The number of minority students enrolled in U.S. schools is growing at a rapid rate, yet student enrollment is not matched by minority teacher representation. The National Center for Education Statistics tells us that nearly 82 percent of public school teachers are white — and Black and Hispanic students are two to three times more common than teachers of the same ethnicity. The gap is typically the widest in areas of the country with high percentages of students of color.
Many feel that minority teachers are in a position to put a stop to negative stereotypes and act as role models and mentors for students of color. Teachers who can relate to their students’ backgrounds usually are better able to look past biases of their abilities.
A study in Economics of Education Reviews tell us minority students perform better with minority teachers.
In addition to the challenge of having too few minority teachers, we also see the highest percentage of Black teachers leaving the profession. This is likely because minority teachers tend to work in schools with high rates of poverty.
The education gap is a serious obstacle our country faces – and I think that the “diversity gap” is a major part of our struggle. The education gap is staggering and it is hindering our country socially and economically. We have to find ways to get more teachers of color in the classroom. Students perform better when they can relate to their teachers, and teachers who can relate to their students are less likely to have a preconceived idea of how each student will perform. We need more teachers of color in our schools acting as strong role models for our minority students.
But giving kids cash for grades and scores hasn’t proved straightforward either. So maybe the answer isn’t monetary.
Could students be better motivated by something as simple as a little formal recognition?
While I was serving as director of the National Center on Performance Incentives at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, my colleagues and I sought answers in the decisions of various actors in American public schools.
The results may surprise you.
Which incentives encourage positive behavior?
Much of public policy can be characterized as attempts to influence individual behavior and decision-making in organizations.
Those who design and evaluate incentives typically operate under the crude assumption that the “target” is a rational actor (processing all available information and quickly identifying the behavior most likely to be the best one for his or her well-being).
So, policymakers end up offering seemingly beneficial public services at little or no cost. But they still meet with disappointment.
Our recent study attempted to better understand the response to a different kind of incentive – for one of the arguably more imperfectly rationale segment of our population: early adolescents.
We explored how incentives – monetary and nonmonetary – might encourage behaviors that lead to increased student learning, such as daily attendance and afterschool tutoring services (free but chronically underutilized).
We found that adolescents do not respond to incentives in ways that can be easily predicted by economic theory. But the right kinds of incentives could well lead adolescents to engage in behaviors likely to enhance their learning.
Money makes no difference
Here’s how we did our study.
We selected 300 fifth to eighth grade students in a large southern urban school district who were eligible for free, afterschool tutoring services.
Prior research had shown that these particular tutoring services were relatively high quality and had, in fact, increased student’s test score performance. We then randomly assigned these students to one of three groups:
a reward of US$100 (distributed via an online platform) for consistent attendance
certificates of recognition, signed by the school’s district superintendent, mailed to the student’s home, again for consistent attendance
a control group, which received no experimental incentives.
We found that the students who were offered up to $100 for regular attendance were no more likely to attend sessions than if they were offered nothing at all.
In other words, money made no difference.
Alternatively, when students received a certificate of recognition for attending tutoring sessions regularly, the differences were dramatic. The students in the certificate group attended 42.5% more of their allotted tutoring hours than those assigned to the control group.
Gender, parents and peers
Gender also played a role. Girls were significantly more responsive to the certificate of recognition than their male counterparts.
On average, girls in the control group attended only 11% of the tutoring hours assigned to them. However, girls receiving the certificate attended 67% of their allocated hours, representing a six-fold increase.
What’s more, the boys that received certificates attended more than two times as many of their allocated tutoring sessions in comparison to the male control-group students. But the girls in the group that received the certificates attended nearly twice as many of their allocated tutoring sessions than the boys who were eligible for certificates of recognition.
Overall, sending certificates directly to the parents seemed to have been effective. One reason for this could be that parents were more likely to reinforce the child’s extra effort when the certificate was received at home.
Often in school settings, parents are not hearing positive news when they are contacted by their child’s school – and this might be especially true of these students who qualified for tutoring services.
This is one time where the parent heard: “way to go, keep it up.” And they heard it directly from the district superintendent.
