Meadows School forces teachers to work in unstable, favoritism-heavy environment
OK, so that's not true at all. But that's my best guess as to how the Nevada State Education Association and other teacher unions would react if public schools instituted one-year contracts for everyone, like the Meadows School in Las Vegas has.
Why are one-year contracts so important to Meadows?For Meadows teacher Kim Cagle, in her 17th year at the school, the one-year contracts make sense because you should have to continually prove yourself.
Exactly. One-year contracts force employees to be their best and ensure that the employees are a good fit at their schools as well. And better teachers lead to better educated students, which is the point of either private or public education.
"This is the first job I had out of college," said Cagle, a 1987 Chaparral High School graduate. "I never presumed to be offered anything more than a year from anywhere. It's a little bit pompous to expect more from anybody."
At a time when the teacher union is threatening to sue for more education funding, one-year teacher and administrator contracts wouldn't cost anything, but could substantively increase teacher quality and, as a result, student achievement.
And then we would start hearing the talking points about favoritism or unstable working environments. But not from Meadows, the school that actually has one-year contracts.
