The firm hired to fill 5,000 substitutes for Philadelphia public schools has managed to hire only 11% of the number needed. The firm was paid $34 million. The money might have been better spent raising teachers’ salaries instead if trying to fill jobs with subs.
Is that a reform strategy? It is certainly not in the interest of the students.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Unless this testing frenzy ends and teachers can get back to teaching, there will be a shortage.
Arne Duncan and his cohorts can always become teachers.
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The word gets out. Subs don’t want to go to districts known to have poor schools. But if they raise the salary of teachers will that also raise the class size since we need that many subs? Exactly why are so many subs needed? High teacher absence, or growing enrollment?
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In our school we needed five substitute teachers on the first day because we had vacancies that the district did not have the budget to fill!
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Phila stopped hiring new substitutes three years ago. They created their own shortage. Very convenient…
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What happened to the rheephorm mantra of “we can do more with less?”
Or perhaps we’re just hearing it wrong. Surely what they meant to say was “we can do a lot less for the kids with a lot more for ourselves.”
😡
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Over the past few days I have read a lot of criticism of the educational system. Part of which I happen to agree with.
But what I have not seen is suggestions on how to do EDUCATION better.
I agree that much of the planning in education is driven more by commerce (viz. the influx of technology – not a single indication that it does any good in gen Ed – over SEVEN BILLION dollars later)!
but how do you suggest “doing education?”
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“…how do you suggest “doing education?”
The way the rich folks do it. Why aren’t Sidwell Friends, Lakeside Academy, U of C Lab School, etc. considered the models for the nation, since they’re good enough for Obama’s, Gate’s and Duncan’s/Rahm’s kids (respectively)?
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That’s just more criticism, not an answer. You can be upset with all the rich people ( most are upset driven by jealousy, but that’s a different topic).
So, let’s try again…
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You are something else. You asked for a positive model of education. I suggested Sidwell Friends, Lakeside Academy and/or U of C Lab School, and you turn around and say “that’s just criticism”. What exactly are you looking for? If you want to know what education for all kids should look like, start with those three schools. If you’re saying that all kids aren’t worth that kind of education, then just come out and say so and we can have that discussion.
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Didn’t see criticism there, sounds like admiration for their results and a practical suggestion that we make all schools like them, in order to close that achievement gap. Your “let’s try again” though feels a little diversionary and condescending…almost like there are some answers you are holding close to your vest. Share, please!
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Dienne: since when did a suggestion for emulating some of the better and more enriched learning and teaching environments turn into “criticism” and “jealousy” of rich people?
Sounds like someone is upset and jealous that you are making sense.
😱
My suggestion to those that want to send the vast majority to the Rheephorm 99¢ Store for world-class luxury EduProducts? Emulate Dienne. Try to steer the conversation to pedagogical goals and bring up some concrete models. Talk about what makes for genuine learning and teaching. Then pony up the “inputs” [see! I know the bidness lingo!] so you can get the desired “outputs.”
dmaxmj: sounds “a little diversionary and condescending”—
I admire your restraint and politeness.
Thank you both for trying to keep it real.
Not rheeal. Even if one exerts all one’s effort in the most Johnsonally sort of ways…
😎
P.S. Want to know what kind of school the heavyweights of the self-styled “education reform” send THEIR OWN CHILDREN to? You know, like Mr. Bill Gates. There’s this newfangled thing called the…just google…and if you’re jealous and upset that you don’t know what this is all about, ask Dienne—she’ll be glad to lead you step by step by tiny step—
Link: http://www.lakesideschool.org
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Why I considered this “The way the rich folks do it. Why aren’t Sidwell Friends, Lakeside Academy, U of C Lab School, etc. considered the models for the nation, since they’re good enough for Obama’s, Gate’s and Duncan’s/Rahm’s kids (respectively)” criticism is obvious in the phrasing.
You do not have to have a lot of money to have a good educational system. Most European countries spend much, much less.
So it’s not a money thing, obviously.
Since I learned about education in the U.S., two “new maths” have been introduced, both much more complicated than the other.
What I miss when walking through 17 elementary schools on a regular basis? Hearing kids recite multiplicat tables. We have computers – but less and less people know how to deal with money should the computer break.
