A majority of Charleston County teachers surveyed say they don’t feel valued by the school district, evidence of a serious morale problem among those on the front lines of education.
The Charleston Teacher Alliance, a teacher advocacy group, asked its roughly 1,000 members to answer questions related to the start of this school year, and 845 responded. About 3,500 teachers work for the district.
The new survey revealed that 60 percent of teachers who responded don’t feel valued by the school district while 76 percent think the district views them as expendable. The alliance represents a large group of teachers, but district leaders don’t respond to their requests or seem to hear their feedback, said Kent Riddle, chairman of the alliance and a kindergarten teacher at Angel Oak Elementary.
“They need to start listening to teachers,” he said. “It feels like we’re being ignored.
Whew! I just gave my two-weeks notice as a teacher and I feel releived. I just got a job paying 50% more than teaching, and i don’t have to deal with a bunch of teenagers. I also don’t have to deal with an impending strike. I work in a very top-heavy school district. The district pays its administrators very well, and has a well-above-average administrator-to-teacher ratio, and has the lowest paid teachers in the region. See ya later!
[blockquote]Many teachers don’t feel valued[/blockquote]
There’s a shocker.
Now, if the headline had said “Many bankers feel overpaid”, that would be news.
Well, lets do a Google…
–More than 20 percent of the Charleston’s rising ninth-graders read on a fourth-grade level or worse.
–Nearly half of the incoming freshmen at North Charleston High School read at a fourth-grade level or worse.
–Eleven percent of the incoming freshmen at Wando High School read at a fourth-grade level or worse.
…one-in-seven adults in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties is functionally illiterate…
…55% on-time public high school graduation rate…
…11 of the nations 25 absolute worst public schools are located in or around Charleston…
Source: http://thevoiceforschoolchoice.wordpress.com/2009/05/29/chronic-illiteracy-plagues-sc-public-schools/
Perhaps it’s time to try something different? Perhaps school vouchers could make a difference? My family home schools, so I don’t have a dog in the fight, so to speak. But, from a philosophical standpoint, I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t a certain form of insanity that persists in pushing failed education models, regardless of the painful reality that they inflict. Seriously, is it mental illness that prevents people from seeing that the current system, with all the self esteem and Heather has Two Mommies garbage is placing us educationally behind third world countries. Is it mere coincidence that the national slide into ignorance only gained momentum since the 1979 creation of the department of education? BTW, where is it written in the Constitution that the federal government can be involved in education?