Tag: salary

School Culture and Climate

by JC Bowman, posted in JC Bowman, Leadership, Professional Educators of Tennessee

laws about teaching

Naturally, I am very optimistic and I spend time encouraging educators on a daily basis. I celebrate when student teachers get their first job, teachers get promoted to administrators, administrators get moved to the central office. I hear wonderful stories where teachers love their profession and school. I also hear the reports of the difficulties and the challenges.

One of the issues that is often overlooked in the education profession is the school culture and climate. Teachers understand the salary issue is ongoing, and correctly believe that it is critical for them to be paid as the professionals that they are. However, salary is not usually the determining factor to make someone enter the education profession. For most educators, it is a calling of a noble profession. They teach to make a difference in the lives of their students and in their communities.

Student discipline is spiraling out of control in many schools across the nation. We have all seen and heard stories on local news. Internally, in some schools, it may even be worse. In Hamilton County, for example, reports of teachers quitting strictly because of discipline issues are unfortunately becoming commonplace.

However, school culture and climate are beginning to really become a major issue that needs to be addressed. If not addressed soon on the local level, it will certainly become a statewide policy issue to be addressed by policymakers.

Let’s examine a few issues:

  • Loss of Teacher Autonomy. Doris Santoro, author of the book “Demoralized,” describes systemic pressures, such as top-down initiatives or punitive evaluation systems, which has diminished teacher autonomy. State Department of Educations and School Districts must do a better job of addressing the culture and climate in our schools to impact the morale of their teachers. Constant turnover in districts and schools really impacts teachers, as much as students. In addition, there are ongoing and chronic conflicts between school boards, school leaders, and even educators. While change is always inevitable, staff and stakeholder participation is essential. Too often there is little attempt to align culture, strategy, and structure in public education. If educators feel listened to, and their knowledge and experience are respected, there is a greater chance of success.

 

  • Lack of Support. In the absence of monetary support, educators desperately need emotional, and professional support from their administrators and colleagues. Support starts at the top with ongoing, collaborative teacher support. The working conditions in the schools, become the learning conditions for the students. Administrators must be consistent when dealing with student discipline or parent situations. Teachers need to know their administration has their backs. Students who are sent to school administration for extreme misbehaviors cannot be sent right back to class, and education policies must be clear to all who are involved. If criticism is warranted, do it in private, not in front of parents or children. Every situation is unique, and how an administrator handles a situation depends on each individual situation. In addition, some administrators seemingly scold the entire staff for the faults of a few. A former educator and now author Jennifer Gonzalez wrote: “Behind every teacher story is an administrator who is interpreting policy, setting expectations, and establishing a tone that will determine the quality of their teachers’ work, and by extension, the education their students receive.”

 

  • Legal and Liability Challenges. We live in a litigious society. As an educator or school employee, teachers are acutely aware that professional liability insurance is critical because district coverage may not protect them individually. Due to their unique role, educators face exposure to liability much greater than does the average citizen and therefore must exercise a higher duty of care than most professionals. Nearly every day teachers must deal with diverse laws related to issues such as child abuse, student discipline, negligence, defamation, student records, and copyright infringement. One district in the state, Williamson County, appointed an attorney—who lacked classroom teaching or school level administrative experience—as its Director of Schools. The new director has additional attorneys on his staff. This has to be concerning to parents, taxpayers, and educators when a district is top-heavy with lawyers—especially when they lack classroom and administrative experience. Ultimately such a heavy legal presence will not serve the interests of classroom teachers when they experience conflict with the district. When a conflict of interest occurs, and they will occur, the interest of the district will likely prevail over the teacher or administrator. This will mean settlements will be reached, even when educators may not be at fault. The district, in order to save money or diminish the negative publicity, will place its interests above those of the teacher or administrator. Educators know it is dangerous and potentially career-threatening if you enter a public-school classroom or school without liability or legal protection. That is why professional education associations are needed more than ever.

