Yes teacher pay would help but this job is becoming so difficult you can’t pay anyone enough to do it. Teachers want to be and feel effective. Reduce class sizes, reduce caseloads. Period. Build more schools, and yes as you said address the teacher pipeline. Make developers build a school in the midst of their new development or pay the taxes to make that possible. While we are waiting for that, hire armies of paraprofessionals. We need help now.
I was somewhat of a supporter of your campaign until you started speaking out on education. As a retired teacher, there is no way on God's green earth that I will ever, EVER put foot in a classroom again under current circumstances. Your opposition of the Portland teachers proposal to have a four day student learning week with a fifth for teacher prep and individual student support shows a complete and total misunderstanding of the conditions that teachers *right now* are experiencing. Why is there a shortfall of qualified teachers? Because the current conditions are impossible to work in.
Furthermore, the obsession with high-stakes assessment has led to a diminishment, not an enhancement, of student learning. During my ten years as a middle school special education teacher, from 2004 to 2014, I saw how the demands of high-stakes assessment impacted student creativity, curiosity, and knowledge. I helped create my district's Common Core 8th grade standards during the 2012-13 school year, because I had the credentials to fill in for one period of social studies since my district lacked funds, and saw how the grade standards de-emphasized knowledge in favor of test performance skills. As a substitute teacher after I retired, I had to teach first graders mathematics concepts that had previously been reserved for two years later (in a more developmentally appropriate manner).
Additionally, I have also spent two years teaching (of all things) PE and Health in a remote program, before the pandemic.
Face-to-face is not the panacea that so many people want to promote. And pushing it without listening to the teachers and listening to their requests for time and more staff in order to safely teach in this era of Covid reveals an elitist agenda that has no problems with working teachers and support staff to death.
I seriously doubt that many retirees will willingly return to the classroom under current conditions. The teachers I know who are close to retirement are ready to leave--NOW.
Trying to replicate current in-class methods remotely is one reason why we're in this mess. But that's another rant.
I think your op-ed makes some very important points. You mentioned that keeping kids in school will help parents who need to work. That will only happen if you include affordable, accessible, quality before and after-school as well as summer programs for kids 0-12. Kids need the interaction they get in those programs, their parents need that time to finish out a full work-day, and these programs have been proven to improve outcomes for kids on every level. We need a wholistic approach.
It is NOT a pay or facilities problem...it goes way beyond those issues...! Sherm Simmons C.T.E. BUSINESS ED. etc. B.S./M.S. +++++++
Yes teacher pay would help but this job is becoming so difficult you can’t pay anyone enough to do it. Teachers want to be and feel effective. Reduce class sizes, reduce caseloads. Period. Build more schools, and yes as you said address the teacher pipeline. Make developers build a school in the midst of their new development or pay the taxes to make that possible. While we are waiting for that, hire armies of paraprofessionals. We need help now.
I was somewhat of a supporter of your campaign until you started speaking out on education. As a retired teacher, there is no way on God's green earth that I will ever, EVER put foot in a classroom again under current circumstances. Your opposition of the Portland teachers proposal to have a four day student learning week with a fifth for teacher prep and individual student support shows a complete and total misunderstanding of the conditions that teachers *right now* are experiencing. Why is there a shortfall of qualified teachers? Because the current conditions are impossible to work in.
Furthermore, the obsession with high-stakes assessment has led to a diminishment, not an enhancement, of student learning. During my ten years as a middle school special education teacher, from 2004 to 2014, I saw how the demands of high-stakes assessment impacted student creativity, curiosity, and knowledge. I helped create my district's Common Core 8th grade standards during the 2012-13 school year, because I had the credentials to fill in for one period of social studies since my district lacked funds, and saw how the grade standards de-emphasized knowledge in favor of test performance skills. As a substitute teacher after I retired, I had to teach first graders mathematics concepts that had previously been reserved for two years later (in a more developmentally appropriate manner).
Additionally, I have also spent two years teaching (of all things) PE and Health in a remote program, before the pandemic.
Face-to-face is not the panacea that so many people want to promote. And pushing it without listening to the teachers and listening to their requests for time and more staff in order to safely teach in this era of Covid reveals an elitist agenda that has no problems with working teachers and support staff to death.
I seriously doubt that many retirees will willingly return to the classroom under current conditions. The teachers I know who are close to retirement are ready to leave--NOW.
Trying to replicate current in-class methods remotely is one reason why we're in this mess. But that's another rant.
I think your op-ed makes some very important points. You mentioned that keeping kids in school will help parents who need to work. That will only happen if you include affordable, accessible, quality before and after-school as well as summer programs for kids 0-12. Kids need the interaction they get in those programs, their parents need that time to finish out a full work-day, and these programs have been proven to improve outcomes for kids on every level. We need a wholistic approach.