Teacher retention rates plummet

[Miulang]

I believe this story goes hand in hand with the issues that are being faced by the substitute teachers in Hawai'i. According to a study by the UH College of Education, only a little less than half of the education grads from the UH class of 2001 have remained in teaching in Hawai'i. This, coupled with the proposed increase in tuition at UH, means you have to recruit new teachers from the Mainland. The majority of these Mainland teachers don't intend to make Hawai'i their permanent residence, so you will always have that revolving door scenario. Couple that with the high cost of living and relatively low pay scale, you're not able to attract really quality teachers for your public schools. And if the substitute teacher pool dwindles because of the disparity in pay for comparable education, you guys really will be stuck up the river without a paddle.

Miulang

http://starbulletin.com/2005/01/22/news/index1.html

[Kalihiboy]

Re: Teacher retention rates plummet

What I dont get is the DOE wants starting teaching pay to be around $46,000 within a couple years. I understand this is done obviously to spark or spur people to get into the teaching profession and do away with the stigma that its a low paying job. Now but you tell me what happens to all of the teachers like my wife and thousands of others who have done it for well over 10 years who have to take summer school classes that cost about $150 per week that last several weeks just so they can earn steps or points so they can earn maybe another 20 bucks per day? Established teachers should be grandfathered into the system and rewarded a much higher salary than a brand new teacher. Its almost as if the DOE cares nothing for teachers who have been in the union for years and they expect them to welcome new teachers each and every year who make $10,000 or more per year. If you dont think that will force teachers to quit and run I dont know what will. But maybe that is the hidden goal of the DOE to run veteran teachers out of the profession so they can pay new teachers these salaries.

KalihiBoy

[Miulang]

Re: Teacher retention rates plummet

What I dont get is the DOE wants starting teaching pay to be around $46,000 within a couple years. I understand this is done obviously to spark or spur people to get into the teaching profession and do away with the stigma that its a low paying job. Now but you tell me what happens to all of the teachers like my wife and thousands of others who have done it for well over 10 years who have to take summer school classes that cost about $150 per week that last several weeks just so they can earn steps or points so they can earn maybe another 20 bucks per day? Established teachers should be grandfathered into the system and rewarded a much higher salary than a brand new teacher. Its almost as if the DOE cares nothing for teachers who have been in the union for years and they expect them to welcome new teachers each and every year who make $10,000 or more per year. If you dont think that will force teachers to quit and run I dont know what will. But maybe that is the hidden goal of the DOE to run veteran teachers out of the profession so they can pay new teachers these salaries.

KalihiBoy

If they did that, then they are being very shortsighted. I think your union should start lobbying now to ensure you guys get grandfathered in so your pay is based on experience, as well as certification (i.e., education). You guys who have the experience are the ones the school system needs to keep. And your union should be raising one big stink about it. And if they're not, then you union members better raise the stink with the union, because, after all, you're paying those guys' salaries. Teachers on the whole are undervalued and underpaid, and yet society expects teachers to give their kids a good start in the world by giving the keiki a window on what the world is like. A good teacher with 10 years of experience is worth a whole lot more than a newly minted BA, in my book.


Miulang

[scrivener]

Re: Teacher retention rates plummet

You both bring up excellent points, but consider my idea for a resolution to this problem.

What if, instead of having to go through a union, Kalihiboy's wife was free to negotiate her own salary with her principal? Miulang is right when he says that a ten-year teacher is more valuable than a fresh-out-of-school B.Ed. Most of the time.

More experienced teachers know that the winds of educational reform blow this way and that, depending on who's in elected office. The current public sentiment toward teacher "accountability" (a word I have grown to detest) means even more paperwork than teachers have ever had before. And for those of you who don't get it, we're talking a lot of bureaucratic paperwork. Experienced teachers understand that while it's a necessary demon that comes with the job, it also interferes with a good teacher's work, taking away precious planning time, not to mention relationship-building time with students.

So a lot of experienced teachers are not being very cheerful about cooperating with these new job requirements (and I don't blame them!). It's not the principals' fault that teachers are going to have to kill themselves just to get quarterly grades done under the new system, but they are the ones whose lives will be made miserable by the grumbling of the experienced teachers. In this case, experienced teachers are not worth the extra money. An administrator, I bet, is willing to pay a rookie that extra money if that rookie is going to be a team player.

All this is to say that one twenty-year teacher is not necessarily worth more than one first-year teacher, at least from a bureaucratic standpoint. If principals had the freedom to make that decision--to say this teacher's performance is worth X while that teacher's performance is worth X-minus-five-grand even though that teacher has five years' experience more--we would see these older, less cooperative teachers pack it in, while older, more cooperative teachers would reap the salaries they deserve. And yes, cutting loose these grumbly more-experienced teachers would free up more room under the salary cap so that these other teachers could be paid well.

I am not anti-union, but when it comes to this particular profession, I believe unions are hurting the profession more than they're helping it.

[Miulang]

Re: Teacher retention rates plummet

Very true, Scriv. And I generally don't like unions, but if the state did go along with your proposal to allow each teacher to negotiate their own pay with the school based on merit (i.e., regardless of tenure, some sort of evaluation---by whom? the kids? the parents?), then the State would have no control over the education budget.

If the school system was run like a real business, the Legislature would tell the school board you have "x" amount of money for teacher salaries. The school board would tell the districts you have "x" amount for teacher salaries (how would they decide those amounts? By enrollment, results of student achievement tests, geographic location?). The districts would tell each school, you have "x" amount for teacher salaries, and the total amount each school gets would be based on what? number of students? Ranking by statewide student test?

Somehow, I think that would create more of a problem than it would resolve. Having statewide pay scales probably is the best solution, but there's got to be a better way to assist the good teachers who have put in more time into the system. You're right, though, just because a teacher who's been in the system a long time and keeps taking classes every summer s/he may not always be a good teacher, just one who knows how to play the game.

Don't the teachers have to go through some sort of annual performance review? I have to endure one every year, as do most people in business.

Miulang