25 posts tagged “education” (page 2)

I like these "hypothetical" situations, so much so that I may try to incorporate them into the summer training.  At the very least, I've found next month's blog topic.  In any event, here is another one:

Follow-up to the previous post.  Same situation, but instead of being a nice kid, he's a jerk: makes fun of the other students; disrespectful to the teacher; disrupts the learning environment.  Do you pass him now?

Here is a hypothetical (that came up at lunch today in discussion of this question) based on a real experience (and I think the incoming first-years would do well to reflect on these kinds of questions):

Molly linked to this interesting blog post.  Here is the question at the end of the post:

You've heard directors and teachers by the gross tell you 'Come to grips with yourself,' 'Regain your self-esteem,' Use the space,' and myriad other pretty phrases which they, and you, were surprised to find difficult to accomplish.  They are not difficult.  They are impossible.  They don't mean anything.  They are nonsense syllables, strung together by ourselves and others, and they mean 'Damned if I know, and damned if I can admit it.'

I linked to this article in "Links of the Week," but I wanted to highlight it here separately.  I strongly encourage all MTCers to read through it (one of the things I learned was that the United States spends $500 billion a year in public K-12 education).  Essentially, the article is a "round-table discussion" with several experts in the field of education that starts with this scenario:

MTC Alumnas Dave Molina, Class of 2005, has created several maps that demonstrate, visually, the breakdown of race, poverty, and school performance (by county) in Mississippi.  Dave currently works for the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation.  Read Dave's blog here and see his photos here.

Per Pupil Spending of Public Schools in the U.S.

Steven Levitt, of Freakonomics fame, has a Q and A with the readers of his blog.  Here is one part:

Q: The “cheating teacher” analysis in Freakonomics was an elegant piece of work. Has it been used outside the original sample space, and applied to the nationwide testing effort?

A: A non-academic friend and I once had the idea of taking my cheating detection tools and turning them into a business to help school districts across the country. It turns out, however, that school districts don’t really want to catch cheaters. Cheating detection makes the districts’ test scores go down, and leads to problems with teachers’ unions. As such, no one wanted to buy our services. It made me realize how lucky I was that Arne Duncan was the head of the Chicago Public Schools. His view, when I first showed him the work, was that cheating was hurting the students, and all he cared about was helping the children in his care.

Over the next few days I'll be examining the various reasons why people leave the teaching profession.  The first, and most important, reason is one of economic incentives.

For a college graduate, K-12 education offers one of the lowest starting salaries and one of the lowest ceilings for potential future earnings. The best lawyer in Mississippi can expect to make millions of dollars a year.  Same with the best doctor, the best engineer, the best real estate agent, and the best investment banker.  The worst in each of these professions will not be able to make a living and forced out of the profession altogether.

The best teacher in the state of Mississippi, with a PhD and Board Certified, can expect to top out around $65,000.  The worst teacher in Mississippi, with a bachelors and 20 years, will earn around $55,000.  Low pay is the greatest problem in attracting talented young people to the profession of teaching.  Low ceiling is the greatest problem with keeping good teachers in the classroom. Many talented teachers leave the classroom to go into consulting, non-profits, higher ed, textbook writing, motivational speaking, and program management. Or they leave the education field altogether (those who leave to become princicpals, supts, etc will be the topic of a future post).

When it comes to education, you get what you pay for.  Low salaries and low standards for teacher licensure mean an abundance of low-quality teachers.  Until the issue of teacher pay is solved, nothing else will change.  By solved, I don’t mean a $5,000 bonus for teaching in a critical-needs area, or assistance with housing.  I mean a fundamental shift in teacher pay.  This would encompass four things:

1)    Raising taxes.
2)    An equal distribution of tax revenue to school districts.  No longer should property taxes be the basis for a districts annual budget.  This only leads to poor school districts being punished and rich ones rewarded because of land value.  All property tax should be collected, nationwide, and then redistributed equally.  This leads to my next point...
3)    Nationalizing public education with a national curriculum and national standards.  Education is far too important to leave up to the individual states and school districts.
4)    Doubling the starting salary of teachers nationwide to $60,000 a year (expensive urban areas would start at $80,000 but no starting teacher would make less than $60,000).  $20,000 additional for teaching in a “critical-needs” district.  The top end of the pay scale increases to $200,000.  This would end the nationwide teacher shortage, create competition for all positions, and offer a strong incentive for good teachers to go to high-need schools.

Further Reading:

Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achieveme

Richard Rothstein

Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America's Teachers

Daniel Moulthrop