Together, salary, student discipline, along with school culture and climate are driving teachers out of their profession. These issues will impact the teacher labor market in ways in which it may not recover creating a shortage of highly qualified teachers in school districts across Tennessee. States and districts must track student discipline issues better. Research into why teachers leave teaching, including pressured or forced resignations would be helpful for future retention issues. Novice and experienced teachers and administrators alike will deal with school leaders that are great, terrible or somewhere in-between during their career. Those are the stories I most like to hear.

##

JC Bowman is the Executive Director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, a non-partisan teacher association headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author and the association are properly cited.

 

2020 Vision for Education Policy

by JC Bowman, posted in JC Bowman, Leadership, Legislation, Professional Educators of Tennessee, Students

2020

Educator opinions differ on numerous issues and vary from year to year. Professional Educators of Tennessee recently surveyed its teachers and solicited educator input across the state. Nearly 750 educators took the survey sent out from Professional Educators of Tennessee in October of 2019 to our members. While the majority of respondents were classroom teachers, several administrators also took part in the survey.

Salary, school climate, and student behavior have been a constant issue during the last four years. Researchers, policymakers, and stakeholders can gain useful insight into the opinions of those on the frontlines educating children. The majority of educators are satisfied with their jobs and believe their job makes a positive difference in the lives of students. However, two-thirds (67%) of teachers stated that teacher morale was a critical issue in their district.

Student behavior remains a significant issue across the state. While there is a myriad issue that concerns educators, they consistently rank discipline issues near the top. The problem appears to be rooted in the student’s home environment and the school’s culture/climate; both must be considered when addressing the problem.

 

A school and district must adopt policies that support effective classroom management, as well as instruction for all students. One possible policy needs to be better tracking of time that an educator has to spend on discipline issues. Do parents have the right to know, for example, if one student disrupts their own child’s education so frequently that instruction time is lost? School districts must balance responsibilities toward the community with the responsibility to nurture students. Without discipline, students cannot learn.

Testing is an issue where educators offered some valuable insight. Not only is the amount of testing done by the district a concern, but also tying teacher evaluation scores to the testing data also remains controversial.

Salary issues provide an invaluable perception of how educators view the financial reward for their profession. Educators believe that salary compensation should be equal to other fields with the same degree. It is clear that educators either reject or do not understand what policymakers mean by a “differentiated pay system.”

Well over two thirds (70%) of teacher’s support across the board salary increases. We feel that addressing salary issues should be a primary concern for policymakers. Overall, 92% indicated that salary was an issue which concerned them, followed by retirement and healthcare. Educators were very interested in student loan forgiveness incentives.

If the teacher shortages continue to be an issue state-wide and nationwide, there must be more incentives to go into the teaching field and remain there. Obviously higher pay is the biggest enticement, but also consider giving educators the opportunity to job-share and provide more appealing benefits especially when it comes to health care and retirement. And most importantly, treat educators as professionals and trust them to do their jobs without micromanaging that is currently the norm.

Certainly, some educators have been forced to leave their school system for subjective reasons, rather than objective reasons. Actions speak louder than words. In some cases, dismissal may have been warranted, but in many cases, it appears circumstances were little more than personality conflicts and people not fitting into a certain educational or political environment. We have lost some good educators in our state because of this subjectivity, and we would argue many of these educators deserve another chance to keep their careers going. This will require policymakers to make teacher retention and recruitment a top priority.

The consistency of the same issues in the last few years means that much work remains as educators are not seeing the needed changes. Policymakers and stakeholders must continue to work to make improvements in policies that impact salary, school climate, and student behavior. Education policy must remain a high priority across the state.

##

JC Bowman is the Executive Director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, a non-partisan teacher association headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author and the association are properly cited. For more information on this subject or any education issue please contact Professional Educators of Tennessee. To schedule an interview please contact Audrey Shores at 1-800-471-4867 ext.102.

