When choosing ones profession there are always two important questions to ask yourself. Is it what you love doing, and is the pay going to be enough to support you. For me the second question has never had much of an impact on my decision, along with most others who are educators or wish to become one. Teaching is not a job that one chooses to be rewarded by the pay. It is a job that is chosen for the rewarding feeling of knowing that it is the most effective, and most enjoyable way one can change the world; therefore, if teachers are noble enough to sacrifice such a huge aspect just to better our future generations, then don’t you think they should be paid what they deserve? I believe educators are one of the most important careers out there, without them where would we be today? Would you be reading this paper? Would you still be able to read, write, or have an educated conversation? Would you know how to pay for things at the grocery store, and know if you’re receiving the correct change back? Would you know how to tell time, so you can manage your day? When I look back to my young developing stages in life, I always ask myself where would I be today if it wasn’t for my teachers? Teachers are the ones who are building our future generations. Preparing children and teens for higher education. Also playing a huge part in shaping children’s lives, enlightening them, and educating them about society and the world around them; the types of things that a parent doesn’t have time for, or just lacks the knowledge of. I think teachers are what help make this world go round. We simply go to school to learn, and get educated, so that someday we can get a job, or start a business to supply for our families and our self. How would we acq... ... middle of paper ... ....html?_r=1&>. Meyer, Warren. "The Teacher Salary Myth - Are Teachers Underpaid?." Forbes. N.p., 22 Dec. 2011. Web. 5 Apr. 2014. . "Research Salaries in Michigan." Teaching Degree.org. N.p., 2014. Web. 5 Apr. 2014. . Strauss, Valerie. "Why teachers’ salaries should be doubled now." The Washington Post. N.p., 25 Mar. 2014. Web. 5 Apr. 2014. . Duke, Daniel L., ed. Incentive Pay and Career Ladders For Today's Teachers. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990. 42-241. Grand Rapids Community College Database . Web. 6 Apr. 2014. .
The first article that I chose to work with is “The Rubber Room” by Steven Brill. This article is published by The New Yorker on August 31, 2009. Brill is an American Lawyer and a journalist-entrepreneur. “The Rubber Room” is about how it is wasting the city’s money as teachers are placed in this room where all they do is just sit around and play games. They are placed in these as they are waiting for their case to be heard by an arbitrator which could take up to many years. While they are sitting in these rooms, these teachers are still getting paid which is a waste of the city’s tax money. Brill also talks about tenure and how once teachers have tenure they seem to slack off at their job because they know that they have job security as mentioned in the article “she was given tenure after her third year of teaching, and then, like ninety-nine per cent of all teachers before 2002, she received a satisfactory rating each year.” (Brill 2)
Figlio, David N. "Teacher Salaries and Teacher Quality." Economic Letters 55.2 (1997): 267-71. Sciencedirect.com. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
Kowal, Julie, Joe Ableidinger, and Bryan C. Hassel. "Tenure Reform Options in K–12." By Emily Hassel. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Teacher Tenure Reform. Public Impact. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. .
... past decade has not only affected teachers and valuable elective programs, but mostly importantly the education of today’s youth. The Georgia school districts have exhausted almost every way to make up for the billions of dollars of lost state financial support and they have reached the tipping point. Since over 9,000 teachers have lost their jobs, students are being forced into already bulging classes where they do not receive the kind of individual attention needed in order to boost student achievement. If Georgia leaders expect student achievements to improve, they must invest the necessary economic resources needed to achieve this goal. At the end of the day, one of the most important things in life is a good education, so we need to start putting more money into the K-12 school funding and help build back what years of austerity cuts have nearly destroyed.
High school teachers’ average salary varies across the world. The United States is said to be one of the richest countries in the world, yet our teachers are being paid one of the lowest amounts. The Education Intelligence Agency, author of the article “Ohio Teacher Overcomes Union’s Tolerance” published an International Teacher Salary Report ranking the fifty states by “how much the average salary exceeded per capita personal income.” According to the Education Intelligence Agency Ohio’s percentage rate is only fifty- five point one percent. According to the Education Intelligence Agency the lowest state percentage is in South Dakota at twenty- three point six percent and the highest state percentage is Alaska at one hundred and one point five percent. Teachers are a very important part of our society. Teachers’ jobs consist of more than just sitting behind a desk for nine months and having paid summers off. There are many extra tasks that teachers have that most people don not consider. Teachers in public schools work hard for a low salary and should be more appreciated; public school teachers shape the world’s young people, serve as role models, and work long hours.
