Here are a few late night thoughts from an Elementary Music Specialist who has finally been able to afford to live in the district where she teaches. Our children deserve the best education we can offer them. The educators are dedicated, the children are thirsty for knowledge, but there's a breakdown in funding. I watch the children enter our elementary school at Kennydale in Renton, WA and I am renewed every day by their spirit and enthusiasm for learning. They can't wait to get to their classrooms with their backpacks full of books, papers and lunches. I can tell you I sleep well at night knowing these people will be in charge of the world in the future. They are resilient, caring, creative, bright young people.
Our legislators have great ideas about education, but there is no longer a bridge between those great ideas and the funding to carry them out. Washington schools are sending many of the best and brightest teachers packing to jobs in other states or to stores like Costco where they can make more money and afford to pay back their student loans. They've lost their job because they don't have a contract or not enough seniority with the current budget crisis or simply can't pay to live where they work in the wonderful Puget Sound with the highest cost of living in the country. How does that correlate with us being 49th in teacher pay of the 50 states?
Everywhere I go people appreciate me because I am a teacher. People also realize we need to be paid more for the critical job we do of educating tomorrow's leaders. I'm hoping these same people will write to their legislators and say "YES" we are willing to pay for a great education for the wonderful children of Washington State. They deserve better than they are getting. Many people think the administration needs to cut the "fat" from the budget, but I can tell you what I know of Renton and the administration department has always taken the biggest hit on budget cuts every year. And it has been many years that we've been asked to do more for less and less.
I really take issue with an individual who comes to WA state who is making a living on cutting taxes, living in an expensive house, whose sole purpose is to take money from our citizens and tie the hands of our Legislators who are willing to solve this dilemma. That's for another blog.
More to follow.
Please feel free to join in the dialogue.
Yours in education,
Lyn McKay, NBCT Early/Middle Music
Monday, September 7, 2009
A BAD IDEA: Teacher Pay for Student Achievement
Teacher pay for achievement
In theory this is a great idea. The problem is the teacher is not the definitive factor in student achievement. I wish we were that important. This teacher does all she can to be. The people I know and work with, do all they can to be great teachers. Students however, often are not sent to us ready to learn. Some have disabilities, others have experienced extreme grief and/or war zones. I'm amazed at how children can show up for school let alone with smiles on their faces for school when they've been beaten or sexually abused. In a Title school where I work over 40% of our students are on a Free or Reduced Lunch program. That means they have a multitude of challenges in their family that others may not have. Some are homeless in our school district. Often parents are working 2 jobs and some children are raising themselves, because their parents have to work late just to pay the rent in the high cost of living area of the Puget Sound. I am not faulting parents. They are doing the best they can and I have yet to meet the parent who doesn't care about his/her child when they're in their right mind. Some parents come here from another country. They are my heroes, but their family has another unique set of challenges with communication, learning a new culture and often a new language. These compound what we as teachers are able to do. Do I believe every child can achieve. Absolutely! I don't believe there is a child that can't learn. Students leave my class after 5 years of music study as literate, creative musicians and dancers.
The education of our children is our paramount duty, but thinking you can pay teachers into making the system a success is a mistake. Washington State is paying National Board teachers a bonus of $10,000 for teaching in high needs schools. That's a great idea in theory too, but if there isn't a system of support in that school the National Board teacher can't make inroads of change. If you want to improve the education system make National Board mandatory for pro-cert candidates and put the Federal stimulus money into this program and into the arts education of our children. These two strategies are researched based. The experience of this one teacher can attest to the effectiveness of both.
There is a systemic problem and it's not just the school system. We need to heal our societal systemic ills and then our schools will thrive as well. We're not even identifying the problem accurately. How can we solve the problem when we're only looking at the product of the problem.
This is the best advice I can give anyone. Look inward and follow your heart. As we each do that we will make a difference where we are and then it will spread from there. If all leaders could follow this advice we could revolutionize education almost overnight. I'll close with this quote from Parker Palmer:
" New leadership is needed for new times, but it will not come from finding more wily ways to manipulate the external world. It will come as we who serve and teach and lead find the courage to take an inner journey toward both our shadows and our light--a journey that, faithfully pursued, will take us beyond ourselves to become healers of a wounded world."
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