Unpopular opinion: DCPS teachers are super well paid!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:(I would very strongly suspect that most of the white collar, six figure non-teachers posting negativity on this website during the day actually have bullshit jobs. I mean, how are you here?)

Do you get that saying "teachers in DCPS are super well paid" is not the same as saying "teaching is a bullshit job and it's probably easier than what I do"?

Also, it depends on the teacher, honestly. My kid has had teachers in DCPS who were amazing, deserve double their paycheck, just absolutely phenomenal. I've also come across some real duds who should either be forced into retirement of fired, including a specials teacher who just showed the kids movies every single class for an entire year. I mean EVERY class. I just looked and that teacher took home 85k that year (we are no longer at that school). Making 85k to press play on a movie 6 times a day and hand out the occasional coloring page (and skip back to school night and every other school event -- I never once saw this teacher outside of school hours) is pretty bullshit.

Every industry has it's slackers.

Well, yeah. My kids have definitely had some specials teachers who were totally phoning it in. They can also throw out random grades -- they are assessing kids on any kinds of standard.

I'm not misunderstanding the premise of this post, it just makes me furious to see people insult hard working teachers ("teaching seems boring"?) when they are sitting at home on their computer probably doing something completely useless.

Saying "teaching seems boring" is not an insult to teachers. It's one person's opinion. You know what seems boring to me? Being a lawyer or accountant. Academic research. I think a lot of people would agree with me about those things. I also don't think lawyers, accountants, and academics lose sleep over the fact that I think their jobs are boring. It's just my opinion. Who cares.

You need a thicker skin. Also, it's 1:30pm on a Wednesday. Unless you're typing these responses with one hand while shoveling food in your mouth with the other and trying to set the classroom up for science before the kids get back from recess, you aren't teaching today. You're sitting at home or in your office on your computer, doing something less than useless -- posting on DCUM just like the rest of us.

[Anonymous]

Recess? I am a retired high school teacher. There’s no there, there.

[Anonymous]

I had to chuckle at recess too. As high school teachers, my DH and i never really think about elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:(I would very strongly suspect that most of the white collar, six figure non-teachers posting negativity on this website during the day actually have bullshit jobs. I mean, how are you here?)

Do you get that saying "teachers in DCPS are super well paid" is not the same as saying "teaching is a bullshit job and it's probably easier than what I do"?

Also, it depends on the teacher, honestly. My kid has had teachers in DCPS who were amazing, deserve double their paycheck, just absolutely phenomenal. I've also come across some real duds who should either be forced into retirement of fired, including a specials teacher who just showed the kids movies every single class for an entire year. I mean EVERY class. I just looked and that teacher took home 85k that year (we are no longer at that school). Making 85k to press play on a movie 6 times a day and hand out the occasional coloring page (and skip back to school night and every other school event -- I never once saw this teacher outside of school hours) is pretty bullshit.

Every industry has it's slackers.

Well, yeah. My kids have definitely had some specials teachers who were totally phoning it in. They can also throw out random grades -- they are assessing kids on any kinds of standard.

I'm not misunderstanding the premise of this post, it just makes me furious to see people insult hard working teachers ("teaching seems boring"?) when they are sitting at home on their computer probably doing something completely useless.

Saying "teaching seems boring" is not an insult to teachers. It's one person's opinion. You know what seems boring to me? Being a lawyer or accountant. Academic research. I think a lot of people would agree with me about those things. I also don't think lawyers, accountants, and academics lose sleep over the fact that I think their jobs are boring. It's just my opinion. Who cares.

You need a thicker skin. Also, it's 1:30pm on a Wednesday. Unless you're typing these responses with one hand while shoveling food in your mouth with the other and trying to set the classroom up for science before the kids get back from recess, you aren't teaching today. You're sitting at home or in your office on your computer, doing something less than useless -- posting on DCUM just like the rest of us.

The person who said teaching seems boring was responding to someone who asked why, if teachers are paid so well, aren't all the people who say teachers are extremely well paid becoming teachers themselves.

Honestly, these threads can become like games of telephone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:(I would very strongly suspect that most of the white collar, six figure non-teachers posting negativity on this website during the day actually have bullshit jobs. I mean, how are you here?)

