Bit of a rant:Concern about new pool of MCPS subs (from a teacher)

[Anonymous]

I jus came across the news that MCPS is lowering requirements for subs due to shortages of roughly 120 subs a day.

“Montgomery County’s Board of Education approved a change to its hiring requirements for substitute teachers.

Instead of requiring that substitutes have a bachelor’s degree, the system will now allow applicants with either an associate degree or 60 hours of college credit to be eligible for substitute positions.”

I’m never thrilled when the office buzzed me to say I need to cover a colleague’s class, but I’d rather do coverage than have less qualified subs in our schools. I began my career as a sub and one of my best friends has subbed for MCPS for close to twenty years. It is hard work so I understand why few people with 4 year degrees are entering the field. However, I think our kids do best when subs are retired teachers or aspiring (student) teachers. The idea that anyone with 60 hours of college who needs a job can potentially qualify to teach math or reading for 10 days in a row is absurd. I say 10 days because I think the long-term pool with remain the same standard, but I could be wrong. MCPS should offer better incentives to retired teachers to attract them to sub.

Schools already fight over the best subs. Lowering the bar will just increase the disparity between our highest and lowest performing schools.

I know this was a bit of a rant and pre-coffee at that, but knowing this is going to increase my already big guilt at taking a sick day in February when the annual plague runs through our staff.

[Anonymous]

Our MCPS school can't even find qualified TEACHERS for foreign language and math, let alone substitutes (in one case a long term sub spoke/taught Portuguese, NOT Spanish!). I am horrified as well, because the babysitting, instead of teaching, will become worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our MCPS school can't even find qualified TEACHERS for foreign language and math, let alone substitutes (in one case a long term sub spoke/taught Portuguese, NOT Spanish!). I am horrified as well, because the babysitting, instead of teaching, will become worse.

That is unacceptable!

The working conditions and pay will continue to push out many highly qualified teachers and steer most young people away. I’m mid-career and wouldn’t want my children to become public school teachers. I love the work I do, but the closer I get to retirement, the more I realize I screwed my self leaving my corporate job.

[Anonymous]

What's the alternative? There aren't enough people willing to be subs. Raising sub pay? I am asking sincerely.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps requiring credits but not a degree would allow college students interested in teaching but not in a formal teaching program or not in their student teaching semester to do it?

I don’t think you have to worry about one sick day. I agree that the longer you’re out the bigger of a concern it becomes. And I also agree that qualifications for long term subs should be different than subs who are only there a day or two. Ten seems long.

[Anonymous]

The system needs to focus more on its people, period, meaning the intangibles and the relationship piece I recently left the system. I’m an educator in my 40s with several graduate degrees, glowing formal and informal evaluations and tremendous success with kids. Guess what happened when I said I was considering leaving for another system? Nothing. That’s right. No one asked me why I was leaving, or told me they wish I’d reconsider, or said it was a loss. I just moved on. I might have considered returning at some point, too, but the leaving process made me feel so dispensable that I never want to feel that unappreciated again. The system needs to focus as much on their existing personnel as future subs or they’ll continue to bleed people.

[Anonymous]

Being a sub can be a brutal job. They can be pulled in so many directions in a given day. Even wheN I fill in for a staff member for one period, I have had so many problems with student behaviors, bad or nonexistent lesson plans, or students that dont speak any English. It is very easy to get confused quickly, unless the teacher is organized.

At the same time, subs can be very low quality. One sub recently put two dvd discs into my computer at the same time in one drive and broke my computer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps requiring credits but not a degree would allow college students interested in teaching but not in a formal teaching program or not in their student teaching semester to do it?
.

That’s a good solution, perhaps they should recruit from universities. Someone who has classes MWF could sub T,TH in a school based position?

[Anonymous]

Gosh. That’s bad. My ES kid is always happy when they have a sub because they spend so much time watching TV and playing chrome books. But we had a teacher who had health problems who was out a lot and then went out on LT leave a few weeks later and it was weeks of instructional time lost...

[Anonymous]

Horrible.

Just another reason to save our money and probably just send our kid to private school when she gets to be that age ...

[Anonymous]

If you raise the pay of subs you will get more qualified people wanting to be subs. From what I've heard, the pay rate hasn't improved in over 10 years. Of course you need tap people without a BA, because people with a college degree need and deserve higher pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you raise the pay of subs you will get more qualified people wanting to be subs. From what I've heard, the pay rate hasn't improved in over 10 years. Of course you need tap people without a BA, because people with a college degree need and deserve higher pay.

Sub pay:

For "certificated" subs: short-term $19.58/hr, long-term $27.89/hr.

For "non-certificated" subs: short-term $18.41/hr, long-term $26.28/hr.

Montgomery County minimum wage is currently $13/hr and will rise to $14/hr on July 1, 2020, and $15/hr on July 1, 2021.

[Anonymous]

They said the new policy puts MCPS in line with all surrounding jurisdictions. If it works there, seems like it's worth a try here as a potential solution for a persistent problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps requiring credits but not a degree would allow college students interested in teaching but not in a formal teaching program or not in their student teaching semester to do it?

I don’t think you have to worry about one sick day. I agree that the longer you’re out the bigger of a concern it becomes. And I also agree that qualifications for long term subs should be different than subs who are only there a day or two. Ten seems long.

Are you kidding? The kids would eat a college age sub alive. They can sense in 20 seconds which subs they can walk all over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you raise the pay of subs you will get more qualified people wanting to be subs. From what I've heard, the pay rate hasn't improved in over 10 years. Of course you need tap people without a BA, because people with a college degree need and deserve higher pay.

Sub pay:

For "certificated" subs: short-term $19.58/hr, long-term $27.89/hr.

For "non-certificated" subs: short-term $18.41/hr, long-term $26.28/hr.

Montgomery County minimum wage is currently $13/hr and will rise to $14/hr on July 1, 2020, and $15/hr on July 1, 2021.

FWIW, Fairfax pays its subs a lot less and doesn’t require a BS. I subbed for several years and can honestly say that most of the subs were awful. These counties have done studies and solicited teacher feedback about how to address the shortage and have largely ignored everything they’ve been told.