Paying teachers

Just came across this article about Teacher Pay, which is a great debate right now, especially among teachers on the KDP discussion board.

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/04/a-better-way-to-pay-five-rules-for-reforming

I agree with #4 and 5, but #1-3 is where I believe they focus too much on economic ideas and not on understanding what goes on in the classroom.

For example:
#1: Avoid across the board pay increases
"total compensation for the average public school teacher is considerably higher than what his or her skills would merit in the private sector."  
True, public school teachers are paid more than private schools, but there's no set curriculum in private school as mandated by the state (or in charter schools for that matter), nor do you have to be certified to teach.  True, they want to have certified teachers, but there's no law stating you must be, therefore there are some private school teachers who are not certified to teach their content.  (I know there are bad/struggling teachers everywhere, that a whole 'nother discussion.)  Also, to my knoweldge, private schools have the benefit of selective admissions over public schools, and they don't have to take or report scores on state standardized tests (if they take them).  How many public schools turn away special education students?

"School districts generally have more than enough money to pay teachers adequately, making across-the-board pay increases unnecessary and a waste of scarce resources. Such increases are also inherently blunt instruments—the least effective teachers would be rewarded as much as the most effective ones."
But what about the step increases that we haven't seen, which could be seen as the yearly bonuses that some private companies give out, or rewards for staying on the job and gaining more experience, which is said to improve the quality of teaching?  What about inflation adjustments that we haven't been getting, so our take home is decreasing while prices are increasing?

Secondly, while it looks like teachers make more than the private sector, and they do, the private sector outpaces our salaries so much faster.

#2: Performance based payment
My problem with this is not based on the idea that you should pay people even if they do a crappy job, no, I believe that people should get paid more for excellent performance, which in a teacher's world means how much students learn.  What I have a problem with is that too often test scores and principal based evaluations are used as the basis for payment.  Test scores have too many variables attached, including how well off the student's family is (more affluent has been shown to increase test scores, which I have no control over), how motivated the student is (which I can have some control over, in some situations), to how much sleep the student got the night before (which I have no control over, I'm not visiting all 155 of my students every night at home to make sure they get to bed on time, that's ridiculous and what parents are for.)  So if I teach in a less-affluent area where my students have not had lots of opportunities to learn, are not focused on succeeding in school, and didn't sleep the night before, I won't be getting a bonus or high pay all because of things that I have no to very little control over.  That is what is not fair.  Until poverty, homelessness, and mental issues are address better (or even mentioned at all) in this country, merit or performance pay in education is not realistic.

"A proper VAM uses both pre-tests and post-tests to track student progress with each teacher, attempting to measure not a student’s total achievement, but what an individual teacher added to it."
This is a great idea, and would help make performance pay more realistic, but students are already over tested and the curriculum has so much material in it (at least in VA History) that we don't have time in the school year to cover all of the material and take end of unit tests, much less take time for diagnostic tests as well.  Even a 10 question diagnostic test can take 20 minutes in class to administer, which takes 20 minutes out of the time for content.

"VAMs add important information about teacher quality, but they should always be used in conjunction with administrator evaluations and other performance-based measures."  
I haven't heard of many schools using VAMs in conjunction with many other things due to time, price, etc. plus with a reliability of 0.47 (Totally could be wrong about that.)

#3: screen after hiring
I do agree with the idea to screen after hiring because maybe a person thought they would be a good teacher but it's taking a couple years to catch on, which is where mentors and professional development (not pointless meetings, but time to sit down and develop ideas) are so important, and there are others who just never get it and should go find somewhere that a) makes them happy and b) they're successful at.  Sometimes people just don't know what successful teaching looks like, or they have to spend their entire life recreating the wheel in their first year and burn out.  More opportunities for student teaching is so important so that you can work on those skills and figure things out.

"Staiger and Rockoff argue that schools should significantly relax entry requirements, but then reserve permanent positions for only the top 20 percent or so who perform best during their tryout period, which could be as short as one year"
The problem with really relaxing entry requirements is that while it's a good idea, that's one year that affects one entire group of kids.  Having that entry year be as a student teacher would be a much better idea because if they're really failing to teach and get through to kids or manage a classroom, the experienced teacher is there to step in and offer advice and support.  I truly think that a full year of student teaching should be nationally required to become a teacher, rather than the 6 weeks to 6 mo that some candidates get.

#4: 401K plans
Completely agree... see Detroit.

#5: No magic bullets in education policy
Education policy is so wrapped in social welfare policy, healthcare policy, economic policy, and so many other things that so much would have to change all together to affect education results.  

(These are my personal thoughts and not reflective of anyone else or any business or employer.)

An Awesome Day in Teaching

Yesterday was one of the best days in teaching that I've had in a while!  We're starting our exploration unit in World 2 so I had students find out where their families are from and then they got small post-it notes and placed them all over my huge world map so you can visually see how the majority of Americans (at least in this area) are from European ancestry, with a few other places represented as well.  If they found out any cool stories while researching, I invited to tell them as well, and shared the story of how my Irish family almost didn't stay in America, and only stayed due to Great-Great-Aunt Mary not sending a letter.  Family history is definitely a part of history that I love!

My second class of World 2 shared their family histories as well and then I passed back the Children's Book project where they wrote a story to introduce the Renaissance and one of my boys asked to read his, so he got my stool, set it in the center of the room and started to read, skipping over the content about Michelangelo and Raphael, and doing a quite dramatic reading of "Doracello saves the Renaissance."  It was hysterical and had the entire class laughing, including myself.  I wish we had videotaped it (or just podcasted it) so that it could be recorded because I think it would get hits on Youtube!