I can figure percentages ( like tips) without having to pull my cell phone.
I can recall information learned years ago because I had to memorize it.
Someone somewhere decided those methods of learning were no longer functional.
Parents were involved – rather than expecting teachers to raise their children. My parents (in holland) were on me making sure my homework was completed. Too few parents care anymore.
Going back to some of the ways in which we KNEW education worked might be a good first step, maybe?
This nation spends more and more money on gadgets, and such. How about putting that SEVEN BILLION in people rather than the latest technology fad? After all, six months from now it’s no longer “fun and engaging.”
Of course, my livelihood is involved with keeping all that technology up and running for our school district…
But I see that it does not change anything in helping kids actually learn something.
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Who said anything about technology? Many of the best schools the rich folks send their kids to have little or no technology. Waldorf, for instance, bans it entirely in the elementary grades and strongly encourages parents not to allow it at home. Other progressive schools may use it, but only in conscious, developmentally appropriate ways as a tool to support learning, not to be the learning. No rich folks would ever send their kids to a Rocketship type school where kids are parked in front of computers for an hour or more a day doing “individualized learning” programs while being babysat by a low-paid minder.
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Technology is pushed and has been sold as the second coming. You do not have to go far to find some tech guru telling you about 21st century skills, which include a heavy dose of tech related training. Do you really think it was the parents and teachers of LAUSD who rose up and said we need one to one computers (ipads) when there was no toilet paper in their schools? I live in one of the primer Midwest school districts. They have controlled tech costs up until recently pretty well but have jumped on the one-to-one wagon. I have not examined the budget recently, but I do know that they have cut the paraprofessional staff drastically. I know the special education staff was not at all happy since they know they will not be able to meet the needs of those kids to the same level, and I imagine the mainstream teachers are missing some of that help in their classrooms. The Board looks at their “dashboard” and cuts a position in half if the number of hours on IEPs dip. If they walked into a classroom and saw what the paraprofessionals (many of them certified teachers) do rather than looking at numbers on a screen, perhaps they would understand the human costs.
As to the lack of rote learning you see in US classrooms, I both agree and disagree with you. My special ed students always had drill exercises for homework (good use for computer games) because their lack of fluency hurt their ability to grasp more advanced math concepts. I remember an (European) exchange student hosted by my in-laws expressing outrage mixed with a sense of superiority that she could name the capitals and major products of every state and US students could not! Seriously? Rote learning is a skill not to be sneered at, but how it is used in instruction and for what purpose is important. Computers should not be used as a replacement for learning how to commit information to memory. I agree that we have swung too far away from building a core of background information as part of developing fluency around a topic.
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“What I miss when walking through 17 elementary schools on a regular basis? ”
You’re quite prolific to have at least 17 kids in 17 elementary schools. How’d you do that?
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Schellekens:
Then you haven’t read enough, because suggestions for improvement have appeared here on a regular basis. Go back and read it all and that includes all the comments.
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Who says I have 17 kids?? I work for a school district and my job takes through all our buildings 32) on a regular basis.
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Let me try this one:
I’ve got some great white sand beach ocean front property over at Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri for sale cheaply. Call now!
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Now on a serious note, if I may ask, what district are you in and what is your position?
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Why does that matter? I have already explained what I do in the district where I work.
In the past I have made that known, and the next thing I get is an email from our superintendent.
I don’t ask that question of anyone else, nor have I seen it asked of anyone else.
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So the fear tactics work, don’t they, and you were one of the victims. How did that feel?
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Ah, you’ve been under security surveillance, eh! I hadn’t read all of your post until after I posted. I can understand your need for security considering just how paranoid almost all adminimals are. I only brought it up because we’ve had a number of folks claiming all kinds of expertise come on here over the years spouting various anti-teacher and anti-public education diatribes and I sometimes my orneriness gets the better of me and I lay some traps to expose those frauds, who then usually leave rather quickly. Not that opposing points of view aren’t accepted, it’s just that those who do spout those things had better be prepared for well documented and thought out responses. Obviously you didn’t take the bait!