In addition, a student’s effort was not necessarily observable to peers, which could have helped facilitate the positive response.
Prior research suggests that the promise of certificates and trophies presented in a class or at a school assembly in front of peers might not necessarily act as a positive incentive. Academic achievement can often result in diminished social status among peers, especially for minority students.
Human behavior and education policy
Indeed, a recent study of a performance leaderboard system that publicly ranked students in a computer-based high school course in Los Angeles Unified School District was associated with a 24% performance decline.
The authors attributed this to students trying to avoid social penalties by conforming to prevailing norms.
For these reasons, working with the family to encourage and reward academic behaviors may hold more promise, compared to working directly through school settings where peer pressures and norms play an important role.
Policymakers and philanthropists in New York and Memphis are currently trying to interrupt a cycle of generational poverty through the Family Rewards Program. It is providing cash rewards to families who improve their short-term health care, education, and labor market participation and outcomes.
The impact results of this program are still awaited. This program doesn’t test other forms of incentives such as certificates.
But there are important implications for education policy discussions and whether cash should be the primary driver of human behavior, particularly for adolescents.
The results of our study show that children’s learning behaviors to incentives change in unpredictable ways. And these behaviors aren’t easily accounted for by models of individuals as rational decision-makers.
Our study provides evidence that for policies to influence adolescent behavior, they may need to draw from research and theory beyond classical economics or behavioral psychology, including what we are learning about the teenage brain and it’s sociocultural environment.
In short, we need to look at policies that are less Adam Smith and little more Friday Night Lights.
Procrastination works as a virus that slowly engulfs you. It can have devastating effects on your growth and career. Putting off any task that you have to accomplish is a habit that can actually make you lose a lot of time.
When you put off a task, you are leaving something incomplete. The feeling that you have not successfully completed something can nag you subconsciously. This can become a feeling that does not allow you to concentrate completely on the task at hand. While this phenomenon may not be obvious, procrastination does lead to bad time management as well.
As the work piles up, stress levels also increase. So whether it is calling a parent and discussing a difficult child, writing the narratives on the report card, or a long-term project like planning a school event, it is a good idea to take the bull by the horns and begin the work. Here are some tips that can help you:
• Make a list of all the tasks that you have been postponing for some time. Try and identify whether these tasks have something in common. Doing this will help you determine the specific kind of jobs that you tend to postpone. Is it that you postpone tasks that have no deadline or those that involve doing something that you are uncomfortable with?
• Keep a list of all the tasks that you need to do and prioritize them. Tell yourself that jumping the priority list is not allowed.
• Finally, reward yourself with something that you like when you complete each task. Take a break and sip a hot refreshing cappuccino before you start the next thing, take a walk, or simply pause to look out the window; rewards, both big and small, can help you stay motivated and focused.
The biggest hurdle in tackling procrastination is identifying the root cause of the procrastination. Once you have identified the cause, you shall be able to address the issue directly and consciously.
Question: One of my colleagues had to take a leave of absence because of stress related issues. Basically, she burned out. I am a new teacher and I don’t want the same thing to happen to me. How does teacher burnout effect the education system, and how can we ameliorate it? Dwayne J
Answer: Dwayne, as you know, teachers have strong commitments to their work. Most of them feel passionately about teaching, and see it as a “calling.” The emotions that teachers undergo include love for (most) students, hate for the paperwork, the feeling of excitement when they see a student finally understand a concept, etc. Then there’s the dread of filling out report cards, the feeling of burn-out in December, and the nervous feeling associated with the first day of school every year. These emotions affect teachers across the board, without regard to experience.
Burnout refers to extreme stress experienced by those who work in intense occupations, especially in offering services that are subject to chronic tension levels. It usually means the inability to function fully in one’s job due to the prolonged stress related to these jobs. Stress and burnout are linked closely to an individual’s state of mind. Burnout is three-dimensional and includes feelings of emotional exhaustion or tiredness; teacher “depersonalization,” in which they develop a negative and distrustful attitude towards their students, parents, and their colleagues; and a reduced sense of accomplishment and self-esteem.
