You know that saying: “Those who can’t do, teach.” Well, us teachers don’t like that too much and we had to have someone to kick to the curb so we could feel better about ourselves so we came up with our own retort: “Those who can’t teach are administrators.”
Seriously though, the United States has a real problem attracting good teachers–only 23% of entering teachers come from the top third of their graduating class. The McKinsey Quarterly has a chart that describes the many reasons why the top students do not want to teach. The money quote:
The world’s top-performing systems—in Finland, Singapore, and South Korea—recruit 100 percent of their teaching corps from students in the top third of their classes.
A McKinsey survey of nearly 1,500 top-third US college students confirms that a major effort would be needed to attract them to teaching. Among top-third students not planning to enter the profession, for example, only 33 percent believe that they would be able to support a family if they did.
Wow, that is sobering. Yet, good quality teachers make a huge difference in the lives of individual students and the economic health of the nation. For instance, The Atlantic has a rundown of stories that discuss the economic benefit of a good teacher versus a bad one on the future earning potential of a class of 20 students. Some studies have pegged the dollar amount at $400,000. Now, I am not someone who thinks that we should measure the value of learning and teachers in merely economic terms. Nonetheless, if this figure is it at all in the ballpark it is hard to ignore.
However, I think it will be difficult to attract the top students to the teaching profession in the present job market–particularly within higher education since there is a huge queue of people with earned PhD that have yet to land a teaching job. The McKinsey Quarterly has their own ideas of how to do this but what do you think is the key to attracting great teachers?
Speaking only of primary-secondary ed., I know that parts of the country, specifically the Midwestern States, are suffering from an overabundance of “certified” candidates. This isn’t the case all over, as southeastern and far western states (i.e. Florida, South Carolina, Nevada, Arizona, etc.) are literally desperate for teachers–to the point of giving signing bonuses. Yet, there were nearly 500 applicants for a ms Social Studies position in an average district north of Columbus this past year. As you mentioned, the economy isn’t helping. When some licensed positions are offering peanuts for compensation (between $25-30,000), the problem is only compounded. Causing even more disarray, tenure has been abolished from many districts. The teaching profession has long been regarded as a “stable” profession, but it is a lack of stability and commensurate compensation that seems to be driving students from pursuing education. Nevertheless, providing a salary large enough to provide for a family would be a healthy start.
1) None of those stories is talking about teaching at the
college/grad school level. I strongly suspect that more than 26
percent of the professoriate is drawn from the top third. So the
point about the postdoctoral job market is not really relevant.
Jobs teaching primary/secondary ed are not hard to come by. 2) My
wife is in secondary ed. There are two essential issues that I see
that would keep a lot of people from considering it: First,
speaking broadly, there is a lack of freedom and respect from all
sides: students, parents, admins. It’s *not* like being a professor
only less so. Second, where there is more freedom and respect
(generally private schools), there is often less salary and weaker
benefits. Let’s not pretend it would be hard to attract better
teachers; we just don’t have the national will to do it.
I am afraid that most people will jump right to the money issue with this. Certainly, teaching salaries, especially entry-level salaries, could be more competitive with some other private sector positions. Even so, public school salaries are higher than those in most private schools. But I think the real problems go far beyond salaries.
A friend of mine has won several awards for teaching at an inner city elementary school. Yet he talks about how difficult it is to do his job. He spends most of his time not teaching but trying to keep a level of discipline in the classroom that is conducive to teaching. Family breakdown contributes to this as kids have no father or worse, a stream of “father figures” running through their houses. There is no one to teach discipline in the home. The abuse some of these kids suffer in the home, a place that should be a sanctuary, is beyond horrendous in many cases. The cases of sexual abuse are too many to number. One of his fourth grade students had witnessed two murders in her home and her father is now in prison. It took him most of the school year to finally draw her out of her shell. By that time she was a year behind.
There are also the negative peer pressure issues associated with kids in schools. Schools in general are breeding grounds for many negative social problems. It was after my wife’s eight years as a high school teacher that she quit her job to home school our own four children.
There is an intricate web of political, social, and economic factors at work here that produce an incredibly discouraging environment for teachers to work in. We have another friend who works on the administrative side of a suburban high school in a fairly affluent district. All the administrators want is more numbers in the school because it means more dollars. The actual education of students seems secondary in their thinking. Even in this district, the only kids who succeed are those who have decent home environments. The superintendent of the district is an African-American who, when his competence has been questioned, openly speaks of how quickly he will play the race card if any action is ever taken against him. And don’t even get me started on the teachers’ unions which, I am convinced, have no interest whatsoever in educating students. To hear stories like this shows me how far we have slid. Every time our friend tells us another story from work I wonder how we can ever recover.
I think all of this drives teachers out of their jobs. They love the students and the job of teaching but can only put up with so much before the discouragement overwhelms them and they leave. If we are going to fill teaching positions in our schools with those from only the top third of their classes there are going to have to be some huge changes. The easiest and quickest way is to introduce some type of school choice. Most parents of inner city students know where the better schools are and will send their kids there in a heartbeat if they have a choice. The Acton Institute has some great ideas along this line.
How many tier-one universities in the US even offer degrees
in things like elementary or secondary education?