Again, having been on the radar of adminimals for most of my teaching career, I understand your desire to keep some things under wraps.
Take care!
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O, but I do have an issue with bad teachers! As much as some on this list do not like that, they do exist! And no diatribe against that idea will make me change my conclusions. The difficulties in removing those does nothing to help students.
Yes, they are in the minority! But even one in the educational life of a student can ruin that student.
But enough of that. I am but a cog in the machine who has the bad (?) fortune to be Dutch – and we prefer not to beat around the bush but say things which need to said.
And one of the tings I have been saying is that a) technology is not a silver bullet, and b) more technology does not make a bad teacher bad, and c) we need to stop jumping on commercial bandwagons.
We (My department) can tell when teachers have been to some conference. They come back with new software- and it is the thing that their kids need in order to become better students. So they try it for a while, find out how much work is involved, they dump it in search of the next best thing.
From what I observe,running after all these latest greatest methods, there is never enough time given to truly apply and work with newer methods…
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Got some Dutch in me somewhere in the ancestry-along with quite a number of other nationalities. So I’m a true American mutt! No pedigree here. I appreciate the straight forwardness as refreshing as most in public education beat around the bush way too much and try to please too many at the same time. It’s one thing to be “nice” but something entirely different when one hides what one believes due to fear of reprisal/hurting feelings.
In 21 years of teaching in the public schools the number of “bad” teachers that I found were minimal and usually they were gone fairly quickly, i.e., after a year or two at the most. What proportion of teachers do you consider as “bad teachers” 1/10, 1/50, 1/100?
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Out of 1300 teachers in our District in 32 buildings, there are at least one or 2 in a building, depending on how big the building. However – one of the things I also notice is that at times people get moved into other roles. And that may be a position (strange enough) where they end up having power over previous co-workers.
Seems like the business world is not the only world where people can get promoted to get them out of the way…
There are teachers who are amazing Their relationship with their students is fantastic. Kids really do learn. Of course, how do you measure true improvement, right?
And there we get back to the subjects of standardized tests. How does a teacher measure (objectively) whether or not “teaching took.?” And it has to be an objective measurement!
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“And it has to be an objective measurement!”
Then, like the Holy Grail, it will never be found as an objective measure of the teaching and learning process does not and cannot logically exist. There are some human interactions that defy measurement. Can you objectively measure the love you have for your spouse or your children (if you have any) or for your parents?
Ain’t gonna happen, can’t happen, even though many have been trying for nearly 100 years now.
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Rudy, no one disagrees. The issue is not whether there are “bad” teachers, but why smear the whole overworked, underpaid profession? There are also bad lawyers, bad doctors, bad governors, bad Congressmen. There is no field where everyone is great. I wish everyone in every field were great. I wish ISIS would disappear. I wish we could beat our swords into plough shares. I wish every administrator would fire every bad teacher, but not based on test scores. I wish every administrator was great too.
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In my exchanges I have made it very clear that I understand the difference between the two. And yes, there are bad workers in any job. I have 45 years of work experience behind me, in a number of different jobs through those years. But on this site we are dealing with the world of education…
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Rudy, stop the teacher-bashing. Go to Campbell Brown’s site for that.
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I’ve worked with many teachers, some were exceptional, some were not, and a few did not belong in the classroom. Many of the last type were eased out by various means. However, the same rights that protected them also protected me and I was not willing to give up my rights so that another teacher could be fired at the will of a principal (a person who may be biased for or against a faculty member for reasons having nothing to do with educating children).
But that’s not my point.
Over the years I have dealt with many teachers – for myself, my four kids, and now my grand kids. In seventh grade my daughter had the least cooperative team of teachers. They didn’t answer my calls, treated my daughter in a questionable matter, and made my life miserable dealing with an unhappy child. Two years later my son had an amazing experience with his team of seventh grade teachers. They bent over backwards to help him (this was my dyslexic child), were in constant communication, and gave my son a positive experience for a great school year.
My point: THEY WERE THE SAME TEACHERS.
After my daughter’s experience I would have fired the lot, after my son’s fantastic year I would have given them a raise.
