Teachers are increasingly dissatisfied with their jobs, with budget cuts, larger classroom sizes and increased levels of stress all contributing to the problem, according to a nationwide survey released Thursday.
The annual MetLife Survey of the American Teacher shows the lowest level of job satisfaction among teachers since the group began the survey in 1985.
According to the survey, which was conducted toward the end of 2012, teacher satisfaction has declined 23 percentage points from four years earlier, and is down 5 percentage points from 2011.
"We've seen a continuous decline in teacher satisfaction," Dana Markow, vice president of youth and education research for pollster Harris Interactive, told the Huffington Post's Joy Resmovits. Harris Interactive conducted the poll for MetLife.
The survey shows that half (51 percent) of teachers report feeling under great stress several days a week, which is an increase of 15 percentage points over 1985.
The least satisfied teachers are those who work in schools that have slashed budgets, and who have less time for collaboration with peers and professional development than teachers at other schools.
The poll found that 86 percent of teachers and 78 percent of principals reported their schools face budgeting problems, and 73 percent of teachers and 72 percent of principals said it's hard to engage their communities to improve public schools.
"When teacher dissatisfaction is at a 25-year high, school leaders have to stop ignoring the red flags and start listening to and working with teachers to figure out what they and their students need to succeed," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers union. "How many more surveys and polls do we need before we give teachers the tools, resources and support to help their kids, especially with today’s greater challenges and accountability?"
The survey does not break down responses by state, but it's no secret that teachers in Wisconsin have been under stress. Many joined massive protests at the Capitol in 2011 when Gov. Scott Walker introduced Act 10 — his bill that stripped collective bargaining rights from most public employees.
The combination of diminished bargaining rights and reduced funds for education in Walker's first biennial budget led to increased employee benefit payments, a wave of teacher retirements and also put many school districts under financial pressure.
The combination of that, plus increasing demands for school and teacher accountability, led one teacher in Whitefish Bay to tearfully tell her school board last week that she is resigning. In a widely shared story on Whitefish Bay Now, high school math teacher Christine Kiefer was quoted saying:"I love teaching kids and I love the kids' families and I love my colleagues and I love Whitefish Bay, but I cannot wait any longer. I can't stay at a job that sacrifices all my time for my own family — at least two hours every school night and between six to 12 hours every weekend — time after the bell rings, time that produces such good results when there is no good faith effort on the part of the district to pay what I am worth, to pay me what you would probably have to pay an equivalent replacement for me."
In the article, a Whitefish Bay School Board member told Kiefer they have little power to improve matters because so many key decisions are made at the state level. Two years ago, the article said, the state cut the district's funding by $2 million.
"Our hands are tied," School Board Member Cheryl Maranto said. "I know the reason we are surviving is because of what happened to your pay and benefits."
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
A Whitefish Bay teacher's tearful resignation
Whitefish Bay - When Act 10 hit, 10-year math teacher at Whitefish Bay High School Christine Kiefer was four classes into her master's degree.
Because of funding cuts, she was forced to quit her program. Since then, Kiefer has wondered whether she would get a raise in pay or if she would be able to pay off her loans at all. Since Act 10, she has waited patiently to see what would happen to her livelihood, while continuing to educate Whitefish Bay youth every day.
Kiefer said she can no longer wait and tearfully announced her resignation to the School Board last week.
"Here's my problem: When I started, I had all these incentives to improve and now I am completely stuck," Kiefer told the board. "I have no master's degree, I have no way to increase my salary and there are no incentives in place for improving my practice. Others in my department and in this school make a lot more money than I do and I produce the same, quality results."
Kiefer said she cannot get to the level of compensation as some of her peers in the district because of the current system in place.
For three years, she said her class sizes have increased as she and her colleagues are asked to do more in light of Response to Intervention, new MAP testing and a new teacher evaluation process.
"I love teaching kids and I love the kids' families and I love my colleagues and I love Whitefish Bay, but I cannot wait any longer," she said. "I can't stay at a job that sacrifices all my time for my own family - at least two hours every school night and between six to 12 hours every weekend - time after the bell rings, time that produces such good results when there is no good faith effort on the part of the district to pay what I am worth, to pay me what you would probably have to pay an equivalent replacement for me."
Kiefer's speech was met by a round of applause from a room mixed with parents, teachers and high school students. School Board President Kathy Rogers, said, "It is painful beyond words to lose a teacher of Christine's caliber."
School Board members echoed this sentiment.
