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.

Sorry but you aren't going to find many "well honed experts" among the "experienced" teachers in DCPS. Mathcounts and academic competition? Hardly any DCPS schools even participated, let alone placed. The charters and privates are who mopped up there. And even there, who were those winning teachers? The old, grizzled, "experienced" battle axes? Nope, it was the young ones.

RUN! Because the young, new teacher is going to run off herself in a year or two, letting the chips fall where they may.

Anonymous wrote:Privates have no average. DCPS first year with a bachelors is 51k.

Huh? Of course there is an average, any group of numbers has an average. It might not be known or discernable but such figure does exist.

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Anonymous wrote:No. That's teaching in DCPS. Figure out what you can do to support her.

No, that's teaching in a charter school. Also a lot of private schools. My kid's NWDC private just loves to hire 23 year olds who graduated from top 30 universities with zero teaching experience or education degrees.

23 year Olds can afford to work for meager private school salaries.

And some charter schools have longer hours. My friend who teaches in NY found that charter schools paid less with more hours. 23 year olds can and (maybe) don't mind doing that. Not experienced teachers with families.

Yes, my old Charter school hours was from 8am to 4pm. I'm now at DCPS making 15k more with "less" instructional hours.

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Anonymous wrote:No. That's teaching in DCPS. Figure out what you can do to support her.

No, that's teaching in a charter school. Also a lot of private schools. My kid's NWDC private just loves to hire 23 year olds who graduated from top 30 universities with zero teaching experience or education degrees.

23 year Olds can afford to work for meager private school salaries.

And some charter schools have longer hours. My friend who teaches in NY found that charter schools paid less with more hours. 23 year olds can and (maybe) don't mind doing that. Not experienced teachers with families.

If you see things that concern you about her teaching- see what you can do to support her. In the first year of teaching the smallest things can help. Maybe you can make copies for her or help with organization. Every teacher has a first year and many turn out to be great teachers. Support her in working with the kids.

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Anonymous wrote:I'm find with my PK'er being taught by a low-wage college grad. Things start to get serious at K or 1st. That's when I want someone with classroom management experience.

I don't know why parents on DCUM think managing a class of 3 or 4 year olds is easier than a group of kindergartners or first graders. It's not.

It's not. I was a room parent for my DD PK3 class and it wore me out!

You can't just "teach" a PS3 & PS4 class, you have to "love" them as well. Lot's more emotional and social needs (love, friendship, etc) in addition to teaching the basics (potty training, seasons, etc). That is exhausting.

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Anonymous wrote:I'm find with my PK'er being taught by a low-wage college grad. Things start to get serious at K or 1st. That's when I want someone with classroom management experience.

I don't know why parents on DCUM think managing a class of 3 or 4 year olds is easier than a group of kindergartners or first graders. It's not.

It's not. I was a room parent for my DD PK3 class and it wore me out!

Anonymous wrote:I'm find with my PK'er being taught by a low-wage college grad. Things start to get serious at K or 1st. That's when I want someone with classroom management experience.

I don't know why parents on DCUM think managing a class of 3 or 4 year olds is easier than a group of kindergartners or first graders. It's not.

I'm find with my PK'er being taught by a low-wage college grad. Things start to get serious at K or 1st. That's when I want someone with classroom management experience.

RUN!

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.

I have said this before and will say it again. Some inexperienced and highly experienced teachers are full of enthusiasm and vigor, and some are burnt out and defeated. It depends far more on the person than on the number of years taught. That said most teachers don't hit their stride completely until year 3 or 4.


Also you can't always pay for hamburgers and be entitled to steak. Quality employees deserve a good salary.

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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.

That doesn't make much sense - Why would PCSB ask for less transparency when they're coming under more scrutiny?

I don't think it's less transparency overall, just a shift in what exactly is reported, how, and where it is reported. I haven't found the similar info yet in other places, but haven't really looked for it either. I just remember seeing that in the 2011-12 reports, and now that section (it's called "PCSB data template" in most of the reports) isn't as extensive in the 2012-13 reports.

If you feel it's some sort of conspiracy, that's up to you, but the PCSB is much, much more transparent than most other DC agencies. They have all these reports online, publish good minutes and make reports available for their meetings, webcast and livetweet their meetings, etc.

maybe they are afraid of what they might learn?

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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.

That doesn't make much sense - Why would PCSB ask for less transparency when they're coming under more scrutiny?