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from the those-who-can,-do,-those-who-can't,-teach dept.
In the US: this article presents an analysis how a person's chosen college major corresponds to their IQ. The interesting thing is that the relationship has remained essentially stable over the past 70 years. At the top of the list are math, science and engineering. At the absolute bottom of the list: education.
These data show that US students who choose to major in education, essentially the bulk of people who become teachers, have for at least the last seven decades been selected from students at the lower end of the academic aptitude pool. A 2010 McKinsey report (pdf) by Byron Auguste, Paul Kihn, and Matt Miller noted that top performing school systems, such as those in Singapore, Finland, and South Korea, "recruit 100% of their teacher corps from the top third of the academic cohort."
The article points out that it isn't quite this simple: Top schools place high requirements on all of their students; poor schools generally attract lower quality students in all of their programs. Still, the national averages are clear: overall, the least intelligent students go on to teach. This is an odd priority.
Educational organizations, of course, have a different view. This article claims that teacher quality declined from the 1960s through the 1990s, but has since recovered, with teachers being barely below average (48th percentile) among college graduates.
On a related note, there is a strong international correlation between teacher pay and student outcomes. The (rather obvious) theory is that higher pay attracts better candidates to the teaching profession.
No conclusions - just thought this might spark an interesting discussion...
(Score: 5, Informative) by Francis on Friday July 01 2016, @03:01PM
That's because you're generally ignorant of such things. People make these sorts of ridiculous claims because they haven't ever taught and haven't spent any time with teachers, they work far more hours than you'd assume based upon the 180 days of 6 hour work days. If a teacher is anywhere near that, they're probably on the verge of being run out of the profession for laziness. All those tests and homework assignments don't write and grade themselves.
It's not 180 days a year, that's 180 days of classes, which is not the same thing as 180 days of work. Perhaps a teacher who has all their materials done from previous years might be able to work something roughly equivalent to 200 days a year, but the suggestion that teachers only work when the schools are in session is ludicrous.
As far as the money goes, that's a complete load of crap. Whether you work hard or not, the pay for that major and in teaching is below what you'd see in specialties that have equivalent degree requirements. On top of the low pay, the teachers are also responsible for maintaining their certifications out of their own pocket. Mostly that involves giving up summers in order to pay for classes.
BTW, those inservice days don't count towards the 180 the students have to get 180 days of class time, so the inservice days shouldn't be counted in the figure.