And this was not a unique situation. My older daughters had some of the same issues. The English teacher who adored my eldest, agreed that her sister should transfer into another class (in a school which rarely changed schedules). A fourth grade teacher who other parents labeled as odd, was the only one to recognize this same sister had some reading issues and helped her get up to level.
There is more to teaching than teaching. There is also the connection between two human beings. The right sort of relationship can be even more important than the subject matter which is taught. And positive attitudes lead to a better learning environment for both student and teacher.
For my son, I requested teachers who didn’t mind having a child who needed extra attention. Not the “best” teachers in the school, but the ones who were nurturing. However, high school was an environment he couldn’t handle (and he had some fantastic teachers who really tried), he ended up with his GED instead. Not the teachers’ fault at all.
Once again, it’s not just about the teacher in front of the room. However, even if they get a “bad” one, that, too, can be a learning experience. Remember, one day they will probably have to work for some incompetent fool who will make their life hell. And I don’t need a Crystal Ball to see that future – I’ve lived it.
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I’m going to add my two bits.
Our daughter moved four times and attended public schools in five different school districts K – 12. During those years, she probably had 40 – 50 teachers.
When she was in her first year of college I asked her how many incompetent teachers she had K – 12. She took her time to think about it and then replied, “TWO!”
Those TWO incompetent teachers didn’t stop her from graduating from Stanford in June of 2014. When she was in 3rd grade, we told her it didn’t matter if the teacher was incompetent or not. She was responsible for the learning and the teacher was only responsible to teach, and that she could learn from every teacher even the burned out ones who are usually labeled as incompetent.
That’s why she graduated from high school a scholar athlete with a 4.65 GPA, because the learning was her responsibility and the teachers could not be blamed.
When I was teaching for thirty years, many of my students who didn’t do any of the work and failed my class were told by their parents it wasn’t their fault if they didn’t do well in school. It was the teachers fault—-my fault even though I was working 60 to 100 hours as a teacher to do the best job possible.
Imagine that I’m standing next to Rudy Schellekens’s ear shouting this as loud as possible sounding like a Marine Corps drill instructor and Rudy has no choice but to stand there and take it:
Why should any child make an effort to learn after hearing that repeatedly from the deformers through the media and their own foolish parents?
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It may be important to ask Rudy to describe an incompetent teacher. Because his own background is with education in Belgium, which he appears to revere, an examination of differences in approach may be in order. I have a feeling that an incompetent teacher is easy to spot no matter where they are teaching and what pedagogical traditions they embrace, but I don’t think we even agree on what indicates incompetence.
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I think an incompetent teacher is someone who can’t control the classroom environment even if they know their material and/or is someone who doesn’t know the material they are teaching because they were assigned to teach a subject they know nothing about. I saw this happen—not a lot but it did happen. Usually those teachers were coaches, PE majors, who were assigned to teach an academic subject in addition to the teams they coached.
In fact, at the high school where I taught one of our winning football coaches, who was very popular with the kids, taught history and the kids called him Mr. Hollywood because instead of teaching he showed one film after another and told lots of jokes.
In my thirty years of teaching, I only knew of ONE teacher like this and the district eventually drove her out so she quit. She taught French.
Others who might be labeled incompetent are burned out and bitter because of the way teachers are treated in this country. I can’t blame them. It happens in the military too when you have an incompetent officer in charge. The troops get bitter and don’t preform their best in training.
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With all due respect, tongue in cheek and all that: you DO know the difference between Belgium and the Netherlands, right? I mean, I have had people ask me if holland was the Capitol of Switzerland.
Marks of a bad teacher:
Reading the textbook as a method of instruction, page after page, out loud to the students.
Using videos to keep your social studies class occupied.
Allowing kids to sleep in class or act disruptive without any correction.
Having no discipline at all in the class room.
Expecting little or nothing from students.
Accept low quality work – and give passing grades.
Lowering to students standards rather than raising students to higher level.
Not knowing their subject (I mean someone who teaches geography all day long should KNOW that holland is not the capital of Switzerland).
I have seen the above on multiple occasions in different levels.
But I have also seen teachers who truly are committed to their students – no matter the behavior of the students.
