Funding or Teacher Prep?

How sweet it would be to have a simple answer to the woes of the American educational system. Unfortunately, the problems the American education system faces are not simple. Last week’s lesson suggested two possible solutions to creating a more effective educational system: funding and teacher preparation. Jon Snyder, from our video “Empowering New Teachers: Bank Street College of Education” stated that when “a really talented teacher has a really expertly supported teacher, then kids do better.” I would have to agree wholeheartedly with him. When new teachers are given non-threatening, positive feedback and opportunities to learn from an expert or seasoned teacher while in their first year of teaching, the new teacher will finish the year with a sense of accomplishment and an eagerness to return the next year to provide an even better education for his or her students. According to the charts in the NCTAF Power Point, the American education system is losing many of its new teachers within the first 5 years of graduation. Why? People will not quit jobs if they are supported, are valued, and are seeing successes in their students. Some may say that we are not getting new teachers to stay or even recruiting new teachers, because the pay is low. Even though I am sure none of us would pass up a pay raise, most of us went into education knowing it would not make us rich. No, we are losing teachers because they are overwhelmed with the responsibilities in the classroom. Adelle gave us a list of current teacher responsibilities, and each year more is added to our list. Unless administration recognizes the need for a strong support system for its new teachers (and seasoned, I might add), the “drop out” rate for teachers will continue. I am approaching the end of my first year of teaching at a new building, in a new position. I have struggled and have been so overwhelmed with the new responsibilities, even though I have been teaching 13 years. If it was not for the support I have received from my co-workers and principal, I would be seriously looking to do something besides teaching in the special education field. However, with support and understanding, I am looking Ohio forward to next year and the chance to grow in my vocation even more.

Funding presents its own obstacles to the effectiveness of the American education system. Because of spending restraints many of the innovative or even basic programs are passed by or scratched from consideration. This adds more pressure onto our overwhelmed teachers. For example, if the school cannot pay for the extra teacher needed to make class sizes reasonable, then the larger class size drops the effectiveness of the teaching. Give the teaching staff a chance to list what they need to make the school an excellent learning environment and to raise the students’ level of learning, pass that list onto the superintendent or Board of education, and watch the suggestions get scratched due to funding. Administration wants those things, too, but they have a budget. The Funding of School Districts in Ohio chart certainly indicates a disparity of funding per student amongst our school districts. Maybe Governor Strickland’s plan to change Ohio’s funding formula will create not only more equitable funding across the state, but enough to move from adequate education forward toward excellent education for all of our school districts.

Stop The Leak!

American Education is like a leaking faucet there are many ways to stop the leak but only a few ways to fix it. The way our government has been going about stopping this leak of poor performances in many classrooms is by putting a piece of gum over the leak. I believe that the government is constantly overlooking the source of the problem and always trying to find the cheap way out. Every few years the federal government puts a new way to improve our education out there and by the time everyone begins to understand and develop the program the next president comes along and puts his stamp on the issue. This continues the slow drip that is our education.

In Issue 8 in our book, Paul Houston makes a great statement, “NCLB’s answer is that drilling our children will allow them to compete with the Chinese. Yet the real winners in the coming competition between East and West will not be the nations that focus on basic skills but those that cultivate high-level skills and ingenuity. In that regard, America has had an edge for some-time.” I think one of the answers to improving American Education is to stop trying to compete on an international scene. Focus on our needs to improve our schools based on what is going on here. We need to develop our students into well-rounded individual’s not just students who can recite various answers because they memorized it. These students need to know how they came about these answers and gain knowledge of how it worked, or what lead up to an incident in history, or how to solve a problem in math.

I feel another answer to American Education comes down to money. Teacher’s need to be paid better for the amount of work they put in. Schools need to receive money to stay current with technology, equipment and buildings. I believe this all needs to be either state funded or federal funded. The need for levy’s to pass to generate money for the schools is like hitting the lottery. More often the schools lose than win, because the money has to come out of the community resident’s pockets. When a person is asked to pay a higher rate in taxes it can have an effect on their choice to support a levy or vote against it. If our education becomes government funded it can help in many ways, poverty areas will receive the same technology and equipment as a suburban school system. By doing so it will help these teachers in these rough area’s out and also eliminates many of the excuses that are being heard. Tax payers will receive a break on paying for school levy’s and school’s can focus on education rather than having to worry about how they can make cuts to save money much like a business.

Combination of both?

I think that both funding and teacher preparation contribute to American education. I believe that teacher preparation plays a key part because without properly educating our teachers who are currently teaching students, then the programs will be unsuccessful. In order to have proper teacher preparation we need the government to provide us with the funding to see these programs out. Adelle talked about what is expected of a teacher in the 21st century. A current expectation for teachers is that they use computer based technology which would not be possible without funding for the computes and the programs used on them. Megan mentioned in her presentation on funding that education needs to be funded so that students are given an equal opportunity to succeed. Without the funding, any additional programs that a school district offers would not be possible.