It also brings about other negative effects, such as increased absenteeism, decline in classroom performance, and poor interpersonal relationships with colleagues and students. Burned-out teachers are usually less sympathetic toward the problems of students, and are less committed to their jobs. They develop lower tolerance for classroom disruptions, are less prepared for class, and are generally less productive. As a result, burned-out teachers can have a negative influence on the morale of new teachers.
Burned-out teachers are more narrow-minded about their practices, and resistant to changes in those practices. They resort to blaming others for low achievement or failure. If schools are to succeed at providing students with an effective, relevant education, teacher’s emotions must not be ignored. Teachers need to feel validated in their work so that they can continue educating our youth to the best of their ability.
New teachers will find that one of the most frustrating parts of teaching is classroom misbehavior. This misbehavior is easy to identify, but finding the solution to effectively deal with it by finding the causes may be more difficult. As misbehavior will continue if not successfully dealt with the first few times, teachers need to get to the root of the problems that are the causes of students’ misbehavior as soon as possible (Moore, 2008). Teachers should take close looks into students’ behaviors to find the influential factors that are shaping students’ behavioral patterns.
Consider Background Factors
One notable place to start is by examining students’ home environments. Children model their behavior on that of their parents, and their parents are also likely to have a high degree of influence over their point of view. Students with well-educated parents are more likely to have been instilled with respect for education and the institutions and authorities that accompany it. It follows that these children will be more likely to maintain a high level of personal discipline because they see the purpose of their presence at school and understand what they will achieve from adhering to prescribed behavior. On the other hand, it helps to be aware that there are also students whose parents expect perfect scores, forcing their children to take the most advanced courses offered, against the wishes of the child.
Rules and customs that are set by parents for children directly influence students’ behaviors. Students with extremely tolerant parents who let their children have things their way all the time will talk back to teachers and get into trouble with other students who disagree with them. The student may struggle to understand why such behavior is not allowed at school but is allowed at home. Students who grow up under authoritarian-style also exhibit classroom misbehavior, although this may be manifested in a different way. These students may show overt fear and anxiety in response to authority figures, including teachers. This may result in under-performance, lack of engagement in activities or an inability to focus appropriately. On the other hand, these students may feel that they are able to release their frustrations on other students, whom they see as their equals.
Poverty, among other socioeconomic factors, is cited as being a particularly important factor in understanding why students misbehave. This is not necessarily because there is a direct lack of discipline in homes affected by poverty. It is a reflection of the different values that are present at different socioeconomic levels of society. If children grow up in a home where they are unsure of where their next meal is coming from, or are unable to rely on parental support (parents who work multiple jobs, for example), their values will be fundamentally different than children who grow up in homes where they have the privilege of being able to take these things for granted. People living in poverty, particularly in extreme poverty, will value survival more highly than academic achievement. Other values will include interpersonal relationships and entertainment, the former likely to assist with survival and the latter because this will allow them to temporarily mentally escapes the confines of their situation.
Conversely, high-income families may come about as the result of parents allowing inadequate time for effective parenting. Parents may have demanding jobs, leaving their children unsupervised during this time, particularly once they are old enough to look after themselves. Parents who show over-involvement in their work for any reason may also play a less active role in their children’s lives. Increasingly, parents of high-income families are also providing their children with access to their credit cards. These children now have the ability to live and function as adults in every other aspect of their lives, other than at school. This may have an influence on their behavior at school.
Consider Classroom Factors
Various factors within the classroom may also affect whether or not students behave appropriately. Good air circulation in the classroom is essential and should never be compromised. Students should be made as comfortable as possible in their environment, as discomfort may prompt them to engage in undesirable behavior. Observe whether or not students are seated at desks and chairs that are suited to the size of their bodies. It will be impossible to accommodate every child, but various efforts can be made.
Mismatches between the abilities of the students and the learning material being presented will also tend to encourage misbehavior. Students who are being insufficiently challenged will display a lack of interest in various ways. This may take the form of abject disinterest in the teaching, or may result in them being disruptive to other students. It is important to adjust your teaching to make the lesson interesting to even the most gifted students in the class, while also taking into account the interests of all your students. Conversely, students who are unable to grasp the material being taught, or who are being presented with material that they are completely unfamiliar with, will also be more likely to misbehave. Bear existing levels of knowledge in mind when you plan lesson content,and conduct frequent informal assessments, to ensure that you understand what is appropriate for your students to be learning.
