U.S. teachers’ job satisfaction craters — report (Washington Post)
MetLife has released a disturbing if utterly unsurprising report saying, among other things, that educators’ job satisfaction has crashed, that educators have little confidence in the ability of the Common Core to help students, and that these problems are even worse in high needs schools.
In California, thousands of teachers missing needed credentials (Hechinger Report)
I’m conflicted by this story. On the one hand, I think we can all agree that every teacher should be licensed and qualified for what they’re teaching. On the other hand, certain situations require flexibility. Are special-ed students really better off with a substitute than an out-of-area teacher while the school searches for a long term solution? The bureaucratic delays are quite a mixed bag. Their help comes too late for students who are genuinely getting a raw deal, but it also allows good leaders the flexibility to make the best of a bad situation.
Plan Would Let State Take Control of City’s Teacher Evaluation System (NYT)
NY Governor Andrew Cuomo has said that if the Bloomberg administration and the NYC teachers union cannot agree on a teacher evaluation system that the state would pass a legislative amendment allowing the state to arbitrate and implement a system for the city.
This is a good idea for several reasons. First, unlike the last effort, which tied funding to the parties’ ability to get a deal, students wont suffer because of city intransigence. It also provides a stick to get the city moving, as well as a guarantee that there will be a resolution of some kind before the start of the next school year.
Why promising minority students aren’t signing up for AP exams (Yahoo!)
While AP diversity is increasing, poor and minority students still lag behind their peers in taking AP exams.
Teachers union challenges NY’s property tax cap (Yahoo!)
A lawsuit has been filed against a NY law that keeps districts from increasing property taxes by more than 2% or the rate of inflation – whichever is less – unless a supermajority of voters approve.
NY property taxes are among the highest in the nation, but this cap is ridiculous. If districts want to stop the bleeding of their schools, which should be their #1 budget and policy priority, they should be able to fund that. That said, tying school funding to property taxes makes little sense to me. But until we can manage a massive overhaul of the way we fund schools we should at least keep our schools solvent.
Wisconsin governor wants to cut income taxes, public school aid (Yahoo!)
Sometimes I like Scott Walker, sometimes I hate him. When he slashes public school budgets to fund private schools and build bridges I fall into the latter category.
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