National survey: Both teacher and principal satisfaction down and stress up
MetLife released its annual survey of teachers and principals. It will be no surprise to readers of this blog that both groups of educators report lower job satisfaction and increased levels of stress.
From MetLife:
As major changes in education loom and cuts in many public school budgets continue, the job of running the nation’s schools has become more complex, challenging, and stressful, the new MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: Challenges for School Leadership (2012) reveals.
School leaders today say that key responsibilities are challenging, particularly those schools alone cannot address. The challenges include balancing budgets — more than half of both teachers (56 percent) and principals (53 percent) report that their school’s budget has decreased in the last 12 months — and addressing the growing needs of diverse learners and their families.
Many principals say their jobs have changed over the last five years (69 percent say the responsibilities are not very similar) and 75 percent say their jobs have become too complex. Principals also report high levels of stress and limited control over key academic functions in their schools. About half of all principals (48 percent) and teachers (51 percent) report that they feel under great stress in their job at least several days a week.
Meanwhile, nine in ten principals (89 percent) say they are accountable for everything that happens to the children in their schools, but fewer principals say they have a great deal of control over key school-based functions, including the curriculum and instruction in their schools (42 percent) and making decisions about removing teachers (43 percent).
The survey — the 29th in an annual series commissioned by MetLife and conducted by Harris Interactive1 — examines the views of teachers and principals on the responsibilities and challenges facing school leaders, including the changing roles of principals and teachers, budget and resources, professional satisfaction, and implementation of the Common Core State Standards for college and career readiness.
Teacher Job Satisfaction Continues to Drop to Lowest Level in 25 Years
The report reveals that teacher job satisfaction has continued to drop significantly. Teacher satisfaction has declined 23 percentage points since 2008, from 62 percent to 39 percent very satisfied, including a drop of 5 percentage points in the last 12 months—the lowest level reported since 1987.
The survey was conducted by telephone among 1,000 U.S. K-12 public school teachers and 500 public school principals in October and November, 2012.
Principal job satisfaction is also on the decline, but at not as steep a rate as teacher satisfaction. Fifty-nine percent of principals say they are very satisfied with their jobs, compared to 68 percent in 2008. The decrease, however, marks the lowest point in principal job satisfaction in more than a decade.
“The survey’s findings underscore the responsibilities and challenges educators must address to ensure America’s young people are prepared to compete and collaborate in the global economy,” said Dennis White, vice president of corporate contributions for MetLife. “We hope the findings of this survey will help us all pose and address questions about school leadership that can turn challenges into opportunities for better student achievement.”
Educators Confident about Implementing Common Core but Unsure of Impact
While national experts on teaching, standards, and leadership interviewed for the design of the study have raised significant concerns about the readiness and capacity of schools to implement the Common Core State Standards, a majority of teachers (62 percent) and nearly half of principals (46 percent) report teachers in their schools already are using the Common Core a great deal in their teaching this year. Most principals (90 percent) and teachers (93 percent) are confident or very confident that teachers in their schools already have the academic abilities and skills needed to implement these new, rigorous standards.
Those confidence levels have limits, however. Teachers and principals are more likely to be very confident that teachers have the ability to implement the Common Core (53 percent of teachers; 38 percent of principals) than they are very confident that the Common Core will improve the achievement of students (17 percent of teachers; 22 percent of principals) or better prepare students for college and the workforce (20 percent of teachers; 24 percent of principals).
Other Key Findings
• Teachers are leaders, too: Even with these significant challenges, teachers are engaging in school leadership and looking for opportunities to serve in other capacities. Half of teachers (51 percent) have a leadership role in their school, such as department chair, instructional resource, teacher mentor, or leadership team member. Fifty-one percent of teachers also say they are at least somewhat interested in teaching in the classroom part-time combined with other roles or responsibilities in their school or district, including 23 percent who are extremely or very interested in this option.
• Factors whose origins are beyond school control represent the most significant challenges: Three quarters of teachers and principals or more say that it is challenging or very challenging for school leadership to manage budgets and resources to meet school needs (86 percent of teachers; 78 percent of principals, address the individual needs of diverse learners (78 percent of teachers; 83 percent of principals), and engage parents and the community in improving the education of students (73 percent of teachers; 72 percent of principals).
• Time for collaboration and professional learning remains limited: More than six in ten teachers say that time to collaborate with other teachers (65 percent) and professional development opportunities (63 percent) have either decreased or stayed the same during the past 12 months. The decreases in professional development have a sizable relationship to a school’s financial condition: Teachers who report that their school’s budget has decreased in the past 12 months are three times as likely as others to report that there have been decreases in time to collaborate with other teachers (35 percent vs. 11 percent) and in professional development opportunities (27 percent vs. 8 percent).
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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81 comments Add your comment
irisheyes
February 22nd, 2013
9:14 am
Cue the complaints about whining teachers in 3. . .2. . . 1. . .
Mom to Many
February 22nd, 2013
9:28 am
I’d like to know if the teachers on this blog support SB 167 introduced to stop Common Core implementation in Georgia…
http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/en-US/display/20132014/SB/167
Digger
February 22nd, 2013
9:28 am
By all means lets give these stressed-out educators guns to carry in the classroom.
catlady
February 22nd, 2013
9:34 am
Digger–LOL.
What has been heard on the House Bill that requires retiring teachers to pay 100% of their insurance costs? THAT is where I get an itchy trigger finger!
My goodness...
February 22nd, 2013
9:36 am
Hate to sound like a jerk but…every white collar/professional job is subject to the same thing. Everyone is overloaded and working dawn to dusk, every business is making their workers do more with less, everybody is stressed out.Teacher and principals are absolutely no different.
(the other) Rodney
February 22nd, 2013
9:53 am
@My goodness … agreed – it’s just finally hitting them. The rest of us have had to deal with it for years without having extended (read, greater than 2 weeks) off.
Nobody is saying the job isn’t hard, it isn’t stressful, or they don’t feel well compensated – but we all feel that way, and have for many years.
Google "NEA" and "union"
February 22nd, 2013
9:54 am
And yet there remain far, far more qualified applicants than there are teaching positions.
What those applicants know is that: 1) all jobs come with stress; 2) some in the education community will pretend otherwise as a strategy to ward off reforms; 3) that teachers’ unions especially find such exaggerations useful in protecting nationwide dues revenues.
And that absolutely NO other line of work provides 12 months of pay and generous lifetime benefits in return for just 9 months of labor.
William Casey
February 22nd, 2013
10:11 am
@GOOGLE: “And yet there remain far, far more qualified applicants than there are teaching positions.” This depends on how one defines “QUALIFIED.” I retired in 2006. There was a steep decline inthe quality of teachers hired during my last ten years. And, I taught at the “steller” North Fulton Chattahoochee and Northview high schools. I can only imagine what it is like elsewhere.