Tone Deaf School Districts

by JC Bowman, posted in Advocacy, JC Bowman, Legislation, Professional Educators of Tennessee

“If you don’t understand  — from the school district to the superintendents — that we want our teachers held harmless, then I’m sorry, you’re tone-deaf.” ~State Representative Eddie Smith (Knoxville)

tone-deaf-1

That message was heard and understood statewide, right?  Apparently not.  We are receiving reports from across the state that some districts are denying their teachers their justified and earned bonuses, which harms the educator.  The language from the Public Chapter Number 881 reads “LEAs shall not base compensation decisions for teachers on data generated by statewide assessments administered in the 2017-18 school year” Public Chapter Number 1026 adds: “no adverse action may be taken against any student, teacher, school, or LEA based, in whole or in part, on student achievement data generated from the 2017-2018 TNReady assessment.” (emphasis added)

The Tennessee Department of Education, anticipating this problem, understood this could negatively impact teachers that did well on TNReady in the 2017-18 school year so they provided this guidance to school districts across the state: “All currently approved alternative salary schedules and differentiated pay plans are based on 2016-2017 school year data and may remain in effect because they are not impacted by the Legislation. Districts should consult closely with their board attorneys to ensure that any other strategic compensation policies do not result in an action being taken concerning a teacher in the 2017-18 school year based on 2017-18 data. As always, teachers may not earn less than they did the previous year unless there is a change in the teacher’s duties or position.” (emphasis added)

However, at least one school district, Greene County Schools, sent an email to all principals.  The message to all Greene County Administrators was from Bill Ripley, the Assistant Director of Academics.

Ripley wrote:

This message is in response to questions we have received.  Several months ago the state legislature passed an act preventing districts from affecting any teacher’s pay based on 2017-18 test results.  Therefore, the Greene County Schools district plan to pay a bonus for level 4 or 5 TVAAS cannot be implemented this year.  We realize this is disappointing to the 105 teachers who attained a level 4 or 5 last year, however, this is an action of lawmakers in Nashville, not your local Board of Education.

A first-year law student could probably make the case that any school district that withholds paying a bonus based on actions taken by the Tennessee General Assembly are not understanding the law or the intent of the state law.  Denying educators their rightful bonus based on positive student achievement or student growth is indeed having an adverse action on educators, especially their compensation.  It can be argued that the legislation that passed is vague and that districts should work closely with their board attorney when making these types of decisions. However, discussion on the floor on the legislation, as well as comments from the Bill Sponsor Rep. Eddie Smith, was clear:  that districts could not take adverse actions.

The state issued two very important guidance documents that make clear that message, which was released by the Tennessee Department of Education.   Professional Educators of Tennessee, along with many others worked with the Department of Education and added our input.  The guidance that the Department developed was a result of thoughtful and collaborative efforts to ensure that our state follows all state and federal laws.  The new legislation that states that no adverse actions for students, teachers or schools will result from the 2017-18 TNReady administration.   These two key documents, which were shared with districts and schools are posted on the state website, along with a list of initial improvements the state is making to the state assessment program:

  • Detailed Evaluation Guidance (here)
  • FAQ that provides an overview of the various areas the new laws impact, including student, education, school, and district accountability (here)

If educators feel that their district is withholding a bonus in which they are entitled, it would be helpful for those educators to write their school district and ask them for a written explanation on why the bonus is being denied.  If a school district wants to be tone deaf, I know several state legislators and folks at the Department of Education who would be very interested in why an adverse action is being taken against you.  I know that Professional Educators of Tennessee wants to hear if compensation decisions for teachers on data generated by statewide assessments administered in the 2017-18 school year have kept you from receiving compensation, or your bonus.  Just drop us an email at advocacy@proedtn.org.

###

JC Bowman is the Executive Director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, a non-partisan teacher association headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author and the association are properly cited. For more information on this subject or any education issue please contact Professional Educators of Tennessee.