ABSTRACT

Throughout this book I have striven to provide a lucid, dispassionate description and analysis of how administrators respond to the problem of teacher incompetence and of the conditions which shape these responses. In this chapter I feel obligated to move beyond what is and offer a glimpse into what might occur in the near future. A window of opportunity is opening for the public schools, but this opportunity is fraught with perils as well as possibilities. By discussing the opportunity, the perils and the possibilities which loom over the educational horizon, I hope to engage school officials and teachers in a reasoned consideration of local personnel policies and practices. If this book stimulates reflection on what is, what might be, and what should be, it will have served its purposes.