@GOOGLE again. “And that absolutely NO other line of work provides 12 months of pay and generous lifetime benefits in return for just 9 months of labor.” This is not only tiresome, it’s silly.
Private Citizen
February 22nd, 2013
10:15 am
jobs have become too complex
That rings true. Due to having local bureaucrats piling on make-work duties specified by national communists using political interference to dumb down and disable the populace.
Google "NEA" and "union"
February 22nd, 2013
10:16 am
The average parent also knows from experience that there is no more turnover at the typical neighborhood school than at area businesses.
… Despite empty threats by “teachers” on this blog that they will be resigning in frustration “any day now.”
An overcompensated teacher
February 22nd, 2013
10:17 am
@ Google
I don’t know any teacher that gets paid for 12 months and only works 9 months. I know plenty of teachers who work for 10 months, and their pay is prorated for 12 months. And those “lifetime” benefits don’t exsist. We pay into our retirement system, just like you pay into social security. We continue to pay our own medical insurance as well. Teachers know everyone has stress, but you don’t have the public blaming you for all the ills of society either. Don’t know what I’m talking about…read back though comments on this blog every time an article like this is published.
Private Citizen
February 22nd, 2013
10:18 am
Irisheyes, 120 years ago in “America,” there were many not too kind comments regarding the Irish. Perhaps you seek you reawaken the mythology. Do you still believe in spirits running around under the soil?
Rural High School Teacher & Parent
February 22nd, 2013
10:21 am
Public school teachers in Georgia are paid for 10 months of work, maximum. Our pay is divided into 12 equal monthly installments. It is easier for local governments to distribute our pay in this manner. Check this information out with the original QBE Act – teacher salaries were formulated by averaging beginning salaries for all college graduates (except for engineers), converting them to a daily rate of pay, and applying them to the state teacher salary schedule.
Private Citizen
February 22nd, 2013
10:24 am
My goodness, It is a little different for teachers though in that there are about 20 intricate “must follow the law” processes going on. Yes, many are suffering long hours, low pay, nowhere to go, and hard times, agreed. And let’s not forget when the stock market dropped 50% circa 2007 (?) and many lost half their wealth. But the difference in “regular jobs,” and I’ve working many of them from retail to phones to cleaning out ship bilge, is that right now teachers are overloaded with intricate attention-needy processes with numbing quantities of rules and requirements that seemingly can not ever be fully met. These come from local districts, the state, and the federal and it seems like no one is managing the overall throughput of requirements. And then the ready-recourse from the lower managers is to threaten teachers, give moderate / crummy work reviews after teacher has performed profound levels of service and dedication and many are spending their own money for supplies to just keep their head above water (aka “not drowning) to get the job done. It is not a “Oh good Lord, everybody works” generalization.
irisheyes
February 22nd, 2013
10:29 am
Actually, Private Citizen, like many of your assumptions on this blog, that is untrue. My internet handle does not bear any resemblance to my ethnic make-up. But, you just keep believing those stereotypes. Did we travel back in time 150 years, and I didn’t realize it?
Private Citizen
February 22nd, 2013
10:33 am
My teacher pay tax return from last year was well under $40k, and that’s with years of service and pretty solid not-basic credentials. After taxes and such, my take home pay was about $600. per week and out of this I spent maybe $2,000. for supply materials during the school year. I routinely left home when it was dark outside (morning) and go home after is was dark outside (evening), being indoors the entire day. I generally worked weekends at home, at least a full days work split between Saturday and Sunday and routinely went to bed early during the week and got up at 4 AM and then 3AM to prepare for my day (usually making materials to use for teaching the students) before arriving at work to a time clock-in at 7 AM. If I was 5 minutes late more than once, I receive reprimand letter that goes in my permanent personnel file. After school attendance / work requirements include: choir performance, team sports game, multiple PTA meetings, parent conferences, trainings and faculty meetings after-school, science fair, open house. Each of these is required attendance and not optional, which is how one ends up arriving home at 8 PM many days of the year. Typically on a regular day, I would be in the building from 7 AM until 5 PM, however my lesson preparation was done at home, usually adding at least 2 hours per day.
Private Citizen
February 22nd, 2013
10:35 am
Irish, nice to see you wake up. I was just providing a return-jab to your generalisation to marginalise teacher work, and hell if I know why you do it. Why don’t you go pick on the cashier at the dollar store.
(the other) Rodney
February 22nd, 2013
10:44 am
My own salary is a yearly total averaged out over 12 months. As is every other salaried worker in the world. Only hourly associates would have a pay-for-hours-worked situation.
And I dare you to find one private sector worker with a comparable salary who isn’t inundated with must-follow-the-law practices. I’m in insurance (data analysis, not selling it) and I can assure you I have as many, if not more.
And yet – my employer only allows me vacation at a max of two weeks at a time. One extra day at Thanksgiving, and one day (either before, or after, Christmas), and the standard National Monday off holidays. So you’ll understand why the rest of the world doesn’t buy that it’s so difficult having extended holiday and summer time away from work.
Again – NOBODY says teaching isn’t a difficult, stressful, wear-you-the-heck-out job. I consider my own success to be a product of a few teachers who really impacted me. We just all have the same stress and concerns, without any of the extended benefits.
Disclaimer: my mother was, and my cousin is currently, a teacher so I don’t speak from assumptions or without any experience. And I’ve said to my cousin many times when having this discussion “deal with it. It ain’t what you thought it was going to be, it ain’t going to change, so either deal with it or make a change yourself.”
Dr. Monica Henson
February 22nd, 2013
10:50 am
@GOOGLE again. “And that absolutely NO other line of work provides 12 months of pay and generous lifetime benefits in return for just 9 [actually 10] months of labor.”
“This is not only tiresome, it’s silly.”
Actually, it’s TRUE. And what is tiresome is the constant barrage of complaining from those who continue to work in the system they find so oppressive.
Google "NEA" and "union"
February 22nd, 2013
10:52 am
@Private Citizen: I don’t believe your claims. None of them. And if any real teachers actually read this blog they’re rolling their eyes at your typically silly exaggerations.
And wondering at all the free time you seem to have.
V for Vendetta
February 22nd, 2013
10:54 am
Sheesh. The salary arguments are getting tiresome.
Every job has its ups and downs. I’ve worked in the “real world,” too. I can safely say that I spend far, FAR more time working outside of normal hours as a teacher than I ever did back then. But it’s not about the money. I don’t mind the pay; I think it’s adequate when the breaks are factored in. What bothers me are the parents and students who want to abdicate all personal responsibility for their actions (or inaction) and foist them all on teachers and schools. That’s what bothers me.
Looking for the truth
February 22nd, 2013
11:42 am
For all those who say teachers work 9-10 months but get paid for 12, I say the ten weeks most teachers get in the summer (out of which comes professional/staff development, etc.) is comp time for all the days we work from 7 am to 9 pm with no hope of overtime or comp time within the school year.