High school math teacher Erin Best is one who is compensated "very well" to do the same job Kiefer does every day, she said. Despite this, Best said they are burned out.
"I can't keep doing more. The class sizes keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger and I'm exhausted, and this job is preventing me from being the wife I want to be, a mom, a human. I just want to share that," Best said. "I know for Christine she deserves way more money, but even with the money I make this job is really difficult to do."
High school English teacher Lindsey Ashlock began her master's degree two years before Act 10 was enacted. Though she has been teaching for 15 years, with her personal student loans, she said she can't make ends meet financially with her current paycheck.
"I never want to leave this school or teach in another school in the area, this is an amazing program. I teach what I love, I teach students I care for, but living my life has become nearly impossible," she said. "I'm stuck, I feel for Christine and I don't want to follow her out the door."
Kiefer urged the board to be creative and innovative in finding a solution to the problem of retaining quality educators in the district.
Unfortunately, School Board members said many of their decisions are dictated by the state and they don't know what is coming down the line.
"We don't know the parameters around innovation because there is so much at the state level in flux," Rogers said.
Just two years ago, the state cut funding to the district by $2 million.
"Our hands are tied," School Board Member Cheryl Maranto said. "I know the reason we are surviving is because of what happened to your pay and benefits."
The board is ramping up their lobbying efforts, meeting with state Sen. Alberta Darling, in the hopes that this can change, she said.
Maranto urged those in the room to communicate with the governor and legislators, share these personal stories and fight for education, otherwise "who the heck is going to want to go into this profession?"
By Danielle Switalski
February 19,2013
The original is linked here.
Walker promises more of the same
The evidence is clear that tax cuts do not create jobs or drive economic growth.
Yet last night Governor Walker boasted :"I want to cut taxes over and over and over again until we are leading the country in economic recovery."
That means Walker will be cutting taxes over and over and over and over and over again, as long as he is Governor.
Eight years of the Bush tax cuts, the largest in the nation's history, or the Walker corporate tax cuts of two years ago, demonstrated conclusively that tax cuts do not lead to economic growth.
Businesses don't invest in capital or hire workers in response to lower tax rates. That is in the words of George Herbert Walker Bush "voodoo economics."
Business invest and hire in response to an increase in demand for their products and services. Yet Walker has pursued policies that have reduced demand and stymied economic growth. A quick review. Waker:
1) Raised taxes on the working poor;
2) Rejected billions in federal Medicaid dollars;
3) Rejected a federal investment of more than $800 million in federal high speed rail;
4) Slashed the discretionary income of the state's 300,000 public employees.
Walker loves to talk about job creation and economic growth. But the state's anemic job creation performance, 42nd worst in the country, is a refutation of his failed economic polices.
Yet last night Governor Walker boasted :"I want to cut taxes over and over and over again until we are leading the country in economic recovery."
That means Walker will be cutting taxes over and over and over and over and over again, as long as he is Governor.
Eight years of the Bush tax cuts, the largest in the nation's history, or the Walker corporate tax cuts of two years ago, demonstrated conclusively that tax cuts do not lead to economic growth.
Businesses don't invest in capital or hire workers in response to lower tax rates. That is in the words of George Herbert Walker Bush "voodoo economics."
Business invest and hire in response to an increase in demand for their products and services. Yet Walker has pursued policies that have reduced demand and stymied economic growth. A quick review. Waker:
1) Raised taxes on the working poor;
2) Rejected billions in federal Medicaid dollars;
3) Rejected a federal investment of more than $800 million in federal high speed rail;
4) Slashed the discretionary income of the state's 300,000 public employees.
Walker loves to talk about job creation and economic growth. But the state's anemic job creation performance, 42nd worst in the country, is a refutation of his failed economic polices.
Monday, February 11, 2013
U. of Phoenix rebrands in face of plummeting enrollment and stock price
“I am a Phoenix” is no more. The once-ubiquitous TV commercials touting student and faculty pride in the University of Phoenix have been replaced by a new ad campaign that its marketers hope will “project a hopeful, positive message for America.” It’s also designed to lay the ground for what one university executive called “a massive repositioning” of the institution.
The new ad push is hardly surprising. As The Chronicle reported this week, Phoenix and just about every other major for-profit college are scrambling to reverse more than a year and a half of enrollment declines.
Phoenix’s new “Let’s Get to Work” campaign, showcased here on the university’s YouTube feed, reflects market research that found that many Phoenix students don’t enroll for a degree per se. “They come,” said Barry Feierstein, the university’s chief operating officer, “for what the degree will do for them.”
