North Carolina legislators, ever on the hunt for ways to demoralize teachers, decided there would be no extra pay for masters’ degrees.
This is their way of showing their contempt for education. They don’t see the return on investment for a masters’ degree in history or science or special education.
Teachers with existing masters are grandfathered in, and those enrolled in masters programs now may be out if luck.
Expect the education level of teachers in NC to decline. A victory for ignorance.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
In a few years, after Appalachian State U., East Carolina, UNC Greensboro and Charlotte, Mars Hill, Gardner Webb and all the other schools that offer these masters degrees have lower enrollments and finances from it, they will then go to the Legislature to see what can be worked out, I suppose.
Again, why were these University professors not louder about this? Where are they?
Maybe they were loud and I just didn’t know it. But I don’t hear them.
Our politics of back and forth—make it, break it, put your stamp on it, take their stamp off it, undo it, redo it, etc. is like a roller coaster ride.
I am a lucky “grandfathered” in one—but really, I don’t feel so lucky. I don’t understand that decision at all. I am still paying for that Masters, so basically I just get the raise in my check and pay for the degree. I doubt I will ever be ahead on it in that way.
I am still glad I have it. They can’t take that away.
Why have so many professors at graduate schools of education been silent throughout this misguided reform movement? Will this finally wake them up?
Apparently, education is bad for education.
They are increasing the numbers of uneducated “educators” who will be telling kids how important it is to be educated, so it’s a matter of, “Do as I say, not as I do.”
When politicians and venture philanthropists push this nonsense, and trot out papers purchased from their think tanks and economists to support them, when there is legitimate evidence to the contrary, it could not be any more clear that education is only about money to them.
The Master’s Degree Effects?
http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2012/02/29/02effect.h05.html
Educated teachers will only ask questions, think for themselves and cause trouble. It is easier to manage the revolving fleet of doe eyed newbies grateful for a job.
The legislature in North Carolina is by no means done.
Removel of tenure, no extra pay for masters, and let’s not forget about the tremendous revolving door that will now stream in TFA people and newbies who are not bright or ambitious enough to pursue a masters.
Are they trying to dumb down NC?
Is the legislature attempting to reduce it to one horrbile Jeff Foxworthy southern sterotype where everyone is a backwoods dweller who eats possum roadkill and marries their cousin (I am not at all a proponent of such crudenessl, but am referring to a comic’s hyperbolic use of imagery here. . . I don’t at all believe that about the South).
Everyone boasts about the South as a great place to buy a house or retire because of the low taxes.
To an extent, we get what we pay for.
Remind me to never use an attorney or doctor 25 years from now who grew up in NC and went through the education system. . . chances are, their critical thinking skills won’t be as strong as what’s found in other parts of this already fragmented and divided country. Chances are, they will have gone through a system that became wildly polarized and stratified.
Well now slow down. Some parents are going to navigate their young ones through this and there will be some NC youngens’ who will turn out just fine (believe me my children will not suffer at the hands of Raleigh—we will be sure they read and learn and think).
It just means those of us who graduated from top tier schools (mine was 30 on Forbes, my husband’s 48th) need to start running for office.
Joanna, I know you will do your Best.
Your suggestion is right on target, and once you have your platform ready, please send it and I will pass it to friends of mine who live in NC.
Your children will not suffer; I support that unconditionally. Yet, I am thinking of the masses, as I know you must be also.
Oh Robert, you of all people should know that anyone affiliated with TFA is by definition bester, brighter and more excellenter than the teachers they replace.
They’re so much bester, brighter and more excellenter that they only need five weeks to accomplish what other teachers take years to do, and then “crush” them even further.
Is Ms. Best associated with TFA? That was not my impression.
And what’s wrong with TFA?
So what that they bust unions and take teachers’ jobs.
Michael, you really are overrating the importance of a middle class. Who needs a middle class? Basically no one except the middle class. Just ask the Waltons, the Broads, the Gates. . .They don’t need the middle class.
Give in, Michael Fiorillo. Come back to the borg. There is no “me”. There is only “us”
Let TFA and the rich eat cake. . . let the rest of the middle class open a snack sized wrapper of Choco-diles, hydrogenated peanut butter cream filling and all . . . .
Teach for America Apostates: a Primer of Alumni Resistance
By Owen Davis
Colonizer, carpet baggers, scabs?
http://www.truth-out.org/articles/item/17750-teach-for-america-apostates-a-primer-of-alumni-resistance
Linda, I’m changing their title form “Teach for America” to “Leech in America” . . .
Here we call them “Teach for Awhile”.
I like it. 🙂
The article also mentions: union busting brigade and charter reserve army. I have also read Teach for Wendy’s wallet.
Linda, Wendy is Kopp-out.
I meant ” . . . . is a Kopp-out”.
Linda, I read about the Hernandez situation, and innocent or guilty, the whole thing is perverse and sad.
And those damn guns . . . . !
His buddies are all turning on him…doesn’t look good for him. He is even on tape in his own house holding a gun an hour after the shooting. Sorry….we’re hogging the blog now for current events. I always read and appreciate your posts.
Likewise . . .
Robert: I went to a top tier school, but I am not associated with TFA. I went back to school later and earned my teaching credentials the traditional way at Appalachian State.
I did date a TFAer one summer. He was younger than me. Because of that I agree with not attacking people; only company philosophies.
I come from a long line of NC public educators (and Presbyterian ministers).
Joanna,
Thank you for your note.
I agree with you.
