Educational Reform in California

*** Let me preface this by saying these are just my opinions, rants, etc... proceed with caution***

Some of you know this and others don't. I work as a financial planner and a majority of my clients are teachers. In fact I am currently sitting in the lounge of an elementary school in Santa Ana. Let me start by saying I am not even sure that we can call the current educational system in California a system. There are way too many things wrong with it. I don't want to seem like I am just here to complain but I think to get a fair understanding I should first lay out what I think are the issues with the system.

1. Mediocrity is rewarded
2. No accountability standards (testing every five days doesn't count)
3. Teaching to a test and not to the student
4. Poor recruitment
5. Watered down recruitment standards
6. Horrible budgeting
7. Lack of innovative thinking and solutions

I could go on with a few more things but I am sure you get the picture. The system is broken in a lot of different places. Now as an outsider let me say that I think the fault lies everywhere. The Unions protect their constituency, the teachers and administrators, the legislators protect their constituency, their election campaign fund, and the parents and children, well there is really no one to protect them. Here are some of the things I would do.

I am going to combine points 1 thru 3 because I feel the solution to these is the most important and I believe my suggestion tackles all three issues. The main key is the need for accountability and the fact that mediocrity should not be rewarded. We harp on our kids constantly that mediocrity in the real world is not rewarded but from my own experience I can tell you that at least 25 -30 % of the teachers I run into are rewarded for just that, mediocrity. Testing is currently the only way that we hold teachers accountable if at all and how we gauge progress in kids. It doesn't work. Remember that kid that was good at all the tests, could ace any of them, was he/she a great student? Remember the other kid that labored, studied hard, did all the homework but struggled with tests, was he/she a bad student?

In my opinion teachers should be held accountable by three constituencies, their peers, the student's parents, and their principal or administrators. At the end of the year each of these three parties should get to fill out surveys in reference to the teacher with the surveys being weighed 33% for both the admin and peers, and 34% for the parents. The teacher portion of this survey would break down as such, surveys by teachers in your grade level and by teachers in the grade level above you, since they can gauge your progress from the previous year. Teachers that teach the 12th grade would be gauged by how many kids they graduate. If a teacher does not get the appropriate marks they would be put on probation for the next two years. Why two you ask, no teacher should be fearful to teach in the manner she chooses, or punished for having a "bad class". The Union would be put on notice as well and they would have two years to make sure they took the opportunity to help their constituent, the teacher. Teachers that end up on the list more than twice would be subject to a one year probation. Again the union would obviously be notified. That would I believe at least start to resolve the first three issues.

Now comes the poor recruitment and the low recruitment standards. Teachers should be the bright of the bright and I am sorry in a lot of schools I go to they are not. A masters degree from University of Phoenix carries the same weight as a degree from Harvard. A masters degree in English Literature, Nuclear Physics, or Education are all of the same value. The government has a similar system of rewarding for units but I am not sure it should be that flat. There has to be some form of subjectivity to the units and degrees people attain when it comes to their pay.

Ever asked a teacher if they get paid enough? Let me know if you find one that thinks they do. Now realistically for the stuff they deal with they probably don't, but neither do a lot of other people in the world. I worked in the restaurant industry for a while at a Farmer Boys, I would challenge anyone to be a lead cook at a fast food restaurant like that and do well. I definitely couldn't hang and those guys get paid 10 - 14 dollars an hour. Now lets take a look at a teachers pay.( I am taking my numbers from the SAUSD pay schedule) A starting teacher with a bachelors degree makes $48000 a year. Lets take a closer look at this number. Teachers get about 12 weeks off a year which is about 10 weeks more than most people. So most people work 50 weeks a year while teachers work 40. So per week a teacher makes $1200. So on an annual basis teachers make $60000 ($1200 * 50) Go offer a college kid a job that pays him $60000 a year and see how many of them balk at that, even out of good institutions. So why can't we recruit people from better schools. In my opinion its simple; no one understands what teachers make or how they make it. Teachers in Santa Ana get paid $60000 on an annual basis, on top of that they get a pension, ten percent of which is funded for them. They have excellent health benefits to which the district contributes pretty healthily. There needs to be a marketing campaign that lets people know what the true salary packages of teachers are worth. One this would help recruit better teachers, and two teachers themselves would get a better understanding of where they stand in comparison to other professions. Without actually changing anything we would make teaching seem like a good choice.

Now for the budgeting issues, not much to be done there. The districts just have to be forced to run on a ten year average. What I mean by that is districts should look at what they have received in funding over the last ten years. In any year that they have a surplus over that average they should be forced to save a significant portion of that in a rainy day fund. In years that they are below the shortfall can be covered by that fund.

This last problem is a problem with the system. We need to let teachers be creative and teach to the needs of the class in front of them. By force feeding formulaic teaching ciricullums to teachers we are taking away the whole point of having them, to teach. I agree that schools need to teach similar stuff so kids are on the same level, but lets be realistic kids are not on the same level. No two classes are the same and teachers should be able to shift according to the class in front of them.

Ok this has been a very long rant, and if any of you have gotten to this point I congratulate you. I am not sure I would have made it. These are some rudimentary suggestions and obviously I am an outsider looking in but I hope at least some of my points make sense.