Economic Policy Institute: Teachers Pay a Penalty for Teaching
I like the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., for many reasons. I like the research it produces. But I most admire the fact that it is not sustained by the usual billionaires. It follows the facts.
In a recent report, EPI found that teachers pay a wage penalty for choosing teaching as their profession. They are paid about 20% less than others with similar levels of education. This makes it hard to attract new teachers and hard to hold on to teachers. If billionaire-funded “reformers” had spent their time advocating for higher wages for teachers, instead of spinning their wheels about phony evaluations based on student test scores (which have failed everywhere to improve teacher quality) or on merit pay (which has consistently failed for at least a century), they might have actually helped improve the schools. Their bogus efforts have undermined teacher morale and actually reduced the supply of people entering what is one of our most important professions.
The report begins:
As we have shown in our more than a decade and a half of work on the topic, there has been a long-trending CONTINUE READING: Economic Policy Institute: Teachers Pay a Penalty for Teaching | Diane Ravitch's blog