Sunday, March 20, 2011

U.S. Is Urged to Raise Teachers’ Status (14th Article)

Sam Dillon
"U.S. Is Urged to Raise Teachers’ Status"
The New York Times
March 16, 2011

Summary: It is stated in the article that to improve its public schools, the United States should raise the status of the teaching profession by recruiting more qualified candidates, training them better and paying them more. In this article, it also compared students performance in Korea, Singapore and Finland to America. Raising teachers’ status is not mainly about raising salaries, the report says, but pay is a factor. “In South Korea, teachers are known as ‘nation builders,’ and I think it’s time we treated our teachers with the same level of respect,” Mr. Obama said in a speech on education
Intended audience: Teachers, educators
Key points: 1. top-scoring countries like Korea, Singapore and Finland recruit only high-performing college graduates for teaching positions, support them with mentoring and other help in the classroom, and take steps to raise respect for the profession
2. Teaching in the U.S. is unfortunately no longer a high-status occupation.
3. “Make a concerted effort to raise the status of the teaching profession” was the top recommendation.
Relevance: The payment to teachers is one important part to teachers' status. High payment could improve teachers' status and also new teachers' quality in teaching skills. I agree that teachers' payment should be increased.

1 comment:

  1. People do seem to measure each other's value based on their paychecks which I personally find flawed. Nevertheless, there is truth to this. I also, personally, like pay raises. But this seems like a chicken and egg argument.

    I'm not sure that just raising wages will increase respect/status. Now, if teachers as a group can propel US students to the top of the list and knock off Finland...that would garner respect/status from the rest of the world that values competition. Perhaps, teachers that are able to make this happen will be valued enough that there will be a demand and price increase for their valued service.

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