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As teacher resignation letters increasingly go public -- and viral -- new research indicates teachers are not leaving solely due to low pay and retirement, but also because of what they see as a broken education system.
In a trio of studies, Michigan State University education expert Alyssa Hadley Dunn and colleagues examined the relatively new phenomenon of teachers posting their resignation letters online. Their findings, which come as many teachers are signing next year's contacts, suggest educators at all grade and experience levels are frustrated and disheartened by a nationwide focus on standardized tests, scripted curriculum and punitive teacher-evaluation systems.
Teacher turnover costs more than $2.2 billion in the U.S. each year and has been shown to decrease student achievement in the form of reading and math test scores.
"The reasons teachers are leaving the profession has little to do with the reasons most frequently touted by education reformers, such as pay or student behavior," said Dunn, assistant professor of teacher education. "Rather, teachers are leaving largely because oppressive policies and practices are affecting their working conditions and beliefs about themselves and education."
The study quoted a teacher in Boston: "I did not feel I was leaving my job. I felt then and feel now that my job left me."
(Score: 5, Informative) by GungnirSniper on Friday April 07 2017, @03:22PM (5 children)
I had the misfortune of working at a charter school, and the entire place was disheartening. And that's not even mentioning using USED Linksys WiFi routers as access points, or the utter stupidity of assigning only 254 private IPs for the entire high school.
The board "felt very strongly" that the methods of Catholic schools half a century ago were the peak of educational policy, and that reflected across the place. The focus on obedience, respect, and a decidedly missing trust in the Master's degrees of the educators, being stand-ins for nuns. Even things as trivial as short video clips had to go through an approval process, and be used by all teachers of a grade or subject. It was not uncommon for teachers to use their own laptops to avoid these rules. Students did the same. Wages were sub-par, and the board required teachers to sign up for the next school yet by March, leaving them the choice of either risking unemployment or re-signing. If a teacher signed up and then resigned even well before the start of the new school yet, they were to owe the charter school thousands of dollars. Even though the charter district is in a low income area, apparently it's popular with parents looking to save on day care costs. So the teachers who join looking to do good in this world end up babysitting the children of disinterested parents.
Then there's the general issue with parents demanding things for their children, which I heard horror stories. A few parents that do care seem to blame the instructors for their snowflake's poor performance rather than anything else really make things miserable. You can't fire the students, and you can't keep the parents away unless they actually commit a crime, so teachers get stuck with problem students.
I can't say I feel all that bad for teachers, though. Their unions have prevented bad teachers from being fired for decades, so the only political option to fix education is to fire entire schools - hence the focus on testing. Conservatives would gladly remove most testing if principals could hire/fire at will.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @04:32PM (2 children)
Why don't you start your own charter school with your own ideas.
A free[er] market doesn't obviate failure; rather a free[er] market allows people to allocate their scarce resources to different solutions when the failures become obvious. Through this trial (selection) and error (variation), society evolves solutions to complex problems that people didn't even know existed.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @04:38PM
Don't forget the hookers and blackjack.
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Friday April 07 2017, @07:19PM
Massachusetts limits charter schools to lower-income areas, so it's not an option. A free market, indeed.
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(Score: 3, Informative) by sjames on Friday April 07 2017, @09:55PM
The reason firing got so hard is that teachers would get fired for actually teaching. Don't like that the teacher suggested evolution? Get her fired. Don't want your high school student to hear about condoms? Fire the health teacher. Little snowflake flunked English lit? Must be the teacher.
And since school administrates tend to be spineless wonders, don't expect them to do anything but blame the teacher and bow to parental pressure.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Friday April 07 2017, @10:00PM
I agree with your basic premise that this is all really about at-will employment for teachers. However,
is quite possibly a myth [haveyouheardblog.com], and depends a lot on the local union contract. Union contracts typically have clauses that allow for firing teachers for demonstrated incompetence. Most also allow teachers to be fired for malfeasance, dereliction of duty, or criminal behavior. And it's very typical for teachers to have a probationary period in their first few years where they can be more easily fired than if they've been around for a couple of decades.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.