Reply to Unpopular opinion: DCPS teachers are super well paid!

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Unpopular opinion: DCPS teachers are super well paid!"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There’s also the question of what the public gets in exchange for these fat salaries, benefits, etc. The majority of public schools in DC are really terrible. [/quote]

Are teachers truly to blame for all the problems of the school system?

Do we blame doctors when patients are diagnosed with cancer? Do we blame accountants for our bad financial decisions?

Yet we blame teachers when a neglected child cannot read on grade level.

Huh. [/quote]

Ok well if teachers make no difference then you should be paid accordingly. [/quote]

Makes no sense. Teachers are doing their jobs. The system makes it so that their jobs are incredibly difficult. If the system wants better results, they can do things differently. But to slam teachers is crazy—and it’s a lazy way of thinking. It’s incredibly difficult to treat certain cancers, but doctors who have a very low survival rate in their patients still get paid well. No one would suggest they get paid according to who lives. If a bus driver is stuck in a traffic jam, would you dock their pay for not making their route on time? Pick any job/profession. Only teachers get talked about this way. It’s so disrespectful. [/quote]

Makes no sense at all. What I also don't understand is that people take such a simplistic view when judging teachers and schools. Low levels of proficiency do not mean there is no growth. Proficiency on PARCC is a 4. If a kids comes into high school at a 1 and grows to a 2, those teachers helped that kid with about two years of growth. I assure you that this was not easy and took real expertise. There are some high schools in DC where the majority of students are arriving not on grade level.  If teachers help them grow to a 2 or 3, the school will show up as having zero or few kids proficient but the growth is high and those students will have much better future opportunities.[/quote]

Why are they arriving at grade level below their potential?  If HS teachers can make extra progress, then shouldn't that have happened earlier?[/quote]

It’s not a bad question, but the answer is far more complicated than just that teachers must be bad. Even really great teachers (and there are many) are struggling within a dysfunctional system. For example, if a kid is consistently absent, there is very little  the teacher can do. They can report the absences, but they aren’t CPS. The kids in the classroom, every day, will get the teacher’s help and will obviously do better than the ones who are chronically absent. And truancy is huge in D.C.  We can’t just point to teachers as to why those kids aren’t reading well.  There are also SO MANY kids in the classroom who need special services who are not receiving them, and the teacher cannot be the teacher, the paraprofessional, the social worker, the reading specialist, the OT, etc., all in one. Teachers can suggest an evaluation, but beyond that, if the student isn’t receiving testing/services, it can be incredibly hard to help that student reach their potential. Many parents are frustrated with this system as well, and sometimes even homeschool because of lack of support.  But kids who stay in the system, and are moved up, are often thought to have been failed by teachers. Anyone who defaults to “the teachers are obviously just bad” has no idea what is an actually happening in schools.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics