With Turnover High, Schools Fight for Teachers

With Turnover High, Schools Fight for Teachers

GREENSBORO, N.C. — The retirement of thousands of baby boomer teachers coupled with the departure of younger teachers frustrated by the stress of working in low-performing schools is fueling a crisis in teacher turnover that is costing school districts substantial amounts of money as they scramble to fill their ranks for the fall term.


Bruce R. Feeley for The New York Times
Rebecca Rheinheimer, a teacher at Oak Hill Elementary in High Point, N.C., was lured from Indiana by a $2,500 bonus.
Superintendents and recruiters across the nation say the challenge of putting a qualified teacher in every classroom is heightened in subjects like math and science and is a particular struggle in high-poverty schools, where the turnover is highest. Thousands of classes in such schools have opened with substitute teachers in recent years.

Cops and teachers... you get what you pay for.
I taught public school, before teaching community college, for less than a year.... things are better now than they were when I did it, but I still would not do it for what they pay.
It is a JOKE.
Blaming teachers for the system is crazy.
Garbage men and women are paid better and get better benefits than teachers (they are where they should be, I am saying the teacher's union is corrupt and broken) and people wonder why we can't get devoted, focused outstanding individuals in numbers to teach our kids?
Those people are idiots.
We deserve what we get and WE are DOING this to our kids.

Raise pay and benefits, more and better people will want the jobs and you can ask more of them as far as education, hours, devotion, etc.
It IS that simple.
See what administrators get paid compared to teachers in your area and then you will SEE clearly what the problem is.

[Clodfobble]

About two or three years ago, Texas implemented a policy that anyone with a bachelor's degree in the appropriate topic could with very little effort become certified to teach that topic in high schools, without actually going through the typical multi-year University course accreditation. This helped lessen the shortage tremendously.

My mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and two aunts are all teachers, and they were all vehemently against this legislation when it came out. Basically to them it amounted to being told that they had no special skill at their jobs, anyone off the street could do it. The difference, as I tried to explain to them, is that they all teach elementary school and younger. A kindergarten teacher can reasonably be expected to need various classes in child psychology, developmental processes, etc. A high school teacher, however, does not. Sure, it's nice to have that sort of preparation, but high schools today have much more important problems to focus on.

I definitely agree that raising pay would help, but only to a certain degree--private schools typically pay teachers less than public schools, and yet are harder to get jobs in, because those jobs are inherently more desirable to the teachers. Students have to improve to allow the teachers to improve to help the students improve... I think we should seriously consider the concept of vocational schools as an alternative to high schools for those students who would find that environment more appropriate. Section off the kids who don't care and the ones that remain will be able to get a much better education.

I also agree with that.
Disruptive students need to be removed from classes of students that want to learn.

[yesman065]

Originally Posted by rkzenrage

Disruptive students need to be removed from classes of students that want to learn.

w-w-what???? I thought they just needed to be "educated" Weren't you touting that in the spanking thread?? Why is it different here?

[Griff]

Put away the broad brush. Education is still mostly a state and local issue despite the Bush/Kennedy disaster. Florida is not New York.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by rkzenrage

With Turnover High, Schools Fight for Teachers


Cops and teachers... you get what you pay for.
I taught public school, before teaching community college, for less than a year.... things are better now than they were when I did it, but I still would not do it for what they pay.
It is a JOKE.

You were clearly living in the wrong state ... average here is $52K, with a lot of teachers making well above the mean ... and that's just base salary, and doesn't take into account the extra money for doing stuff like being a club advisor, sports coach, or whatever. Might not be superfantastic by business world standards, but it's not the pittance that teachers once were paid ... I got out of an education program in college because the expected pay was around $18K at that time.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

The difference, as I tried to explain to them, is that they all teach elementary school and younger. A kindergarten teacher can reasonably be expected to need various classes in child psychology, developmental processes, etc. A high school teacher, however, does not. Sure, it's nice to have that sort of preparation, but high schools today have much more important problems to focus on.

I'm not a teacher, or even play one on TV, but it seems to me that high school hormone factories would require teachers with all those extra skills.
At least from memory (ok, looong memory) and from what I see on the news, discipline was, and has become, a major problem in high and Jr high schools. They not only need the extra training but hand to hand combat skills, as well.

In this area, teachers had fallen behind the inflation curve in the 70s but they doubled their pay over a ten year period in the 80s/90s. After a few years, with a masters, $60/$75k and retire at 55 with 85% pay, is not exactly slave wages.

[Shawnee123]

The days of the downtrodden underpaid teachers have been over for some time.

Originally Posted by yesman065

w-w-what???? I thought they just needed to be "educated" Weren't you touting that in the spanking thread?? Why is it different here?

I missed the part where I stated that we needed to hit them, please point that out.
I see where Bruce gets what he does about your reading skills.

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

The days of the downtrodden underpaid teachers have been over for some time.

That's why you want the job so badly.

[Shawnee123]

Huh? Did someone say something pertinent? I didn't think so.

I know someone who went to Turnover High. Most of them were of Dutch descent, i.e. Danish. They had a killer cafeteria. Naturally, Culinary Arts were big in the Vocational School. But, those sons of biscuits had three months off every summer...got paid for a full year! Most of the families had a lot of dough, but the kids were a bunch of pale pastry pansy-asses. So many of them went on to become teachers, then actors, then firemen, then astronauts, then ditch diggers, then microbiologists, then dog walkers, then shoemakers, then astronomers, then truck drivers, then electrical engineers, then ambassadors, then butlers, then tailors.

[smurfalicious]

Well, if just one day could go by without yet another story about such-and-such teacher fucking such-and-such student(s)...

Clearly the skills they need include keeping their hands to themselves and concentrating on the curriculum.

Keep telling me why it is such a great job and then tell me what other career you have to have a second job to make it during your time off.
Also, teachers have to have continuing education, which we do during that break.
Speak of what you know.

When I say disruptive students I am talking about students that take too much time from the rest of class.
Yes, teach them in class, but there is a point where some kids refuse to learn, or cannot, and need special classes.
It is not fair to the students that CAN and WILL behave in classes to have their education sacrificed because administration refuses to empower teachers. It is a common problem because they don't want to "offend" the parents of the kids with the problem.
Most teachers will say "let me talk to them".

[Shawnee123]

Eloquent as always.
Edit:
Which is fine, I don't care if you don't know anything about it by choice, as long as you NEVER bitch about the state of young people where you live because of how you and your local society chooses to treat your teachers.

[Shawnee123]

Ooooh, what if I do? I'm scared.

You don't know what I know and do not know. You're just doing what you always do, belittling and being a general jackass. Good enough for me!