|
1) Survey Finds 90% of Teachers Are Satisfied with Their Jobs. The
2006 MetLife Survey of the American Teacher was released last week and
provides a very different picture of teacher retention and job satisfaction
from what we are all used to seeing in the press.
The "major findings" section provides some useful information, but you may
find it difficult to come to overall conclusions unless you read through the
167 pages – and especially the actual survey questions and answers in the
back of the report.
The lead finding was that 90 percent of America's teachers were satisfied
with teaching as a career – 56% calling themselves "very satisfied." It
stands to reason that people who are very satisfied with their careers would
be unlikely to leave them, and the survey bears that out. Only 27 percent
say they are likely to leave within the next five years. But even that
figure seems inflated for two reasons. First, the number who predict they
will leave, and the number who actually do leave, are apt to be very
different. Second, the average experience of all teachers surveyed was 17
years, but the average experience of those who planned to leave was 22
years, suggesting it is the older teachers who plan to leave, rather than
the much-ballyhooed "fifty percent of teachers in the first five years."
Page 123 contains question Q1055, which asks, "At what age do you expect to
leave teaching as a career?" Sixty-nine percent picked an age higher than
55, suggesting that a healthy majority have made, or will make, teaching
their lifelong career.
Finally, the survey found that new teachers and veteran teachers had similar
levels of job satisfaction. All in all, the survey provides a much more
balanced look at the education labor market than usual.
2) Leo the Lip.
It's
safe to say that Leo Casey, a special representative of the United
Federation of Teachers and chief blogger of
EdWize, doesn't like me or what I do. As for myself, I admire those
within the unions who say what they actually think, even if it is the polar
opposite to my own views. I only object to those who read from talking
points in public, then
say something quite different in private.
Though I am president and
co-founder of the "Put Casey on Decaf" movement, I have applauded his
support of the war in Afghanistan, his insight that progressives who embrace
states' rights to fight NCLB may wish they hadn't, and his insistence that
there are worse enemies of America than Karl Rove. Today I got to add
another issue to the list.
Casey posted an
essay on Alfie Kohn and his anti-homework crusade. He criticizes Kohn
for his "polarized dualism" and states, "What American students need
is not freedom from homework in a world of perpetual play, but homework
thoughtfully crafted to engage their minds and their imagination." It didn't
take long for a Kohn fan to label his editorial a "screed."
I've hypothesized that
Kohn comes from the Planet Mongo, but now I'm convinced he comes from an
even more alien world that is much closer. Kohn claims his ideas didn't
spring from his own teaching experience, but I think there may be only one
place where real learning involves, as Casey describes Kohn's beliefs,
"creative, self-directed play," and that place is Kohn's former place of
employment –
Phillips Academy Andover.
I'm not certain that Kohn's
world of discovery exists even at Andover, where a standardized test is
required for admission, but perhaps that world allows more leeway for his
methods than do America's public schools.
3) More on the UTLA Anti-Israel Brouhaha.
EIA
reported last week on the uproar over the decision by UTLA's Human Rights
Committee to host a meeting for the Café Intifada crowd (see
Item #11), and then the uproar when UTLA President A.J. Duffy rescinded
the invitation.
Now the UTLA Human Rights Committee is
heading for the tall grass, and more fuel was added when teachers'
unions in Ireland received a letter from AFT President Edward McElroy,
urging them not to support a boycott of Israel, as had been proposed in a
letter signed by 61 Irish academics. (UTLA is an affiliate of both NEA
and AFT.)
"Boycotts of this nature only help those who wish to
curtail the academic freedom faculty members hold dear," McElroy wrote.
4) I Have Seen the Fnords.
I admit I had some
trouble believing this one, but two unrelated sources tell me it's true, so
I'll pass it along.
The October 2006 NEA Today contains an article
on the "Bus
Roadeo," an annual competition to test the safety awareness and skills
of America's school bus drivers. The article touts the achievements of the
NEA members who competed, and the NEA web site has a short video and photo
slideshows of the event. Nice human interest story for members, right?
Well, apparently some NEA members were upset by the
video, which, if you squint your eyes and know what you're looking for,
features a school bus with "Laidlaw School Services" written on the side.
Laidlaw, as you may know, is a private transportation company and often the
target of
NEA's anti-privatization efforts.
What isn't clear
is whether NEA has already edited the video to make Laidlaw barely
noticeable, or whether what's posted now is the original video, and those
members were reacting to something that is less than subliminal. Did those
readers "see
the fnords?" We evil privateers are insidious, you know.
5) Wayne's World II!
EIA just received the exciting news that Wayne Johnson, former president of
the California Teachers Association, has been hired as "special advisor" to
UTLA and his duties will focus on contract negotiations.
For new readers, EIA once
described Mr. Johnson as "a man of castor oil in a world of sugar coating."
Of all his achievements, his greatest may be receiving his own wing in
EIA's Quote of the Year competition.
6) Fighting Street Theater with Street Theater.
Last Friday, Chester High School in Pennsylvania was
forced to close early after nearly one-third of its teachers called in
sick. The district is correctly called "troubled," and there is an ongoing
dispute over teacher layoffs and funding. What caught my eye about the story
is that the local union claims "there was absolutely no concerted sickout –
none."
This may be true – though it probably chagrins the
union to see one-third of its membership organize a job action without its
knowledge or authorization. But it made me wonder why we rarely hear about
district managers applying a little jiu jitsu to such problems.
If one-third of your teachers all develop a sudden
illness on the same day, and the union says it isn't a sickout, then why
don't you call in the public health authorities and the Centers for Disease
Control? You must have a sick building or some kind of epidemic. Quarantine
the teachers' lounge. Have the faculty refrigerator checked for bacteria.
Install hand sanitizers and institute
norovirus procedures.
You can relent once you're assured no one was really
sick in the first place. But who will go on the record to offer that
assurance?
7) Last Week's Intercepts.
EIA's blog,
Intercepts, covered these topics from October 10-16:
*
New Jersey Salaries: Come See for Yourself. School administrators make a
pretty good living in the Garden State.
*
NY Wingnuts Go After UTLA's Duffy. Union president accused of buckling
to "Zionist pressure."
*
Are School Bells Too Old School? Children as fragile china plates.
8)
Quote of the Week.
"Although you
are always hearing that each up-coming election is 'the most important one
in your lifetime,' I believe this one really is." – Maine Education
Association President Chris Galgay. |
