Sunday, January 18, 2009
Work Environment vs Teacher Salaries
The environment that is created within a school is essential to ensure that staff morale proceeds in a positive manner. I agree with our class discussion that increasing instructional materials and decreasing class sizes have a greater impact on student achievement than increasing teachers' salaries. Salary increases are more apt to be forgotten within a short period of time by personnel while the impact of instructional materials are on-going with students.
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2 comments:
I really identified with the comments concerning school climate that were made in class and on this blog. I have worked in buildings where the climate was very negative. It seemed like no matter what the situation, the staff was always determined to be unhappy about something. The negative attitude was reflected in the classroom, even though the negativity rarely had anything to do with kids. I am now in a building where I almost never hear negative comments. It is amazing the difference a positive work environment makes. After experiencing both ends of the spectrum I feel I am more motivated to be better at my job in an environment that is positive than I would be with a higher salary in an environment that is negative and pessimistic.
I've been on teacher contract negotiation teams for 20 years. I also happen to presently work in a district with high pay, excellent affordable insurance, and reasonable contract language. Every contract settlement there are a few that complain like crazy and talk about what a terrible contract we have. All of these complainers have taught their entire career in our district and are generally not the teachers I would choose for my "fantasy school." I think that there are two ways that higher teacher pay improves instruction. #1. It makes teaching an attractive profession as a whole and one that our brightest students will pursue. It is very frustrating to hear young people say that they won't consider going into education because they can make so much more money elsewhere. High salaries might help. #2. Higher salaries can enable some districts to hire experienced teachers in hard to staff areas. I think that some of our best teachers taught somewhere else before they came to our district. For these reasons, I do agree with Dr. Closen that bonuses to the salary schedule should be on the lower steps to attract talent. It the salary schedule is fair all the way through, there is no reason to put an extra 1% at the top. Steph
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