ABSTRACT
In the preceding chapter we argued that administrators rarely dismiss a teacher for incompetence; they prefer to induce the poor performer to resign or to request early retirement. The reluctance of administrators to dismiss a tenured teacher for incompetence stems from multiple sources — the ambiguities inherent in teacher evaluation, the desires of administrators to avoid conflict and unpleasantness, the staff morale problems which are created unless the teacher is uniformly disliked by colleagues, and the laws governing dismissal. In this chapter the reader will acquire a fine-grained understanding of the dismissal process and further insight into why administrators are reluctant to use this ultimate sanction.