I have seen teachers whose students were engaged by the teacher in challenging ways – with the students enjoying otherwise boring subjects (I mean – how exciting is algebra anyway?).
I have seen students driven to complete assignments because they did not want to lose the respect of their teacher.
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I didn’t mention your country. When you leave a comment, specify who it’s for.
Your list pretty much sums up what happens to the 1% to 3% of teachers who are burned out from the stress and stay in the profession. Most leave before they’ve been in the classroom 5 years. Many teachers end up with the symptoms you listed after the stress gets to them.
http://www.wafb.com/story/25556879/iteam-classrooms-of-fear-ptsd-for-teachers
“Ingersoll extrapolated and then later confirmed that anywhere between 40 and 50 percent of teachers will leave the classroom within their first five years (that includes the nine and a half percent that leave before the end of their first year.)”
“Those schools that do a far better job of managing and coping with and responding to student behavioral issues have far better teacher retention,” he says. And, in both public and private schools, “buildings in which teachers have more say—their voice counts—have distinctly better teacher retention.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/why-do-teachers-quit/280699/
http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014/07/18/332343240/the-teacher-dropout-crisis
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My sincere apologies. I don’t know where “Belgium” came from especially since I know even less about it than I do the Netherlands. And I even have Dutch ancestors, for Pete’s sake!
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Teachers who are having trouble controlling their class can be taught management techniques, but sometimes the difficulties are not solely their fault. Some administrators create an atmosphere of chaos where faculties are told to solve their own problems with disruptive students. Once these kids realize there is no repercussions for bad behaviors it’s a “free for all” all day long. Then when a superintendent sends a notice to the principals that the suspension rates are too high, even those administrators who are willing to discipline the worst trouble makers find their hands tied. Forget detention when there are no late buses and the building closes down at the end of the day. And the true psychopaths can’t even be put in an Alternative School since that has been closed to save money.
Plus a particular class might be stacked with a disproportionate amount of “troubled” children. This year my husband’s 10th period Earth Science class of thirty students has eleven repeaters who don’t even need to pass the final (they’ve already passed their one required science Regents in Living Environment – so much for high school rigor). My husband is an excellent teacher, but he can’t teach this class like the others. No cooperation means more seat work. It’s not a matter of being a bad teacher, it’s a matter of survival.
Finally, I’ll talk about my situation. As the librarian I had control because the students knew I could kick them out if they didn’t follow the rules. Then the principal decided to assign students to the library and have me teach them some study skills. Unfortunately it was not a real class since there wasn’t a consistent set of students for each day. It was basically a themed study hall. There was no grade, no accountability – just a bunch of kids who wanted some free time. They knew my hands were tied since I couldn’t kick them out and they treated me like a substitute teacher. Something similar happened to the music and art teacher who were also given “study hall classes to teach”. The same kids who were perfectly well behaved as library patrons were hellions in this make believe class. I pulled out all the stops, but this was middle school, and nothing seemed to work. Rewards, punishments, threats, cajoling, interesting assignments (tough to do with a dry subject such as study skills), computer privileges, free time, etc. – nothing I did could change their attitudes.
When I was allowed to do my real job, I was fine. When given a ridiculous task, not so much. (Plus, I had already taught study skills to sixth graders as part of MY curriculum.)
So, questionable class control does not a bad teacher make.
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And how many teachers have had really disruptive students sent back to class shortly after sending them to the office with the response from administrators being the teacher must lack class management skills? Some administrators seem to have a gift for avoiding responsibility for supporting teachers. As a former middle school substitute teacher, I feel your pain. 🙂
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Yep. This lame tactic was being used back in the 1980s after the fraud of “A Nation At Risk” came out in 1983. But no administrator had the courage to use that on me, but there was one fool who told the entire staff he had a closed door policy and if us teachers had any problems with students behavior, it was our fault because we didn’t have good classroom control. He didn’t confront me to my face, because he said it to the entire staff soon after he took over that middle school.
