The teacher workforce: Bigger vs. better

Chester E. Finn, Jr. / May 28, 2009

All the gnashing of teeth and beating of breasts--and manifestos, studies, reports, and exhortations beyond enumeration--involving teacher recruitment, teacher quality, teacher compensation, and teacher retention miss the fundamental demographic reality at the core of almost all our teacher-related challenges: their sheer numbers.

I've previously observed that, over the past half century, the number of teachers employed by U.S. schools rose approximately twice as fast as the number of students attending them; that paying the salaries of all these additional people is where most of the additional education spending has gone; and that if the number of teachers had instead risen in proportion to pupil enrollments, today's average salary (assuming current school budgets) would exceed $100,000, plus generous benefits.

I recently went foraging for more macro-data regarding the teaching workforce. Instead of looking at NCES data, I turned to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). You may want to do that, too, particularly an informative May 2008 report on the number of people in various occupations and their pay.

There I found the number of school-teachers even larger than I had realized: 3,470,000 of them, not including special ed teachers, and more than four million when they are included. (These figures include private schools but not pre-school, specialized vocational teachers, teacher aides, or school administrators.)

For perspective, the BLS tallies 933,000 police and firemen; 1,134,000 accountants and auditors; and a mere 554,000 lawyers.

To get to numbers (of professionals) that even begin

» Continued

The teacher workforce: Bigger vs. better

Leadership woes

May 28, 2009

"A leader must have the courage to act against an expert's advice," Sunny Jim once said (for those rusty on their modern European history, that's James Callaghan, PM of the UK in the late 70s.) Perhaps a lesson for Joel Klein, who's now taking heat from experts on his 14-month principal training boot camp, the Leadership Academy. A recent NYU study found that Academy graduates--high performing intellectuals and professionals, often recruited from outside the system, sometimes from outside K-12 education--fall short on the city's report cards when compared with traditionally-trained school leaders. In particular, parents tend to have less confidence in Academy-prepared principals and Academy-led schools have higher teacher turnover. But courage, abandon us not! The Academy has been around only since the advent of mayoral control in 2002. Thus, the principals it has trained are relatively new on the job. Compared to the veterans who have escaped Klein's principal purge, it would be an impressive individual indeed who could stack up. Further, as the study itself points out, being one of Joel Klein's principals requires variegated leadership qualities that "ask for things that don't often come in the same person." Klein may be recruiting Ivy-league smarties, but he may not yet have perfected his selection technique. Before we condemn these fledgling school leaders, let's give them a bit longer to make their mark.

"Principals Younger and Freer, but Raise Doubts in the Schools," by Elissa Gootman and Robert Gebeloff,

» Continued

Leadership woes

Chart(er)ing their own course

May 28, 2009

Should charter-school autonomy mean outsourcing services however a school sees fit? Ten schools in the San Diego area say aye. Heretofore, the charters in question were charged per pupil rates (a projected $763 next year) for district-provided special education services. As such, the special-education professionals were hired and deployed by the district--but they were also evaluated by the district and members of its union, not so good if a school has distinctive pedagogical approaches or longer days. So the ten went shopping and found the El Dorado County Consortium Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA), which will charge them a mere $50 a head for oversight and guidance on special education legislative compliance (membership in such an organization is required by state law) while the schools themselves are responsible for finding, hiring, and maintaining their own special education teachers with the remaining $713. Although critics worry that the direct dispersal of sped funds to schools through SELPA, which is managed by the El Dorado County Office of Education, will disincentivize special education programs, the schools argue that the disposable income will allow them to service even more sped students. And COE's 500 mile distance from San Diego, another critique, can be easily overcome by technology. As Jed Wallace, CEO of the CA Charter School Association explains, it is "completely antithetical to what the charter school movement is all about" to keep special education under district lock-and-key. If these schools can

» Continued

Chart(er)ing their own course

Baltimore bests Boston

May 28, 2009

While cities like Boston and New York are jumping from the Teach For America ship crying poverty, Baltimore wants to double its number of passengers. Recognizing the promise of the program (over half the teachers placed there since the program came to Charm City still work there), city officials are asking for twice as many TFA corps members for fall 2009 and 2010. "I think of TFA as almost an instrument of reform in the district...We have surveyed principals that have used TFA before, and 97 percent would hire more if they could," says district chief Andrés Alonso. The one hurdle? The district may not have enough money to meet its goal, so it's looking to external fundraising to bring in the $3.8 million necessary to expand TFA's ranks. So far, businesses and foundations are stepping up to the plate. Three cheers to Mr. Alonso for recognizing that tough budget times shouldn't turn off the human-capital spigot.

"City Wants to Expand 'Teach for America' program," by Liz Bowie, Baltimore Sun, May 25, 2009

» Continued

Baltimore bests Boston

Puffed up PD

May 28, 2009

Dying to learn how to make balloon animals? Tie-dye a tee-shirt? Cut out the perfect construction-paper snowflake? If you're a teacher in Massachusetts, you're in luck. Courses in these very subjects are not only being offered by your union this summer (truly; read the conference agenda for yourself) but they come bearing professional development points (PDPs), too! What, you wanted to learn new pedagogies for teaching controversial historical subjects or improve your knowledge of English grammar? C'mon, this is a fun day of personal fulfillment where dull academic subjects are banished to make room for feel-good fluff. But not everything being offered at the conference is totally innocuous. Hidden amongst the classes on basket weaving, silk screening, and folk dancing (if only we were making this up!) are "Effective Advocacy: Grievance Processing," where you'll learn how to sock it to your district should you ever have reason to complain; "MTA's Lens on Beacon Hill," where all your union-qua-lobbyist questions will be answered; and "Designing and Bargaining Salary Schedules," which will explain how locals can more effectively bully their districts into bigger raises. We're long familiar with unions' political agenda but let's not attempt to disguise them as legitimate professional development--or pretend that basket weaving will turn Ms. Smith into a more effective and knowledgeable history instructor.

"Teachers' union flunks courses," by Charles Chieppo, The Boston Herald, May 27, 2009

"Balloon Animals," by Peter Wood, The National Association of Scholars