In mid-December, CCSD proudly announced that 32 more teachers had achieved National Board Certification. Great, isn't it? Dorchester District 2 also announced that 20 of its teachers had reached that status. Great for those teachers and their students and the districts that employ them.
However.
DD2 announced the 20 names with the names of the schools where they teach.
Don't you wonder why CCSD simply announced 32 names without saying where they teach? Wouldn't you like to know if any of the district's failing schools gained NBCTs? In fact, wouldn't it be interesting to see where all of the NBCTs in CCSD teach? I do happen to know that one on the new list teaches at Stall.
Is this simply another case of "them that has, gets"?
Thursday, December 27, 2007
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2 comments:
Ghostryder here,
I don't understand the fixation of being a "Board Certified Teacher". If you ask me, it is a gimmick and it does not prove that this person is a great teacher. It proves that this person once again has shown that they know how to jump through all the hoops.
I know one of the things you have to show is student work. Lets see... I have a very gifted student or students who can write or do math and was able to do so before I had him or them. Well what do I do? I will present their work as if I taught them. It does not matter that the student had God given ability and the teacher is fortunate to be along for the ride to see such talent. Another part of the process is to video tape a lesson. So what do I do...I rehearse the students on the lesson so that when I do it for the camera. They look like little geniuses.
I have no problem rewarding hardworking teachers, but being board certified should not be the gold standard or even apart of the equation.
But then look how our pay system is set up in Charleston County. A Doctor of Education with zero classroom experience, I mean zero classroom experience will make $41,040 in their first year. You are telling me that this person is worth more and is going to be better than a teacher who has actually been in the classroom for ten years, $39,522. If you believe that I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. But it does not stop there look at Masters plus 30 hours, $38,554 and that would take a regular teacher 8 years, $38,121. $35,636 for a masters degree which would take a regular teacher 4 years to get to $35,454 and remember that none of the higher degree folks have any experience in a classroom, zero experience. This is not right. Should they be compensated for the extra degrees, yes; but not that much more. I prefer experience over a piece of paper. I do not value a Doctor of Education with zero classroom experience that much more than a ten year veteran teacher who has actually been working in reality and not dealing in theory. Yet there we have it.
How should we reward a teacher, merit pay? I don't know because merit pay would not be fair to those who work in a school that is a challenge and a teacher who is successful in a school that is a challenge is not going to be compensated enough for what they have to do. What is going to be fair?
How about more money for those who are successful in a failing school and I do not mean those who can hang on and survive. Success is the standard and when the school turns around to be a leader of academic excellent, those teachers and administrators should maintain their pay scale as long as they stay at that school or move to another school that is failing; but if they move to a school that has always been successful. Their pay goes back to the standard pay.
One cannot compare the work that a teacher at Sanders-Clyde has had to do to a teacher at Buist Academy. The teachers, teacher assistants, and principal who have turned it around at Sanders-Clyde should be rewarded in pay for what they have done, but a teacher at Buist should not get the same pay because they are not doing the same work. It is far easier to teach a kid who always has a full belly, enough rest, and only the normal worries of child; than a student who may not be getting enough to eat, not getting enough sleep, and God only knows what they experience at home or on the streets.
Some would say that is not fair. You know... we are already at not fair... for the men and women who go into a school that is failing and have being doing so for years. It has not been fair for them and it is not fair to give them the same compensation as a teacher who works at a Wando or Buist. A teacher at a failing school has to do more work. If a teacher at a Wando or Buist wants to make the same as a teacher in a failing school. They can transfer there and be apart of the turn around. After a few years of success at the once failing school (now remember the school is now successful), the teacher rate for the new hires will be the normal pay rate. Also remember, those who were there from the beginning maintain their current pay rate and do not slide back down to the standard rate. They do not go back to the standard pay rate for as long as they teach at the once failing school.
Look at it this way. In the military, you have hazard pay and a soldier that is station stateside is not making the same as those who are in Iraq. Well it is time to give hazard pay to those who choose to work and succeed in a failing school. Those are my thoughts and good day.
Once again, Ghostryder gives us much to think about. I would like to know how NBCT are distributed throughout Charleston County schools. Here's something else you might not be aware of. Higher paid teachers with experience and/or advanced degrees are "too expensive" for at risk and failing schools because of restrictions on their budgets and "teacher points". Too many times failing schools will "buy" more lesser qualified teachers with the budget limitations they are given. (Don't you just love that concept of "buying" teachers like they were chattle or property.) That's why schools with high minority enrollments and failing will "buy" teachers to meet needs that CCSD has ignored. That's why principals will be faced with the choice of having to hire one new inexperienced teachers for an additional kindergarten class and maybe a "part time" something else, instead of one experienced (and higher paid) foreign language teacher. These are choices involving who gets acess and who doesn't. Quality teachers for our neediest students and schools shouldn't have to be based on budget balancing games played at 75 Calhoun.
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