People who think summers off are cool have never sat through a week-long staff development of mind-numbing powerpoints. Great way to spend a “vacation”, don’t you think?
Let’s put the jobs of the people who are always write the worst about teachers under a constant media and political spotlight. Then, maybe they will understand.
Dr. Proud Black Man
February 22nd, 2013
12:07 pm
” What bothers me are the parents and students who want to abdicate all personal responsibility for their actions (or inaction) and foist them all on teachers and schools. That’s what bothers me.”
That’s about it.
10:10 am
February 22nd, 2013
12:09 pm
One thing dependable in life is that there will always be those unhappy in their work.
Teaching seems to be somewhat unique in its tolerance of those within its ranks—who complain but refuse to move on to more suitable work. Assuming, of course, that the complainers we so regularly hear from are actually teachers.
And frankly, isn’t it time to cease with the wild exaggerations regarding hours worked, the “cruel” staff meetings and the personal money supposedly spent on school supplies?
The rest of us are tired of rolling our eyes!
Private Citizen
February 22nd, 2013
12:54 pm
My experience is being head numb by time “summer” comes around. It’s a little off-the-feet recovery time. It’s like you have to just do nothing and rest for two weeks before you can even think of anything else. Then slowly… arrives the urge to Read a New book? Or maybe a novel. Let’s not forget when school system change up the calendar and end the year late and start the new year early. Or the real prize, when a school is re-purposed or re-themed and staff has to attend a bunch of training during the summer. Any time you see a news release about a new program, and in particular, recent announcements about “STEM” programs (emphasis on “science, technology, math”) that means the faculty of those schools must do weeks of training during the summer, getting up to speed on official methods of “the new thing.” Means sitting for hours and hours receiving computer presentations with projector, and then off to the computer lab for some disorganised mayhem led by someone who seems to have just learned what they are doing. (Pardon if I sound cynical).
In private schools and private universities, when school is out, people are on their own time up until the minute when school begins again. They can go on vacation or cross the country, or take their bike trip, or go to Spain, or do their thing. Public schools do not have this same sense of crisp boundaries, like when it becomes standard operating procedure every week to get an email on Sunday telling you the things you are expected to be prepared for on Monday, meaning you work on Sunday after noons or evenings. And this just slips into “how things are done” and is made a regular thing. Checking your email is required and is a part of “accountability.”
sneak peak into education
February 22nd, 2013
12:56 pm
@Dr. Monica Henson-so, you are saying that it’s true that teachers get paid for 12 months of work but only actually work for 9? Wow! When I was a teacher I remember only being compensated for the months I worked but it was pro-rated over the 12 months. Does the school you oversee actually pay the teachers for 12 months of work but they only work for 9? Teachers must be lining out the door to work there if that is the case.
I don’t think that teachers are complaining; I think they are stating FACTS about the nature of the work. Most teachers love being in the classroom with their students and will acknowledge that they didn’t go into teaching to get rich. However, the constant attacks from people who don’t know what the daily life of a teacher entails are pretty tiresome. Dr. Henson, you are agreeing/ supporting a blogger who comes onto this blog to do one thing and one thing only – rile teachers by vilifying them with mindless attacks. His/her constant rants about unions is also pretty tiresome because at the end of the day they can’t argue with the fact that the states that do have unionized teachers outperform those states that make being in a union illegal. The constant attack on teachers is tiresome and as an administrator, I would expect you to show support and understanding for the work teachers do, which not only pertains to the child’s learning experience but encompasses that of a psychologist, social worker, data analyst, multi-tasker, peace-keeper, etc… Teaching is hard and often times thankless work but please acknowledge that they do work long, unpaid hours and often times spend hundreds, if not thousands, on their own supplies. All this while, they are furloughed and have not received any wage rise for as least the past 5 years. That is the acknowledgement teacher want to hear from their leaders; not stop whining, be thankful for your lot, shut up and get back to teaching for the test.
I have worked in both private industry and in public schools and can truly say that working as a teacher was the most demanding job I have ever done. When you read these blogs, many teachers who have transferred from the private sector will almost always tell you that teaching is far more difficult than working in the private sector.
Private Citizen
February 22nd, 2013
12:57 pm
And in the summer, no one has an extra dime to go anywhere or travel. No extra money, nuthin’. Maybe time to order some brake parts and maintain the car.
Retired Teacher
February 22nd, 2013
1:04 pm
I retired at 25 years last year and now handle claims for an insurance company. While I agree that all jobs do have some type of stress, there is NO comparison to the level of stress I had as a teacher and what I have now. As a teacher, I had about 11 minutes for lunch and a restroom break. Now I have an hour and I can actually leave without having to check out with a secretary. My blood pressure has returned to normal levels and I swear that my hair is not turning grey as fast. I now go home and can enjoy my time with family and friends in the evenings and on weekends. No more grading and no more parent-teacher conferences held on aisle 3 of the local grocery store. It’s nice having a boss that actually respects me as a person and treats me as an adult.
Do I miss teaching? Yes. But truth be told, teaching has changed in the last 10 years. The duties piled on by educrats and politicians have made the process of educating children a secondary duty in the education biz.
Private Citizen
February 22nd, 2013
1:04 pm
10:10, You just like to hang around teacher discussions and throw darts and stuff? Why don’t you get involved? With the amount of master teachers leaving the profession, surely there is room for you. Do you have a college degree? (rhetorical question, not requiring answer). Enrol in a university teacher training program and get your first dose of officialdom. With your keen critical sense, you’d sure have something else to say then, once you got dosed with the beginnings of indoctrination, much less enduring years of this power-posing and being told what to do ad-infinitum. Ahhh and then after your schooling, you find out what is in the school house is completely different from what is the jargon in the college. But the college doesn’t want to talk about that and neither does the school system, ahem “Board of Education” and their macabre collection of compensated enactors.
Private Citizen
February 22nd, 2013
1:17 pm
I have recently had thoughts that high schoolers who wish to do so should be taught about air compressors and saws and hydraulics and concrete and nail-guns (there’s about 15 different kinds) and how to apply these.
Allow me to post a video I recently discovered from some woodshop super-nerd from Canada. I was completely stunned by his combination of applied physics and use of tools. Everything that he does he backs up with the physics reason why it is occurring, and then using this knowledge as he modifies / changes what the object does. He obviously has received a completely different schooling than what “Race to the Top” specifies. Dude is a friggin’ monster, if you have the patience to watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZGUhXKkoNA
Georgia and education not compatible
February 22nd, 2013
1:20 pm
@ Private citizen your 12:54 comment was 100% accurate. This is the real world of an educator. We work for free during the time that we are supposed to be off. When do all of you think teachers got trained on Common Core? During the summer…
How many of you are willing to work for free?
I’ve worked in other occupations therefore, I know the norm. Consequently, I’m equipping myself with new training for a new occupation.