In some cases, misbehavior may be due to factors arising from the teachers themselves. In some cases, teachers are not aware that they are indirectly a cause of the poor classroom behavior, making it clear why you should conduct regular self-evaluations and self-reflective exercises. Continuing your professional development is important to enable you to remain in touch with effective teaching practices. There is always room for improvement to your personal teaching methods and your approach to teaching. In particular, ensure that you identify situations which you are unable to cope with early and seek assistance from other teachers, principals or school counselors — all of whom may offer creative and innovate ways of addressing classroom behavior problems.
Ensure that you strive to treat all your students with respect as individuals as well as in terms of their cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. If you set a good example of behavior for your students, they are likely to pick up on this and treat you with respect. Avoid raising your voice or using a disparaging tone, and always ensure that you respond to students with appropriate validation where necessary.
Never humiliate or embarrass your students, as this is highly counterproductive, and is never in the best interest of your students. Students may try to provoke you during classroom time, which requires you to be able to identify these attempts without reacting to them and without losing self-control. You need to demonstrate adult methods of conflict management when dealing with your students at all times. This may be difficult when you are dealing with personal difficulties or frustrations, which is why it is important for you to remain aware of the boundary between your duties as an educator and your personal duties towards yourself. Leave your own personal frustrations outside the classroom as much as possible.
It is important to be clear with your students about what behavior will be tolerated and what will not, as consistency in your approach to them as students will encourage them to adhere to your requirements of them. Always aim to plan effectively and avoid frequent and unnecessary disruptions to your teaching plan, as this may contribute to misbehavior by allowing students idle time. Prepare class materials and be ready to deal with any unexpected disturbances, giving students minimal idle time and ensuring that there is something to keep them adequately occupied should anything unplanned arise.
Consider Physical and Psychological Factors
Although there are differences in behavior of students according to their age, many physical and psychological factors can have an influence at different stages of their school career. Children are unable to make adult-like choices in how they behave, but are often trying to communicate a need or desire. It is important to be able to determine whether or not this behavior is under their control to determine whether or not there is a need or desire that you can assist in addressing.
It would likely be unwise to determine that misbehavior is the result of a physical or psychological problem in a child who commits a single act of undesirable behavior, but it would be as unwise not to consider these factors in a repeat offender. Sometimes students will simply be acting on the desire to break any rules that have been imposed on them. Some students, however, are subject to various medical conditions or are exposed to environments that have severe effects on their ability to function normally. Enlisting the assistance of a school nurse or school counselor is crucial in ensuring that these students also receive the same standards of education as their peers.
A commonly encountered disorder is Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, commonly known as ADHD. Children who suffer ADHD will commonly have a reduced ability to control their impulses and have bouts of hyperactivity, which are disruptive to both themselves and their peers. On the opposite end of the spectrum are Autistic Spectrum Disorders, in which children have difficulty with social interaction and perform compulsive, repetitive behaviors which may equally be perceived as disruptive to themselves and their peers.
There are also mental health problems that are more commonly encountered in adults which may present during later childhood years, such as Oppositional Defiant Disorder, in which sufferers cause severe difficulties in interacting with them due to their excessive and sometimes unprovoked aggression. These students will often be a source of extreme frustration to teachers, but may also be so aggressive that they cause physical harm to teachers, and therefore there may be teachers who are simply afraid of them. Other mental health conditions include Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder and Major Depressive Disorders, all of which are much more difficult to diagnose in children than in adults. It is imperative that you consult with your school counselor or similar mental health professional in order to determine if your students is suffering from any of these disorders.
Behavior changes may also result from the intake of substances, whether narcotic or simply unfamiliar to the body. Students who are taking medication for any condition, including antibiotics or anti-epileptic medication, may show changes in their behavior. These will be more easily disclosed to a teacher than the taking of narcotic or illegal substances, and you will be required to maintain a certain degree of suspicion with regard to children whose behavior changes drastically during the course of a school day.
