It isn't about the salary!

"Last week, the Education Week Teacher online site reported on a new study that used federal wage, benefit, and job-security data, along with measures of cognitive ability, to argue that teachers are overpaid compared to what they would earn in the private sector." - Fredrick Hess reports and continues to say that teachers are getting paid too much, but that it isn't that simple. He promotes that some teachers get over paid, while some teachers are underpaid. Do I agree with him about this statement? Yes. I have worked with teachers who don't prepare lessons with differentiation and other best practices, but they pay with an unruly class and frustrated parents. Do I feel that I should get paid more than that teacher? Yes...However, that teacher shouldn't be teaching anymore. This is the problem with school districts. While charters can target these teachers and kick them out after a system of warnings and write-ups, school districts can do the same, but with much more paperwork during a longer time frame. Recently, I heard of a teacher finally getting fired for sleeping in the school at night. She was a terrible teacher; no one wanted to work with her or have her at their school. It took 2-3 years to get her out after switching her around to different schools and wasting her students' education forever.

So I wouldn't go as far as supporting merit pay like Hess, but I would like schools to make other things a priority. The teacher pay issue is just an easy issue for the media and public to grasp because people are attracted to comparing salaries. The larger debate right now should be surrounding the lack of money in the districts, especially Texas because  of budget cuts. A source from Austin ISD says that her school had good teachers that were cut while others took extra roles within the school to support the lack of teacher or specialist support, i.e. social worker (another disaster to discuss later). The debate should be how to use the money that we have to ensure that students are getting what they need. For instance, Texas teachers are very frustrated that there is a new standardized test (STAAR) this year that cost the district a lot of money rather than decrease the amount of teacher layoffs.

But despite this, I have also heard that what is happening within districts is just what I am suggesting: Administrators are coming down hard with observation protocols to determine if teachers are truly teaching students well and using best practices to provide a sound education. For example, Georgetown ISD has been monitoring their teachers closely and will make decisions based on teaching rather than test scores and seniority. With well developed measurable observation protocols, I hope others public school districts will follow suit.