Why I support Unions.

The Union will block spurious, petty and mean administrators from firing the competent as well as the incompetent. This is good because the administrator usually has no real idea which is which.

The Union will ensure that teachers get a fair shake when they are dealing with someone who has no real need to be fair.  This is not the owner of a company who is watching every dollar out of his own pocket -- this is a transient employee who has too much power and not enough knowledge.

They float through once, twice a year in a choreographed display of feigned interest in what I am doing. Three weeks before, I get a note saying when they'll arrive and which class they'll be observing - get a lesson plan ready and do the pre-observation meeting. Then they'll watch the class, make a few notes. In the case of the more recent attendees at admin training workshops, they'll attempt to record my speech verbatim in the vain hope that recording every word spoken will somehow tell them more than just listening attentively. This is real?

We meet for the post-op and I'll be given a letter that specifies what they observed. Some of the more insightful comments were "Good lesson" and "knows the material." One of the less insightful was "Separates the kids into two groups by gender." I taught algebra in the chorus room -- apparently Mr. HIP didn't notice that the aisle down the middle separated the kids into two groups and that they took the same places as they normally did during chorus -- I don't do seating charts and usually pay no attention to where students sit. No, he thought I was being discriminatory.

I went 6 years before I was observed again. How was that principal supposed to know anything about me or anyone else in the building? How were they (five in six years) supposed to determine that X should go?

When an admin played games, got in the face of someone improperly, tried to ruin a teacher, there was always the Union stepping in to make sure that things were proper. That is its best role, to act as a buffer, to make sure that each i is dotted and t crossed. I was lucky (knock on wood). I had developed a CYA model and kept tons of paperwork and evidence. When parents complained or school boards took a closer interest, I always had a defense. What if I weren't paranoid?

The Union negotiates a contract. The contract is held up as a object of derision by many on the right - "Look at this egregious waste of taxpayer money. Look at this contract. We shouldn't allow teachers to quote the contract when they might get into trouble!" What an incredible thought, that a contract shouldn't be followed by both sides. "Gullible Boards sign outrageous contracts!" Actually, they sign a contract that both sides agreed to.

Show me any industry that breaks contracts at a whim. I'll wait.

Everybody complains about the LIFO, salary schedule, no merit pay clauses in the contract. When the dust settles, these clauses are seen as the most manageable. Since the admins are rarely around long enough to figure out the names of the teachers in the building, how are they supposed to know which one is worth keeping? The one who has been there for ten years or the kid just out of college who has no idea of what she's getting into? If you eliminate the salary schedule, then you'll have people like me getting $15,000 signing bonuses and thousands more than the English teachers. Really? Same job. Same experience. Think there won't be any bad feelings? Think the school will run just fine anyway? If you don't have a contract, then I'll demand more money and different working conditions because I know the school is desperate. Maybe I'll train for six weeks and be a dilettante TFA who does the school a favor by my presence and leaves when a real job is available.

The Union works for that contract and makes sure that both sides abide by it.

As for merit pay, this is a fantasy dreamed up by a billionaire. If I get a bonus every year because I suck up to the principal, how long do you think there will cooperation in the department? If I don't trust him to know his ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to hiring and firing, I sure don't want a large fraction of my income held over my head - "maybe you will and maybe you won't."

Far from being the leech on the blood veins of education, unions are the force that makes education work as smoothly as it does.

Negotiating, Union-style

No Choice

"Teachers initially requested a 6 percent increase on the base every year for three years, but have since requested a 4 percent increase on the base for one year, followed by a 0 percent increase on the base for one year as part of a multiyear contract. All the while the board has held their position to of freezing teachers' salaries for one year." -- Herald

How exactly does this constitute "negotiating" and what inescapable moron thought that this kind of demand was a good idea in the middle of this economy, for a group of teachers that has typically been well-compensated (compared to other similar schools within 25 miles)?  Asking for the moon is insulting; it is not a "tactic."

This left the teachers with no choice but "to strike in the fall." One teacher: "I understand that times are tough for some. But there are plenty of people getting raises."

