Episode 49: What is a Teacher’s Worth?

Are you doing these critical things to help your child succeed academically? Take the quiz now to find out the important actions you can take to enhance your child's education. Go to my website, liberationthrougheducation.com quiz and.

Take the quiz today.

Foreign.

Welcome to another episode of K12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr. Kim Fields, former corporate manager turned educational researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the microdiscriminations that I faced as an African American mom raising my two kids who were in the public school system. I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children in their educational progress. If you're looking to find out more about current information and issues in education that could affect you or your children, then you're in the right place. Thanks for tuning in today. I know that staying informed about K12 education trends and topics is important to you, so keep listening. On today's episode, I'll be discussing teacher salaries, teacher evaluations, and teacher tenure. Teachers are valuable resources in our learning experiences. What would our learnings look like had it not been for dedicated and professional teachers? No doubt teachers open our minds to different perspectives, new information, and hopefully build on the initial teachings provided in our early years at home. Teachers play various roles in a variety of student outcomes, from academic achievement to school engagement to social and emotional skills. The learning that occurred in virtual environment during the pandemic allowed many of you to more fully understand the work involved being a K12 teacher. Are teachers paid equitably for the value they provide? Is the evaluation process for teachers comprehensive, informative, and appropriate? What is the value of K12 teacher tenure? These are the questions that I'll address on this episode. Let's get started. The National Education association, or NEA, released its annual analysis of teacher salaries in 2019. It showed that the national average for public school teachers salaries for 2017-2018 school year was $60,477, which was a 1.6% increase from the previous year. The NEA estimates that the national average salary for 2018 through 2019 school year would be $61,730, a 2.1% increase from the previous school year, with averaging There is always a higher number and a lower number included in the calculation. For example, there is a $40,000 difference between what the average teacher in New York makes compared to what the average teacher in Mississippi makes. New York, which has average salaries of $86,000 per year. California, with average salaries around $82,000 a year, and Massachusetts, also with average salaries around $82, Thousand a year, had higher teacher salaries, while Mississippi, at average salaries around 46,000 a year, and West Virginia, with average salaries around 48,000 a year, were at the bottom of the teacher salary rankings. Worth noting, the rankings didn't account for regional cost of living differences. If that were taken into account, New York would have dropped to number 17 on that list instead of being number one. A new version of the American Teacher act was introduced in the US House of Representatives in December 2022. One of the key pieces of legislation in that act would be to help certain school districts adjust teacher salaries to meet the $60,000 per annual minimum salary. Several researchers questioned whether federal legislation will eliminate pay inequities between teachers of color and white teachers. Recent studies have pointed to racial hostility and discrimination in the workplace as additional factors influencing whether black and Latino educators would leave the profession. It's worth noting also that public school teachers generally enjoy pensions and other benefits that make up a large share of their compensation. But the growth in benefits has not been enough to balance out the overall low wages. An economic policy Institute reported in 2017 that even after factoring in benefits, public sector teachers face a compensation differential of 11.1% relative to other college graduates. Providing teachers with decent middle class living that's commensurate with other professionals with similar education is not simply a matter of fairness. It's more than necessity. Effective teachers are the most important school based determinant of a student's educational performance. Teacher pay is an important component of teacher retention and teacher recruitment. Because teaching has been a predominantly female profession, the pay for teachers has been less than the pay in male dominated professions. Male teachers in this predominantly female profession will earn substantially less than men in male dominated professions in order to improve overall teacher quality, prevent turnover, and strengthen teacher retention. All of this requires increasing teacher pay. Now let's move on to teacher evaluation. In the National Bureau of Economics Research white paper published in March 2023 titled Taking Teacher Evaluations to Scale, five researchers concluded that teacher evaluation had no meaningful impact on student outcomes. The researchers highlighted