Later, in a meeting in his office, he accused me of being a failure because of the failure rate in my classroom. As I was seriously thinking of tearing his throat out—something I learned in the Marines in hand to hand combat training—I calmly said, “I never fail anyone. Students who fail my class fail because they didn’t do enough work to pass. The grades in my class are not based on tests. Grades are based on the number of completed and correct assignments.”
He never bothered me again, and students who didn’t do enough work kept failing in my class.
You should have heard the teachers talking about him later. If he’d said something like that in a combat zone like Korea, Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan, he would have been shot in the back or fragged in no time—fools, bullies and idiots who are officers don’t last long in a front line unit.
As one of my students told his parents during parent conference night:
Parent, said in front of me, “Is this the teacher who can’t control his class and it’s too noisy to think?”
Student, “No, mom, his classroom is quieter than a church most of the time.”
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“Some administrators create an atmosphere of chaos where faculties are told to solve their own problems with disruptive students. Once these kids realize there is no repercussions for bad behaviors it’s a “free for all” all day long.”
I know exactly what you mean because I worked under a few administrators like this. In fact, when this happened with one principal the teachers organized support teams. Because we couldn’t send kids to the office when they refused to cooperate and kept disrupting the learning environment we sent them to another teacher’s room for a time out. At the end of the first year with this particular principal, half the staff left. They either retired early, left teaching early or transferred to other schools in that district. A few teachers found jobs in other districts and left.
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I must admit, I called some parents so often we were on a first name basis. Nice people but they didn’t have a clue how to handle their own children.
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I was told repeatedly that I made more phone calls to parents than any teacher on the high school’s staff. I had parents that hated to get a phone call from me and they usually did nothing to help their child learn but I called them anyway and kept detailed notes of every call so when some of these poor parents accused me of being a lousy teacher and never contacting them, out came the records to prove they were wrong.
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By the way I agree with what you say about technology not being the be all, end all when it comes to the teaching and learning process, and that it can actually hinder more traditional learning, of the kind of which you speak, learning facts, memorization, etc. . . . I didn’t use the computer labs until my last year and I wanted to see what was available and I wasn’t surprised at the lack of quality programs and certainly wouldn’t have continued using it (computer technology) had I kept teaching. But as I used to tell the students “Billions of people have learned to speak a second language way before computers were around and there are many more traditional methods that actually work better”. And I’m not a fan of the teach less (don’t teach grammar and especially don’t force students to learn vocabulary through memorization-utter bullshit) and the student’s will learn more crap that is in most texts these days.
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There will always be some students at the top, a large group in the middle, and some at the bottom who do not make it. Such is life; such are the laws of nature and the Universe. One can put in place all of the reforms, charters, etc. one wants but absolutely nothing will change. Life is a bell curve. Not matter how hard I practice, go to the best running schools, etc. I will never, ever be able to beat Usain Bolt in the 100m. Charters are a false hope. If every student will succeed, that implies a utopia where there is a 0% unemployment rate, 0% crime rate and nobody is in prison. That will never happen.
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Top, bottom and middle of what? If there’s only one definition of “success” (test scores, for instance), then, yes, some will succeed, some will plod along and some will fail.
But there’s no reason at all to limit success to one metric or one arena. Everyone can be good at something. There is a place for everyone in this world and everyone has something to contribute. And there’s no reason to rank anybody against anybody else.
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I am 100% against Common Core and rediculous testing. Echools should take a holistic approach. I also cannot stand TFA, Gates, Broad, et al. Just stating the 4.5 billion years of natural law.
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The only good news is that now we can say “we tried that. it didn’t work.”
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Education will improve when teaching posts are filled with well trained, experienced, talented and creative professionals who are treated with the respect they deserve. Once ensconced in those positions, teachers can fight for their pupils and mentor the new teachers who are committing themselves to the cause.
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…and filled with professionals, as you described, who are also paid well. Money is important! It’s a huge factor teachers leave! And a huge factor keeping people from pursuing the profession. 😀
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The district could fill only 60% of the sub vacancy when paying on average between $100-$200 a day. Teaching in under resourced, high poverty schools is difficult and demanding, subing in these schools is even more so. So when they reduce the pay to 75.00/day (which amounts to not much more than minimum wage) how do they expect to attract more substitute teachers?
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Bingo, bango, boingo!