My last block of the day was APUSH and after a short writing seminar to prep them for their first real essay next week, we moved into our Constitutional Convention Simulation.  I've never done a sim before and was nervous about it, but it was incredible and now I want to flip a lesson or two so that we can do more.  Each kid was assigned a state delegation and then had to pick a delegate from their state to research their positions, and then research their general state position by the time they came to class.  We moved the desks into one big circle, they had state namecards, and we began with Presenting the Virginia Plan, debating it, voting on it (6-6, one abstention), then presenting the New Jersey Plan, debating it, voting (5-6, 2 abstentions), and then the Connecticut delegation presented his plan.  Students were supposed to vote how they think their delegation should have voted, not necessarily how they actually did (otherwise it would have been a re-enactment, boring!).  After a bit of debate and a failed vote, they had time to negotiate and the topic of slavery and representation came up, which to make it funny they weren't allowed to say slavery, but had to use "that peculiar institution" and slaves had to be "persons of property" or just "property."  I cleared my voice and glared when they slipped up, and then they caught me slipping up.  The crazy thing was that by the end of the period, they actually managed to pass the CT plan, but with the 3/5ths compromise sans importation ban.  The best part was listening to them try to convince each other during negotiation to vote one way or another and why, and delegations discussing votes as they were getting into it.  I was sitting next to the South Carolina delegation and they kept discussing between themselves how to have slaves count so they could get more representatives in Congress.  Totally awesome!

These are the days that make me love what I do!

Crazy Teacher

Some days I feel like I'm going crazy, like when kids walk into my classroom expecting a quiz that I totally forgot to make copies for.  Then I think about everything I need to do to be a good teacher, and realize that I have to have 2,586 browser tabs open in my brain at all times and know what is on each of them.

I can see where a lot of the frustration with the education system is coming from because our job is full of stressers, little things that together add up to big things and keeping track of everything that needs to get done seems impossible sometimes....like:
-grading for all five periods
-planning for 2 preps and making sure that a) I'm a week (or at least a day) ahead, b) everything is copied in time and c) enough copies are made
-wondering whether we have paper this week or do I need to go buy more with my personal money
-making sure that things from last year are up to date and the rigor has been increased from standard level (what I taught last year) to honors (what I'm teaching this year)
-looking through my binders and digital documents to see what's next, trying to stay a unit ahead
-making new tests for honors classes
-coordinating with the other honors teachers so we stay on the same pacing
-coordinating with the other APUSH teachers so we stay on the same pacing
-keeping track of absent kids and what they need to make up
-keeping track of failing kids and what they need to make up
-contacting parents of failing kids, as well as their counselors and administrator
-posting everything to Blackboard on time and keeping it updated
-podcasting my AP lectures and remembering to post them
-keeping track of the honor society dues and membership, plus meeting with officers
-creating and updating agendas for both teaching teams
-adding resources to the team notebook so that we have lots of resources to share when we get stuck
-praying that the dvd will work in my computer, and if not, that I can remember how to work the TV to play the DVD without a remote
-entering grades into the digital grade book
-taking attendance every period which can take 2-3 minutes if the server is having a rough day
-attending team meetings and department meetings and faculty meetings (finally the number is reduced)
-entering due dates on each class calendar, and posting them in the classroom
-going to observe other teachers teach (now once per quarter instead of twice)
-figuring out which copy machines are working in the building and which aren't
-using e-cart (Horizons) to give test and quizzes, remembering to open them or print special scantrons, opening the right one, working with an outdated system that is SSSLLLLOOOOWWWWW...
-evaluating the data to see which kids need help or which topics need to be retaught after every test
-tracking down the kids that need remediation after a failed test and spending time to remediate them
-keeping track of data for our smart goal for evaluation
-filling out all the evaluation forms and coming up with an individual goal for the year
-keeping track of data for the 21st century skills (being able to show I'm teaching critical thinking skills in class)
-writing out narratives for IEP and 504 renewals and then attending the meetings
-writing college recs for former students (or boy scout/governor's school/camp recs)
-reading new content to learn more so I can answer questions asked
-making sure things are announced in time, like application due dates for honors societies and tests
-merging the millions of test questions into a test bank that can create versions of tests
-creating keys for each test or quiz (and versions)
-actually teaching each class period

not to mention what I love to do and why I'm in this job right now...
-working individually with students who are struggling
-celebrating the accomplishments of students who are succeeding
-getting to know all 155 students that I have this year

It's a wonder that a) anyone teaches and not surprising that b) many teachers leave after 3-5 years.
(And I'm at an affluent school with amazing kids and amazing co-workers!)

*A little background for those not familiar... I have the kind of kids who have helicopter parents, who can afford tutors and review books, but that also leads to larger cases of anxiety and depression.  The majority want to succeed and it's awesome to see that attitude and see them succeed.  There's a lot of pressure here to take as many AP classes as you can, and our AP kids do well, we had an 89% pass rate last year, and our kids do well on the SOL (state test) with a school average of 96%.  We don't have many ESOL (ESL/LEP etc) students, but that population is growing and we're in the process of learning how to support them better because we're great at supporting the high achievers, not always to the benefit of the middle ground.  No school is perfect, but I think we're a pretty good school.