Reply to NY times op ed on the teacher crisis

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The simple answer is pay. They can work less, for more $, in the private sector. Why WOULD they want to teach? Loving kids, or loving your work etc (despite the problems) is not always enough. They have families to support too. Raise pay. Significantly.

That said (to address one of the comments): k-12 teaching will NEVER be a career that commonly offers options to work remotely. Ever ever ever.  That is an incredibly unreasonable expectation. If you want to work from home, K-12 teaching is not the career for you. [/quote]

I agree pay and benefits are the core issue. FWIW, we are in DCPS and it seems like even in our Title 1 school, they retain teachers really well. I know there is a pay bump for Title 1 teachers and I think it makes a difference. Some of the veteran teachers at our school make as much as 120k. That's a very good salary in the public sector -- there are engineers who make less, and even high level administrators who oversee large departments only make a bit more. So paying teachers well definitely helps with retention (and I'm betting also helps with job satisfaction -- it's easier to deal with annoying work stuff if you feel you are being well compensated).

But I think the other key issue is administration. The number one complaint I hear from DCPS teachers is frustration with either Central Office or school administration, and the biggest issue is the feeling that the people setting policy, deciding on curriculum, determining schedules, etc., are checked out or don't really care about what is happening at the classroom level. So I think one concrete thing school districts could do to improve teacher retention is to hire more people with actual classroom experience into administration and support roles, and to do a better job of listening to teachers and responding to their feedback. Teachers should have a say in curriculum changes, and their input should be essential to other aspects of policy-making.[/quote]

I agree with most of this, although I don't know if pay is "the core" issue. It's absurd to think that even $50,000 a 50,000-a-year pay increase would transform unhappy teachers into happy ones if all other conditions remain the same. Greater autonomy and more supportive administration are also needed. The teacher's post listing things to change is amazing.

[quote]NP. But the things being complained about are pretty much present in every single profession. Long hours, “overtime”, annoying emails, using your own money and resources toward something to do to with your job. To me, these are standard issues every professional adult deals with at work.[/quote]

As a public sector employee, the above resonates with me. As a PP noted, there are scores of highly educated professionals who work in public sector jobs who earn low wages, have unreasonable workloads, are expected to devote endless hours of extra labor without compensation (we get BS "comp" time we can't use), and who don't get winter and spring breaks. Check out some attorney discussion boards and read how difficult it is to find public defenders and prosecutors because of the low pay and crushing workload. This is a problem that extends beyond the education field.

Another thing no one has mentioned is that it's difficult as a parent to strike the appropriate balance between supporting our kids and their teachers and becoming too involved. The entire education system needs to be revamped from top to bottom to set teachers up for success, which in turn will improve relationships with parents. With too many meetings and administrative burdens, it's easy to see why teachers' work in the classroom can suffer. Dealing with teachers who lack the time or bandwidth to build relationships with students and ratchets up parental stress.

The article talks about eroded respect for teachers.[b] I always found it interesting that my ADHD kid would get zeros for the work he didn't turn in or turned in late, yet his teachers could take more than 10 days to respond to an email with a straightforward question or were permitted to enter a quarter's work of grades on the last day of the quarter[/b]. I tried to be understanding, but I admit my respect for the profession waivered from time to time, and it probably showed. Like teachers, parents are human beings being pulled in multiple directions. I know from experience with my own job that stressed and overwhelmed workers are less effective than happy ones. It's essential to create a workplace where teachers earn respect by having enough time to do the parts of their jobs that students and parents can see.

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My DD didn't turn in her homework on time ONCE in 2nd grade last year and she was forced to not participate in their extra recess as a punishment. She kept saying she brought it, the teacher wouldn't listen to her ... well turns out the homework collector kid stashed it under a pile. They found it the next day. Crazy punishment for a 7 year old IMO. This teacher then at the end of the year didn't even fully enter her grades on her report card. I emailed during their PD days at the end of the year to ask about this and got zero response. She has no grades still for that quarter online. [/quote]

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