More teachers than not give additional non-paid hours, after school student support when needed and seek to improve their professional practice on a regular (or semi regular basis). I wouldn't say this is an overwhelming majority in education but, like any professional field, you have a bottom few who do only what is needed to get by, the top few who often go far above and beyond what would ever be expected and the middle that typically conforms to leader expectations and a combination of theory X and theory Y management styles.
However, in education, the prevailing thought seems to lay within a test score. As in, this student test score will accurately portray all additional work (or lack there of) for any teacher. Does it?
Frederick M. Hess (this link is his blog, but the information below came from a published article cited below), once director of educational policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote an article where he offered a narrative of an elementary teacher in LA who holds class from 6:30am - 5:00pm, gives students books of all levels to read and holds them accountable for understanding them and provides a daily grammar quiz (which I'm not sure why Hess mentioned but it seemed important to the story but a little excessive in my view). In addition, the teacher spends the summer vacation meeting with students individually for unnamed reasons. Students in this class, according to Hess, often read in the 88th percentile compared to 42nd for the rest of the school that meets during normal school hours.
What do you think, wise and worldly readers? Does this person deserve to make more than others? And, more importantly, why do you think so?
More of my thoughts common soon...
(No worries Dr. D, it'll tie in to my topic. =))
Article Referenced:
Hess, F. M. (2004). Teacher Quality, Teacher Pay. Policy Review. April and May issue.
First, how can this teacher hold class at 630 in the morning? I don't see how that is legal. Second, this reminded me of SB 736 pamphlet that I received in the mail today from FEA informing me about what the legislature has passed in the last session (as if I was under a rock for the past few months totally unaware : )) Anyway, interesting article from Hess. I'd like to read it sometime.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that "holding class" only means that the teacher is available to students before and after regular hours. The implication seems to be that many students take advantage of the extra help.
ReplyDeleteWithout having read the Hess article, the teacher described probably deserves greater pay if for no other reason than he/she is putting in more time than other teachers. Teachers, however, are generally paid a salary, rather than an hourly wage, which means they are the ones who determine how much time it takes to get the job done. "Getting the job done," however, is only vaguely defined. And, when it comes right down to it, the job of teaching is never done.
The teacher described seems dedicated to the task, as opposed to being dedicated to the pay, and seems to understand that conventional wisdom, i.e. grammar quizzes are evil and rigid reading levels are good, isn't. My guess is that while this teacher, as would most of us, might welcome additional pay, it wouldn't change his/her teaching style or commitment to his/her students.
This teacher also appears to be more effective--doubly so!--which is probably where you're going with this in terms of merit pay. Trying to replicate this teacher's results by mandating certain hours won't work, however, as other teachers likely would resent being required to put in excessive hours (or might be unable to do so for other reasons). Trying to replicate this teacher's results by mandating certain techniques also won't work, just because we humans want to do it "our way."
Maybe we should just clone this person and have done with it. Ethics be damned!