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Anyone thinking of leaving privates next year?
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Anonymous
I will always remember the old woman who was a teacher and did everything old school style. She demanded respect, and there sure was order in the classroom And in the end she was liked more than the other teachers |
Anonymous
Yikes, I had two like that and could not stand them. The only I disliked more was the hyper-religious divorced guy. The ones I liked best were the off-beat, middle-aged (late 30s/early 40s) ones who were experienced enough to have confidence, energetic enough to seize your attention, and creative enough to show you the world in a new way. You can keep the old-schoolers for yourself, IMO. All of these were at some private school, so I doubt any had formal credentials, although all of them had been teaching for 20-50 years, so they pretty much knew what they were doing. |
Anonymous
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Another teacher here. I have taught in both independent and public schools in DC. There are ups and downs of both.
Independent-don't need to be certified or have a degree in education, but you need some teaching experience, pay is low and benefits are not great, smaller classrooms, children are pretty well behaved, more freedom (sometimes a little too much), shorter school year, more planning time, professional development is at your will with no/very little red tape; longer school days; weekend commitments; all the supplies you need/want; LOTS of parent communication/contact. Public-MUST be certified within a year after being hired (PRAXIS I & II-multiple choice and essay responses); certification also requires that you have a degree in education or you have taken a number of education courses (if your degree is in another area outside of education or your area of certification), MUST renew your certification every 3-4 years by taking classes/courses (i think it is 90 hours); with a master's degree-teacher pay is about $15,000-20,000 more than an independent schools but with the new teacher pay raise in DC public schools it will be a WHOLE lot more; health/dental/retirement/disability/leave benefits are really good; larger classrooms; lots of discipline problems; more paperwork; shorter school days; less planning time; very little parent communication/contact. Teachers in both systems are neither better or worse than the other. Hopefully your child has a dedicated and caring teacher whether he/she is in an independent or public school. |
Anonymous
What is the starting salary of DC publics and privates? |
Anonymous
Education schools today are engaged in a tremendous amount of self study precisely because their " product" is widely viewed within the educational community as flawed at best and worthless at worst. Your post reads like it was written by the head of a teachers union trying to protect public school jobs. No private school teacher would say all public school teachers are low performers, and it is absurd to say that most private school teachers are because, say, they choose to get a substantive postgrad degree instead of enduring the stultifying boredom of Ed school for a degree the value of which is questioned. Really interesting discussions though-- a nice break from Landon threads! |
Anonymous
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I have met great/not good teachers at private, as well as public.
Everything I have heard (not the best evidence, admittedly...) is that public in DC pays more than private, but that in other parts of the country this may not be true. I remember reading something in the papers about the new school at Columbia University in New York and how much their teachers would make relative to the PS. |
SAM2
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Here is some useful data about public/private salaries in DC: http://www.aisgw.org/school_resources/Overall%20DC%20Stats%2008-09.pdf . The many people noting that public school teachers are paid more are correct. According to this data, public school teachers seem to be making about 10-15% more than private school teachers, not including benefits. My view is that it's ridiculous to try to generalize which group of teachers is better or worse. Of course there are going to be both wonderful and terrible teachers in both types of schools. It seems the public school system would have a much more bureaucratic, objective, and regulation-driven hiring process, so it would make sense for public schools to require all sorts of certifications and baseline requirements to make sure they are getting top teachers. And public schools need to pay more to encourage teachers to go through that certification process. Private schools have the benefit of being able to ignore such rules and use more subjective measures to hire the best teachers they can attract. And it seems like many good teachers are willing to accept less pay at private schools in exchange for avoiding bureaucratic hassle and for other creature comforts. It also seems like there is just as much pressure on private schools to try to find good teachers, because the very active private school parents will complain and perhaps leave if the teachers are not strong. |
Anonymous
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PP, those salaries are eye popping. I had no idea that they went so high.
That said, I have my dd in private school and I see here teachers taking advantage of the "freedom" and easier students. The student discipline benefits the teachers in that they sort of take it easy, the students don't seem to get more instruction. |
Anonymous
Wow PP, I am so happy for you. And you speak with such authority on a matter in which you have no personal clue as your DC is in private. Well let me inform you that the DCPS tide missed our neighborhood schools. We were lucky to get into a wonderful charter. Otherwise, DC was bound for privates. |
Anonymous
| This thread is way off target. Here is the key difference between public and private -- in public, you get testing, testing and more testing, and, oh yes, teaching to the test. It's all about the numbers on the tests. The curriculum is geared entirely to the tests, and there is little room for anything else. |
Anonymous
Is this true in public high school, as well? Does anybody know if AP courses are taught very differently in publics/privates? |
Anonymous
| Key and Mann were great school long before Fenty and Rhee showed up. |
Anonymous
Couldn't agree more. We never even considered private schools until our kids experienced this testing obsession. After several years of basically learning little more than how to take a test in MCPS (can anyone say BCR?!), we switched to private this year. Best move we ever made even though paying tuition REALLY sucks. Kids are finally happy and learning. |
Anonymous
Yes, at least to a point. The public school kids I know complain that their AP courses are very test-oriented. At least at my DC's private, many kids take AP tests without taking AP courses (eg, take the school's upper level US History course, do a little independent prep, take the AP US History test) and do well. |
Anonymous
This is so true. My mother has taught in both public and private for over 30 years. She has won teaching awards both on the local and the state level and honestly loves the profession. She is now teaching in a magnet public school and has encouraged us to go private. Her public school used to have more flexibility in the teaching curriculum and the ability to include more creativity and arts education. But because of No Child Left Behind, public school teachers are increasingly being forced to teach to the test--and at the end of the day, there really isn't time to teach much else. She told us that for the first time in her life, teaching is beginning to feel more like a chore than a joy. Now she's considering going back to private.
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