Medical conditions such as viral infections and meningitis may also cause changes in a student’s behavior. Some medical conditions are so subtle that children may not even realize that they are sick because they are not feeling any obvious symptoms. In many cases, however, they may be feeling quite marked symptoms, which have either not been addressed by their parents or caretakers or are ignoring these symptoms out of fear. Changes resulting from medical conditions have the advantage of being easier to detect as they are more likely to occur suddenly, giving a clue as to their cause. With experience, you will learn to identify different behavioral problems more effectively.
If you are a veteran teacher, how did you get a grip on behavioral issues in your classroom when you were first starting out?
Talking about sex to a classroom full of five-year-old kids is likely to make some teachers and parents uncomfortable. But that is the approach that the Netherlands is taking and it is working. This week marks the start of “Spring Fever” week in the Netherlands where primary school students learn about sex education.
It may sound strange to the average American, but here’s why it just might work to start sex ed earlier rather than later:
According to studies by the Word Health Organization and the World Bank by way of org, the Dutch have “one of the lowest” teen pregnancy rates in the word and “nine out of ten Dutch adolescents used contraceptives the first time” they chose to have sex.
The children learn about the psychological aspects of sex, too. The information given to young students isn’t the typical data presented by your high school football coach who’s stuck leading the health class’s discussion on sex ed. Students learn about “sexual diversity and sexual assertiveness” and the aim is to create a healthy environment that will encourage students to know that “sexual development is a normal process.”One key component of the curriculum is for students to feel comfortable with themselves and that “sexuality also has to do with respect, intimacy, and safety.”
This, obviously, is a variation from what we see in America. Sex is still a taboo topic for many as the subject isn’t a school requirement as it is in the Netherlands. PBS‘ story regarding sex ed shows data from the Public Religion Research Institute that “nearly four in 10 American Millennials report that the sex education they received was not helpful.”
Abstinence-only education simply does not work. Some states still teach abstinence as the only form of sexual education and it has not helped in lowering America’s teen pregnancy rate or reign in the growth of STD’s among teenagers.
While this type of liberal approach may not immediately work in America, it is definitely worth exploring. Teaching kids the importance of self-worth through sexual education will increase their confidence and aid them in making better decisions as they mature.
Continuing the closed minded approach about sexual education works to the detriment of our students and we will continue to reap the benefits of the bad educational decisions we’ve made, which may be an increase rates of teen pregnancy and STDs.
As a new teacher, be aware that you will undergo evaluations by school principals or other administrators. Such evaluations often cause some anxiety for new teachers, but it’s important to view them in a positive light.
The evaluators are responsible for assessing new teachers’ performance. The frequency of assessment differs not only according to the district regulations, but also according to individual differences in evaluators. The number of visits for evaluation range from once a year to once every month, but on average, it’s a quarterly visit. Rehiring, terminating, and even merit pay largely depend on this evaluation, so it’s important for you to have a good idea about how you’ll be evaluated. Some preparation work is necessary, and this is your responsibility.
Check the education department Web site to see how the visits are arranged in the local area, and also seek advice from your mentor teacher on what evaluators are looking for during the assessment. After the evaluation, you’ll receive feedback. Take this feedback seriously, because it will provide ideas on how to strengthen your skills and work on your weaker areas. And research shows that teachers who get the most feedback from the classroom are the most satisfied with teaching.
Feedback is usually based on three components of evaluation:
1. Quantitative Evaluation
The quantitative approach simply looks at how many times a teacher undertakes certain actions such as questioning, praising, and critiquing. In another quantitative approach, the evaluator takes a quick look at each student for about 20 seconds and records his or her activities. For example, “Amy was concentrated on the task” or “Ben was disturbing the students sitting nearby him.”
When the U.S. Department of Education announced its $4.35 billion Race to the Top Grant competition, one of the stipulations of eligibility to compete required states not to have any legal, statutory, or regulatory barriers to linking data on student achievement or student growth to teachers’ evaluation. Since the passage of the Race to the Top Act in 2010, many states have been focusing on addressing the Act’s emphasis on student achievement as part of the teacher evaluation process.