five factors that seemed to undercut the efficacy of teacher evaluation Performance at political opposition the decentralized statute of the US Public education system Capacity constraints limited generalizability and the lack of increased teacher compensation to offset the non monetary costs of lower job satisfaction and security. About a decade ago, the reform of teacher evaluation was touted as as a mechanism to improve teacher effectiveness. In response, practically every state redesigned its teacher evaluation system. A growing narrative indicates that these reforms failed and should be therefore abandoned. Although that response might be overly simplistic, multiple approaches to teacher evaluation and reform have rarely produced sustained success and at scale. Even with revised teacher evaluation systems, most systemic studies indicate that in most states, nearly all teachers are rated as effective or better. These results are what have led pundits and the popular media to conclude that these systems have failed to improve teacher effectiveness and student outcomes when implemented at scale and given their costs, should be eliminated. However, dismissing policies as ineffective because of inconsistent results may be a bit premature. In a study by Cohen, Miller, and others In March of 2020, the researchers interviewed middle school principals in order to understand whether these principals believed that they could use teacher evaluation and teacher tenure review policies to improve the effectiveness of their teachers. Not surprisingly, they found that principals varied in their belief that they can improve teaching in their schools. The promise of teacher evaluation systems has led to wide adoption, but the implementation and the impact of these policies has been uneven due to the variability of how principals implement evaluation policies. Teacher observations embedded in evaluation systems depend on the interactions between principals and teachers. The beliefs of the principal and their abilities to influence teachers, their comfort with providing negative but constructive feedback, and their perceptions of teacher capabilities all feed into how a principal implements teacher evaluation policies. Many principals struggle with the controversial nature evaluation systems and policies and use evaluation as a vehicle only for providing teachers with praise instead of targeted constructive feedback. Principals also are likely to differ in their use of teacher evaluation for counseling out ineffective teachers. Most evaluation systems incorporate feedback to the teachers following observation of the classroom, which is an activity typically conducted by principals, assistant principals, and superintendents. Value added modeling has been used to determine the effectiveness of a teacher's performance, although several researchers indicate that this is not appropriate as a primary measure for evaluating individual teachers. Value added performance measures refer to the use of student achievement growth on standardized tests as one of multiple competencies that factor into a teacher's summative performance evaluation. Several studies indicate that the effects of using value added estimates for high stakes purposes suggest that there may be significant student achievement benefits. However, there are uncertainties about the consequences of using value added not only because of the potential for teacher misclassification but also because the effects of using value added for high stakes purposes usually depends on the way in which teachers and prospective teachers react, in other words, their behavioral responses. The value added model is used to determine which teachers are laid off, which are tenured, and which are renewed. And this is basically used to determine teacher effectiveness. One issue with using value added for high stakes purposes such as tenure or renewal is is that value added is a retrospective measure, meaning that it's calculated after a teacher has taught a class. The estimates are imprecise, which implies that errors will be made when using value added to determine who's eligible to participate in the teaching workforce. Early evidence on states and localities using value added as one part of a more comprehensive evaluation system suggests that it may not be differentiating teachers to the degree that was first envisioned. Performance bonuses are associated with the teacher performance evaluation system if the teacher is deemed to be highly effective. The value added policy and the information gleaned from that policy when implemented should be used in conjunction with the teacher's licensure, degree, classroom observations, and experience levels when determining employment, eligibility, compensation, and tenure. The value added model should be compared to credentials and processes and other things along that line and should not be judged in isolation. Finally, we cover teacher tenure. Teacher tenure rights were first established when more than a century ago. The first state that started teacher tenure was New Jersey in 1909. It started out as a way to improve teaching and education. At present, the tenure process continues to be the subject of much debate. Have you had a chance to check.