Priceless. And the NEA wonders why people feel it to be out of touch.

Some Teachers should really just shut up.

The teacher who went foot to mouth against Gov. Christie really should just shut up. If the reports are true that she actually said she'd "love to earn $83kpy" and in fact makes $86kpy with benefits on top of that, then she has done much more damage to the teachers' cause than she probably realizes.

It does no one any good if the most visible spokesman whines hypocritically and gives the Gov enough ammunition to shoot down her argument. It does no one any good because lots of NY teachers make less with bigger courseloads. I don't make anywhere near that, even after nearly 30 years of teaching, but I don't have nearly the student load or the administrative hassle either of my readers do.

Lady, for all of us, please shut up.

Because it does matter. It matters in the court of public opinion. It matters in the court of John and Mary Smith when they go off to pay their local property taxes. It matters in the zeitgeist.

How much? The same post had this from NJ.com:

In an astonishing fall from grace that has taken only months, teachers have gone from respected and beloved members of the community to some of the most reviled. In a blink, they have trashed years of good will.
Once the patient darlings who nurtured our kids, teachers now look like insensitive, out-of-touch, can’t-think-for-themselves union robots who, when forced to face economic realities, clung to an insulting sense of entitlement, heartlessly sacrificed the jobs of colleagues, called the governor naughty names and used students as political pawns.
All while blaming everyone else.

It matters.

Innovation and Teacher Pay

In my wandering, I came across this little gem on how to fix edumacation:

Instead, a better solution would be:
- Get rid of the unions. Pay for performance, fire the incompetent
- Give teachers the independence to try new things and tailor to individual classrooms. Reward success.

The list continued but I particularly liked the juxtaposition of "pay for performance, fire the incompetent" and "Give teachers the independence to try new things. Reward success." Beyond the obvious (to me, at least) problem of determining teacher competence, how much do you suppose a teacher will innovate and try new things if his paycheck is based on performance, with firing being a instant option for a moronic administrator if that new idea fails?

In all of the pay-for-performance schools I have studied, the one constant factor is that the teachers all retreat into "safe" zones of teaching. Most teachers would rather be assured of a job, thus follow the demands of the administration, teach to the test and be nothing special, rather than go out on a limb and risk it all on a double or nothing bet. The feeling seems to be that it is better to be good than take a wild and unproven chance with your students' education, risking your job. It's sad, really.

There is usually a maverick who bucks this trend but he merely proves the rule - he is unmarried or for some reason doesn't need to be employed at that school. Perhaps he's a certified TIG welder or has an engineering degree with experience.

Unions and union rules allow teachers to innovate, try new things and then adjust them to work better next time. You get "The Creative Feedback Loop Of Teaching"(Thanks to Dan Meyer for the expression, in this post, near the end.), but only if you have the freedom to innovate and aren't locked into a scripted curriculum or stuck in a repressive, vindictive or moronic administrative system.

True innovation comes from those who can afford to try. Trying implies failing occasionally. If you punish failure, you stifle innovation.

NEA Mailings are a real Pain

What's with the NEA sending out loan offers and pre-approved credit card letters? If we get paid so badly that the Union is always yapping about the problem, why are they trying to add to the mess?

I know why they do it - they're paid money for their "subscriber list" - but why doesn't someone notice that more loans and credit cards are not good ways to get a better financial picture? Could it be that they don't actually have our best interests at heart?

Just sayin'

Monday Blues and More of My Green

DENVER, Aug 23, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The National Education Association will play a key role in getting Sen. Barack Obama elected the next president of the United States. NEA's $50 million election campaign strategy targets "swing states" -- including Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Virginia, and New Mexico. The campaign emphasizes targeting members, their spouses, and all other immediate family members of voting-age.

Any chance of spending this on some double-blind education research to determine the value (or not) of block scheduling, developing new edu-lingo, putting technology in the classroom, going back to basics, guide-on-side vs sage-on-stage teaching?

Didn't think so.

Teacher Pay - Make Room, Baby!

Pencils Down tossed out this opinion the other day ...

