teach1st
08-07-2005, 05:57 AM
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/12313441.htm
FCATS, teachers, overcrowding: These were a few topics raised in a chat between parents and Miami-Dade's schools chief
The following are excerpts from an approximately hourlong conversation that took place last month. Remarks were edited for clarity and brevity.
...
RECRUITING TEACHERS
Swalina: Along those lines of raising the bar, I guess my question to you is how to get those teachers that do instill that positive attitude in the children: What is being done to recruit the very best teachers? Because I know that there are a lot of teachers that are coming into the profession and leaving the career because of poor pay.
Crew: I think you're absolutely right about the need for being able to recruit excellent teachers here. Money is one of the features to that. But it's not just that. Sometimes it's also a matter of giving them enough autonomy and enough support to be able to do the job. I've seen teachers that are paid at a pretty low level at this point in time as new teachers, first-year teachers, second-year teachers and they're very, very good at what they do, but I know over the course of the next four to five years, I will burn them out. The schools will burn them out if we don't give them support, real support and support in my mind means money.
But we've got a salary structure [for teachers] that is broken. And it's broken from years of problems that existed before I got here and probably before you put your children in the system, since they're younger, and we've got to fix that problem. It's a problem where teachers at the earlier years of their career don't get very much of an increment as they go on. They get 150 to 200 bucks or something like that. After they've taught a whole year, then they get another $250, and so on. It's just crazy. So that's got to be fixed.
...
THE FCAT
Diaz: I'm blessed that I have two gifted daughters and all three have done well on the FCAT. But I feel that they are losing out in core teaching. I asked my young one about social studies: No time to learn social studies -- FCAT, FCAT. Science, she wants to be a doctor. I have to teach her science at home, little topics, because it's not part of the FCAT test. I'm not saying that I'm against FCAT. What I'm against is that the kids are not learning what they used to learn.
Sylvain: I don't want FCAT to replace education. That happened in Haiti. Everybody's working to get to pass the baccalaureate or FCAT. They forget about education. . . [If] everybody's focusing on education, [the] FCAT will be nothing for children to pass it, like the water you're drinking.
Crew: I'm not against testing. But I am against the abuse of testing. I think we can forget about education if all we do is focus on FCAT.
Read more (http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/12313441.htm)
FCATS, teachers, overcrowding: These were a few topics raised in a chat between parents and Miami-Dade's schools chief
The following are excerpts from an approximately hourlong conversation that took place last month. Remarks were edited for clarity and brevity.
...
RECRUITING TEACHERS
Swalina: Along those lines of raising the bar, I guess my question to you is how to get those teachers that do instill that positive attitude in the children: What is being done to recruit the very best teachers? Because I know that there are a lot of teachers that are coming into the profession and leaving the career because of poor pay.
Crew: I think you're absolutely right about the need for being able to recruit excellent teachers here. Money is one of the features to that. But it's not just that. Sometimes it's also a matter of giving them enough autonomy and enough support to be able to do the job. I've seen teachers that are paid at a pretty low level at this point in time as new teachers, first-year teachers, second-year teachers and they're very, very good at what they do, but I know over the course of the next four to five years, I will burn them out. The schools will burn them out if we don't give them support, real support and support in my mind means money.
But we've got a salary structure [for teachers] that is broken. And it's broken from years of problems that existed before I got here and probably before you put your children in the system, since they're younger, and we've got to fix that problem. It's a problem where teachers at the earlier years of their career don't get very much of an increment as they go on. They get 150 to 200 bucks or something like that. After they've taught a whole year, then they get another $250, and so on. It's just crazy. So that's got to be fixed.
...
THE FCAT
Diaz: I'm blessed that I have two gifted daughters and all three have done well on the FCAT. But I feel that they are losing out in core teaching. I asked my young one about social studies: No time to learn social studies -- FCAT, FCAT. Science, she wants to be a doctor. I have to teach her science at home, little topics, because it's not part of the FCAT test. I'm not saying that I'm against FCAT. What I'm against is that the kids are not learning what they used to learn.
Sylvain: I don't want FCAT to replace education. That happened in Haiti. Everybody's working to get to pass the baccalaureate or FCAT. They forget about education. . . [If] everybody's focusing on education, [the] FCAT will be nothing for children to pass it, like the water you're drinking.
Crew: I'm not against testing. But I am against the abuse of testing. I think we can forget about education if all we do is focus on FCAT.
Read more (http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/12313441.htm)