For those that think I’m complaining, I’m not but I am creating an exit strategy.
Private Citizen
February 22nd, 2013
1:37 pm
If this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZGUhXKkoNA came to be a teacher in Georgia, he’d be harassed and discarded. Sounds flippant, but it is pretty serious situation, the required mono-culture. As someone has said, the required priorities now are something besides teaching, it’s all about feeding the fire breathing authority dragon.
Georgia and education not compatible, thanks. And as an afterthought, my post is in accord with your posting name. How long until we get snorkels to go with the mode? This treading water to keep head above water, keep from drowning, is tiring. What broke me was delivering the good results and in return getting a harumph and a snarl. My exit strategy was to exit. Simple, that. Like the Nike ad, Just Do It.
long time educator
February 22nd, 2013
2:20 pm
I think it is interesting that all my friends who have retired the last few years are still having to go back to 2008 to get their highest year of pay. Certainly that factors into job satisfaction. I was an administrator for 8 years and was glad to leave the position to retire and work part-time. Educators are public servants and I doubt if any public servants have had it stress free during the last few years. Our whole society is on edge and ready to fight or sue. Everything is somebody else’s fault, including their kids’ behavior and lack of academic progress. Regular folks are losing jobs and homes and are stressed and worried before they ever show up at the school to discuss a problem. I just finally decided there wasn’t enough money to pay me to put in the unbelievably long hours and be forced to listen to the unreasonable demands of some of my parent clients. There were also unreasonable demands coming from the district and state level, with very little of it dealing with what was best for children. I love students, so I am back in a niche where I work with children all day without the stress of a homeroom. I have loved working in education, but I would NOT advise anyone to become a teacher in this climate. There are too many other ways to make a living and still have a life.
Beverly Fraud
February 22nd, 2013
2:25 pm
Ok, let’s see if we understand this: because working conditions in other fields are absolute garbage, we should be totally ok with teaching conditions being absolute garbage?
Maybe the people suggesting teachers take a hike should remember one thing: The teachers can take a hike but the children are hostages and for them you cannot have good learning conditions until you have good teaching conditions.
long time educator
February 22nd, 2013
2:31 pm
One last comment, to teachers who think they want to be administrators: You don’t get paid more because you are in charge. You get paid more because if you figure it up, you actually put in that many more hours. Your hourly rate will still be the same, you will just be working during the summer and weekends. Over Christmas break, I was at the hospital with my husband and received a call from my superintendent about a silly PR problem that could not wait. You are always on call. In my small community, the principal is like a pastor and expected to attend to teachers, students and parents as parishioners: attend funerals, visit in the hospital and act as counselor to adults who just want to talk awhile.
Private Citizen
February 22nd, 2013
2:36 pm
Long Time Educator, It is appropriate to recognise that the national economy was plundered and almost nobody went to jail. One might say, “Economically, did you happen to notice the removal of the middle class?” This is my concern about SACS’ true masters.
Obama and his “everybody goes to college” smooth take is certainly in league with the system of profiting from higher-education loans, currently at 1 trillion dollars debt held by individuals for going to college / university, a situation that is entirely unique to the United States. Somebody said the guy who is head of this for Obama was paid $800k salary at NYU prior to joining the Obama administration to manage delivery of higher-education debt to students. Let me try and find a link.
Here’s the headline: “Obama’s Treasury Secretary nominee is accused of steering students to pricey Citigroup loans, and getting kick backs from Citigroup. Lew was paid $800,000 a year at NYU, and got a job with Citigroup right after.”
Here’s a little ditty on the subject: http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2010/08/18/nyu-has-highest-student-debt-in-the-nation/
So who is President Obama working for? Looks like a debt-colony to me. And no country anywhere else is doing this sort of thing to students.
btman
February 22nd, 2013
2:58 pm
To all of you teacher bashers, if you think teaching is so damn easy, why dont you just pipe down, morons!
Mikey D.
February 22nd, 2013
3:57 pm
@Dr. Henson
Could you please clarify what you meant when you said it was TRUE (the all-caps was you, not me) that teachers get paid a 12 month salary for 9 months work?
I actually get a 10-month salary for 10 months of work. I’m confused about what you meant there. Clarification, please?
Mikey D.
February 22nd, 2013
3:58 pm
@btman:
Actually my suggestion to those who continually complain about teachers has always been, “If you think it’s so easy and wonderful, why not join the profession?” Interestingly, not one of them has ever taken my suggestion. Hmmm…
NTLB
February 22nd, 2013
4:02 pm
I have never gotten a 12 months salary in the 11 years I have been teaching. I give Common Core another 3 years before it becomes a thing of the past, just like the other curriculum standards have become in the past 20 years.
Ole Guy
February 22nd, 2013
4:29 pm
Goodness, you’re pretty much on the ball…stress, within the general work force, and that within the education camp is all interwoven into the fabric of reality. While there are many ways in which one might handle stress, those within certain fields of endeavour might feel somewhat restricted as to the lengths one might go in order to deal with…and possibly mitigate…stress levels within the work place. At the end of the day, stress is stress…how we handle stress and “continue the mission” is the ever-illusive trick.
At the very real probability of being branded an ole fashioned ogre (somewhat genteel compared to some of the less-flattering nom de guerres I’ve accumulated over the years of a colorful career(s)), people, in general, do not seem all-too willing to step out; to “plant the flag” as it were, making, with absolute and undeniable clarity, their boundries of acceptable conditions…in other words…TAKING COMMAND OF THEIR ENVIRONMENT (my my, I do believe I’ve heard that somewhere…no, wait…that’s what I’ve been professing all along, much to the chagrin of you doubters out there!)
Teachers, principals…and, for that matter, all you “working stiffs” who seem to function daily under the cloud of unfounded fear…TAKE COMMAND OF YOUR ENVIRONMENT. Are you affraid you might piss someone off; might wind up on someone’s _ hit list? Maybe, in the long run, you just might gain a little respect for it all…respect from your handlers, your subordinates (maybe even your students)…and maybe even the gd parents who, throughout the years of unchallenged meddling, have become too gd emboldened to push you education folks around.
Take a little pride in your work; your “mission”. Teachers, YOU and YOU alone, are in charge of your classroom…Principals, that “little red school house” is YOURS to run, NOT the parents; NOT the politicians…YOURS. Stop being afraid and DO your job as YOU see fit. Have some professional _ alls.
echo
February 22nd, 2013
4:33 pm
That “12 months of pay” is actually a 3 month interest free loan that every teacher in the state makes to the local school district and state. In other words, that pay check at the end of August was pay for work done in May. How many other businesses expect their employees to do this?
V for Vendetta
February 22nd, 2013
5:06 pm
Ole Guy,
Don’t worry; we’re still out there. I was told years ago that I failed too many students. I didn’t change because the grades were well deserved. I was told that I should give less zeros, or provide more open book work to make it easier. I didn’t change.
