“It is the coupling of low pay with the workload and stress that cause them (new teachers) to leave. My suggestion would be to give new teachers a reduced workload for two years.

Unless you have taught today, you don’t understand the extraordinary amount of requirements that are placed on teachers. There is a constant stream of paperwork involving meeting the needs of children with an infinite variety of learning or physical difficulties — not only the paperwork but the meetings involved to set up the appropriate accommodations and weekly reports that must be filled out for most of these children.

There are also team meetings and grade level meetings that occur weekly. There are also meetings about testing (Quarterly Evaluations, End of Grade and End of Course Tests) and meetings about evaluating test results.

A planning period is given to each teacher, but it’s usually used for meetings or conferences with parents. Telephone calls are always there for poor performing students, poor behaving students or just responding to varied parental concerns.

Your lunch periods are not totally yours. You must monitor the behavior and table clean-up.

Lesson plans, correcting papers, creating tests, and duplicating tests and handouts require considerable time to do a good job. A seasoned teacher has knowledge of the material, a “feel” for what each lesson requires, and a stockpile of books and handouts from which to draw. A new teacher must spend more time getting organized and planning each day.

Also, new teachers should receive extraordinary support from their administrators in handling discipline problems. Student behavior can be a very crucial part of the new teacher’s decision to continue teaching or not. There has been a breakdown of discipline for many children, but nevertheless the teacher has the problem to face. Some of my administrators have been wonderful in assisting teachers. Others have taken every effort to avoid any unpleasantness or paperwork.”

Note: This response was originally printed Creative Loafing in Charlotte, N.C.

There have been research studies recently that suggest the quality of the teacher is more important than resources such as smartboards, computers, and internet access. These reports even mention teacher quality takes precedence, over the leaders of the school. It’s not difficult to agree with these studies because teachers have more direct interaction with students and they are the end product.

The question that must be answered is, “How do school systems attract the best teachers?” Although the obvious answer to this question is to pay teachers more, school districts nationwide continue to struggle with this issue.

There is however a New York City charter school scheduled to open in 2009 plans to pay teachers $125,000, plus a potential bonus based on schoolwide performance. This type of compensation is nearly twice the amount average New York City public school teachers earn and roughly more than two times the national average teacher pay.

The founder of the school is Zeke Vanderhoek, a 31 year old Yale graduate who spent three teaching in Washington Heights. He later started a successful tutoring company where he paid tutors $100 per hour, which was much more than the average tutor earns. Now, he’s taking the same concept to local schools.

There is a catch to this $125,000 salary. Teachers will be required to take on additional responsibilities such as discipline, work longer days, and possibly teach 30 students in a class. To qualify for this job, you must score in the 90^th percentile of the GRE or GMAT and complete a live teaching audition.

You can get more information by going directly to the school’s website at http://www.tepcharter.org/

Do you think this school is on the right track?

If you are a teacher, can you tell about your stress in the workplace?

Teacher Vision.com, a resource site for educators, proposed a simple question for teachers to answer. The question asked, “Are You Paid Enough?” Participants could choose from 4 different answers, which included, “Yes, I think I’m well compensated for my work,” “Maybe, but I wouldn’t mind make more money,” “No, teaching is a hard job and I deserve more,” and “Definitely not, I’m having a hard time making ends meet and may need to change jobs.” The results were not surprising, but gave a better look at how teachers really feel about their paychecks.

24 % of teachers selected, “Definitely not, I’m having a hard time making ends meet and may need to change jobs.” If you are having a rough time paying regular bills, it’s almost impossible to effectively teach in the classroom. It’s easy to build up resentment for your job, students, and every aspect of daily life.

42% of educators that participated in this survey agreed that, “No, teaching is a hard job and I deserve more.” Educating and influencing young people is a tough profession. Teachers have a strong impact when it comes to molding the minds of young people, second only to parents or parental figures, but compensation does not reflect this fact.

Together, that’s a total of 66% of teachers who feel without doubt that teachers are underpaid.

27% of teachers said, “Maybe, but I wouldn’t mind making more money,” and 8% responded with, “Yes, I think I’m well compensated for my work.”

This survey at the time of this article included 255 responses from teachers.

If you took this survey, how would you answer?

According to a research study conducted by the National Education Association about 2 years ago, fifty percent of all new teachers quit within the first 5 years. This high percentage of people leaving the profession is due to poor working conditions and low salaries. If you consider today’s poor economic conditions and do a more recent study, you may find that the percentage has actually increased.

New teachers simply do not earn enough money to pay for an apartment, car payment, student loans, and other basic necessities of life. This presents a huge problem for the education sector as great potential teachers seek other careers mainly because of higher pay.

This mass exodus out of teaching is nothing new. Experts, political leaders, and administrators have known this for at least a decade. Instead of making the obvious decision and increase teacher salaries, most school districts put things in place such as a mentor or buddy program, which have shown very little results. It’s like putting a bandage on an artery that has been cut.

