charter school inexperienced teachers

[Anonymous]

I was a Charter school 1st grade teacher making 37k. I will begin teacher in DCPS coming this fall.

[Anonymous]

Youthful enthusiasm is all well and good for 2nd grade, but for middle school and high school , I want experience. I want someone who has honed their techniques and who knows where the pitfalls are on the AP exams or IB exams because they've seen years' worth of tests. Longfellow Middle in Fairfax, where the kids are raking in the Mathcounts and Science Olympiad prizes, has teachers with decades of experience, not well-intended TFA novices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Exactly.... Besides my kid is going into second grade. Youthful energy and smarts and enthusiasm makes up for lack of experience. Doesn't hurt that they are up on the latest in education theory and data driven results. I liked all the TFA and former TFA teachers and admins we've had so far at our charter.

Admittedly, I can relate to them because we have similar backgrounds, several of my classmates did the Peace Corps back when there was no TFA.

Sorry, but I must fervently disagree. I'm a high school teacher so I get to work with the children who have matriculated through experienced and inexperienced teachers. The differences become amplified as the years progress and misconceptions ingrain. Inexperienced teachers do not have the benefit of knowing multiple ways to teaching material, of having hundreds of different learners experiences to draw upon, of working with many different educators in high and low performing schools, of years of reflection. I love the work the TFA does, but there isn't a single teacher in the country who thinks that he/she did the same quality of teaching in the first 3 years as they do in subsequent years.

Signed- A veteran teacher with many years of urban and suburban teaching experience AND a TFA alum.

[Anonymous]

Inexperienced teachers are a feature, not a bug, of the charter system. The whole point of charters is to create a
"Disruptive " free market competition aspect to public schools. Paying teachers less, reducing stability and benefits,
and demanding fewer qualificstions is a deliberate policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Inexperienced teachers are a feature, not a bug, of the charter system. The whole point of charters is to create a
"Disruptive " free market competition aspect to public schools. Paying teachers less, reducing stability and benefits,
and demanding fewer qualificstions is a deliberate policy.

That being the case, should charters be a system that aims to replace stodgy old DCPS or should they be smaller "laboratories for innovation"?

Seems like we missed out on the latter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Youthful enthusiasm is all well and good for 2nd grade, but for middle school and high school , I want experience. I want someone who has honed their techniques and who knows where the pitfalls are on the AP exams or IB exams because they've seen years' worth of tests. Longfellow Middle in Fairfax, where the kids are raking in the Mathcounts and Science Olympiad prizes, has teachers with decades of experience, not well-intended TFA novices.

It's fine for second grade... we will be going private for middle and high school exactly for the reasons you describe.

[Anonymous]

Enthusiasm does not make up for experience. Haven't you gotten better at your job over the years? So do teachers.

[Anonymous]

It really depends.

I've known new teachers who (in part because they were *taking* AP exams just a few years ago) were able to teach really effective strategies for taking them, and who had the energy to create great lesson plans and work with the range of student abilities in their classrooms. Some experienced teachers can do this too--and I'm sure they get better from year 1 to year 5. But year 15 or 20? Some get better, and others are too burned out or frankly lack the intellectual firepower to work with advanced kids (there are plenty of teachers who were B and C students throughout HS and college, never took an AP exam in HS, and probably couldn't pass one now).

To me, rather than old v. young, my main concerns are:

a) subject-matter and general knowledge (does the teacher use correct grammar? can he or she send a well-written letter home?)
b) ability to manage the classroom
c) ability to transmit his or her knowledge to students
d) ability to innovate when things aren't going well

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was a Charter school 1st grade teacher making 37k. I will begin teacher in DCPS coming this fall.

wow, 37. That is less than my nanny makes for caring for 1 (sometimes 2) child.

I do NOT ant my child's teacher making 37. How can we find out salaries and what can say, PTA do about supplementing them maybe?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a Charter school 1st grade teacher making 37k. I will begin teacher in DCPS coming this fall.

wow, 37. That is less than my nanny makes for caring for 1 (sometimes 2) child.

I do NOT ant my child's teacher making 37. How can we find out salaries and what can say, PTA do about supplementing them maybe?

You charter does not want you getting all up in their finances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a Charter school 1st grade teacher making 37k. I will begin teacher in DCPS coming this fall.

wow, 37. That is less than my nanny makes for caring for 1 (sometimes 2) child.

I do NOT ant my child's teacher making 37. How can we find out salaries and what can say, PTA do about supplementing them maybe?

Check out the audit reports on the Charter Board's website.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a Charter school 1st grade teacher making 37k. I will begin teacher in DCPS coming this fall.

wow, 37. That is less than my nanny makes for caring for 1 (sometimes 2) child.

I do NOT ant my child's teacher making 37. How can we find out salaries and what can say, PTA do about supplementing them maybe?

Check out the audit reports on the Charter Board's website.

Link? I'm having trouble finding a financial reporting section.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a Charter school 1st grade teacher making 37k. I will begin teacher in DCPS coming this fall.

wow, 37. That is less than my nanny makes for caring for 1 (sometimes 2) child.

I do NOT ant my child's teacher making 37. How can we find out salaries and what can say, PTA do about supplementing them maybe?

Check out the audit reports on the Charter Board's website.

Link? I'm having trouble finding a financial reporting section.

http://www.dcpcsb.org/Data-Center/Accountability-002D-Academic-and-Fiscal.aspx

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a Charter school 1st grade teacher making 37k. I will begin teacher in DCPS coming this fall.

wow, 37. That is less than my nanny makes for caring for 1 (sometimes 2) child.

I do NOT ant my child's teacher making 37. How can we find out salaries and what can say, PTA do about supplementing them maybe?

Check out the audit reports on the Charter Board's website.

Link? I'm having trouble finding a financial reporting section.

http://www.dcpcsb.org/Data-Center/Accountability-002D-Academic-and-Fiscal.aspx

Thanks for the link. As far as I can tell you can figure out the school's total budget and funding sources (DC gov't, grants, and "unrestricted") AND the number of students. But nowhere can you find the # of teachers or management costs or overhead to calculate a mean teacher salary for a school. Do charters allow parent groups to wade in and help them manage these sorts of things?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a Charter school 1st grade teacher making 37k. I will begin teacher in DCPS coming this fall.

wow, 37. That is less than my nanny makes for caring for 1 (sometimes 2) child.

I do NOT ant my child's teacher making 37. How can we find out salaries and what can say, PTA do about supplementing them maybe?

Check out the audit reports on the Charter Board's website.

Link? I'm having trouble finding a financial reporting section.

http://www.dcpcsb.org/Data-Center/Accountability-002D-Academic-and-Fiscal.aspx

Thanks for the link. As far as I can tell you can figure out the school's total budget and funding sources (DC gov't, grants, and "unrestricted") AND the number of students. But nowhere can you find the # of teachers or management costs or overhead to calculate a mean teacher salary for a school. Do charters allow parent groups to wade in and help them manage these sorts of things?

Annual reports (not the audits) in previous years had appendices with this information, including range in teacher pay and average teacher pay it was required by the PCSB. That requirement changed for 2012-13 reports, and the reporting isn't quite as extensive in those reports.