Sometimes I feel as if I am one of the only ones left who will tell the kids the truth. No one wants the truth anymore: they want a pleasant fantasy in which everyone can achieve, excel, and be special. Reality, however, is a bit different.
Beverly Fraud
February 22nd, 2013
5:07 pm
Forget the conditions that pertain to teachers for a moment; understand and absorb that these conditions have a direct effect on students as well.
And unlike the teachers, the students can’t flee…
Georgia coach
February 22nd, 2013
5:52 pm
Well said Beverly aka mace rep!
Prof
February 22nd, 2013
7:08 pm
@ V for Vendetta. So is college.
I love teaching. I hate what it is becoming...
February 22nd, 2013
7:34 pm
For all of you who truly think your job is just as demanding as that of a teacher, I invite you to job shadow a teacher for a week. It will open your eyes. I had one parent constantly opine about “how hard could it really be?” I invited him along on the condition that he must behave as though he were a teacher… so breaks only when I took breaks, etc.
I had him come in an hour early. I tutor some kids in the morning, I told him.
“You get paid extra for that, right?”
No. That would not be allowed. But they need the help
He was tired. He had to get up earlier than he was used to. I advised him not to drink so much coffee.
He didn’t listen.
I told him no, he couldn’t just leave the children unattended for a couple minutes to run to the bathroom. “But I will only be a minute or two.” I gave him the look. Do you know how much trouble a group of 25 children can get into in a “minute or two”? Sorry, said I. Liability issue. You have to hold it. Don’t worry; we get a bathroom break in two hours. Drink less coffee in the morning.
“I can go at recess, right?”
Sorry, no, we have recess duty.
I finally got a passing aide to watch the room so he could legitimately run to the bathroom. I told him you can’t count on that – which is why so many teachers get bladder infections and kidney problems.
I told him, that he really did not have time to “run out” and grab something for lunch, but insisted he would be “right back”. And he was, but “right back” is relative when you are talking teacher lunches. By the time he returned, it was time to pick up the students. “But I need to eat my lunch!” You can eat it, I told him… during your planning break. In another hour.
Oops. Turned out he couldn’t because we had an emergency meeting during planning in the computer lab, and no food in the computer lab. Sorry, I said. I promised him a granola bar after the meeting. “Do these kinds of meeting come up often?” he asked. Only twice this week, I told him. That’s not bad actually….
He knew we had library coming up. “Can’t I eat then?” he asked. I just smiled.
During library, there was no time to eat because I was busy helping my students find books, and check out books and helping shelve books that had been checked in. We no longer have aides in the library, and the media specialist was helping in the computer lab with another class.
He finally got to eat after bus duty. He was lucky. It was one of the two days that week, I did not have an afterschool meeting.
“What now?” he asked.
Now, I said, I get to do all the things I have to do that I can’t do with children in the room. Now I start my second job of the day. I e-mail and call parents. I collect samples for student portfolios. I conference. I grade papers. I input grades into online grading programs. I plan upcoming lessons. I create interactive white board units. I develop differentiated levels of core lessons. I create assessments and rubrics. I come up with Web Quests for units. I film video clips to demonstrate concepts. I lay out hands on math materials and equipment for science experiments the next day. I change bulletin boards. I post new Essential Questions and take down the old ones. I Xerox papers. I collect work samples and write up intervention documentation for my students on individual educational/behavioral plans. I update cumulative student records. I input data into spread sheets, run the data, and make decisions about flexible grouping and differentiation based upon findings. I work on my evaluation unit. I create lists for what students should KNOW, UNDERSTAND, and DO for units. I create content maps. I collaborate with colleagues. I work on district level committees. I work on school level committees. I attend meetings with grade level teams, school teams, district teams. In short, I do whatever needs to be done and jump through all the hoops that are now necessary on top of teaching a full day’s classes.
How late will you stay? he asked.
It varies, I told him. But I can usually count on between one to three hours past the time I am supposed to leave. The only thing I am sure of is that it will be by 6:00 PM. The district has had to make a rule that we all have to be out by 6:00 because so many teachers were staying late and it gets dark after 6:00. A teacher got mugged in the parking lot because there are no lights out there, so now we have to leave by 6:00.
“That’s a 12 hour day!” he said.
I smiled. Yes, it is, I said. And then I will go home read professional journals, and work on my professional learning requirements through online courses.
Then I let him go home.
He never had anything but positive things to say after that.
I am sure this is true of many jobs… however, I know when I am out and about, it seems to me that in most of the “private businesses” I visit, the workers are not “on” in the same way teachers are… you literally cannot have a conversation with a colleague, or go to the bathroom, or step out for a smoke, or run to the snack machine, or check your facebook, or make a phone call, or run to the water fountain… I think people do not really understand that and how tiring that is!
Prof
February 22nd, 2013
7:38 pm
@ Catlady, Feb. 22, 9:36 am. You asked for any news about House Bill 263, that will require teachers to pay their full healthcare premium after retirement. After the Wed. meeting of the House Retirement committee to consider this (no vote), they at least seem to have cleared up the question many had as to whether those “currently eligible” under the new law would only be new hires, or also those who retire after July 1, 2013. For in today’s latest version, there’s a newly added section that seems to suggest that this law will apply to both categories.
“(3) ‘Currently eligible person’ means a person who, on July 1, 2013, is eligible to participate in a health benefit plan pursuant to this part and any person who, on July 1, 2013, has an inchoate [initial, incipient] eligibility based on a future event, including, without limitation, retirement.”
cobbmom
February 22nd, 2013
7:56 pm
I do everything I love teaching does but have the added responsibility of teaching special education which requires more paperwork, more data collection and more meetings. I work over 70 hours per week but I’m paid for 40. My husband and my children are fed up but we need the health insurance since my husband’s employer doesn’t provide healthcare. Private Citizen didn’t exaggerate, part of my employee evaluation is how much time I volunteer for after school activites. I wonder how many people in the “private” sector are evaluated on their after work activities?
btman
February 22nd, 2013
9:31 pm
Mike D. I agree with you, I spent 10 years in the Army and Air Force defending this country, now i teach those who will someday make this country great. So again I say, if you have never stepped foot in the classroom to teach, shut your mouth. You have no idea what you’re talking about! We don’t get paid for 12 months, we get paid for 10 months of work, and that pay is spread out over 12 months. Dont EVER think we get paidfor time we dont work. Many teachers work other jobs in the Summer.
Private Citizen
February 22nd, 2013
10:19 pm
“Inequality Is Much Worse Than You Think.
In 2010, the top hedge fund manager earned as much in one HOUR as the average (median) family earned in 47 YEARS.
• The top 25 hedge fund managers in 2010 earned as much as 658,000 entry level teachers.