"$1B in Teacher Compensation under Attack | California Watch." California Watch | Bold New Journalism. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. .
Stewart, Joshua. "Race to the Top Means Merit Pay for Teachers." GPB News. GPB News, 20 Jan. 2011. Web. 15 May 2014.
Kobakhidze, Magda N. "Teacher Incentives and the Future of Merit-Based Pay in Georgia." Editorial. European Education 2010: 68-89. Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 Feb. 2012.
It is no secret that college students pay absurd amounts of money in order to attend college and receive a college education. Thus, it would only make sense for students to receive this education from top professors who are experts in their field of study. In fact, in order to become a college professor, one must have the proper credentials to be considered for the position. Additionally, college professors receive their salaries which are based, among other considerations such as which school they work at, upon these credentials and average at about $68,000 per year. Finally, according to Christopher L. Brown and Stephen M. Kosovich, professors’ ratings greatly impact the enrollment in their courses (497). This means that in order to receive positive teaching reviews, they must do their part as a favorable professor. On the other hand, high school teachers are not held to this type of standard. High school students do not have to pay nearly as much as college students in order to attend their high schools. In fact, most high school students attend public high schools, which are free to attend. Although high school teachers are certified to teach, they are not necessarily experts in their field of study, like college professors are. Thus, they are not paid as much and their salaries average at around $55,000—$13,000 less than that of the average college professor. For these reasons, college professors are held to a higher standard than high school teachers, and therefore teach their students more effectively.
Hardy, Lawrence. "Why Teachers Leave." The American School Board Journal. Vol. 186 (June 1999): 12-17
When I reached into my mailbox and pulled out the November 3rd issue of Time Magazine my usual delight quickly vanished. ROTTEN APPLES. IT’S NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO FIRE A BAD TEACHER. SOME TECH MILLIONAIRES MAY HAVE FOUND A WAY TO CHANGE THAT. Aside from taking this sensationalized, narrow-in-scope, attack on teachers personally, I was dumbfounded by the subtitle. Tech millionaires will solve our nation’s problem of bad teachers…wealthy one-percenters will control societal perspectives of the nation’s education system by putting a spotlight on teachers so major issues like poverty and racism will go unnoticed.
This study analyzes four articles’ study findings as well as authors’ conclusion on the teachers’ incentive pay issue based on the studies presented by the authors. Those articles include Steele, Murname and Willnett (2009) that seek to analyze the effect of incentives on teachers’ retention. In the article, a natural experiment done in California between the year 2000 and 2003 involving an incentive of $20,000 that was called the Governor’s Teaching Fellowship (GTF) analyzes the incentives’ effect on talented teachers’ attraction and retention in low-performing schools. In addition, Fryer (2011) is the other article presenting an analysis of teacher’s incentives’ effect on students’ success in terms of attendance, academic performance or graduation. The article utilizes a school-based random trial involving more than 200 public schools in New York.
I chose education as my career path because I hope to be able to make a small difference in a child’s life. Time and time again I have seen children being educated poorly and/or not having appropriate role models in their life. I feel that an educator must not only be able to convey to the student the classroom material, but also be a counselor, coach, mentor, and a parent. Failing to fulfill these roles gives a child the chance to slip through the educational system without having the opportunity to influence them to some degree.
In many states, teachers are underpaid. Though money is not the motive for most teachers, without enticing salaries, many are lured away from the teaching profession and graduates looking for a first year teaching position are not given much to look forward to. So, since teachers are not paid adequately, raising the pay scale would ensure that our children are left in the hands of quality educators. One way teachers can be sufficiently compensated is by merit pay. The formula is simple; as test scores and evaluations rise, so would the teachers’ salaries. Although controversial, it is just one of many
"High School Teachers ." Occupational Outlook Handbook . Bureau of Labor Statistics , 8 Jan 2014. Web. 7 Apr 2014. .