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posted by martyb on Friday April 07 2017, @02:21PM   Printer-friendly
from the stifling-curiosity dept.

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."


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @07:04PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @07:04PM (#490445)

    "This endeavor is failing, so let's invest in it more!"
        —said no productive person ever.

  • (Score: 2) by NewNic on Saturday April 08 2017, @12:16AM (1 child)

    by NewNic (6420) on Saturday April 08 2017, @12:16AM (#490624) Journal

    "This endeavor is failing, so let's invest in it more!"
            —said no productive person ever.

    That is complete BS. Cases where an enterprise may fail due to insufficient investment, but succeed with sufficient investment abound us all. In fact, it is essentially the model for all Venture Capital.

    --
    lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 09 2017, @04:04PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 09 2017, @04:04PM (#491185)

      The kind of failure that you are talking about is different from the kind of failure that I am talking about.

      • Your "failure" means "not enough resources to implement the endeavor properly"; your logic is circular; you are begging the question; you are assuming that the endeavor is sound, but it's just poorly funded.
      • My "failure" means "the supposed solution being implemented has been proven by time not to be a solution"; public schooling has been around for a very long time indeed, and it's results are abysmal. There's no reason to throw more money into that crap; it needs to be dismantled to the foundation and rebuilt anew.

      The truth of the matter is that nobody really knows what the solution should be; what this means is that the solution must be found, which means that the solution must evolve into existence by means of variation (error) and selection (trial), a process that is most robustly implemented as a market of voluntary trade (i.e., a free market).

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 08 2017, @03:20AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 08 2017, @03:20AM (#490681)

    Educating the species isn't even on the same level as business investment. There is a lie floating around that education has been getting more and more money and it does nothing. The problem is that the money is not going to the correct places.

    1st: Pay teachers more, help reverse the trend where 50% of teachers quit after 3 years.
    2nd: Pay for MORE teachers. Class sizes have been steadily increasing for years. The ideal student : teacher ratio is 12:1 and that doesn't even cover having 5 different classes for a total of 150+ students.
    3rd: Take money away from bureaucracy, if anyone is the dead weight you'll find them there.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 09 2017, @03:56PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 09 2017, @03:56PM (#491180)

      Nobody is arguing that it is going to the correct places. That's the whole point; there's no point in giving the educational system more money because this educational system has very little to do with education. It's a fucked endeavor.