Do you get that saying "teachers in DCPS are super well paid" is not the same as saying "teaching is a bullshit job and it's probably easier than what I do"?

Also, it depends on the teacher, honestly. My kid has had teachers in DCPS who were amazing, deserve double their paycheck, just absolutely phenomenal. I've also come across some real duds who should either be forced into retirement of fired, including a specials teacher who just showed the kids movies every single class for an entire year. I mean EVERY class. I just looked and that teacher took home 85k that year (we are no longer at that school). Making 85k to press play on a movie 6 times a day and hand out the occasional coloring page (and skip back to school night and every other school event -- I never once saw this teacher outside of school hours) is pretty bullshit.

Every industry has it's slackers.

Every industry has its slackers, but, in most, they're fired in fairly short order. In my profession, people are fired not for being slackers but for being the least productive, even if they aren't slackers. It can be frustrating to parents how teachers who plainly have no interest in teaching children are allowed to remain on the job indefinitely. But that's the government for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had to chuckle at recess too. As high school teachers, my DH and i never really think about elementary school.

Good for you? Anyone who has time to post on DCUM in the middle of their work day does not have a super demanding job, fyi.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Recess? I am a retired high school teacher. There’s no there, there.

Enjoying a lifelong pension, I'm guessing. This thread is about whether or not teachers are well paid. No one cares what grade you taught.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an MCPS high school teacher and I work my 2nd job on Saturdays , full-time in summer, and every non-teaching day that is scheduled like today, President's Day. It is my house maintenance money. It paid for my new roof, my new furnace, and my kitchen+bathroom floors in the past couple of years.

I have 2 masters degrees. I had roommates until l I was 40, which allowed me to put a down payment on my house and pay for the adoption of my daughter..

Why aren't you DCUMers running away from your current job and into public school teaching??

MCPS teachers don't make as much as DCPS teachers. The whole premise of this thread is that DCPS teachers are paid well, not that all teachers, or even that all teachers in the area are paid well.

Why don't you get a job with DCPS? Apparently they are hiring.

You do realize they only make 10k less than DC teachers…

To start. DCPS teachers have a higher ceiling on pay because there are more Title 1 schools offering the T1 bump, and there are more bonuses available for performance. You might start out making only 10k more in DCPS, but you could wind up making 20-40k more than in MCPS if you stick around and can meet performance targets.

And before you yell at me, lots of industries have annoying performance targets that result in bonuses but are not always fairly applied. I get that the bonuses in DCPS for "highly effective" teachers don't always reflect good teaching but BS metrics. MANY industries where it can be hard to measure effectiveness or ROI have this problem. Probably the only job where bonuses can be tied very directly to performance in a way that feels fair is sales, and even there, there's a host of issues that are annoying (like being the wrong gender or ethnicity in an industry where people of the "right" gender/ethnicity regularly sell a lot more).

That's life. Work often sucks.

It would be 20k with the bonus, if you look at the data only 37% of teachers get the bonus, 17% on average take the bonus. The majority are non-title 1 teachers and the bonus is 2k for them.

So it’s not up to 40k. Principals can make up to 40k in a bonus. If you are looking at the up to 25k bonus for teachers only the bottom 10 DCPS schools are eligible and teachers there do not get highly effective. I’d wager it’s 1-5 teachers total.

[Anonymous]

What if teachers in DC are paid well?
The whole premise of this post is nasty, many jobs get 8 weeks paid vacation. Teachers on average work 10 months in a year, it is never 9. Teachers should be paid well. I find it interesting that principal salary is never discussed but every once in a while you have an odd parent wanting strange attention online.

Presents are never a requirement. Appreciation can be free. I hope I never come across a loser parent like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had to chuckle at recess too. As high school teachers, my DH and i never really think about elementary school.

Good for you? Anyone who has time to post on DCUM in the middle of their work day does not have a super demanding job, fyi.

I’m a teacher who has posted here in the middle of the day. I get about 20 minutes to myself between the hours of 8 and 3:30. That’s precious time to go to the bathroom, eat lunch, call a doctor, and take care of any other personal needs I may need to address during the work day. On occasion, I’ve spent a fraction of those 20 minutes to (gasp) check DCUM as a break from the stress of work. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t running ragged the rest of the day and taking home 3 additional hours of prep/grading.