2. Qualitative Evaluation
A qualitative approach measures the complexity of the classroom environment that may not be accurately measured by quantitative methods. Evaluators write down their own description of the classroom, which will later serve as a guide for giving subjective feedback to the teachers.
3. Clinical Supervision
A more detailed form of evaluation is clinical supervision, which includes the following four steps:
1) A supervisor’s meeting with a teacher
2) Classroom observation
3) Analysis of observation
4) Post-observation meeting with the supervisor
In the initial meeting, supervisors and teachers schedule the observation date and determine the focus of the evaluation. At the meeting after the observation, teachers and supervisors work together to create plans for improvement.
Although this clinical supervision method is most effective, implementing a four-step procedure for every new teacher is time-consuming. Teachers will thus often encounter modified versions of such evaluation. Some have regular, unannounced visits of 5 minutes a few times a day during the evaluation period, and after each short visit, the evaluators and teachers have a follow-up conversation. Some aspects that may be observed are whether the teacher stays on the topic and doesn’t get sidetracked, whether the students understand the teacher’s words, and whether the classroom environment has enthusiasm.
Although you may be tempted to feel intimidated or uncomfortable with evaluations at first, most teachers soon find that feedback from knowledgeable and understanding evaluators can improve classroom attitudes and teaching behaviors.
Most patriotic Americans agree education should be the most important issue in the country. After all, a country that lacks knowledge lacks power… right? Common sense tells us that in order to secure a thriving future for our nation’s children, we must become high achievers in the areas of math, reading and science. Unfortunately, the collective concern for education continues to wane. This may explain why education in the United States is considered average when compared to the rest of the world.
Often employed by public officials looking for a platform, the issue of education continues to make headlines, but very little actual progress is being made. In fact, teachers across the country continue to express their dissatisfaction with leadership, salary cuts and a lack of resources. Our children are in crisis; our future is in jeopardy and with each passing day, we become more vulnerable to the darkness of ignorance and unawareness.
According to the Pew Research Center, education ranks among the public’s top ten policy priorities, coming in at number six. At first glance, this may seem impressive, but Pew also reports that in general, Americans have a declining interest in education. Not surprisingly, the economy, job creation and terrorism are the public’s top three priorities, and there’s no question each would have grave consequences if not addressed. While most agree these topics should be focal points of interest, however, many argue the public has lost sight of what should matter most: education.
The reality is our country is guilty of becoming increasingly apathetic about education. As a rule, teachers are grossly undervalued; their significance is continually diminished and their contributions go highly underrated. The majority of school teachers love what they do and consider themselves blessed to be afforded the opportunity to make a difference in the life of a child. Their profound impact on the world of academia, and their willingness to sacrifice high-paying salaries should be applauded. But at what point do we, as Americans, stand up and say that our treatment of teachers is simply unacceptable? When do we decide that a number six priority ranking for education is not good enough – and that our students and teachers mean more to our collective society than that?
Here are some facts about America that reflect our current attitude toward education:
The U.S. is only average when it comes to education. According to data collected by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the performance of American students as compared to their international equivalents is mediocre at best. PISA is an international study that evaluates education systems worldwide every three years. This involves testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students in more than 70 participating countries/economies.Scores from the 2009 PISA assessmentreveal the U.S. performs about average in reading and science and below average in math. Some of the top performers on the PISA evaluation were Hong Kong, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Finland, Shanghai in China, Singapore and Canada. Out of 34 participating countries, the U.S. ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math. These statistics are staggering.
America could become richer by becoming better educated. As reported by the McGraw-Hill Research Foundation, a recent study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) suggests that if the U.S. could boost its average PISA scores by 25 points over the next 20 years, it could lead to a gain of $41 trillion for the U.S. economyover the lifetime of the generation born in 2010. Therein lies the solution to every major problem facing the American people — including the economy, job creation and terrorism awareness.
More money is not the solution to the problem. Based on research provided by Steven Paine, a nationally renowned American educator, the OECD has offered a number of simple and practical lessons to the United States. According to Paine, money is not the answer to boosting our country’s international educational status, nor will it bring about a greater classroom experience. In studying the world’s highest achievers — Finland, Singapore and Ontario, Canada — Paine suggests our lack of respect for teachers is the nation’s number one enemy of education. “The major difference between those systems and the one in the U.S. had to do with how teachers are valued, trained and compensated,” he noted.