• In 1970 the top 100 CEOs made $40 for every dollar earned by the average worker. By 2006, the CEOs received $1,723 for every worker dollar.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/les-leopold/inequality-is-much-worse-_b_2633191.html
Dr. Monica Henson
February 22nd, 2013
10:56 pm
My high school staff, including teachers and advisors, work a full 12 months. We are in the process (staff-driven) of creating a compensation system that will allow for tiers of employment with increased pay, administrative support (teaching assistants), and resources. My goal is eventually to grow the school to the point that we can have six-figure salaried teachers. Movement from the starting tier will depend on employee performance, which will be tied in part to enrollment, in part to student achievement outcomes.
Anyone who thinks I don’t respect teachers simply doesn’t know what s/he is talking about. I don’t respect whiners. I respect professionals who understand that a teacher is, for many children, the last, best, and perhaps only chance at a decent future; who treasure the children in their care; and who know precisely how to move learners from Point A to Point B, and don’t shirk, complain, or blame-cast while doing it.
btman
February 23rd, 2013
9:11 am
Another note. How about the thought that school is essentially a daycare for those parents who want their kids to just go away. I teach on average 100 kids each and every day. During an open house or through email or phone calls, you wanna know how many of those kid’s parents are truly interested in what their child is doing in the classroom??? about 20. YUP! 20…. I call parents, invite them to open house, other functions, and never hear a peep from them. Parents need to start getting on the ball and caring about their kids education. Teachers are raising your kids!
10:10 am
February 23rd, 2013
9:16 am
@Dr. Monica Henson:
Bravo for your clear-headed analysis and unwavering resolution to seeking real-world solutions.
Ditto for your obvious realization that every workplace has its whiners who will not be appeased. Their complaints have much more to do with their own personal psychological flaws rather than the world around them—those seeking to foment dissatisfaction to further political or labor union agendas, included. This blog seems a favorite hangout for them.
As elsewhere in life, progress toward worthy goals depends partly upon ignoring the negativity which such individuals continually generate.
btman
February 23rd, 2013
9:31 am
Dr. Henson, with all due respect, how do you expect to evaluate teachers on student performance? Where’s the evidence based research on this? Students come from all walks of life, backgrounds, intellectual abilities, motivational factors above and beyond what we teachers can control. Whose not to say you won’t enroll the best performing kids, based on past performance, into the classes of those teachers you like more?? Not saying that you personally will do that, but trust me, it happens. I worked in schools for the last 15 years in teaching, supervisory and admin positions. Basing evaluations on teacher performance is not a very wise move.
Dan McConnell
February 23rd, 2013
10:57 am
To everyone under the “9 months of work” and “lifetime benefits” and “white collar” illusions…get a clue. There is NO job like it, where the greatest thanks come from within. Not the meager paycheck (when compared to the up front investment, the time, heart, food and supplies from your own pocket, time way beyond the clock and calendar, soul it costs) or the benefits-which are coming under attack right along with the integrity. If you have not done it, for real, in a REAL school (not some country club kiddie day care for children who will dynasty into position and security) then just watch the debate.
Want to put your faith in the cold hard Wall St data formulas and call that fair for all? Guess who seems to be doing pretty darn well while they put the screws to everyone else and have now moved on to the institutions that could educate to defend democracy…
btman
February 23rd, 2013
11:01 am
Well Said, Dan….On my last note, if we start to evaluate teachers on student performance, good luck hiring any teachers. There’s already a prediction of epic shortages in education in years to come, Wait until the baby boomers all retire…. Are you one of those who thinks there’s just educated people waiting to come and teach?? I don’t see anyone banging down any doors…
Private Citizen
February 23rd, 2013
11:09 am
btman, I think Dr. Henson is trying to make recompense based on assumed work-load and results. Oh yes, I know what you mean in the regular system. I used to hear about teachers being assigned the bad class and the bad kids. Then it happened to me. The problem there is when the teacher has no back-up to deal with chronic disruptors, it might be only one, but kids seek structure and discipline, and when there is no discipline or response from administration, it is a bad situation and is not healthy for the kid, either. For the teacher it is hell, when day after day, week after week, you have some kid who have given themselves the full time job of screwing over the functioning of your class. And then the state sends a directive telling the school to lessen discipline referrals, so the school admin. is on the hot seat and does not want to be called out by the state for dealing with discipline issues.
Those people doing this on the state level and removing resources to deal with out-of-age troubled kids and leaving them in the classroom and telling the schools and teachers they can do nothing about it, it is a grave moral error. This is an example of the few at the top putting much dysfunction onto the many. We were rocking along pretty good at my school, had good leadership, good performance, and a balanced productive way of doing things, and then the state stepped in and sent a letter or something and screwed with us. It totally f’ed up the school. The state tells people to do things before they have their ducks in a row. It is one of those out of touch “decree” systems where they make up some crap that has real determinant difficulties and then they tell people to do it.
Private Citizen
February 23rd, 2013
11:15 am
10:10, Why don’t you go hang around a bunch of coal miners who work in unsafe conditions, where inspections are ignored and there are gas blow-outs and cave-ins and people trapped five miles underground because the company owner ignored the last five inspection reports, and their families are all hanging around at the mine elevator entrance praying that they make it our alive, and why don’t you tell them they are a bunch of whiners who have “personal psychological flaws.” Meanwhile, you’re the a-hole who turns on your light switch and gets a sandwich out of your refrigerator from coal-fired electricity without a thought in your head.
Private Citizen
February 23rd, 2013
11:21 am
10:10 I once had a high school student throw a lead paper weight from across the room that hit me with great force in the side of my head. This was after 4 hours of un-prior-announced school “lock down” (they just “do it”) where no one could even leave to pee and the friendly-enough student had a history of violent actions and no one from the sped. department informed me because they keep their information hush-hush. I went and got an x-ray to see if I had a concussion and soon after had a headache on an airplane flight of the type I’ve not ever had before. I don’t get headaches. It cleared up about a year later.
you can take your bullshi- and stuff it.
Private Citizen
February 23rd, 2013
11:28 am
The weight was the size of a kupie doll, about 3″ high and the student threw it like a baseball pitcher throwing a strike. It hit me right above the ear on the side of my head. And let’s not forget the hood rats who when in a bad mood will sometimes mumble about how they are going to “kill you.” And if you actually get out or know anything, there are plenty of them who act on these impulses. And in bad urban areas, teachers are expected to interact with, teach them, and reform them. I’ve had to address an entire class of high school age hood rats who were harping about what a worthwhile thing it is to find a gay person and abduct them and beat them – hopefully to death. I was glad that my class trusted me enough to be themselves and sing their neighborhood song. I also was the one person who had to tell them,. “hey, that’s not okay” like it was news to them. I had several students with complexes about doors because a door is what someone kicks in when they are going to attack you.