I wish I could get that $200/day subbing for being a retired teacher. As it is, I will get $100/day. But then again I live in a rural poverty district and cost of living here is quite a bit less than living in a city.
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Dang! They just raised the sub pay to $100/ day in the suburban district where I subbed up until this year and believe me cost of living is high. The poor district where I last taught now has to pay subs $120/ day to get people to sub. Long term subs make over $200. That district is so messed up that they are still struggling to find teachers.
By the way, Duane, I describe myself as a mutt too! My Black and Latino students were puzzled by my description until I started naming all the countries from which my ancestors hailed. One of my Black students was surprised to hear that we both had native American blood although the mutt description is by far the most accurate of me.
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Too many of those who expect ‘one size fits all’ reform to work have forgotten a very important point. Students are INDIVIDUALS. That means they are not identical. Even identical twins are not necessarily educationally identical. For several years there has been a push for differentiated learning — allowing students to learn in a manner most appropriate for them. There are choices on what they study, how they study, what types of projects or assignments they complete. And then suddenly they are all expected to use the exact same assessment, and respond the exact same way. Children are not trees in the forest that can be trimmed and shaped into uniform pieces of lumber. They are as diverse as the stars in the sky and the sands on the shore. It is incomprehensible to expect all students to react identically to the same stimulus (lesson or assessment). It is beyond ludicrous to test students repeatedly in a way that does not match their learning style, most especially when the sole purpose of the test is to tell the student they are not as good as a random percentage of the students in the entire state or nation.
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I guess the lesson here is,”You get what you pay for.” Even with the rates under the contract of the PFT, they were filling 60% per cent of the vacancies versus 11%. Subbing in Philadelphia is hard work. If they want to attract more quality people, they will have to make it more attractive to perspective candidates.
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Where’s that vaunted free market at when you need it. If that market actually worked the sub pay would probably be $300-350 per day considering they could only fill 61% at the lower pay scales, even with the $230/day for the retired.
Market is falling down, not doing its job, being lazy, incompetent, etc. . . .
Oh, what you say? The market is just a descriptor of human economic activity and doesn’t/can’t “do” anything? What? Come on TE tell me it ain’t so!!!
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“We fully anticipate that the learning curve will soon go away, and we’ll soon be generating better results.”
Proof of competence to do the job was not a requirment for getting the multi-million contract.
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Those better results will mean more profits for the company, not better teaching and/or sub coverage for the children.
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Makes sense to pay subs less and think that more will sign up. It’s scary that a company like this is allowed to hire any type of teacher and work within a school district.
Does anyone know what their fill rates are at other area districts? And rates of pay? How much do their administrators earn?
Also, their plan to fill 90% of absences by January 2016 for the SDP comes with a plan that hasn’t been disclosed to the public. Is there a way to get them to do so?
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I think the fact that even $34 million wasn’t enough to fill all those sub slots is proof that the people are learning what’s really going on in public educatoin and voting by walking away. Most people will avoid conflict. Only a few will have the courage to confront the fear and overcome it to fight back. The problem with that is if they don’t work to stop what’s going on now, it will keep getting worse until it envelops them anyway no matter how hard they tried to avoid it.
You can’t run away from someone who is determined to rob you.
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Philadelphia Teachers, I suspect a major attack of the Blue Flu striking your school system early in the school year. The day after Halloween is my prediction, while sugar filled excited kidlets wiggle in their seats, not permitted to have recess, with upset candy-filled tummies, no school nurses and parents who are unable to pick up their children.
Yup, Blue Flu!
Your children will be in good hands with the 11% highly paid and skilled substitute teachers – and a $34M company standing behind them.
I can think of several other Blue Flu Days – let our $34M Subs Shine Days.
Gesundheit!
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Seeing faux education reform for what it really is…widening the gap….one wasted million$ after another$….
Philadelphia superintendent, Dr William “Call me Bill” Hite..is a Broad Academy graduate…doing a fine job (!?)
( PS. Meanwhile….teachers get 1 ream of copy paper/month….until supply runs out…usually about Jan…if they get any at all)
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Being a substitute teacher is one of the worst jobs ever – no respect, low pay, and beyond normal endurance ( unless you are well known within one building).
