> I didn't claim that teachers take their stress out on students. I simply claimed that if they did, they are horrible and unprofessional.
That's the linkage I'm talking about: that ignores the possibility that the job has unreasonable expectations. One person, sure, maybe they have problems but when a high percentage of the field reports low job satisfaction and cites things like long hours and poor support as reasons for leaving, it's irresponsible not to ask whether the system is setup correctly.
Here in DC, hitting the right numbers gets a bonus which is close to 50% of your salary – or nothing if you're slightly low, and the school administrators both track things closely and are prone to saying the only reason for not hitting your numbers is that you don't care enough, weren't willing to put in the effort, don't believe disadvantaged kids deserve quality education, etc. That produces a cycle where you get very enthusiastic, motivated teachers fresh out of college who are basically in crunch mode for the entire school year before eventually realizing that random chance makes it very hard to hit the targets consistently and their efforts won't be appreciated otherwise.
> I don't know how you think teachers have the least agency. Their choice sets include a) doing their job, b) not doing their job and c) quitting and finding a job they don't suck at. (I did the last one, although emotional leakage was not what made me a bad teacher.) In contrast, the students usually don't have the choice of finding a teacher who does their job.
I said one of the parties with the least agency because they don't have control over the students coming in, the curriculum or the expectations (e.g. one school near here puts second-year ESL students in AP English based on age, even if the teacher knows they would learn more with more basic coverage first), and don't have the ability to get the school or parents to provide support. The students were the reason I said “one of” since they do have even less control.
I'm glad that you were able to take the option of going somewhere else but that's hard for many people to do unless they happen to have skills which are in demand in industry. Unlike many other jobs, there are only a few employers in most areas and they hire at set times of year. If you're the CS teacher and have picked up some PHP, that's probably manageable but if you're an English teacher you're probably looking at a career reset or either taking a much longer commute or moving.
Kind of makes you wonder how truthful their harder to verify claims are.
Here in DC, hitting the right numbers gets a bonus which is close to 50% of your salary – or nothing if you're slightly low...
You've found a bad bonus structure. Making the bonus linear in value-add would solve this problem. Again - not a problem with testing at all.
Or maybe it's not such a bad bonus structure - I'm told that cliffs are a great way to motivate salespeople. I guess salespeople are better at managing their emotions than teachers?
That's the linkage I'm talking about: that ignores the possibility that the job has unreasonable expectations. One person, sure, maybe they have problems but when a high percentage of the field reports low job satisfaction and cites things like long hours and poor support as reasons for leaving, it's irresponsible not to ask whether the system is setup correctly.
Here in DC, hitting the right numbers gets a bonus which is close to 50% of your salary – or nothing if you're slightly low, and the school administrators both track things closely and are prone to saying the only reason for not hitting your numbers is that you don't care enough, weren't willing to put in the effort, don't believe disadvantaged kids deserve quality education, etc. That produces a cycle where you get very enthusiastic, motivated teachers fresh out of college who are basically in crunch mode for the entire school year before eventually realizing that random chance makes it very hard to hit the targets consistently and their efforts won't be appreciated otherwise.
> I don't know how you think teachers have the least agency. Their choice sets include a) doing their job, b) not doing their job and c) quitting and finding a job they don't suck at. (I did the last one, although emotional leakage was not what made me a bad teacher.) In contrast, the students usually don't have the choice of finding a teacher who does their job.
I said one of the parties with the least agency because they don't have control over the students coming in, the curriculum or the expectations (e.g. one school near here puts second-year ESL students in AP English based on age, even if the teacher knows they would learn more with more basic coverage first), and don't have the ability to get the school or parents to provide support. The students were the reason I said “one of” since they do have even less control.
I'm glad that you were able to take the option of going somewhere else but that's hard for many people to do unless they happen to have skills which are in demand in industry. Unlike many other jobs, there are only a few employers in most areas and they hire at set times of year. If you're the CS teacher and have picked up some PHP, that's probably manageable but if you're an English teacher you're probably looking at a career reset or either taking a much longer commute or moving.