Paine stated in his report to the OECD, “In Finland, it is a tremendous honor to be a teacher, and teachers are afforded a status comparable to what doctors, lawyers and other highly regarded professionals enjoy in the U.S.” The report also suggested the teaching profession in Singapore “is competitive and highly selective, [a country] that works hard to build its own sense of professional conduct and meet high standards for skills development.” The study of Ontario revealed similar findings.
Paine insists, “The U.S. must restore the teaching profession to the level of respect and dignity it enjoyed only a few decades ago. This will not be easy, particularly in the current economic environment with states and localities strapped for funds. But improving the regard with which teachers are held is not principally about how much they are paid.”=
Paine continued, “OECD countries that have been most successful in making teaching an attractive profession have often done so by offering teachers real career prospects and more responsibility as professionals — encouraging them to become leaders of educational reform. This requires teacher education that helps teachers to become innovators and researchers in education, not just deliverers of the curriculum.”
The solution to better educational outcomes is within our reach. The report concluded that the U.S. has the resources and talent to compete more effectively and raise its level of educational achievement. This is contingent upon our willingness and ability to “demonstrate with action that it truly values education, display an understanding of the vital importance of having an educated workforce that can compete globally, and develop the political will to devote the necessary resources for educational reform.”
To make that happen, every American who cares about the economic future of our nation must come together and work to help make that plan a reality. It starts by giving our teachers the support, and financial compensation, they deserve.
We, the People, must take action to rightly place education where it belongs — as our number one concern. Get involved; make your voice heard and take a stand.
Common Core has certainly changed the K-12 classroom scene in its short implementation and perhaps the group that has suffered the most during the transition period is teachers. In many cases, educators are being asked to accomplish the impossible: prepare students for new test standards without the right training or curriculum to get there.
Governor Cuomo of New York addressed the State Board of Regents last week to criticize legislation that would provide too much leeway (in his opinion) to teachers when it comes to standardized testing accountability. When Cuomo first took office, he set his sights on raising the bar for teaching standards in the state. He successfully implemented higher accountability measures based on evaluations and stricter firing standards for the teachers who continuously performed poorly. He fought to make standardized test results a larger portion of a teacher’s overall grade each year and won. As it stands now, standardized test scores make up 20 percent of a teacher’s evaluation in New York.
Last week he passionately spoke out against a proposal that called for a two-year moratorium on the use of standardized test scores in teacher evaluations, in light of the new Common Core requirements. Teachers behind the proposal argued that not all of the materials to properly teach children according to the new standards have reached classrooms yet – let alone been properly understood and implemented by instructors. Last school year, test scores in New York dropped drastically when standardized tests were rewritten to match Common Core standards. Cuomo felt that any moves to undercut his legislation were a slap in the face and represented regression in the state.
In the end, the Board decided that teachers would have amnesty for two years against low standardized test student performance related to new Common Core measures. It was also determined that schools could have another five years to fully roll out Common Core initiatives. In both cases, I think the right decision was made.
The switch to Common Core standards is a transitional period for teachers, administrators and students. Like any new teaching initiative, Common Core needs some testing of its own and tweaking. In the meantime, should teachers be evaluated or punished? It seems that until all teachers are on the same page with what they should be teaching in their classrooms, it should not be reflected in their job evaluations. There is also a real-world aspect to Common Core measures that simply cannot be realized until these requirements are actually being attempted in actual classrooms and not simply part of a lofty education reform document.
Many teachers’ unions will tell you that all of the constraints placed on performance (like Common Core or standardized testing) are actually hurting the learning process and making it so schools can “game” the system without actually boosting student achievement. On the other hand, pro-accountability politicians and legislators (like Governor Cuomo) feel that placing pressure on teachers to perform according to pre-determined metrics is just part of the job and lends itself well to the bigger business of education.
