
40. legal and other expenses	□	□	□	□
41. required administrative time	□	□	□	□
42. difficulty providing needed documentation	□	□	□	□
43. protection of employee by professional association (e.g. NEA, AFT)	□	□	□	□
44. unclear definition of incompetence	□	□	□	□
45. lack of resolve or strength of character by principal	□	□	□	□
46. lack of support by superiors of principal (superintendent, central office, school board)	□	□	□	□
47. lack of support by school employees (other teachers, faculty, staff)	□	□	□	□
48. lack of skill by the principal to achieve dismissal	□	□	□	□
49. other (please specify)	□	□	□	□

Section D

Demographic Data

Please complete each of the following items. The items are included to assist in more accurately reviewing the information provided.

50. Gender : _____Male _____Female

51. Years of experience teaching:_____

52. Years of teaching in this school division:_____

53. Approximate number of teachers with whom you have worked that you considered incompetent: _____

Thank you very much for your time and energy! Please return the survey, using the pony envelope enclosed.

Appendix B

Interview Protocol

Directions

Please answer the following questions in as much detail as you deem appropriate. Please do not use names in your responses, in order to protect the identity of those teachers and administrators we might discuss here. The information that you provide during this interview will be handled confidentially, with your name being replaced with a pseudonym if I use excerpts from this interview in my writing. Interviews will be audio recorded, then transcribed, and you will be sent a transcript of this interview in order to check for accuracy. If you want to withdraw from the study during the interview, tell me and I will stop the interview and the audio recording. Thanks for your participation.

• 1. Do you consider teacher incompetence to be a problem? Please explain.

• 2. How do you define professional incompetence for a teacher?

  • Which aspects of your definition do you think are the most important?

  • What are some examples of an incompetent teacher’s behavior?

• 3. How do administrators respond to incompetent teachers?

• 4. What specific strategies do administrators use with incompetent teachers?

  • How successful are these strategies?

  • What have been the results of these various strategies?

    • For the teacher?

    • For the rest of the faculty?

    • For the school?

  • In your opinion, is dismissal a viable option for administrators to use with incompetent teachers? Why or why not?

  • How do you think principals should deal with professional incompetence?

• 5. What do you think are the barriers to the dismissal of incompetent teachers?

  • Which of these are the strongest barriers? Why?

  • If you don’t think there are any barriers, why do you think this?