I recently read about a teacher on the AJC Get Schooled blog who left the profession he loves because of low wages, perceived flaws in the system, and a general lack of appreciation toward teachers.
As a teacher, I empathize with educators who feel they aren’t valued. And while I believe most people appreciate teachers, our education system has been structured in such a way that it often conveys the opposite message.
I also believe that whenever good teachers leave the profession, our children are at risk of receiving a lesser-quality education. Fortunately, there is hope for teachers who love their profession and their students.
I believe three education reforms designed to help students will also elevate the teaching profession and help keep good teachers in the classroom.
1. Give meaningful feedback through evaluations
There’s a certain satisfaction that comes from knowing you can face a challenge and conquer it. How much good does it do us to set easy goals that require little to no effort? How does it feel when you do work hard, and nobody notices? As professionals, teachers deserve the respect that comes from having high expectations and being entrusted to meet them.
Through the state’s Teacher Keys Effectiveness System — or whichever evaluation system the Legislature chooses to adopt — teachers deserve honest and meaningful feedback on how we stack up.
2. Make teacher pay fair and competitive
When you think about the critical role teachers play in our society, it can be hard to understand why a starting teacher makes about half the salary of a starting computer science grad. Teachers need to be more competitively compensated, but they also need a compensation system that rewards performance. We have some flat-out brilliant teachers in our education system, but we also have some who are less than stellar. Is it fair to give them all the same pay raises?
With Georgia’s new evaluation system, we should begin to reward teachers for their talent and success in pushing student achievement.
3. Provide teachers retirement benefit flexibility
Our workforce today is much different than it was when pension plans were introduced as a retirement benefit more than 100 years ago. For instance, I come from a family of educators. Each of my grandparents stayed in the classroom, all in the same school district, for 20 years or more. The teaching profession is trending now toward educators who are younger and more mobile, which means many teachers won’t be at the same job long enough to receive retirement benefits.
We need a retirement benefit that is more flexible. A benefit that can be easily transferred with the individual teacher is much more appealing than a plan that requires you to be locked into a system for several years before you qualify, and forces you to stay through a specified retirement age.
Education leaders and stakeholders should never lose sight of the fact our students are the primary focus of what we do. By elevating the teaching profession, we will attract and retain more great teachers to the profession, and our students will reap the benefits.
