Education Research Report
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Teachers’ Strikes in Oakland and Los Angeles Change the Conversation about Charter Expansion | janresseger
Teachers’ Strikes in Oakland and Los Angeles Change the Conversation about Charter Expansion | janresseger
Teachers’ Strikes in Oakland and Los Angeles Change the Conversation about Charter Expansion
Teachers’ Strikes in Oakland and Los Angeles Change the Conversation about Charter Expansion
Students and teachers were back at school yesterday in Oakland, California. Oakland’s teachers ended their seven day strike on Sunday night by voting to ratify an agreement reached last Friday. Teachers are adamant that the fight for well-funded public schools must continue. Oakland’s strike is the latest in a yearlong wave of walkouts by teachers—a state-by-state cry for help from a profession of hard-working, dedicated public servants disgusted with despicable working conditions, lack of desperately needed services for their students, and, in Oakland’s case, pay so low that teachers cannot afford to live in the Bay Area, where the cost of living is skyrocketing.
After a long meeting where the agreement was ratified on Sunday afternoon, the president of the Oakland Education Association, Keith Brown expressed gratitude for what the strike achieved, at the same time explaining that it does not go far enough to address problems for Oakland’s schools resulting from a long fiscal crisis in the district. It is only a beginning: “This victory, accomplished through our collective strength on the picket lines with Oakland parents and students, sends the message that educators will no longer let this school district starve our neighborhood schools of resources. Our fight is not over, though. Oakland educators spoke clearly today at our ratification vote that this agreement will not be the end of our struggle, and we will continue to fight in Oakland and Sacramento for the schools our students deserve.”
The Oakland Education Association describes what are hard-won but very modest gains. Teachers, the lowest paid in the Bay Area, won an 11 percent raise over three years with a 3 percent bonus. The district had originally offered 7 percent over three years. Turnover among teachers has been a serious problem, with the district losing 500 teachers every year, according to the teachers’ union.
Teachers won modestly improved services for their students—a reduction in maximum class size by one student this year and another reduction by one student next year. Caseloads for counselors were reduced from 600:1 to 500:1, along with reductions in case loads for CONTINUE READING: Teachers’ Strikes in Oakland and Los Angeles Change the Conversation about Charter Expansion | janresseger
A ’staggering’ 30,000 teachers in Oklahoma have left the profession in the past 6 years. Here’s why. - The Washington Post
A ’staggering’ 30,000 teachers in Oklahoma have left the profession in the past 6 years. Here’s why. - The Washington Post
A ’staggering’ 30,000 teachers in Oklahoma have left the profession in the past 6 years. Here’s why.
A ’staggering’ 30,000 teachers in Oklahoma have left the profession in the past 6 years. Here’s why.
Oklahoma’s schools superintendent described it as “staggering,” and it is: A new report says that 30,000 teachers in the state have quit the profession over the past six years — and about half did it because of low pay, little respect and other reasons that made the job too hard or unattractive.
The state Department of Education’s 2018 report on educator supply and demand underscores the reasons that teachers throughout the state went on strike last year to protest inadequate school funding and pay so low that many had to take several jobs to pay their bills. That strike, which ended with a pay raise, was part of a wave of walkouts in Republican-led states dubbed the “Red For Ed” movement, which continued and spread to Democratic-led states this year.
The exodus of teachers, the Department of Education said in a release, “represents an average of 10 percent of Oklahoma’s teacher workforce, in comparison to a national attrition rate of 7.7 percent.” State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister was quoted as saying:
Steep budget cuts over the last decade have made the teaching profession in Oklahoma less attractive, resulting in a severe teacher shortage crisis and negative consequences for our schoolchildren. The loss of 30,000 educators over the past six years is staggering — and proof that our schools must have the resources to support a growing number of students with an increasing number of needs.
While the report focuses on Oklahoma, it highlights problems teachers face throughout the country. States have been reporting increasing teacher shortages (see the map below with state-by-state information), and surveys have found in recent years plummeting morale among public school teachers who feel they have been blamed by policymakers for low student achievement and who work in schools with a desperate need for more resources.
The report says:
Oklahoma’s public school system has suffered one of the largest national budget cuts over the past decade. As a result, steep reductions to school budgets have forced administrators to implement strategies to reduce expenses, many of which critically hinder instruction and unequivocally contribute to making the teaching profession less attractive.One of the most pervasive outcomes of the public sector fiscal austerity has been a persistent educator shortage — more severe in certain geographies, grades or subject matters than others — that in turn prompted undesired measures such as relaxing qualification requirements during hiring and increasing the workload of educators CONTINUE READING: A ’staggering’ 30,000 teachers in Oklahoma have left the profession in the past 6 years. Here’s why. - The Washington Post
Jobs and Automation: Anxiety is Historic | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
Jobs and Automation: Anxiety is Historic | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
Jobs and Automation: Anxiety is Historic
Jobs and Automation: Anxiety is Historic
A new report predicts that by 2030, as many as 800 million jobs could be lost worldwide to automation. The study, compiled by the McKinsey Global Institute, says that advances in AI and robotics will have a drastic effect on everyday working lives, comparable to the shift away from agricultural societies during the Industrial Revolution. In the US alone, between 39 and 73 million jobs stand to be automated — making up around a third of the total workforce.
But, the report also states that as in the past, technology will not be a purely destructive force. New jobs will be created; existing roles will be redefined; and workers will have the opportunity to switch careers. The challenge particular to this generation, say the authors, is managing the transition. Income inequality is likely to grow, possibly leading to political instability; and the individuals who need to retrain for new careers won’t be the young, but middle-aged professionals.
The First paragraph jump-starts anxiety. Second paragraph is supposed to ease it with words about “new jobs will be created.” But it doesn’t when its mentions growing income inequality, political instability, and retraining middle-aged professionals.
The fact is–and it is a fact that I document below in cartoons–fear of job loss to new machine has been part of American and global culture for the past century.
The larger question of preparing children and youth for future jobs–one of at least four historic purposes of U.S. public schooling– becomes apparent in light of predictions of job loss (“between 39 and 73 million jobs stand to be automated” by 2030). When the primary focus of school reform for the past four decades has been preparing the next generation for the workplace, such predictions question whether job preparation should be the purpose of tax-supported public schools. So the anxiety over job loss to new machines spills over what curriculum to teach the young, what forms of instruction, and how CONTINUE READING: Jobs and Automation: Anxiety is Historic | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
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