Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of these suggestions are mostly sincere and good at the micro level, but they are cannot succeed against an entrenched, unionized monopoly.

Many of us work in VA where there is, by law, not "unionized monopoly". The complaints from teachers above are (correctly, IMO) focusing on demands placed on teachers by local/state/federal mandates about curriculum, testing, teaching methods and class sizes that crush any opportunity a talented teacher might have to inspire students and reach those who are more difficult to reach.

This is what I don't get as a former teacher. When people are so confused as to how to fix education, it's baffling. Listen to the teachers who have continued to say the same thing over and over again.

Anonymous wrote:All of these suggestions are mostly sincere and good at the micro level, but they are cannot succeed against an entrenched, unionized monopoly.

Many of us work in VA where there is, by law, not "unionized monopoly". The complaints from teachers above are (correctly, IMO) focusing on demands placed on teachers by local/state/federal mandates about curriculum, testing, teaching methods and class sizes that crush any opportunity a talented teacher might have to inspire students and reach those who are more difficult to reach.

All of these suggestions are mostly sincere and good at the micro level, but they are cannot succeed against an entrenched, unionized monopoly.

Pay for counseling, food, medical care and housing vouchers for students, so they come to class ready to learn

Sure, that will fix it.
You've never worked with poor kids, have you?

Anonymous wrote:I am an ivy league phd who went into teaching. Your plan will never work, because under the current system no one who is intelligent, passionate, creative, and has a stellar education can survive in public school teaching. Administrators micromanage and treat teachers like children. Critical thinking and questioning are forbidden, and many teachers don't have any voice in anything of import, from textbooks and curriculum to classroom management systems. We might as well be robots. Certainly we have no opportunity to use anything we have learned. Districts and governments enact policies so stupid and nonsensical that having to enforce them leaves one feeling like good teaching is done in spite of "school reform," not because of it.

The problem is not lack of education of teachers; it's that independent thought, expertise, and education are just not valued or encouraged in our current system. The teachers who graduate from your program will last a couple of years at best.

This is basically what it boils down to in my district. I feel like I am a robot who inputs X into each robot student and Y is expected exactly 4 months later. God forbid the robot student does not perform at the expected level. Then, it's my fault. No attention is paid to the fact that our students come from homes where school is viewed a childcare and homework is not done. It doesn't seem to matter that kids have awful home lives (parents are incarcerated, deported, on drugs, etc). No, no, no. We are told none of that should matter. All students are capable of producing X results after Y amount of time. We are expected to differentiate but all students should be able to meet X requirements given the same standardized tests. If they don't, it is our failure.

Anonymous wrote:I am an ivy league phd who went into teaching. Your plan will never work, because under the current system no one who is intelligent, passionate, creative, and has a stellar education can survive in public school teaching. Administrators micromanage and treat teachers like children. Critical thinking and questioning are forbidden, and many teachers don't have any voice in anything of import, from textbooks and curriculum to classroom management systems. We might as well be robots. Certainly we have no opportunity to use anything we have learned. Districts and governments enact policies so stupid and nonsensical that having to enforce them leaves one feeling like good teaching is done in spite of "school reform," not because of it.

The problem is not lack of education of teachers; it's that independent thought, expertise, and education are just not valued or encouraged in our current system. The teachers who graduate from your program will last a couple of years at best.

Really? Which school and at what grade did you have this horrible experience? What was your PhD in?

I am an ivy league phd who went into teaching. Your plan will never work, because under the current system no one who is intelligent, passionate, creative, and has a stellar education can survive in public school teaching. Administrators micromanage and treat teachers like children. Critical thinking and questioning are forbidden, and many teachers don't have any voice in anything of import, from textbooks and curriculum to classroom management systems. We might as well be robots. Certainly we have no opportunity to use anything we have learned. Districts and governments enact policies so stupid and nonsensical that having to enforce them leaves one feeling like good teaching is done in spite of "school reform," not because of it.

The problem is not lack of education of teachers; it's that independent thought, expertise, and education are just not valued or encouraged in our current system. The teachers who graduate from your program will last a couple of years at best.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of these comments are insulting. I have an engineering degree and a masters in education. I am a math teacher because I love working with students, I love math and I have the best coworkers anyone could want. They are intelligent experienced professionals. Many of us have degrees in our field and have switched careers because teaching is our passion. Please do not come forward with cookie cutter methods to improve education when you have never spent a day as a classroom teacher. There is much more to teaching high school than content knowledge.

So what are your ideas? Our education system is in crisis. Rather than get your feathers ruffled when people brainstorm ideas, why don't you use your personal experience with teaching to make some suggestions here of what might work. It's easy to criticize other peoples ideas. Please tell us what we need to do.

Not the PP but I'll bite.

-Reduce teaching load/class sizes
-Add time for professional development, lesson planning, and grading
-Increase teacher's pay
-Fix falling down buildings and provide adaquate supplies
-Pay for counseling, food, medical care and housing vouchers for students, so they come to class ready to learn


Finally, stop saying schools are failing and education is in crisis. Yes, there are problems, but a lot of it is overblown. We can definitely do better as country, but lots of kids are educated by good public schools.

I am the PP.

Good ideas above, especially having students come to school ready to learn with parent support at home. This is the biggest factor and the one we have the least control of no matter how new programs are in place.

Treat teachers as professionals and give them freedom to make decisions in the best interests of their students. Every year will change so there isn't one method or system that will always work.

