P rofessional S tandards
Teachers’ Code of Ethics
A fresh look at Tennessee’s Teacher Code
of Ethics is long overdue. The current
Tennessee legislation, T.C.A. 49-5-1003
and T.C.A. 49-5-1004, ddresses educators’
obligations to students and the education
profession. Although well intended, these
two brief statutes may not go far enough in
the area of ethics training and accountability.
On the heels of the report issued by the
Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury’s
Office of Research and Education
Accountability (OREA) detailing numerous
challenges in protecting students from
predatory educators, there was a section
dealing specifically with ethics. It is clear
that training can help alleviate numerous
issues. It is also likely Lawmakers will
propose a broader, more comprehensive
Professional Code of Ethics.
The benefits of the Professional Code of
ethics are numerous. Insurance risks and
costs go down, good behavior examples for
our children go up, and, rather than relying
on intuition and guesswork, the Code
provides substantive standards, guidelines
and enforcement. Training could easily
be provided by the state, LEA, or teacher
associations. We expect professional ethics
to be an ongoing issue during legislative
session, as well as through the upcoming
election cycle.
Educators’ Bill of Rights
We were honored to support the
“Teachers’ Bill of Rights” legislation last year,
and respectfully asked legislators to support
this needed legislation for the teachers in
their districts and across the state. The
Tennessee General Assembly has sent
a positive message that respecting the
authority of teachers is essential to creating
an environment conducive to learning,
effective instruction in the classroom, and
proper administration of our local public
schools.
The Bill of Rights was intended as a solid
foundation on which to build, establishing a
set of basic rights for teachers. This session,
we would like to see the addition of language
that addresses the sometimes subjective
nature of teacher evaluations, wihch have
so much bearing on an educator’s career
future. We plan to support an amendment
by Rep. Jay Reedy (one of the original
bill sponsors) to require that only trained
evaluators perform the evaluations.
Read more about the passage of the
Teachers’ Bill of Rights in the Spring 2017
issue of TREND.