Over the last several weeks, in what has become a dismal rite of spring, nearly 30,000 teachers throughout California received layoff notices. Knowing how crucial teachers are to student success, you might wonder how schools make the difficult decision of which teachers to cut. After all, if layoffs are unavoidable, you would think that it would be in the interest of everyone to keep the best teachers and cut those who are least effective.
Unfortunately, the only tool that California schools can use to make these decisions is a calendar. That's because of an outdated state law that prevents schools from considering anything other than how long a teacher has worked in the school system to decide who stays and who goes. Schools have no choice but to ignore teacher quality. Newer teachers are always laid off first, regardless of how well they do their jobs.
The result? Even top-performing teachers may be cut. Last year, "teacher of the year" award winners in Santa Barbara, San Diego and Los Angeles were among those who received layoff notices.
Forcing schools to fire some of their best teachers while keeping less effective teachers is just one of many perverse side effects of California's quality-blind layoffs law. Most notably, this approach also disproportionately harms schools that serve the poorest students, English-language learners and students of color, who are more likely to have newer teachers.
What's worse, evidence from other parts of the country suggests that teachers themselves do not support these rules. ..
If there is one asset that stands us good at all times, it is education. It opens the door to opportunities and paves the way to success in nearly every sphere of life. The majority of people agree that it is important for children to receive the right kind of education early on, so that the foundation for their future is well laid. But in spite of all the efforts that are being taken to improve education at its roots, there are problems that crop up every now and then and upset the applecart. In general however, there are a few aspects that determine the quality of education a child receives, and they are:
• The calibre of teachers: The best way to develop an interest for even your worst subject is to have a really fantastic teacher handle your class. When the right person teaches you the subject, you feel a passion that you never felt before and learning becomes much easier and less of a chore. When the teacher is lackadaisical and remote, the entire class suffers too, and the subject becomes more of a drag. To improve education, it is imperative to hire teachers who not only know the subject, but also how to teach it in an interesting way that is easily understood by their students.
• The attitude of fellow students: A naturally brilliant child tends to slack off when there is no real competition from the rest of the class. He or she is satisfied with scoring grades that are higher than the rest of the class and never really strives to achieve their best. Students who are naturally talented are tested and pushed to do their best only when there is tough competition from their peers, so if children are perceived to be much more capable than they seem to be, it is up to their teachers to egg them on to perform to their best.
• The standard set by the school: Some schools set high academic standards and offer their students incentives to reach certain goals. Others however, focus on other activities and leave it to the children to do what they can academically without really encouraging them to do their best. When schools set the bar high, they tempt students who are naturally brilliant and hard workers to aim higher and achieve much more.
• The attitude towards education at home: When parents don’t set much store by education as the foundation for success in later life, the children follow suit. They go to school because they must, but beyond that, they are not too interested in lessons and exams. While education authorities cannot change parental attitude, they can identify promising children and encourage them to do their best at school by making them aware of all the opportunities that await bright achievers.
• Initial academic performance: Think of a record being set in a sports event, say long jump. Now would a champ who has set a world record want to do less the next time round? That’s how it is with educational achievement too – when you do well in your early years, you’ve set a standard for yourself, one that you hope to equal or beat in all the years to come. So encouraging children to live up to their potential in their early years could give them the much needed boost to perform well later in their life, when it matters the most.
This guest post is contributed by Shannon Wills, she writes on the topic of Online Engineering Degrees. She welcomes your comments at her email id: shannonwills23@gmail.com.
ATLANTA — Most states are holding tight to policies that protect incompetent teachers and poor training programs, shortchanging educators and their students before new teachers even step into the classroom, according to a new national report card.
The study from the National Council on Teacher Quality— being released Friday — paints a grim picture of how states handle everything from pay to discipline for public school teachers. States are using "broken, outdated and inflexible" policies that ultimately hurt how children learn, according to the report...
...The best female students -- those whose test scores put them in the top 10 percent of their high school classes -- are much less likely to become teachers today.
''Whereas close to 20 percent of females in the top decile in 1964 chose teaching as a profession,'' making it their top choice, the economists write, ''only 3.7 percent of top decile females were teaching in 1992,'' making teachers about as common as lawyers in this group.
So the chances of getting a really smart teacher have gone down substantially. In 1964, more than one out of five young female teachers came from the top 10 percent of their high school classes. By 2000, that number had dropped to just over one in 10.
SAT scores of teacher wannabes Sept. 2, 2008 tampabay.com High school graduates who say they intend to major in education score in the bottom third compared to 36 other intended majors, according to the SAT data released last week. Nationally, intended education majors finished 25th in reading, 27th in math and a combined 57 points below the national average in both...Students often change majors, of course. But is it a stretch to suggest the SAT scores are another sign the best and brightest don't want to teach?...
There was a rise in SAT scores of prospective teachers recently, but that's not saying much. Basically, teacher test scores are not as bad as they had been in recent years.
New York Times Report Finds Better Scores in New Crop of Teachers Dec. 12, 2007 "Teaching is attracting better-qualified people than it did just a few years ago, according to a report released Tuesday by the Educational Testing Service... The SAT scores of prospective teachers who took the licensing tests in elementary education and physical education, however, were significantly below the average for all college graduates, it said..."
Selectivity - revisited Posted November 5th, 2008 by Dave Saba Joanne Jacobs has a great post pointing the way to Carpe Diem. It turns out that Education PhD’s have the second lowest GRE scores compared to any other academic focus. SAT scores are the same – in 2006, the College Board reported that only 2 majors had lower SAT scores than teachers – public relations and family studies.
Scott Mullin was the 2007-08 teacher of the year at The Language Academy. He is a current member of the San Diego Education Association (SDEA) Representative Council.
Guest blogger Scott Mullin grew up and attended public schools in San Diego County. He has been teaching for 17 years -- including two in Costa Rica -- and is now working in San Diego Unified schools. He holds degrees in anthropology and Latin American studies from San Diego State University. Mullin has two children attending public schools. These are his reflections, not mine, so if you have burning questions or comments, please contact Scott via email at quoniambebe@gmail.com.
There is a darkening image of teachers that many in our society work hard to mint as the prevailing picture of those who labor daily to educate the young. It stands out in stark contrast to the image of teachers that I grew up with.
Our leaders have -- I suspect with self-serving ideological and financial motives -- intentionally sought to damage the respectful image we had of teachers. The formation of this gray cloud over public education goes back to 1983, when President Reagan published "A Nation at Risk."
...Instead of paying teachers based on education and experience, the self-described innovators hold merit pay to be a key solution. By dangling dollars before the teacher, creativity would flourish. Test scores would soar and achievement gaps disappear...