Out my interactive expert on my website? There are some great conversations and questions going on there. You can check it out at liberation through education.com forward/ask me anything. Again, check out the questions and conversations happening there. Ationthrougheducation.com askmenything.

Teacher tenure used to be automatic, but that's no longer becoming the case. In the beginning, tenure was never meant to guarantee a teacher's job for life. It was initially instituted as a means to protect teachers from being fired without cause. Only a few years ago, tenure appeared low on the reform list for state policymakers and administrators because it was viewed as being too hot of a political issue to challenge. But tenure became front and center in the landmark Vergara vs. California lawsuit in 2014, which challenged Teacher tenure and related policies. The court sided with the plaintiffs and found California teacher tenure laws to be unconstitutional based on their findings on the argument that tenure has had the effect on preventing poor students and students of color from having access to to equal education. The court's decision basically indicated that inequality to good teaching and access to good teachers was leveraged to promote an anti union agenda. Tenure laws were found to protect some grossly ineffective teachers who tended to be concentrated in lower income schools. The right question to ask regarding tenure is how can states ensure that districts make good tenure decisions for teachers who are proven effective while providing support and appropriate due process rights to ineffective teachers? Many states have tied teacher effectiveness to granting tenure. In some states like Florida, tenure is a thing of the past. In that state, teachers work on an annual contract basis and renewal of those contracts must be significantly informed by teacher evaluations. In states like Colorado, tenure has been made non permanent. A tenured teacher in that state who is rated ineffective for two consecutive years loses tenure. In addition, that teacher also loses status and if he or she receives a rating of partially effective followed by another partially effective or ineffective rating the following year. In Louisiana, tenure is reserved only for the highest performing teachers. Only teachers weighted highly effective for 5 out of 6 years may be granted tenure. All other teachers remain at will employees. In Colorado, for example, tenure is only awarded after four years and must be earned on the basis of an effective practice as demonstrated in evaluation ratings. Another state to look at is Tennessee. In Tennessee, the probationary period for new teachers is five years. To earn tenure, probationary teachers must receive an overall performance and effective rating of above expectations or significantly above expectations during the last two years of the probationary period. A tenured teacher who receives two overall ratings of below expectations or significantly below expectations may be reverted to probationary status until receiving two consecutive ratings of above expectations or significantly above expectations. The vast majority of states, however, continue to grant tenure quickly. As of 2016, 35 states award tenure to teachers in three or fewer years. Reforming the tenure process and making the designation more meaningful usually requires state policymakers to address the issue of of what to do when teachers don't make the cut. Schools need to have performance improvement plans for ineffective teachers. Learning to become an effective teacher is complicated and is dependent on many factors, some of which are out of control of the teacher. It's still up for debate as to what tenure means to teacher quality. Most teacher organizations like to compare states with and without tenure and demonstrate that restoring tenure for teachers makes no difference to student achievement. This is probably correct, but it isn't exactly a ringing endorsement for keeping tenure either. The bottom line seems to be less about whether to grant teachers tenure and more about how tenure decisions are made. Teacher effectiveness policies focus on quality teaching rather than length of employment, and the focus on quality should be primary while teacher salaries, teacher evaluations, and teacher tenure are not issues which you directly control. You do have a role to play in observing whether your child's teacher is an effective teacher. Whenever you get a chance to observe in your child's classroom, do so. It could be eye opening. Here are some notable characteristics of an effective teacher. One Being a subject matter expert which includes establishing a positive classroom setting, effective use of various teaching methods or techniques, presenting the subject by linking it to daily living and providing clarity of instruction two Personality characteristics such as geniality, consistence, self confidence, honesty, appreciative of student views, ability to communicate effectively, having a positive attitude, having high expectations for students, setting an example for students, being self reliant and having a flexible creative disposition and three Regarding teaching skills. The teacher needs to believe in lifelong learning, needs to follow current research in their profession, needs to appreciate personal development and invest in their own education. Additionally, one researcher provided a formula for ensuring the effectiveness of teachers. An effective teacher equals affection for the profession, for people, for colleagues, for their family plus altruism plus knowledge, the methods and research, plus upbringing, their upbringing before entering the profession. An effective teacher is slightly different from a good teacher. A good teacher may not always be effective, but an effective teacher can always be a good teacher. Another important quality or characteristic of an effective teacher is his or her ability to use different teaching methods and strategies in order to provide a conducive environment for learning. Here are this episode's takeaways Teachers salaries definitely need to be upgraded in order to attract the most qualified candidates into the profession. As it stands, their salaries are appalling. Their salaries definitely need to be adjusted for the type of work and the amount of and the significance of the work that they do. The national average salary for teachers in the 2018-2019 school year was $61,730, which was a 2.1% increase from the previous school year. It's worth noting that public school teachers generally enjoy pensions and other benefits that make up a large share of their compensation. Teacher evaluation has no direct meaningful impact on student outcomes. Five factors that seem to undercut the efficacy of teacher evaluation performance at scale include political opposition, the decentralized structure of the US Public education system, capacity constraints, limited generalizability, and the lack of increased teacher compensation to offset the non monetary costs of lower job satisfaction and security. Value added modeling has been used to determine the effectiveness of a teacher's performance. Value added performance measures refer to the use of student achievement growth on standardized tests as one of multiple competencies that factor into a teacher's science summative performance evaluation, teacher tenure used to be automatic, but that's no longer the case. In the beginning, tenure was never meant to guarantee a teacher's job for life. It was initially instituted as a means to protect teachers from being fired without cause. I'm glad that one researcher mentioned the upbringing of a teacher prior to coming into the profession. This may be an important factor, but another, more important factor that I consider for an effective teacher is that that teacher has had children. This one attribute is something that tends to give the teacher more experiential knowledge of dealing with different personalities of children. Loving children and being around children is one thing. Having children of your own is a lesson unto itself. If this is the type of subject matter and discussion that resonates with you, please follow my podcast or whatever service you're listening to. This also, I'd love to hear from you. So please leave me a rating, a review, or a comment on apple stitcher or podchaser. You can also rate my podcast@ratethispodcast.com if you like this podcast. The best way to support me and help me grow it is by leaving a review. This helps my rankings and entices other people to listen to the show and share this episode with anyone that you think would find it valuable. Be sure to tell your friends, family and community about my podcast. Additionally, you can connect with me on Instagram and Facebook with the handle kimjfields. Thanks for listening today. I hope you'll come back for more K12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle. Be sure to stay tuned on the next episode. I'll be sharing my thoughts on part two of watching your attitude. Until next time, aim to learn something new every day. Love my show. Consider being a regular subscriber. You can subscribe for as little as $3 per month. Just go to HTTPs://forward/tinyurl.com Podcast support There's no contractual obligation. You can cancel at any time. If you choose to subscribe, I'll give you a special shout out thanking you in an upcoming episode. Remember, that's podcast support. To subscribe.