Teacher Pay
This interesting article was published by the League of Education Voters. I can't comment because I haven't read all the links nor do I know much about teacher pay variables. I'll just post it for others to read.
Tuesday Open Thread
The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested. It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio. (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Comments
Teacher pay is low, gotta do something. So that something is performance based pay?
Why not, as a starting point, just raise the pay of teachers? To say that "we have to do something" and then say, "we need perf-based" seems like an agenda to me.
The obvious answer is merely to raise pay to equitable levels (if it's below, which it seems to be, frankly) then, if one wants to change how an educator is paid, THEN talk about various ways to allocate.
Low pay doesn't necessitate performance-based pay.
BTW, teachers, at least, aren't HORRIBLY paid: In addition to base salary(which is kind of low) there is TRI money from contracts, extra-time, where available...But I'd say teachers are below a fair market value, given their training, and also that non-teacher staff is too far below.
Additionally, low-income,
low-performing, and minority students, particularly in urban schools, are most likely to receive instruction from the least experienced and less effective teachers.
---------------------
Given the way that teachers are treated more like chattel property in the SPS than elsewhere what is the motivation to stay in the SPS and continue teaching? Take a look in the Central Puget Sound area and look which districts have unfilled jobs the longest.
Professor David Berliner's research in the 1980's showed that beginning teachers with SAT scores in the top quarter of all beginning teachers were usually gone from teaching in 5 years or less( much less than 25% continued). Those teachers with SAT scores in the lowest quarter were still teaching 5 years later at an 85% rate.
His analysis was that teaching was not a job that people wished to do if they could find employment elsewhere - a really bad sign for the profession.
USA public school education is in a sick state right now. Many private schools are no better.
The reason remains that k-12 education is hardly a priority.
Nail on head.
I am on my third try to make it work with SPS, taking breaks to work in the private sector and parent.
I don't want more money because I attended some weak professional development thing that someone else was paid extra to put on.
I want to feel that I can learn from the people above me rather than be continually astounded/ashamed/saddened at their incompetence. I want my time and my work to be valued. I want to have time to do my job in a professional and thorough manner. I don't want the beginning of every school year to be chaos, like it's the first year this has been done.
I want my colleagues to have the level of professionalism necessary to arrive at scheduled meetings on time, be prepared, and meet deadlines. This will happen when job responsibilities are realistically assigned by the powers that be. And that will happen when education is valued and fully funded.