I've spent most of today grading so time would be nice, but all teachers realize it's part of the job. Most of us don't complain about needing to grade at home. So much professional development has been added over the years. Most of us would like less and prefer instructional time.

I am also frustrating by the complaints of schools are failing and in crisis I don't believe my school is failing. We do an excellent job with all students from all backgrounds including special education and ESOL. My children attend public school in a different district and I couldn't be happier with their school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of these comments are insulting. I have an engineering degree and a masters in education. I am a math teacher because I love working with students, I love math and I have the best coworkers anyone could want. They are intelligent experienced professionals. Many of us have degrees in our field and have switched careers because teaching is our passion. Please do not come forward with cookie cutter methods to improve education when you have never spent a day as a classroom teacher. There is much more to teaching high school than content knowledge.

So what are your ideas? Our education system is in crisis. Rather than get your feathers ruffled when people brainstorm ideas, why don't you use your personal experience with teaching to make some suggestions here of what might work. It's easy to criticize other peoples ideas. Please tell us what we need to do.

Not the PP but I'll bite.

-Reduce teaching load/class sizes
-Add time for professional development, lesson planning, and grading
-Increase teacher's pay
-Fix falling down buildings and provide adaquate supplies
-Pay for counseling, food, medical care and housing vouchers for students, so they come to class ready to learn


Finally, stop saying schools are failing and education is in crisis. Yes, there are problems, but a lot of it is overblown. We can definitely do better as country, but lots of kids are educated by good public schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of these comments are insulting. I have an engineering degree and a masters in education. I am a math teacher because I love working with students, I love math and I have the best coworkers anyone could want. They are intelligent experienced professionals. Many of us have degrees in our field and have switched careers because teaching is our passion. Please do not come forward with cookie cutter methods to improve education when you have never spent a day as a classroom teacher. There is much more to teaching high school than content knowledge.

So what are your ideas? Our education system is in crisis. Rather than get your feathers ruffled when people brainstorm ideas, why don't you use your personal experience with teaching to make some suggestions here of what might work. It's easy to criticize other peoples ideas. Please tell us what we need to do.

Not the PP you are replying to, but my idea is to look at the curriculum. Common Core made a good start, but most state's social studies and science curricular especially in the elementary years are woefully inadequate. People always talk about changing the way teachers teach but the seldom ask, is the curriculum even worth learning?

The MD state social studies curriculum is a complete joke for most of elementary school, especially compared with what kids in European schools learn (and compared with what kids in many private schools or homeschooled kids study).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I missed it in the thread but isn't the OP describing a high-end private school? Surely there already exists a private school out there where they pay fat salaries to teachers because they are so awesome.

Is there a case study on such a school that could be discussed:
- how did they identify and recruit their teachers?
- did they come out of particular college programs?
- what kind of metrics do they use for hiring and are they used to calculate starting salaries?
- how is performance measured and how is it tied to pay?
- how many teachers do they fire every year?
- year round schedule?
- how does it all get paid for: how much is the endowment and what is the tuition?

Does anyone know of such a school and how it is working?

No rivaled schools pay much less than public

Ugh No PRIVATE school pays more than public, not rivaled.

Anonymous wrote:You don't want people coming to teaching for the pay. I

Most young people quit because of the bureaucracy

let teachers teach without all the red tape

Treat education like any other organization. Cut the bottom 5-10% every year and keep using the existing pay scale for the rest

No most people leave teaching because of the work load. If you want to retain teacher reduce the work load.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I missed it in the thread but isn't the OP describing a high-end private school? Surely there already exists a private school out there where they pay fat salaries to teachers because they are so awesome.

Is there a case study on such a school that could be discussed:
- how did they identify and recruit their teachers?
- did they come out of particular college programs?
- what kind of metrics do they use for hiring and are they used to calculate starting salaries?
- how is performance measured and how is it tied to pay?
- how many teachers do they fire every year?
- year round schedule?
- how does it all get paid for: how much is the endowment and what is the tuition?

Does anyone know of such a school and how it is working?

No rivaled schools pay much less than public

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My idea is more year-around schools, mostly play-learning in the summer. Parents pay small tuition for the summer time. I already pay for summer care, so why not pay a few teachers interested in extra pay?

Isn't that day care?

I read it as the being more in line of an academic summer camp. So, no grading or testing, but imparting knowledge and teaching content in more innovative ways like field trips and interesting projects etc. More hands-on learning. I think we need to not have long summer breaks, instead have a break of two weeks after every quarter. This will allow kids to make up on content they did not understand or missed etc.

I'm all in favor of eliminating summer vacation and replacing it with shorter breaks throughout the year, but having parents pay tuition for the summer session is counterproductive. Poorer kids aren't going to get to go, even though they are the ones for whom it will do the most good.

Anonymous wrote:Many of these comments are insulting. I have an engineering degree and a masters in education. I am a math teacher because I love working with students, I love math and I have the best coworkers anyone could want. They are intelligent experienced professionals. Many of us have degrees in our field and have switched careers because teaching is our passion. Please do not come forward with cookie cutter methods to improve education when you have never spent a day as a classroom teacher. There is much more to teaching high school than content knowledge.

So what are your ideas? Our education system is in crisis. Rather than get your feathers ruffled when people brainstorm ideas, why don't you use your personal experience with teaching to make some suggestions here of what might work. It's easy to criticize other peoples ideas. Please tell us what we need to do.