Private Citizen
February 23rd, 2013
11:42 am
hey 10:10 when was the last time someone unexpectedly told you “LOCK DOWN” lock the door, don’t move – for 4 HOURS. Hope you didn’t just drink a Big Gulp because you’ll be in the corner peeing in a trash can. Now put about 25 high frenetic not-matured high school kids in the room with you and you’re responsible for every one of them and anything that happens.
You haven’t done much work with young people who do not have their heads matured, have you? Where one eyeball is growing at a different rate of the other eyeball, where one elbow is growing at a different rate of the other elbow, and half of the things they say are questioning and do not make much sense. Have you? ?Hugh? HUH? Mr. Know-It-All, Mr. “I’ve got an opinion about the workers?” You better get your sweet a– into the workplace before you talk any more crap.
Next you’re going to tell people around forklifts that they don’t need to worry about their toes. An another thing, your “personal psychological flaws” is absilutely the lowest form of know propaganda character assassination. Are you really that completely ignorant that you do not know what you are doing with this well-known propaganda technique. Did you pick this up from Bill O-Reilly or something? Are you really that ignorant and gullible that I have to spend MY TIME pointing this out to you? Here, read this: http://geeldon.wordpress.com/2010/09/18/the-use-of-character-assassination-to-isolate-the-target/
The problem with you 10:10 is that you’ve got no respect. And an FYI, I do not intend to spend my time with any more of this corrective lecturing to you. Good luck, not an abandonment, but wishes of “good luck” as I treat persons in an autonomous manner.
10:10 am
February 23rd, 2013
11:53 am
@ Puerile Citizen:
I’m still wondering how a self-proclaimed “overworked” teacher finds time to post 20-30 times per day—and at lengths which even your mother must tire of reading.
But my sympathies on being struck on the head in the line of duty. And its apparent effects.
Private Citizen
February 23rd, 2013
1:00 pm
Lord have mercy you are clueless. Fifty times I have indicated that I am one of those who “walked” also known as “freshly resigned.” Now are you going to chop that up and throw darts at that, too? Are your boundaries and lack of respect really so thorough. I know I can not change other people and I should have some sense in trying to modify you. Thank you for your sense of humor. I dare say the political antics from the local management and their thirst for power were more determinative to my health than the episode with the students, although that was certainly a close call and could have been very serious. I wasn’t too happy after that plane flight, but what are you going to do? I wonder about your work experience? Have you done any hand on work, you know, equipment, oil fields, places where people get crushed shoulders and things dropped on them? Maybe that has nothing to do with anything but usually people who “do the work” do not ridicule other people who “do the work.” And all this talk about bad teachers, the thing is, I haven’t seen any of them and just the opposite, most of my work-peers were highly accomplished dedicated people well outside of the performance of most people sitting around in jobs getting a salary. Hey, thanks for evening things out, some. Have a swell day.
whatamess1
February 23rd, 2013
1:40 pm
I love how many administrators run around yapping about how teachers need to be held accountable for the performance of their students, like they are given a free pass, and it all the teachers fault. HOW ABOUT GETTING OUT OF YOUR DAMN OFFICE AND SUPPORTING TEACHERS FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE. Pathetic. Administrators are just those who used to teach, weren’t able to, so to save their @ss, got into a job where they are no longer directly accountable for student achievement. Then they can blame the teachers. Pretty fresking smart.
Policy makers for classrooms that they havent been in for years.
Anonymous in DeKalb
February 23rd, 2013
2:07 pm
@ Private Citizen -
So you’re a former teacher who “walked?” Somewhere there are parents and taxpayers who should be thankful of that. May we blog readers be so lucky.
ShooShee
February 23rd, 2013
4:17 pm
If it’s any consolation – job satisfaction is down and stress levels are up in almost any industry. We’re all just trying to hold on during this painful wealth transfer economy.
Mikey D.
February 23rd, 2013
4:17 pm
@Dr. Henson:
I wasn’t questioning your respect of teachers. I was questioning your statement that it was TRUE that teachers get paid a 12 month salary for 9 months of work. You still haven’t addressed what you meant there. Clarification please?
A Teacher, 2
February 23rd, 2013
5:48 pm
I am retiring in three months. One job those of you who think it is so easy can have. Since I teach high level math, they will be lucky to have as many as two applicants for the $35000 per year job. Opps, make that $32900. I forgot about the furough days. Opps, make that $30500. I forgot they are cutting out the local supplement for next year.
My replacement will have to help implement the Math Common Core, the 3rd “new” math curriculum in five years. They will have to endure the Class Keys evaluation, which will add multiple hours to the 10-12 hour a day job.
All the nay-sayers are always talking about the hordes of highly qualified teachers that are just waiting for teaching jobs. Here it is!! How many highly qualified math people are going to be after this $30500 job?
How’s reality workin’ for ya??
OriginalProf
February 23rd, 2013
7:10 pm
**Formerly Prof for more than a year on this blog, I find that someone else has registered under that name with AJC–not me. So now Prof is OriginalProf.**
@ A Teacher, 2. My sympathies and admiration are with you. Just be sure to retire before this June 30, so that you will not have to pay your full healthcare premiums… for it seems very likely that House Bill 263 will be approved by the legislature and Governor.
Dr. Monica Henson
February 23rd, 2013
9:49 pm
Mikey D, I qualified my quote of the 9-month item to reflect the actual 10 months that teachers are on duty. I’m not aware of any other employees in any other fields whose compensation is structured so that they receive 12 months of regular paychecks when they actually work for 190 days.
Corporate and blue-collar workers in the United States work 50 weeks out of 52, with ten paid holidays if they get paid time off. Public school teachers work 42 weeks a year, with time off that coincides with their children’s school schedules, obviating the need for child care expenditures for most of that time off.
I was an English teacher at the high school level for most of my years in the classroom, with a three-year stint in the middle grades, so I am well aware of the time that is put in by teachers. It is nowhere near the 80- to 90-hour work weeks the most vocal complainers claim to work.
Google "NEA" and "union"
February 24th, 2013
8:58 am
@ Dr. Monica Henson:
In the Atlanta area teachers are off for slightly over two months in summer, with two more weeks at Christmas and another week around Easter. Plus at least a few other nationally recognized days in which schools are closed—while the private sector works on. How then am I then wrong to say teachers typically work about 9 months of the year?
To be completely fair, one could say that the private sector workforce only works 11.5 months per year. But that still equals a vast difference in time spent on-site.
And let’s keep in mind that public school teachers receive taxpayer subsidized (approx 75%) healthcare benefits the full 12 months—which can continue on into retirement after as little as ten years of service.
Science Teacher
February 24th, 2013
9:50 am
Dr. Monica, the TRUE question is how many employers require that their employees give them an interest free loan on 20% of their salary? I am sure most teachers would be happy to be paid for only the months we are contracted to work.
It is my understanding that you head up an online academy- do you think your experiences with your teachers, who do not have students they directly work with all day long, really reflects the reality of the typical classroom teacher? If I am wrong about this, and you head up a brick and mortar building with actual students in desks, my apologies.
