Sunday, April 26, 2009
GTU coverage of state's proposed changes to teacher compensation.
http://www.jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2009-04-26/story/georgia_school_reform_ideas_draw_criticism
They don't mention it in this article, but I was reading about this somewhere just the other day. One proposal I recall was that there would be a change to compensation for people with a doctorate in school leadership (i.e., administration). The status quo was that if you earned such a degree but continued on as a classroom teacher, you got the higher pay anyway. The change, which I believe may have actually already passed, was that going forward, you can not draw the extra pay unless you actually are promoted to an administrative position. People who had the degree prior to the change but are still in the classroom were grandfathered in.
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3 comments:
I think that is a needed change. This group has been very solution oriented during this entire process.
The picture you posted of you in the classroom teaching from a perspective outside of the box was an example of what this group is suggesting. People with creative and analytical thinking abilities. Who will in turn get paid based on results.
The "getting a Doctorate" to get more money for equivalent or less work, needs to be addressed.
Of course, to be fair, you would probably have to grandfather in the current teachers who pursued the higher degrees based upon the current system.
Let me give you an example of what is going on now that is, well, dubious, in terms of turning out demonstrably better teachers.
There are several methods in varoius states by which people who laready hold a bachelor's degree in something other than education, per se, can become certified teachers. Once it was medically determined (2 years into my illness) that i would never get any better than I was, I immediatley got together with a representative from georgia Vocational Rehab to see about their financing my entering such a program. Armstrong, my alma mater for my bachelor's degree, offered a state approved "post-baccalaureate teacher certification program." Her's how it works. You choose a field you want to be certifed in. In my case, I chose Middle Grades Language Arts and Middle Grades Social Studies (or Social Sciences). In middle grades, you have to be certified in at least two areas. You then submit your transcripts to an AASU advisor in the educatgion department. He then designs a program of study leading to certification. You take the same education courses as an education major, but you typically do not need nearly so many subject area course. I, for instance, already holding a Bachelor of General Sttudies (now called a Bachelor of Liberal Studies) degree with a minor in political science from AASU, needed only 3 more upper divison English courses in addition to all of the education courses.
Now, as it turned out, I only need about 3 additional courses and I would have satisfied all of the requiements for a second bachelor's degree, a BSE. When I realized that, I asked if I could pay for the other thre out of my picket and go ahead and earn a second bachelor's as opposed to just certification. No dice. Voc Rehab regs would not allow me to do that. I HAD to go the shortest route, the certification route.
Now, get this: About two semesters into the program, AASU cmae up with a new deal. If you were the holder of a bachelor's degree in ANYTHING, you could take the same courses I was taking to getr certified and coem out with a masters degree and certification. The differnece was that you paid slightly higher graduate tuitiomn rates and - I'm not making this up - you would turn in one more paper in each course than the guy sitting next to you who was takingthe post bac cert course with no degree conferred. Let me make sure you understand. In a couple of weks, the vast majority of the people with existing degrees whom I attended classes with fot he last three years will march across the stage in Savannah and receive masters degrees. They literall sat right beside mne in the very identical classes for the last three years. The only differnece was that they had one more paper to write (I'm talking a 10 to 15 page paper - not even in the same zip code with a master's thesis). I, of course, asked Voc Rehab if I coulsd pay the extra tution and do the masters program along with my classmates. Oh, NO! State regs would not allow such a thing.
The result: If I get a job in Camden, under the current pay schedule, I'll start out around $36,000. The guys and gals who wrote one more paper in the very same clases will start out at a little over $40,000. Did writng a dozen more papers over three years in the otherwise very same classes I took make them any better teachers? You could have fooled me.
Oh, by the way, my understanding is that the national tren is to not only do away witht he post-bac cert programs like I went through in favor of the master's certification program, but there is also a move to make all teacher programs (i.e., those who are curently entering freshmen seeking a BSE)five-year masters programs. In the not to distant future, ALL teachers coming straight to the field from college may well be commanding masters salaries.
Oh, and by tyhe way, I was one of only a handful of students in my cohort of maybe 40 students who was not already teaching. In Georgioa, so long as you have a bachelor's degree in something, a school system can hire you if you have had not one single minute of college training to teach. You teach under a "provisonal license."
Many of those students who were in my cohort and already teaching were hired in Glynn, Brantley, Charlton and Ware Counties. In fact. I believe I was one of only two of us who were not already teaching. If I'm not mistaken, you can teach on a provisional license for up to three years before you have to get certified and get a "clear and renewable license." I'm sure some reader will verify or correct that, as need be. I will start out with a clear and renewable license.
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