Mentoring Program

I think that the problem with education primarily has to do with teacher preparation. Funding does play a significant role in that the money needs to be spent wisely to train teachers and give them resources so that they can be effective teachers. However, after reading the articles and watching the videos for this week I think the main problem with education is that new teachers feel isolated in the classroom when they begin teaching. New teachers are frustrated when they enter the classroom and about 1/3 of all new teachers will leave the field within 3 years from when they started teaching. I like the idea of learning teams. I the video Did You Know? (NCTAF) it stated that young teachers are eager to make a difference and about 55% of retired teachers want to give back to help new teachers and students succeed. I believe that it would make a huge difference in education if experienced teachers could work with new teachers to give them support and to help them become effective teachers. NCTAF found that 70% of teachers nearing retirement would be interested in staying if they were able to work in new education roles in "phased or flexible retirement" (Kirsten Olson). Students are the ones who get hurt in schools that have high turn over rates when teahers are leaving frequently. By having teachers form learning teams the state might actually be saving money because they would be paying experienced teachers less by phasing these teachers into retirement. The video Did You Know? (NCTAF) also stated that in Asia and Europe teachers rarely work alone, they use teamwork to improve teaching. Having a mentoring program as Governor Ted Strickland has suggested could be an effective tool for preparing and retaining new teachers.

Quality education

In order for changes to take place in American education, both issues of teacher preparation and school funding need to be taken into account. In regards to teacher preparation, both college education programs and the first few years of teaching need to be examined. The teacher collaboration and learning team models are in my opinion a fantastic way to approach teacher roles, especially combining veteran teachers with novice ones. In the article Cross-Generational Learning Teams Could Create Millions of ‘Encore’ Careers, Tom Carroll states that “We think our effort to go to scale with encore careers in education is stymied by the current stand-alone teaching model that requires every educator in the classroom to be certified. We want to deliver education with teams of certified teachers and adjunct members who have knowledge and experience in the areas of learning that the teachers and students are working on.” In my opinion, involving parents or community members that can offer expertise or “real life” information on subjects could only improve student interest and learning.

Also, as shown in the NCTAF Did You Know? teaching is the one profession that has not evolved from having one person to using a team approach. Why is this? In my field experiences in college the only teachers I really saw using a team approach were the preschool ones, and it worked very well. I am of the belief that if teachers are able to collaborate then they are able to implement the best ideas for their students. Maybe it needs to be a bigger part of the teacher preparation programs to expose pre-service teachers to the learning team model. Another thing I found interesting was the exercise that Tanya Judd-Pucella did with her students in the Education Week article Teacher Leadership, Hollywood Style. After choosing an influential teacher movie and analyzing the lead role, her students discovered that even the portrayals of “hero” teachers in Hollywood films usually worked alone and did not share their struggles/successes with colleagues.

As far as school funding goes, it appears that Governor Strickland plans to make some beneficial changes to Ohio’s plan by introducing the evidence-based model. According to the article Creators of Evidence-Based Approach Review Ohio Plan on the “School Funding Matters” website, the creators of the model examined Governor Strickland’s plan and concluded “By using the power of all the money available to schools, combined with a growing research base on what kinds of programs work to improve student learning, Ohio has the potential to shift the debate on education away from how much money is needed to how it can most effectively be used to improve student learning”. Perhaps this is the more important part of the issue, not necessarily how much money the school is receiving per pupil, but how they are using that money to benefit the individual student’s learning experience. As unfair as it was to see that the difference in funding per pupil in Northeast Ohio schools is more than $13,000 (Where School Districts Get their Money), I don’t believe that the main factor going into a child’s education is the amount of money that a district can spend on them. The quality of education they receive at school in my opinion depends on the excellence of the educators and administrators that make-up the school environment.

What will save American education: funding or teacher preparation?

What is the answer for American education today? What will save American education: funding or teacher preparation? I think it is a little of both.

According to the presentation by Megan Harzar, school funding can be divided into three areas: instruction, support services, and capital outlay/expenditures. Megan described how school funding in Ohio works in the “Foundation Formula”. Ultimately, local school districts levy taxes at a rate that should provide enough revenue to fund a minimum education. Megan relayed that the state then supplements poor districts who may not reach this minimum educational level. This seems fair and adequate support to those districts who are financially struggling. However, Megan went on to say that “Foundation amounts rarely set in accordance with any realistic analysis of the actual cost of a minimum education”. What can be done?