Dr. Monica Henson
February 24th, 2013
11:28 am
Google, the only thing that qualifies your statement is that public school teachers in GA sign what is called a 10-month contract. You’re not wrong.
Teachers are surprisingly well-compensated when you compare their compensation structure and hours worked to those in the private sector with similar entrance requirements (bachelor’s degree).
In fairness, I would agree that for many teachers, the working conditions are less than ideal. If they don’t have strong, well-qualified administrators, it can be miserable. And a strong administrator in a herd of weak ones generally can’t get much of anything done to stimulate substantive change. Been there and done that, more than once. That’s why I am in the charter sector now.
I love teaching. I hate what it is becoming...
February 24th, 2013
12:22 pm
Dr. Henson.
I am not sure when you left the classroom, but when I began working I did not put in nearly the hours I have to do now. In fact, there were many times I actually worked only the hours for which I was paid! (Ah, the good old days…) But that has changed. Especially in the last five years. Thanks to the pressures from NCLB, standardized testing, Class Keys, larger class sizes, less support staff, etc. my job has become much more time consuming. I have never claimed a 80 to 90 hour work week, but I would hazzard to guess that a 60 hour work week would not be an overexaggeration.
Furthermore, most of the teachers I work with have more than a BA…they have Master and specialist degrees, and the pay is not that much more.
As for pay, what does it matter if your pay is paid in the 9 months or spread over 12 months? It is the same amount of pay. I used to be paid for only the nine months, which I acutally preferred as it allowed me to put the extra in savings and make interest. Now, I have no choice but to get 12 smaller pay checks over the whole year, which limits the amount I can put aside.
When I went into teaching, the deal wa
I love teaching. I hate what it is becoming...
February 24th, 2013
12:38 pm
…Sorry… for some reason, my post went sailing off into the net-nebula before I requested.
When I went into teaching, the deal was understood. With a graduate level degree, I could have gotten a job in many other higher paying fields, but the field of teaching offered a trade-off. “We will start you at a salary far below what others with similar professional degrees are making, and you will work many, many years before you even begin to match the salary others are getting within a few years. You will watch as your friends make a lot more than you and move up the pay scale a lot faster than you, buying homes, cars and taking great vacations, while you are still struggling to make ends meet …but, in the end, your retirement benefits and medical benefits, while not terrific, will allow you to live a comfortable life after you stop working. You will not be living on the street.”
That was the deal.
And so I worked for 25 years to get enough money to buy my little-fixer upper. I drove my cars into the ground and bought used. I took stay-cations before there was such a term, and tried not to envy my friends living the big life.
And now?
Now my pension and my health benefits are all under attack. I see the whole “schools are failing” as an effort to undermine public schools and provide an excuse to take away the benefits I was promised for being willing to work longer hours and for less pay than others of my educational level. When charters and private schools have sucked all the funds and the “better” students and more involved parents out of the public schools systems, and then watch the politicians start to push to take away everything from public and their teachers. After all, who will want to pay taxes to support a bunch of “loser” teachers who aren’t even good enough to work with any but the worst students? Who will want to pour money into public schools will all those “loser kids”?
People are very short sighted. When you fail to support public schools and public school students, just where to people think those poor, uneducated, unemployed folks are going to go? And what are they going to do? How high do you think you can build the fences to keep them out?
Dr. Monica Henson
February 24th, 2013
12:56 pm
“…they have Master and specialist degrees, and the pay is not that much more.”
The pay should not be any more for advanced degrees unless the degree can be shown to produce increased student achievement. The public school employment rolls are filled with expensive veterans who hold master’s degrees and specialist’s certification (it is not a degree), and these people are automatically paid more simply because they hold the credential and have been on the job for more years than beginning teachers. This is ludicrous and has led to an untenable financial situation, and as long as districts refuse to restructure their compensation scales, you will continue to see furloughs and RIFs.
A Teacher, 2
February 24th, 2013
1:20 pm
I would have to agree with “I love teaching…”. The hours used to be really good, but that started changing about 10 years ago. Now, 60+ hour weeks are the norm, and I rarely feel that I am caught up. Many decision-makers, and blog posters for that matter, are operating on assumptions about teachers and their workload that are no longer true. Also, many people are assuming that teachers are of the same quality now as they were in the 60’s and 70’s, when they were in school. Not true there, either. Many teachers that I had in high school in the 70’s would not even get an interview at the school I teach at now.
On the verge of retirement, I will have to say that I am very grateful to have been able to teach in the years 1998-2007. In my 34 year career, those were the years when most things seemed in balance. Students by and large worked, parents were pretty supportive, and the workload seemed reasonable. There was enough money to support almost everything we needed to do.
Like it or not, things have slipped considerably since 2008. The financial aspect of education is well documented. What is less talked about is that students now feel entitled to receive maximum grades for minimal to no work, and the parents generally have many of the same expectations. Many families put everything else they do ahead of the education of their children. Last year, I had four “regular” senior math classes. I can’t tell you how many days went by where I was the only one in the room that was actually working. The only thing that got anyone motivated was the real threat of receiving a failing grade and not graduating. Otherwise, I doubt I would have gotten hardly anything out of 90% of those students. Can you imagine what EOCT tests would have looked like from this group, if there had been an EOCT?? I have never worked so hard in all my career.
btman
February 24th, 2013
10:56 pm
Dr. Henson, a specialist degree is a degree, it is conferred on by the college who issues it and it is an official degree designation. I want people to be aware of that. Please do not mis-lead. Higher degrees lead to an increased level of knowledge in many fields that help students for sure. If you eliminate the compensation for degrees, teachers will stop going to college and will become stagnant in the field. Don’t bash higher education and the compensation for it. I have an Ed.S.(it is a degree) i get paid more for it, but only by about 2000/year. Guess what? I paid 20 thousand dollars for that degree, so do the math, it will take close to half of my career to make up for that degree.
btman
February 24th, 2013
11:02 pm
PLEASE STOP SAYING THAT TEACHERS ARE MORE COMPENSATED THAN THEIR PRIVATE INDUSTRY COUNTERPARTS. This is simply not the case. Please do your research before you post nonsense on here. First, I have an MBA from GA Tech, all(not some, but ALL) of my cohorts make more than i do, their companies wanted them to go back to school for advanced degrees, paid them and promoted them when they did, and guess what??? Theor company paid for the degree. Do public schools do that?? I think not. All of my cohorts make over 100K per year. SO guess what, they make 100K= a year, had their advanced degrees paid for by their company, and get anywhere from 15-30 days off a year. I work in the Summer part time to help support my family. So please just stop the non-sense crap talk about teachers make more blah blah blah, im so sick of that school of thought, just be quiet until you know your facts!
Private Citizen
February 25th, 2013
5:13 pm
btman, have an MBA from GA Tech
Wow. Congratulations.