FCPS retroactively denying pay raises

[Anonymous]

Maybe a masters in education is relatively worthless, but I have a doctorate in my subject area. I may not be as good at classroom management as some of my colleagues, but I can teach more advanced curriculum. Is that not worth anything?

[Anonymous]

Having a degree in education doesn’t mean you have behavior management skills down or can run a classroom smoothly. Teaching is a skill and it’s really not taught well in these education programs at universities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe a masters in education is relatively worthless, but I have a doctorate in my subject area. I may not be as good at classroom management as some of my colleagues, but I can teach more advanced curriculum. Is that not worth anything?

This is a good question. Most of the studies I am aware of use tests that have relatively low ceilings, so three+ standard deviation students that might particularly benefit from the guidance of someone who knows a subject exceedingly well would not show up. I would be delighted to find studies that look more carefully into this.

But on the other hand, it's probably an open question as to what extent the advanced knowledge has measurable impact, because the material covered, even in high school, is not at great depth. There are certainly times when it would come handy, but how often, relative to the number of times masters- or bachelor-level knowledge is useful? You would be the best to judge, but surely there's some level of diminishing marginal returns. Especially for a PhD, which almost by definition will delve into a very narrow topic in the field. I could give a fantastic lesson on predynastic Ur's trade relationships, but that'd meet about five minutes worth of instruction for the history standard, at best.

As a complete aside, training for elementary school Chinese math instructors -- at least in the late nineties -- is distinct from teacher training in the US in that it thoroughly mines elementary math concepts. A Chinese math teacher at that level wouldn't take calculus in their version of a normal college, but would instead spend hours and hours of class time studying fractions, elementary geometry, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe a masters in education is relatively worthless, but I have a doctorate in my subject area. I may not be as good at classroom management as some of my colleagues, but I can teach more advanced curriculum. Is that not worth anything?

I doubt your PHD impacts what you are teaching, even in an IB class. I'm sure it can help, but it doesn't make that much of a difference.