Measurement in capitalism is pretty easy: It’s profit. You can tell how effective something is by how much money it makes. Education is actually just this easy. What we should measure, the only thing we should care about, the only discussion we should have, the only thing we should fund, the absolute bottom line is:… Read More »The Bottom Line in Education: Real Student Learning
Tonight is the first session of a new class I’m teaching. At this stage in my career, I’ve been in this situation over 100 times. Here’s a confession: I am still nervous. I’m not afraid anymore. I am confident things will go well enough. But I am nervous about making sure I do my job well, that… Read More »The Value of Nervousness
In some areas of the country, teachers are not paid well enough to make as good a living as they should. They are not who I’m talking about here. How Teacher Salaries Work Now High school teachers and many middle school teachers are generally paid to teach a 5-course load, meaning they teach 5 classes… Read More »Should We Re-Structure Teacher Salaries?
I was very lucky as a new teacher in September of 1988 at Columbia High School in East Greenbush, NY (a suburb of Albany). NYSUT had recently negotiated money from the New York State Education Department for each school district to develop mentoring programs. East Greenbush, under the leadership of Assistant Superintendent Arnold Kaye (if… Read More »The Luckiest First Year of Teaching!
Something that has troubled me for years in the field of education is the way in which new teachers are often treated. A loyal member of the profession, I don’t like pointing out issues with my colleagues; but this is something that has irked me for a long time and should stop. Bluntly put: The… Read More »A Dirty, Little Secret in K-12 Education
