Teacher Salaries Trail Salaries Of Other Professionals

Teacher pay in America continues to slide further and further behind other professionals requiring the same level of education, and the same amount of experience.  The salary disparity is felt more among teachers who have been teachers for several years.  And while job security and benefits are seen as compromises to higher salaries, it doesn’t make up for the disparity in salaries.

This should be a concern for for all districts, where teacher shortages are becoming extremely serious  across the country.  The high turnover among teaching faculties has made it difficult to fill vacancies to the capacity necessary.  Exacerbating the problem is the implementation of state and district priorities and mandates that require class-size reduction.  This will require additional cohorts of teachers to cover the demand.  A report by Sylvia Allegretto and Lawrence Mishel, of the Economic Policy Institute, The teacher pay gap is wider than ever: Teachers’ pay continues to fall further behind pay of comparable workers, sheds light on this serious issue.

Starting Your School Year Off Right

For both teacher and students alike, the first few days of the school year bring excitement and nervousness. It is a time for setting the tone for the year by building relationships, establishing routines and procedures, etc.  It is also a time for setting expectations and introduce the concepts, skills, and language that will be developed during the school year.  In a recent article by reporter Katrina Schwartz, Alan November, a former teacher-turned-author and lecturer, describes Four Skills to Teach Students In the First Five Days of School.

Addressing Equity and Access in Charter Schools

During my tenure as principal, one of the experiences I faced annually was losing students, including my top performing students, to charter schools.  One year I ended the school year with a 10% identified gifted student population on my rosters, but began the following year with only 2% identified gifted students on my rosters.  Eight percent of my gifted student population had gone to the new charter school down the road.  Within 2 months, my population began to grow from students returning from the charter school.  Interestingly, they were not the gifted students, but students who had been asked to leave the charter school, or who were struggling academically.

States and districts apply laws and policies to ensure equitable access to both traditional and charter schools. Unfortunately, they are not always applied evenly.  A study referred to in an article by Joy Resmovits, Some California Charter Schools Discriminate in Admissions, ACLU Report Says, speaks to the issue of equitable access to charter schools.  In order to remedy the inequities that exist, accountabilities must address the beliefs, practices, and cultures of schools that discriminate based on self-identified criteria, and work toward measurable change.  What needs to happen is that 1) the law needs to be written and applied with an equity lens at its core, 2) monitoring has to be more consistent and comprehensive, and 3), consequences for failing to follow the law must be more aggressively applied, to deter future violations.

Making Meaning Inside Our Private Universe

When I was a faculty member with the School Management Program at UCLA,  I facilitated a number of conversations and inservices on the topic of incorrect answers and misunderstandings.  It was based on the idea that regardless of how smart we are, our meaning making is often misdirected, causing us to draw the wrong conclusions.  This is influenced by our pre-existing mental model of the world around us. Our interpretation of certain concepts leads us to the incorrect or incomplete answers. 

A video we used that sits inside the work of Annenberg Learner, proved a valuable resource. It provided examples and discussion points that made the concept clear.  The video described high performing students answering a basic science question - you’ll be surprised by their responses.  In a recent article,  The Importance Of Getting Things Wrong, Anya Kamenetz wrote on this interesting topic. 

A Growth Mindset is a Learning Mindset

I had the pleasure of meeting Carol Dwek when I was serving as Chief Academic Officer for the San Francisco Unified School District.  Her work on growth mindset was critical in the development of our new math course sequence.  The notion that students, through their productive struggle can improve their brain capacity, as well as their results, was valuable in informing my efforts at developing the kind of sequence that encouraged productive struggle.  

The concept of growth mindset applies not only to students and their academic endeavors, but is an important concept for everyone.  In this new global environment, where multiple cultures share common spaces and experiences, and technology facilitates communication, a mindset that is open to new ideas and new learning will be critical.  We must embrace the kind of mindset that will continue growing and developing, so that we can take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves, and take on the challenges that may confront us.  Carol wrote a great article on this topic, The Antidote to Our Anxious Times Is a Learning Mindset.

Nursery Rhymes, Poetry, and English Language Learners

Growing up an English language learner, my early years in school were challenging.  I didn’t have the benefit of Spanish language instruction, or ELD support.  There were times when I didn’t understand what was happening in the classroom, and found myself shadowing my classmates.  However, I also recall having rich activities with song, dance, and language. 

The nursery rhymes in the early grades, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, along with hand gestures and body movement, lowered my affective filter and helped me to remember words and phrases more effectively.  In the later grades, it was poetry. In the sixth grade, I learned and presented Paul Revere’s Ride.  Learning through nursery rhymes and poetry provided me with a great opportunity to practice the cadence of the English language, to develop strong vocabulary, and to articulate more clearly.  The opportunity to present Paul Revere’s Ride helped to give me confidence in acquiring English.  Teaching through poetry can be a great experience for both teachers and EL students.  

In a recent article,  Language Unleashed: The Powerful Poetry of Multilingual Students, MindShift talks about the power of poetry in supporting English language learners in their English language development.  

District Leader Podcast in LIVE!

The District Leader: Transforming Education podcast is LIVE on iTunes, and ready for listening.  District Leader is a podcast dedicated to highlighting leaders in public education from across the country.  Each week, I interview superintendents who share their inspiring stories. District Leader is a podcast about moving and inspiring educators and non-educators alike to believe in the power of education, its leaders, and its transformation.

Informing the District Leader interviews are 3 important pillars:  Scholarship, the concept that we are forever learning, Leadership, the concept that we are able to move and inspire people into thought, feeling, and action, and Agency, that we empower those we serve.

The podcast will serve as an opportunity to introduce guests to a broader audience, who will ultimately become allies, agents and patrons of public education.  Below is a link to the iTunes Store to subscribe to the podcasts. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/district-leader/id1132944041?mt=2

Additional information can be found at distritleader.net