Most teachers who stay in the profession have second jobs or spouses that handle the major responsibilities of the household.

Who are hurt the most?

Well, it’s the students of course!

Plus, tax payers end up pay in the billions nationally for programs that support teacher retention. Do you see a problem here? We pay billions for teacher retention programs instead of taking that money to increase teacher pay.

May be someone smart person will figure it out some day.

What is your take on this?

Teachers in Arizona schools are compensated based on their level of education, qualifications and teaching experience. But is that truly fair pay? The comparatively low pay scales for teachers in Arizona schools are leading to a serious under valuation of teachers, the backbone of any education system. Salary increases are often decided by the school boards, and teachers are shortchanged when they try to change school districts. Studies indicate that al least one third of teachers in Arizona schools leave the system within two years of joining it.

Teachers at Arizona Schools Have no Say in the Compensation Process

Strangely enough, at some Arizona schools teacher compensation can vary. Salaries can run the gamut beginning in the 20,000s and going up to the 40,000s depending on the Arizona schools districts. This is an odd situation because each student in Arizona schools receives up to $6000 in funding, across all districts.

Teachers in Arizona public schools have even less bargaining power when it comes to salary negotiations than teachers in other stats. This is clear from the insulting pay increase that TUSD recently offered its teachers – a generous one per cent. Since then TUSD has magnanimously upped its offer to 1.5 per cent, and as teachers hold out still continues to dilly dally about further pay raises. But the message is clear – teachers in Arizona schools are grossly undervalued which is a contributing factor in the state’s slow decline in the education rankings. When you factor in inflation and rising costs of living, offering a one percent raise is insulting and demeaning to the teaching profession.

Arizona Schools Fail to Attract the Cream of the Crop

With pay scales that are decided at the mercy of the school boards, and not enough teacher participation in the compensatory decision making process, Arizona schools are having a tough time finding teachers who make the grade. Highly qualified professional men and women who wish to pursue the noble profession of teaching are turned off by the devaluation of teachers that is the norm in Arizona schools. When this happens it’s the students who suffer from missing out on the practical experience that the professionals can bring to classrooms. The devaluation of teachers thus hurts the students the most.

Most Arizona schools also make changing districts tough for teachers by placing experienced teachers at a lower rung of the salary scale than they were in their previous school. This doesn’t allow Arizona schools to offer big money to qualified teachers. It’s an arrangement that hurts the teachers, the boards and ultimately the students themselves.

You may not totally believe this, but there are a great number of people in this world that truly believe teaching is easy. In their minds, they think teachers sit down all day and basically handout worksheets. Needless to say, that belief is the farthest from the truth. As a matter of fact, teaching has gotten harder I most cases. For those who think teaching is a “cake walk,” I suggest that they take one or two days and shadow a teacher. I promise opinions will change rapidly on the matter.

It didn’t take long searching the internet to see how some people feel about the teaching profession. Here are two responses below that we found.

“ I make about $17,000 less than that a year, WITH a Master’s degree, and I work a lot harder than any teacher, believe me.”

“Sheesh! You always hear teacher’s complaining that they don’t make a lot of money. Plus they get two months off a year. Not bad.”

Can you believe how some people feel about trained professionals who are charged with the task of educating and shaping the minds of their children for 8-9 hours per day? These type of opinions may be the reason why teachers are not paid what they are worth. This is what educators are up against if fairness is going to be applied to teacher salaries.

Here is a post from a former teacher that gives a more accurate account of what educators have to endure as classroom professionals.

Teachers should be just as important as doctors, lawyers, or even CEO’s of major companies. Educators should be respected and paid accordingly.

It’s so bad for teachers that it’s widely accepted and you’ll frequently hear things like, “If you are in education, you are not in it for the money.”

How long will young people have to suffer before people realize that raising teacher salaries provide an environment where qualified individuals are drawn to the profession? That’s one way for sure to change and solve many problems in this country.

What do you think about this?

According to PayScale.com, teachers with 1-4 years experience earn less than $34,000 per year. Teachers with 20 years experience or more are paid less than $56,000 per year.  When you compare these numbers with other careers, both entry level and experienced personnel, the field of education is at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to compensation.  A construction worker with no college degree and 20 years experience earns an average of $65,000. It’s no wonder the field of education is not respected.

It’s ironic, however, that the majority of all political candidates build their campaigns on improving education for children and raising salaries for teachers. Hundreds of millions are spent on commercials, newspapers, radio, and other forms of media but nothing is ever done about it. As a country, we do not hold our elected officials responsible for what they promise us.

In order to make a difference, we need to take action by letting our political representatives know that we are not going to stand for mediocre results when it comes to paying teachers more money. Teaching is the greatest profession in the world. Every doctor, lawyer, engineer, athlete, and engineer starts with a dynamic teacher. Teachers don’t need millions, but all teachers need fair pay. It’s tough working for peanuts!