Just sharing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What if teachers in DC are paid well?
The whole premise of this post is nasty, many jobs get 8 weeks paid vacation. Teachers on average work 10 months in a year, it is never 9. Teachers should be paid well. I find it interesting that principal salary is never discussed but every once in a while you have an odd parent wanting strange attention online.

Presents are never a requirement. Appreciation can be free. I hope I never come across a loser parent like this.

+1

I know plenty of feds who take several weeks off in the summer, spring break with their kids, winter break off, random other days during the school year. They also work from home a few days a week and admittedly don’t work even close to a full day. I have friends in non profits with similar schedules and vacation time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What if teachers in DC are paid well?
The whole premise of this post is nasty, many jobs get 8 weeks paid vacation. Teachers on average work 10 months in a year, it is never 9. Teachers should be paid well. I find it interesting that principal salary is never discussed but every once in a while you have an odd parent wanting strange attention online.

Presents are never a requirement. Appreciation can be free. I hope I never come across a loser parent like this.

+1

I know plenty of feds who take several weeks off in the summer, spring break with their kids, winter break off, random other days during the school year. They also work from home a few days a week and admittedly don’t work even close to a full day. I have friends in non profits with similar schedules and vacation time.

Feds only get 6 weeks off per year. We have to take leave the day after Thanksgiving if we want it off. Teachers have 2 months in the summer, plus winter and spring breaks and other days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What if teachers in DC are paid well?
The whole premise of this post is nasty, many jobs get 8 weeks paid vacation. Teachers on average work 10 months in a year, it is never 9. Teachers should be paid well. I find it interesting that principal salary is never discussed but every once in a while you have an odd parent wanting strange attention online.

Presents are never a requirement. Appreciation can be free. I hope I never come across a loser parent like this.

+1

I know plenty of feds who take several weeks off in the summer, spring break with their kids, winter break off, random other days during the school year. They also work from home a few days a week and admittedly don’t work even close to a full day. I have friends in non profits with similar schedules and vacation time.

Feds only get 6 weeks off per year. We have to take leave the day after Thanksgiving if we want it off. Teachers have 2 months in the summer, plus winter and spring breaks and other days.

The number of "professional development days" is insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What if teachers in DC are paid well?
The whole premise of this post is nasty, many jobs get 8 weeks paid vacation. Teachers on average work 10 months in a year, it is never 9. Teachers should be paid well. I find it interesting that principal salary is never discussed but every once in a while you have an odd parent wanting strange attention online.

Presents are never a requirement. Appreciation can be free. I hope I never come across a loser parent like this.

+1

I know plenty of feds who take several weeks off in the summer, spring break with their kids, winter break off, random other days during the school year. They also work from home a few days a week and admittedly don’t work even close to a full day. I have friends in non profits with similar schedules and vacation time.

Feds only get 6 weeks off per year. We have to take leave the day after Thanksgiving if we want it off. Teachers have 2 months in the summer, plus winter and spring breaks and other days.

If you're not a teacher, benefits for DC employees are actually pretty crappy. Much worse than the private sector. Teachers are in their own category when it comes to retirement benefits and taking time off, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What if teachers in DC are paid well?
The whole premise of this post is nasty, many jobs get 8 weeks paid vacation. Teachers on average work 10 months in a year, it is never 9. Teachers should be paid well. I find it interesting that principal salary is never discussed but every once in a while you have an odd parent wanting strange attention online.

Presents are never a requirement. Appreciation can be free. I hope I never come across a loser parent like this.

+1

I know plenty of feds who take several weeks off in the summer, spring break with their kids, winter break off, random other days during the school year. They also work from home a few days a week and admittedly don’t work even close to a full day. I have friends in non profits with similar schedules and vacation time.

Feds only get 6 weeks off per year. We have to take leave the day after Thanksgiving if we want it off. Teachers have 2 months in the summer, plus winter and spring breaks and other days.

UNPAID. Teachers are paid for 190ish days a year. Summers aren’t “off”.

Sigh.