The University of Phoenix, the nation’s largest for-profit university, is closing 115 of its brick-and-mortar locations, including 25 main campuses and 90 smaller satellite learning centers. The closings will affect some 13,000 students, about 4 percent of its student body of 328,000.
It is also laying off about 800 employees out of a staff of 17,000, according to Mark Brenner, senior vice president for communications at the Apollo Group, which owns the university and its stock price has lost nearly two-thirds of its market value in the past year.
The “hopeful, positive” part of the campaign began in September with a minute-long commercial narrated by Phylicia Rashad, whom many may remember for her portrayal of a successful working mother on The Cosby Show, a TV sitcom. Phoenix has been shifting its focus back to working adult students, who are more likely to succeed, after years of high-flying growth built on recruiting students who fared poorly in traditional colleges and left with high debts and no degrees.
Ms. Rashad’s script makes no mention of the university (its name comes on screen at the end) but does remind viewers that, “for every one of those 3.7 million unfilled jobs, there’s someone amazing out there who deserves a chance to show the world what they’re capable of.”
Additional ads made their debut in January, including one, dubbed “Lucky Socks,” that highlights the career connections students can forge through the university’s alumni network. Phoenix has bought 63,000 pairs of the bright-red University of Phoenix socks that appear on characters in the ad to send to alumni leaders. A new ad focused on the university’s corporate partnerships made its debut this Sunday, during the Grammy Awards broadcast, and another is scheduled to air during the Academy Awards, at the end of the month.
The university has not said what it’s spending on the campaign but told investment analysts last month that its overall spending on advertising would increase by 15 percent in the next quarter. The university’s parent company, the Apollo Group, spent more than $665-million annually on marketing in the 2012 fiscal year, a sum that accounted for about 15 percent of its revenues.
The initial ad’s soundtrack might strike some listeners as an interesting choice. It’s a slow, solo-piano version of the music for “Amazing Grace,” presumably chosen to complement the narrator’s description of those “amazing” students and not for its history as a hymn about redemption.
The new ad push is hardly surprising. As The Chronicle reported this week, Phoenix and just about every other major for-profit college are scrambling to reverse more than a year and a half of enrollment declines.
Phoenix’s new “Let’s Get to Work” campaign, showcased here on the university’s YouTube feed, reflects market research that found that many Phoenix students don’t enroll for a degree per se. “They come,” said Barry Feierstein, the university’s chief operating officer, “for what the degree will do for them.”
The University of Phoenix, the nation’s largest for-profit university, is closing 115 of its brick-and-mortar locations, including 25 main campuses and 90 smaller satellite learning centers. The closings will affect some 13,000 students, about 4 percent of its student body of 328,000.
It is also laying off about 800 employees out of a staff of 17,000, according to Mark Brenner, senior vice president for communications at the Apollo Group, which owns the university and its stock price has lost nearly two-thirds of its market value in the past year.
The “hopeful, positive” part of the campaign began in September with a minute-long commercial narrated by Phylicia Rashad, whom many may remember for her portrayal of a successful working mother on The Cosby Show, a TV sitcom. Phoenix has been shifting its focus back to working adult students, who are more likely to succeed, after years of high-flying growth built on recruiting students who fared poorly in traditional colleges and left with high debts and no degrees.
Ms. Rashad’s script makes no mention of the university (its name comes on screen at the end) but does remind viewers that, “for every one of those 3.7 million unfilled jobs, there’s someone amazing out there who deserves a chance to show the world what they’re capable of.”
Additional ads made their debut in January, including one, dubbed “Lucky Socks,” that highlights the career connections students can forge through the university’s alumni network. Phoenix has bought 63,000 pairs of the bright-red University of Phoenix socks that appear on characters in the ad to send to alumni leaders. A new ad focused on the university’s corporate partnerships made its debut this Sunday, during the Grammy Awards broadcast, and another is scheduled to air during the Academy Awards, at the end of the month.
The university has not said what it’s spending on the campaign but told investment analysts last month that its overall spending on advertising would increase by 15 percent in the next quarter. The university’s parent company, the Apollo Group, spent more than $665-million annually on marketing in the 2012 fiscal year, a sum that accounted for about 15 percent of its revenues.
The initial ad’s soundtrack might strike some listeners as an interesting choice. It’s a slow, solo-piano version of the music for “Amazing Grace,” presumably chosen to complement the narrator’s description of those “amazing” students and not for its history as a hymn about redemption.
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