Reforming Teacher Pay to Attract New Teachers
In keeping with the thrust of my last post, I want to cast a skeptical eye on Dana Goldstein’s latest column. In it, Dana points to this paper from the National Center on Education and the Economy. Dana focuses a great deal on the way in which other nations, like Finland, expect a good deal more training and professionalism from their teachers:
Finland, for example, requires all teachers to hold a master’s degree in education and at least an undergraduate major in a subject such as math, science, or literature. Finnish teacher-education programs also include significant course work in pedagogy—exactly the sort of instruction former New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein recently called useless. All teacher candidates must write a research-based master’s dissertation on an issue in education policy or teaching practice, and will then spend a full-year as a student teacher reporting to an experienced mentor.
But the report actually has a lot more to say about attracting new teachers into the profession. It talks about the problems with current compensation models which tilt overall teacher compensation toward retirement benefits