It seems that many school districts are having a hard time attracting qualified math teachers. Gee, I wonder why that is? Could it be that those potential educators are having a hard time turning down the six figure salaries that Google or AT&T are offering them? I seriously doubt there's nearly that kind of disparity between professional historians and social studies teachers.

Well, I usually hate to rain on anyone's parade, but here I'll make an exception. I'm one of those math teachers (with degree in mechanical engineering) that he seems to be talking about. I probably could get a six-figure salary from one of those companies or from some automaker, but the type of mind that can handle a classroom and teach effectively is dramatically different from one that can sit in a cubicle all day churning out code.

I knew what I was getting into. Right out of college my offers from industry were twice those from education. I knew all that then and I accepted it. I know all that now and I still accept it. I reject the argument outright that STEM teachers should be paid more than other teachers. Sure, if you are tossing money at people, I'll take some but not because I am somehow magically better because of my courseload. If I do some work outside of my job description, okay, if you insist.

Who's to say that my math class is any more valuable to a student than the English class down the hall? (in general, of course. Specific teachers may suck. YMMV) Or the music class where the kid learns to play a couple of instruments? Or the art class where he comes out of his shell? Or the history class that ignites his love of the humanities? Or the French or Spanish or Latin class that broadens his worldview a bit? Are my tests and assignments in math harder to grade or is the work just distributed differently? (The latter, if you were wondering)

From where did this unholy focus on STEM and it's value gain so much traction? Whingeing teachers. STEM majors who don't particularly like teaching and would rather do something more befitting their obvious moral and intellectual superiority in the grand scheme of things. I have just one thing to say to these teachers.

Change jobs. I'm calling your bluff.

Go ahead. Get that $100,000 job with the tech company. If you can't because your internal view of your abilities is different from everyone else's, then shut up about being forced to accept a pretty decent job that pays well, has little true oversight and quick 'tenure', and allows for great vacations. (working vacations, true, but still ...) It's never going to land you a house in the Hamptons, but if you had 1% of the brains you claim to have, you would have known that before you signed up, went through the whole certification process, and did the application thing. Are you trying to tell me that someone can go through all that, remain clueless about the job's trials and rewards, and yet deserve some pity because he somehow is more worthy. NARF!

Learn to teach and enjoy it or get the hell out.

Many of my students have said they want to be teachers, some of them math teachers. They would be excellent replacements for the malcontents. Make room, baby!

Union Blues and My Green

My state (and many others) has an odd little rule on the books. If you are a teacher, and your local NEA union has so negotiated with your school board, then you have to pay union fees, whether you are a member of the NEA or not. In many schools, it's $450 for non-members and $550 for members. This is supposedly to pay for all the benefits that your local union has negotiated for you.

The union incurs no cost in negotiations except for an occasional lawyers fee - $1000 or so every couple of years when the contract is negotiated. The unpaid volunteers who form the negotiating committee cost, well, nothing. If your negotiating committee runs into difficulties - arbitration is never on the table because NEA doesn't want to pay their share of the cost. The coffee and doughnuts sure don't cost that much. There are no stipends for local head of union, etc. The "malpractice insurance" that is offered is available for something like $5 from the company, if you all bought in together. There is certainly no "strike fund" for the teachers. "Another NEA member will accompany you for advice if you are ever in trouble" really, just another teacher volunteer. If administration gets nastier and tries to fire you, the union will offer you help - a paralegal who doesn't return phone calls.

So where do those thousands of dollars go? Six-figure salaries at the union - check. Clerical assistants who make more than the highest-paid teacher in the state - check. Lobbying for legislation that has nothing to do with education such as abortion rights and gay marriage (and which are opposed by a large percentage of the teachers in this state) - check. Lobbying for legislation that DOES have an link to education, but isn't universally supported among teachers, such as the two vote rule for school budget overruns - check. Bloviating "on my behalf" for school and curricular reform that I don't agree with - check.

Oh yeah, I forgot ...

Seven unions, including the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, have stepped in to help pay for the Democratic National Convention in Denver after the host committee announced in June it was $10 million short of its fundraising goals.

Nice to know that my union is representing me.