I’d compare it to mucking out a stall. At the end of the day you feel “slightly” soiled. Only newbies trying to break into the field or retirees who want to make a little extra money to pay for vacations are willing to endure the stress.
I’m sure this company wasn’t paying more than a gig at MacDonalds (probably a little more than half of the anticipated $15 an hour which will eventually be paid to fast food workers in NYS).
So – Don’t expect people to stand in line waiting for the “privilege” of becoming a substitute teacher.
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Most school districts don’t pay by the hour. They pay by the day and pay ranges from $25 a day to more than $100 depending on the state and district. The problem with a shortage of subs is that when there aren’t enough subs, the kids from classrooms without subs will be grouped together in a larger space with one sub to watch several class with possibly an administrator watching over them too as if they were in a prison. No matter what they do, there will be no teaching and no learning. There will only be crowd control and the kids will get to stay in the same seat and maybe socialize if they keep it down. The kids will think how boring it is and go home and complain. That will probably make the corporate Charters look even more attractive as they spend millions on crap propaganda full of promises and lies.
“Daily pay (in Philadelphia) can vary from $40 for an uncertified teacher to $180 for a retiree who has worked for 30 days in the school year. There are also long-term substitutes paid on a salaried basis.”
http://thenotebook.org/blog/158459/district-plans-outsource-substitute-service
FORTY DOLLARS!
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$40 – less than MacDonalds
Long term subs are another gyp – you have just as much work as a salaried teacher but less than half the pay.
No sub! Sometimes the classes are broken up and sent into other classrooms for the day (elementary grades) or at the high school level – teachers give up their prep period to watch another teacher’s class. Or – the classes congregate in the library for the librarian to babysit. Been there, done that.
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Being very familiar with this company they contracted with, I believe the rate they are paying is 75.00/day, which is NOT what they pay in suburban districts they are also contracted with! Again, I work within a sister company of this and work along side people working for the company contracted to do this job – sadly I don’t see it working 😦
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I subbed for a while after I got my teaching certificate.
I was paid $35 a day.
Granted, that was some time ago, but not much even for the time.
And with the lousy pay that the company in Philly is currently offering, it’s not surprising they are getting few takers.
Subbing is not an easy job — and pretty thankless.
I hated it — especially not knowing until 5:30 am where I would be working that day.
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$35 – that was a good gig. The schools I subbed at paid $25. I think they are up to $50 a day now, maybe $75. Only Buffalo pays close to $100 a day ($110 if you are a retired teacher), unless it is a long term position.
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After I finished my year long, full time urban residency and earned my teaching credential, I was a sub for two full years and I worked every day and like you I never knew what district, grade level, subject or school I’d be at. Living in an urban area, I was signed up as a sub in six school districts, but I worked mostly in the one where I had been an urban residency teacher. Teachers in that district booked me in advance when they could. I think that was because of what’s called word of mouth.
The offer to teach full time came out of that subbing. I had subbed a lot at the intermediate school where I was hired to become a full time teacher working under contract. I also subbed a lot at the elementary schools that fed that middle school. In fact, the elementary school where I did my urban residency was one of those feeder schools.
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This company they hired can’t even find enough subs in the cushy suburban districts they are contracted with! Not even sure how they thought they could fill 5,000 positions in Philly with the pay that they offer! I am very familiar with this company and I am confident they will not succeed, which is very sad for the children and teachers depending on them.
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European schools spend much less on education because they have an entire system wrapped around families not just dumping all of societal ills on schools.
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That works out to about 62k per sub…crony capitalism at its finest
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$ 62K per sub is actually bargain basement cheap.
The Virginia class sub used by the US Navy currently runs about $2.7 billion (according to wikipedia).
And research subs used by oceanographers usually run into the millions.
Not sure why the Philly subs are so cheap, but if I were them, I’d be careful about deploying them in districts that are under water cuz they might not be water tight.
Hope that helps.
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Then there are teachers who are subs, and they get paid close to the bargain price of a $6 sub from Subway—and that comes with an added child molester who promotes the sub.
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