Perhaps others have different experiences with newer teachers, our track record though shows clearly this to be the case.
Our experience is mixed: in my DD's school, the only teacher in three years who tried to help her was teaching for the first time. The two with 30+ years experience did nothing (one tried to hold her back in math), and the one who'd been teaching for 5-10 years held her back in math until October. She was finally forced to move her to the fastest math group when DD took a pretest on long division and got everything correct. The mix has been pretty much the same with my eldest son's teachers. I think that a lot depends on personal qualities in the teacher and the attitude of the administration. Overall, US schools tend to be anti-acceleration, and this outlook trickles down into the classroom.
As for the OP's lawsuit, the problem is more than just tenure. This lawsuit came up because the students (and presumably their parents) got fed up with the schools for failing to provide enough instruction time by people who were even minimally qualified to instruct.
The schools in Oakland are an example of what I mean:
The lawsuit filed Thursday alleges that at Fremont High School in Oakland, approximately one-third of seniors are assigned to so-called “Inside Work Experience” periods “instead of being placed in meaningful core or enrichment classes.” Students sort mail, run errands and perform other tasks. Juniors in the school of some 800 students are also assigned such work periods as well, the suit says.
This has absolutely been the case with my son at our local high school. His math teacher was injured over Christmas, and the subs did their knitting and told the kids to teach themselves. There was effectively NO instruction for the rest of the year. I wrote three emails about the problem to the vice-principal; he never answered. Other parents told me about teachers taping their morning lectures and playing the tapes for afternoon classes. Etc. And this school is "highly rated." As a result, I can easily believe the claims about the lower-rated schools in Oakland.
