Plan Offered to Overhaul Discipline of Teachers

Teachers accused of misconduct should have their cases decided within a speedy 100 days by a special examiner and not be cast into an interminable limbo of waiting, said Kenneth R. Feinberg, the arbitration expert, who investigated teacher discipline at the request of the American Federation of Teachers.

On Thursday, Mr. Feinberg will release his plan for dealing with teacher misconduct like absenteeism, corporal punishment and sexual advances to students. In an interview on Wednesday, he called the 100-day window for resolving cases a “radical” departure from current practice.

Misconduct cases have regularly embarrassed unions and school districts: Exhibit A was New York City’s so-called rubber rooms, where accused teachers idled away months or even years while cases were investigated, until they were closed last year.

In Ohio this month, a school board fired an eighth-grade science teacher found to have injected his Christian beliefs into his teaching, after two years of hearings that cost the local district $900,000.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/education/20teachers.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23