For Veteran Teachers Experience May Count for Nothing

[proud2BlibKansan]

If you’re an experienced teacher in the New York City school system, you have reason to worry.

Mayor Bloomberg on Sunday told an audience at a black church in Brooklyn that it was time to give him the power to fire teachers regardless of seniority.

The governor’s budget will mean major cuts in the money allotted to education. The mayor believes the jobs of 15,000 teachers hired in the last five years would be in jeopardy. And Bloomberg wants to change the state law that requires the most junior teachers to be fired first. He wants the power to fire teachers on the basis of competence, not seniority.

The question is: how do you decide competence? Clearly, in the Mayor’s view, that’s a decision that he and his deputies in the bureaucracy will have the power to make -- and that could cause great injustice to veteran teachers who have earned the respect of their colleagues and the devotion of the children they have taught.

more . . . http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/For-Veteran-Teachers--114959869.html

[LiberalEsto]

1. This is why my daughter dropped her education major

She wanted to be a 5th grade math teacher.

But what's the point of running up $30,000 in student loans to get a 4-year degree (she's almost done with her associate's degree) when job prospects look so grim? Our local district is talking about laying off 600 teachers, even though enrollment is increasing.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. It was hard for us baby boomers to get teaching jobs too

But I was convinced there was better job security in education than any other field. That was true in the 70s. Not so much anymore.

You also can't really be a 5th grade Math teacher. You have to be an elementary teacher and then hope you get assigned to 5th grade. But they can and do assign you to whatever it says on your certificate. Mine says I can teach kindergarten and I have lived in fear for 30 years that I would have to teach kindergarten. And very few elementary teachers teach only one subject.

[LiberalEsto]

11. I should have added 6th grade

She loved working with that age group as a swimming instructor.

As a college English major, I thought about teaching, but I couldn't handle the idea of speaking in front of a group.Instead I went into journalism. Did okay for years, but my last newspaper job was in 1997. Five of the six papers where I worked have closed down. Now unemployed for 2 years, 3 months. Swell job security there... I don't think the concept of job security exists any more.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Then she would need secondary certification

And they could assign her to teach high school Math.

[Sabriel]

2. Next up: part-time teachers

Hire them half-time, avoid giving them benefits, and let them go when they start complaining.

Sound familiar?

It's only a matter of time before public education is completely fucked. And I say that as a professor of (public) education.

Sad to say, some of my colleagues are complicit in this rush to destruction.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

6. Compared to what?

Public education in America is already fairly poor in many areas compared to other first-world countries. I think this measure might make it a bit better, but no raft of measures that doesn't include spending significantly more on schools in deprived areas is going to do all that much good.

[FBaggins]

3. Is LIFO the only acceptable process?

Or is it really that we don't trust these particular "deciders"?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

4. Of course teachers should be fired on basis of competence not seniority.

There is no perfect way of measuring how competent a teacher is, but there are many ways a great deal better than seniority, which is a very bad way indeed.

The idea that it's in some way illiberal to try to retain your best employees - especially when they're doing something as important as teaching, and especially when they're doing a job like teaching where there's so much space between doing a job adequately and doing it really well - is a foolish one.

And competence in teaching correlates to some extent with length of time served, but not very strongly.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. I have yet to see a new teacher who is as competent as a seasoned veteran.

I've worked with many very talented new teachers. But experience makes a good teacher great. I've seen it over and over. So I would argue that length of time in the profession does increase competence in teaching. But that's just my experience.

[hack89]

15. Experience makes some bad teachers toxic to a school.

Not every turd can be polished to a fine sheen.

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. I worked with one of those turds last year

First year teacher. Zero classroom management. But she couldn't be fired because she was TFA and they are guaranteed a 2 year contract.

[msongs]

8. he wants to fire them based on their annual salary = new teachers cost less nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Ding! Ding! Ding!

We have a winner, folks!

[Jakes Progress]

10. Sucks to be under twenty with this administration.

[Starry Messenger]

13. Eventually they will just cut out the middleman entirely--have the children teach each other.

They can earn prizes. Cheaper and no fuss!

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. I'm looking for a cartoon

It's kids in a classroom taking a test. They all have helmets on with tubes coming out of them ** feeding them information. There's a little girl standing at the window looking out and the teacher says "Get away from there! You wouldn't want to be a child left behind!"

I'm wondering if it was ever posted here. :shrug:

Sound familiar?

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. Found it!

[Starry Messenger]

18. Yes!!