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For stats on teacher turnover in Miami-Dade: http://drs.dadeschools.net/Reports/Teacher_Turnover.pdf
There are very few truely tenured teachers in Miami-Dade. Real tenure was done away with about 20 years ago in Dade. Politicans and people bad mouthing the profession use the term to get people up in arms (I'm not accusing sickofnyc99 of bad mouthing). I've seen it repeatedly done. Teachers do have a continuing contract after 3 years (I think it's three) and cannot be removed without due process. But, they can be removed, they do not have tenure.
Tenure should never be instituted at any level of academia. The premise at the university level is that it allows a professor to write controversial scholarly works without fear of retribution. High school, middle school, etc teachers are not on the level of research or scholarly output required at the university level.
So I have to ask what scholarly article output is required by high school, middle school, elementary teachers to warrant tenure?
"Upper class welfare" is what a professor of mine referred to tenure. He was Harvard graduate, tenured, absolutely a leading man in his field.etc,etc. I recall faculty table gossip regarding certain professors and their lack of performance but the inability to remove them due to tenure.
For stats on teacher turnover in Miami-Dade: http://drs.dadeschools.net/Reports/Teacher_Turnover.pdf
There are very few truely tenured teachers in Miami-Dade. Real tenure was done away with about 20 years ago in Dade. Politicans and people bad mouthing the profession use the term to get people up in arms (I'm not accusing sickofnyc99 of bad mouthing). I've seen it repeatedly done. Teachers do have a continuing contract after 3 years (I think it's three) and cannot be removed without due process. But, they can be removed, they do not have tenure.
Which is exactly what I'm saying. Instead of getting out of the profession due to say "burnout" they lose their jobs due to the fact that they were approaching tenure. Principals don't want to give them tunure because it's much harder to get rid of them after that so they can them before and maybe bring them back next year so it resets the tenure clock.
I am not looking to blame others for my failures. In fact, I work in an "A" ranked Florida school. Our test scores have consistantly gone up. I merely have pointed to the fact that people make many assumptions. My base salary after 15 years of teaching is 42,000.e I teach 3 grade levels in middle school and inclusion classes with upwards of 40 kids from every different level you could think of (I even have 2 autistic students). 90% of my school is on free and reduced lunch. We have lost funding we will loose more. More will be asked of me and I WILL eventually fail. Yet, I am behaving like a child for speaking up. OK.
I am not interested in singular experiences. As a nation we spend more than pretty much every other country and we have little to show for it. Random exceptional teachers are to be expected. It is not necessarily the individual teachers that have failed but the system the teachers and the unions have insisted on, have. It is blaming others, for the failures that the educational system is responsible for, that professionals defend, is childish. Hope that helps.
Is this in total dollars spent or dollars spent per student? Also, in Switzerland, what is their special education like? Depending on the Canon where the child lives is there a French/German/Italian/Rumantsch as a second language section because that is something that we deal with every day, ESL children.
The defunding of education is happening across the country. In Colorado, there was a $200 Million cut across all schools, for the FY 2011-2012, an additional $500 Million might be cut from the education budget. This doesn't include the reduced funds from local property taxes because property values have fallen. Since we're a TABOR state, the city cannot just raise the property tax rate to equal the same amount of taxes received every year (i.e. my house is worth $300k in year one and I pay $1500 of taxes, in year three my property is worth $250,000 and I pay $1250, the mill rate isn't raised so that I still pay $1500).
Don't be silly, the spending is across all cannons, did you expect something else?
Too funny, this poster expects the results from cutbacks of a minuscule amount to be reflected before it's effects can even be recorded. This is such a sad post on so many levels.
Which is exactly what I'm saying. Instead of getting out of the profession due to say "burnout" they lose their jobs due to the fact that they were approaching tenure. Principals don't want to give them tunure because it's much harder to get rid of them after that so they can them before and maybe bring them back next year so it resets the tenure clock.
Just to give some prospective:
In Cincinnati, Ohio teachers made an average of $43,967/yr in 2003 (source CPS). Estimating for inflation (~20% increase) that equals $52624 in 2011 dollars (source BLS). They work 184 days/year. Assuming an 8-hour day, that works out to $35.75/hr (min $26.55/hr - max $58.30/hr). This is in a school system that meets requirements on only 7 out of 26 indications of performance and does not meet the federal requirements for "Adequate Yearly Progress" (although there are some outstanding schools within the system).
For a comparison, mechanical engineers in Ohio make an average of $33.90/hr (source BLS).
It's not that teachers don't work hard, but the fact of the matter is their compensation isn't as bad as many would lead you to believe.
Nonetheless, the real problem with public schools in America is the system is broken. Parents and students are vilified when schools fail to meet minimum requirements. This would never happen at a private school, since parents can take their money elsewhere. School vouchers are an elegant solution to problems with public schools. They empower parents to find their children a better school if their local school is failing to educate their kids. Parents and students are the stakeholders; the schools should be working for them and not visa versa.
You have choices here.
Do you really succumb to every bit of advertising that you hear/read?
When they plan to sue for 1/2 of your budget, what do you do?
I'd say hold them back, but it can get political.
Sorry, the quote in my post isn't from me. Something funky happened when I quoted it.
All of the kids in my district's AP or honors classes have to meet requirements to get into them. We do not pay for them. We will have to pay for their final, but to get in, they are part of the course offerings in the high school.
These kids are all smart, but are they working up to potential, NO. The work they are being given is work that I would have been expected to do in 7th grade in a regular ed class, not honors or AP.
I don't understand how a parent can sue for their child being held back? If they didn't do the work, pass the class, and the school has documentation, they are held back. There were a few kids held back each year when I was in school and I never saw anyone suing the district for it.
Sorry, the quote in my post isn't from me. Something funky happened when I quoted it.
All of the kids in my district's AP or honors classes have to meet requirements to get into them. We do not pay for them. We will have to pay for their final, but to get in, they are part of the course offerings in the high school.
These kids are all smart, but are they working up to potential, NO. The work they are being given is work that I would have been expected to do in 7th grade in a regular ed class, not honors or AP.
I don't understand how a parent can sue for their child being held back? If they didn't do the work, pass the class, and the school has documentation, they are held back. There were a few kids held back each year when I was in school and I never saw anyone suing the district for it.
The proof is in the pudding: Do AP students in your district pass their AP exams with scores of 3 or higher?
I am not interested in singular experiences. As a nation we spend more than pretty much every other country and we have little to show for it. Random exceptional teachers are to be expected. It is not necessarily the individual teachers that have failed but the system the teachers and the unions have insisted on, have. It is blaming others, for the failures that the educational system is responsible for, that professionals defend, is childish. Hope that helps.
Exactly. It is useless to ignore this fact (and people who do are living in a creepy never never land). Our public education system is appallingly uneven, and while the immediate poor end result is low scores in certain districts, or poor grad rates in some districts, vs. high in the others, the REAL end result is the burden that the entire nation takes on by having such a sub-par education system, for the amount of money we put into it.
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