The Weakest Link

from the NY Times: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/education/30educ.html?ref=education

A new federal study has shown that nearly 1/3 of all U.S. states have lowered their academic proficiency standards to help the schools comply with the No Child Left Behind law, which threatens schools with penalties if they do not have 100% of all students proficient in reading and math by 2014. Schools, struggling under low teacher pay, long educator hours, and cut budgets, did the only thing they could do. If the kids can't get to the mountain, bring the mountain to them. 

We may want to blame the schools for such a low move, but really, lets look at the policies that set the standards with no means (budgets) to create them. Spin straw into gold? We're not Rumpelstiltskin here. 

The (mis)education of america

Welcome to the first post of a three part series on the conversation around the educational heroes from "The GOOD 100" ( http://awesome.good.is/good100/good100.html ), a collection of exciting, innovative ideas that are changing our world for the better from GOOD Magazine. There are three projects that relate to education I'd like to discuss- The Teacher Salary Project is the first. 

According to GOOD magazine, 46% of public-school teachers leave the school system within their first five years. They are lead astray by jobs in the marketplace that pay them higher than the average new teacher salary of $35,000 USD a year. Based on the ideas of Daniel Moulthrop, Ninive Calegari and Dave Eggers, the Teacher Salary Project uses media and advocacy to show how teachers change the world one student at a time, and how they should be paid a salary that is deserving for such a feat. 

Lets think about this- every one reading this now does so because they were taught to read.

How much is that worth to you? 

(If you answered less than your current salary, think again... could you do your job if you were illiterate?) 

Your ability to do your job, and do it well, is due to the tireless efforts of teachers in your life. It is important to remember that schooling is not John Donne's island- it is a community effort and a community reward. Giving our children a premier education is not enough- we must strive to give everyone our children may interact with an equal education, as they will be our children's future doctors, our children's future neighbors, our children's future co-habitants of the world. The easiest way to protect our kids is to surround them by people who have equal opportunities and ample choices for a good life. 

According to the Teacher Salary Project website ( http://www.theteachersalaryproject.org/about.html#aboutProj ) 30% of American high school students drop out of school by the time they are 18. That means 3 out of 10 of your children's classmates will drop out of school. Those people will have a harder time getting a living wage job, supporting a family, or having opportunities in the future. And we need to stop thinking that it is just a number, and it doesn't affect us. It does- it affects the entire community. Lets send our children into a world where there is low crime, high standards of living, where everyone can climb to the top of Maslow's pyramid of self-actualization. 

We get good citizens by giving a good education. We get a good education by retaining good teachers. We retain good teachers by paying them a salary worthy of their commitment and their results. We make this happen by missions like the Teacher Salary Project. 

For more information check out these websites:

The Teacher Salary Project website: http://www.theteachersalaryproject.org/index.html

Op-Ed, Teacher Salary Reform: http://www.nj.com/opinion/times/oped/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1256363156150360.xml&coll=5

Teacher Pay and Teacher Quality: http://www.upjohninst.org/publications/ch1/tptq.pdf

Are Teachers paid too Little... or too Much? : http://www.aei.org/EMStaticPage/302?page=Summary

The Chicken or the Egg?

 

This seems to be a classic issue with new ventures. What comes first? The chicken or the egg? In the case of environmental and sustainable education, there seems to be the challenge of programs and students, the chickens and the eggs.  Often, schools want to offer a course or class in a sustainability topic but they may find they do not have teachers who are well versed in the full subject matter.  From the alternative perspective, teachers may want to continue their education in the sustainability field to offer such classes, but cannot find institutions to offer them a degree, or an endorsement.

 

From a personal perspective, I have found two situations in which this has come up in the environmental and sustainability front.

 

One is Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI) and the other is the new Washington State specialty endorsement for Environmental and Sustainability Education that was announced last spring.  BGI took the proactive approach to sustainability education, a “If you build it, they will come” sort of philosophy. They made a MBA program focusing on sustainable business and social justice, at that time, seven years ago, with only a handful of students, most of those invited and asked to come. Now, the school is a nationally accredited program with huge wait lists and an active student body.

 

The second example is the Washington State special endorsement for Environmental and Sustainability Education. After attending BGI, I will be fully qualified to teach this subject. However, after talking to a few institutions, I am unable to get that endorsement because no one offers it (yet). The main question has been is if we offer teachers this endorsement, will they find a position? No school has a Sustainability class- how can they get placement? But so often is forgotten is the opposite- how can a school offer a subject without a qualified teacher?

 

So let us take an example from BGI and say, Let us build it. They will come. 

Welcome to GreenAbalone

GreenAbalone is a blog dedicated to education. More specifically, Social Justice and Sustainability within the K-12 Schools within the United States. I hope to find those fellow green abalones in the educational system- those schools and programs that are standing out in the crowd to deliver sustainable and environmental education to public and private schools, people who are passionate within the field and making a difference, and the problems we have as a society to give the next generations the toolbox needed to thrive. I want to see what is going on out there, start the conversation.

Join me.