This is where skilled professional teachers come in. Yes, teachers need to be paid sufficiently in order for them to survive, but I believe that truly gifted teachers who strive for professional success are not in it for the money. These teachers can take the minimum educational resources available to them and teach quite effectively. As I stated in previous reflections on a student’s educational success, I don’t believe that money is the overall answer to whether a poor school district will succeed academically. Society needs to change, and all the money in the world could not turn inadequate schools around. Perhaps, quality teachers and role models might help bring some of these children around. Tennessee statistician William Sanders, disputed before the metropolitan school board in Nashville, January 2001, that there was a connection between poverty and low student performance. He said, “Of all the factors we study—class size, ethnicity, location, poverty—they all pale to triviality in the face of teacher effectiveness”(Noll, 2009).

Three key points as to why teachers cannot be effective facilitators of learning were mentioned in the EdWeek article “Teacher’s Work: Addicted to Busyness” written by Kirsten Olson. They are as follows: One, “external interruptions in the classroom dramatically reduce what one writer in the field has called ‘opportunities to engage intellectually with important ideas’.” Two, reluctant learners in today’s classroom are said to be placed as the critical priority for educators. Perhaps this is due to all of the accountability pressure placed on school districts and teachers. Third, according to Dan C. Lortie in his study of the teaching profession, “most educators have almost no day-to-day socialization or support for sustained attention to or focus on their own learning.” The article focuses on the fact that the busyness and demands of accountability and performance placed on teachers has caused the profession to lose meaning and focus. This conclusion may be exactly correct.

From my own personal experience with the school I placed my children in, money is quite scarce. Teachers, instructional tools, support services, and capital outlay/expenditures are funded by a minimal tuition. The school relies on fund raising events and donations as the means to making up the difference for expenses. This might lead you to believe that we must have poor teachers who could not get a job anywhere else, but this is farthest from the truth. The teachers employed at our school have chosen this educational environment to work in because of their own values, beliefs and career choice. I guess you could say that they feel called to a higher standard, so they are willing to sacrifice for less monetary reward. According to Frederick M. Hess, in “Break the Link” from Education Next (Spring 2002), anyone without proper specified teacher training, should be prohibited from applying for a teaching job (Noll, 2009). At my children’s school, we have several teachers who are not certified to teach and who have had minimal teacher training course work. I am thrilled with their teaching abilities, and would strongly disagree with Mr. Hess’ opinions.

Of course, who wouldn’t want more money to pay teachers adequately, and have more funds for educational resources, technology and special services? However, we must first ask ourselves what is the ultimate goal of education, and what is the bare minimum we need to help educate our young.

Excellence in Education

What defines excellence in education? Wikpedia defines teacher education as "the policies and procedures designed to equip teachers with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and skills they require to perform their tasks effectively in the school and classroom. The process of mentoring is also relevant." This would support my belief that effective classroom teachers are not born, they're made. Just as we demand our children receive a quality education, so we should see that a quality education is what our "teacher-in-training" receives. It is not enough to simply know the subject of what is to be taught. As Ms. Hammond mentioned in our text, "one of the greatest flaws of the 'brightest person myth' is that it presumes that anyone can teach what he or she knows to anyone else. However, [this person has] a very difficult time understanding how to convey material that they themselves learned effortlessly and almost subconsciously." (p. 359) It is frustrating for both the student and the teacher when the teacher knows what information he/she needs to impart, but the student continually is not able to understand that information. Rather than support the idea that "anyone can teach" or that teaching is best learned by "trial and error", we should see that "teachers who have greater knowledge of teaching and learning are more highly rated and are more effective with students."(text, p. 354)
The greater quality of teacher education would no doubt lead to higher student achievement. Teacher education, in my opinion, would then include academic learning, pedagogical studies, mentoring programs, support networks, team-learning and collaboration, as well as continuing professional development. This in turn would increase the creativity and innovation of teaching methods and increase our students' performance. The education of our children is the education of future doctors, lawyers, police officers, judges, firemen, teachers, pastors, and other leaders in our community. Knowledge and skills learned in the school years will prepare the students to be productive citizens in our democratic society. As Dr. Scott mentioned in class, "Nothing is more important than the teacher."
Funding is also important, for without it we could not provide strong educational programs needed for our students and teachers. Education should be a top priority; we should ensure all children receive a quality education. Funding that is targeted to public schools will see the greatest return on taxpayer money and will strengthen the entire economy. Andrew Benson said, "If Ohio is to prepare all its children to succeed in the 21st century, we must direct resources toward strategies that are proven to work and we must give schools a reliable stream of revenue that eliminate the need for an excessive number of levies." (found on www.schoolfundingmatters.org) Education is the most important component of who we are a s a nation. Funding must be there to support our schools, our students, our teachers and our teacher training programs. We must look at new and innovative ways to support the education system. We dare not say that our schools are not important, for they are the key to our success as a nation, both for today and for tomorrow.