I know that teaching is not the only profession where workers must “get by” on the resources they receive, but the consequences have the widest ripple effect. A fired teacher impacts more than the educator alone – it effects the entire school community. A good teacher is also not just one who guides students to the right answers on a test; for many students, these authority figures stand as role models and counselors in life. How can any of that be measured on a blanket, widespread test?
Do you think that teachers will be able to reach Common Core requirements quickly? And should they punished if not?
The bi-partisan federal legislation in the US popularly known as “No Child Left Behind” was passed during George W Bush’s first term. It had two important goals: to increase scientifically based education research and to narrow the racial achievement gap. Both goals have proven to be elusive and complicated.
Scientifically based education research has been ignored repeatedly in the US. Instead, many ongoing school reforms continue despite limited evidence from the research base of their efficacy. These include reforms such as the “Common Core standards” (a national curriculum for all public school students), the widespread take-up of charter schools, and increasing support for the alternative (non-certification) teaching programme, Teach for America.
Current education policy has also increased debates about and efforts to address teacher quality. Now, a renewed interest in how teachers are assigned to particular schools appears to be gaining momentum. The US department of education is developing a 50-state strategy to equitably distribute the best teachers around the country.
Value-added methods being adopted across the US involve students sitting pre- and post-tests and using that data in complex calculationsthat determine each teacher’s “value”, or impact on students’ test scores.
While linking teacher quality to student test scores has political and popular appeal, that process is less precise than advocates claim. Further reforms, aimed at determining teacher quality, are addressing how students are assigned to teachers.
A report for the Education Trust, a US not-for-profit, back in 2006, detailed the inequity of teacher assignment by social class and race across the US. It found that high poverty and high minority schools have a disproportionate number of un-certified and under-certified teachers, especially for subjects such as maths. These students were also disproportionately assigned to new teachers.
The study’s authors, Heather Peske and Kati Haycock, concluded: “Overall, the patterns are unequivocal. Regardless of how teacher quality is measured, poor and minority children get fewer than their fair share of high-quality teachers.”
Flawed move towards pay for results
Since teacher quality and assignment have historical and current patterns of inequity, many reform advocates promote greater use of value-added methods to address that gap. But as maths teacher and blogger Gary Rubinstein explains, trying to use these methods to close the teacher quality gap is also flawed.
He says there is a problem with the implication that those teachers who are rated as “effective” in one school with a wealthier population, will “still get that same ‘effective’ rating if they were to transfer to a poorer school”.
Identifying teacher quality is complex not only because different populations of students affect teacher quality but also because teacher quality contributes only a small percentage of measurable student achievement.
While states in the US are increasingly replacing traditional practices for evaluating and compensating teachers, Stanford University’s Edward H Haertel warns this can translate into “bias against those teachers working with the lowest-performing or the highest-performing classes”.
“Attempts to recruit and retain the best teachers where they are needed the most,”explains former UCLA lecturer Walt Gardner, “have largely been unsuccessful”. These earlier and even more recent efforts have focused on increasing teacher pay to attract high-quality teachers.
Repackaging incentives and bonuses will not retain experienced and effective teachers in high-needs schools and students. Gardner argues that instead:
If we want to create equitable distribution of teachers, we have to make conditions for teaching in schools serving poor and minority students so attractive that few will refuse the opportunity to teach there. I suggest starting with three periods a day, each containing a class of no more than 15 students. I’d then add a non-certificated adult to act as a teaching assistant for each teacher. This will be expensive, but if we’re serious about getting the best talent it’s the price we have to pay.
Getting the conditions right
For students living in impoverished homes, the conditions of living are powerful forces that overwhelm their ability to be successful at school. Since the conditions of learning at school tend to reflect those living conditions, students are further alienated from opportunities to learn.
For teachers, the conditions of teaching are also vital. The two original goals of “No Child Left Behind” are likely best served by addressing class size, teacher autonomy, facilities conditions, and schools as communities.
As long as schools in the US allow children to be doubly disadvantagedby their home communities and their schools, teachers are unlikely to find either that community or that school a place to spend their career.
Policies addressing teacher quality and equitable teacher assignments must address inequity and poverty both in society and in schools. These commitments should prove to be far more effective than measuring teacher quality based on test scores or offering teachers increased salaries.