More power to you for going into education using an appropriate route. If I may impose, I have a few thoughts about TFA. I’m actually working on an editorial cartoon about TFA for the blog “Schools Matter at The Chalkface” per a recent assignment.
The young and younger people who enter TFA are bright, earnest, well intending, and so many of them believe they can make a difference. There is no sarcasm here when I say that the approach and philosophy they hold is noble and to be emulated by all of us, regardless of our backgrounds.
It is unfortunate that they are trained with this test-and-measure-to-death method which misguides them into thinking what effective teaching and learning is all about. They also get a cursory experience with the concept of endurance, a trait that is indispensable to pedagogical acumen.
I cannot say at all what TFAers will think or become after they leave (most of them) their two year assignment, but one of the dangers here is that Wendy Kopp et al take very young and relatively naive bright individuals and shape their thinking about what education should be.
The peril there lies in the fact that once participants leave, they will become our future voters, taxpayers, and policy makers to varying extents. They will have been ill informed from their experiences in TFA.
Then again, many of them could turn around and conclude that what they did was noble and righteous but the real challenges of excellence in teaching and learning, of creating excellent and supported learning environments, and of what it means to be educated were in fact never addressed in any substantial way by TFA. That in turn may get them to rethink this whole reform movement and question policies like NCLB and RttT.
Gary Rubenstein is an ex-TFA-pat, and he is one such example.
TFA is actually, I think, an excellent concept and practice if it were put into proper use. TFA people should be flooding the schools to aid and assist experienced, credentialed teachers. More able bodied, willing, and bright adults acting in conert together to empower children is what every society should do.
Instead, the lines have been blurred and outright crossed. TFA participants should never be in a system to replace teachers, weaken their labor rights (which inextricably and irrevocably translates into learning environments for children), privatize, semi-privatize, aid charterization, or remove schools as a common good, a public trust. Nor should their presence incentivize the federal government to use fewer of our precioous tax dollars, too many of which pay for military campaigns, to support public schools. Nor should TFA participants serve as scabs, intentional or not.
If it were me, and I wanted to make a difference in the medical field with an organization like Doctors without Borders, I could never imagine myself or anyone else going out into the world and treating patients medically other than dressing superficial, topical wounds. I could be there to aid doctors and nurses directly in a manner that is commensurate with my knowledge and experience, but only to that extent and if it did not get in the way of the experts who were educated and did practicums in their field.
I’m afraid Wendy Kopp has transformed a wonderful and beneficial concept into something it was never supposed to be. She has not learned that a teaspoon of honey in your tea enhances the experience of drinking it. Insteaed, she pours cups of it into the mix and is turning many unsuspecting drinkers into diabetics.
The sweetness of doing good for others may always taste good, but its internal effects can produce either harmony or illness.
The morphing usage and purpose of TFA is going to make a lot of children’s brains sick . . . .
Long live ignorance! The more ignorant future voters are, the more likely they will be to vote Republican. The US will be blessed with more devotees of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Fox Newx.
Well, furthermore, think about the domino effect. If the education masters degrees are rendered pointless, teachers won’t spend their money on them. Then the courses will fold. The professors will be out of jobs. The goal of undermining public education will be aided even further. Clever, eh? Coincidence?
And many current professors as well as up and coming PhD’s will all end up working somewhere for $25K a year.
Maybe Walmart will hire them?
Oops . . . I forgot: Walmart has 100,000 jobs literally lined up for vets returning from a tour as long as they have not been on tour for at least a year and as long as they were not dishonorably discharged.
So much for PhD’s competing in the job market. So much for brighter futures for our men and women in uniform . . .
And welcome to Indiana, where this has already happened. Our thanks go to Tony Bennett for getting rid of the bump for a masters degree. That Tony– what a visionary. Too bad about that little grade fixing incident.
This is all so transparent. Perhaps that is why no one can see it.
Sadly everyone will pay for it in some way.
As a teacher (and yes I have Masters degree; even have an endorsement to go with it) don’t think I would want to move to NC if my life depended on it. I feel sorry for all the hardworking, certified NC teachers.
It’s not just North Carolina. I have a friend who got a masters’ and will only get a pay raise if he does the expensive, time-consuming portfolio to get him to level three on the pay scale. To add insult to injury, when they cut out elementary librarians, he moved to the high school and was required to spend another $450 to take a class on secondary level methods. It was on teaching science. Apparently 18 years of experience and the masters wasn’t enough.
Reblogged this on Carolina Mountain Blue and commented:
Figures…is there no shame to North Carolina’s efforts to dumb down the state’s educational system ? Is there?
Apparently TN and NC are vying to win the Race to Ignorance.
I would gladly trade off having no pay increase for increased education if the state would in return drop the requirement that I continue to take classes for renewing my license. The increase in pay (at least where I work) is never enough to cover the opportunity cost of lost summer income and tuition, but still I have to take these classes that, let’s be honest, do not make me a better teacher.
Are there classes that you would find useful?
And yet, folks in the ‘real’ world who are looking for work or seeking to improve career prospects are advised to go back to school so that they can earn more money…
Yep, that is generally true. But then there are the elites who have easy access to patronage jobs in either the private or public sector, like Arne Duncan, who does not have and never needed a master’s degree to get ahead and thinks they’re a waste of money for teachers.
I guess he didn’t look at the NAEP data demonstrating the efficacy of master’s degrees stored in his own U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress: http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2012/02/29/02effect.h05.html
Unfortunately, that is the case here in the public system in Queensland.