Comments on: Oakland teacher strike, rescheduled (again)

By: jk

jk — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 07:27:20 +0000

why don’t the teachers quit and we can have the ill imm do the job….

By: Oakland Teachers to Strike Thursday - Bay Area Blog - NYTimes.com

Oakland Teachers to Strike Thursday - Bay Area Blog - NYTimes.com — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:15:20 +0000

[...] Olson-Jones said that the planned strike — which has been postponed twice — will continue to put pressure on the district and state to restore funding to [...]

By: Cranky Teacher

Cranky Teacher — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:16:48 +0000

J.R., I feel you, on both the “whining” (I prefer to call it “venting”), and the particularly crappy teachers who hang on and seem to be coddled. But you are missing the bigger picture and Oakland’s place in it.

First of all, ask: Why would a system that seems to promote mediocrity — tenure, low salaries, limited prep/grading time, large class sizes, few support personnel, limited material resources, etc. — have developed in the first place? Did the unions construct this reality, or did they just fight for the scraps the financially-starved system was willing to dole out?

The reality is that for districts like Oakland, not having ENOUGH teachers who want to stay is the primary problem. When you average 15% turnover a year, and much higher at many schools within the district, you save a few bucks employing 22-year-olds but the students lose out because a school which churns over half its staff every 3-4 years is dysfunctional by definition.

The first day of my second year, at least two vets told me the same thing: “It’s always a surprise when a rookie comes back.”

In several years in the district, I have seen only 1-2 non-tenured teachers lose their position — and they were consolidated/transferred to other schools. In that same time, however, I have seen well over a dozen non-tenured teachers quit the profession or move to a different district.

I have also met teachers who were borderline crazy. Yet they have survived decades in Oakland, usually in the poorer schools. Why would this be tolerated? Well, imagine you are the principal of a flatland middle school which just lost half its staff. Short of crimes being committed, are you going to go hard after the eccentric bat in Room 101 who at least is harmless? Maybe next year, after you get this new crew settled … but then that crew leaves, or you do, and a new principal comes in, and the cycle repeats.

Stats don’t lie: Half of all teachers quit before their fifth year.

Again, I laud the parents at Lazear who took on the whole system to say, enough! Hold the school, the teacher and the district accountable. But we should also see the big picture, which goes far beyond Oakland, where young people with college degrees are taking a look at teaching…and then walking away.

To me, this contract fight is about doing anything we can — pay, resources, class size — to recruit and retain teachers in Oakland, because that serves the students.

By: J.R.

J.R. — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 15:48:09 +0000

I think it is a great thing when teachers who(for whatever reason)can not handle the job well, just leave. The students should never be subjected to anyone who is less than professional. We as citizens, taxpayers and parents don’t owe anyone a job(I don’t care about seniority, ability and attitude are much more important), and likewise teachers should just do their jobs and quit whining, or if they aren’t up to it or the pay is not enough, just leave.

By: J.R.

J.R. — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 15:19:45 +0000

I wasn’t saying that “all” the young teachers were great, but I was saddened that all the young teachers who do happen to be “great” will get tossed like yesterdays garbage just the same(case in point is that crummy Lazear teacher who should be immediately dealt with). If students(and the world at large) were handled with the same seniority model as the school system, and not the merit system, we as a society would be in very bad shape.

By: Cranky Teacher

Cranky Teacher — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 07:21:23 +0000

@Del: Wait, Pedro attacked me “for surfing the net” but I’m the one who was modeling immature behavior? I was trying to respond to take what I considered a nasty cheap shot and flip it back a little lighter — but maybe it didn’t work. Oh well.

@J.R.: I never said I didn’t want to teach. I chose to teach when I didn’t have to, and I hope to teach for another 15 years. When you see kid overcome challenges, it makes it all worthwhile. But yes, it is the hardest job I’ve ever had, and I have already had a few tough ones over the decades.

Also, for those “young, smart, caring, energetic teachers who just got pink-slipped,” they will be fine if they want to keep teaching. They got pink-slipped from schools that are more desirable to teach at and thus are not losing as many vets in turnover. They can go to a more downtrodden school. I was pink-slipped after one year and while it sucked at the time, it wasn’t the end of the world — just set up some interviews and go.

If you haven’t been to the OUSD or Richmond or SFUSD recruitment fairs and had middle-school principals stuff business cards into your clothes like you were a stripper, you don’t realize the desperation a lot of schools are in just to keep the room staffed.

And don’t OVER-glorify beginners. I notice we get a lot of credit for just being, well, less OLD, and I don’t think it is always deserved or fair. Some of our best teachers are young and some are old, but I would say that nobody in there first year or two is all THAT. And every year at our school, at least two quit by Christmas…

By: J.R.

J.R. — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 01:55:08 +0000

Del,
I will say it once again(for the benefit of cranky and others who ), most of our teachers are fabulous, and are underpaid. There are some who spend so much time being hyper-political belly-achers(oftentimes these are the sub-standard teachers), that there is not enough focus on the profession of teaching by these same individuals(and many of you great teachers know these incompetent teachers by name and reputation). It is a sham of epic proportions that we must keep some bad teachers employed but must cut loose some very wonderful young teachers at the same time.

By: J.R.

J.R. — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 01:40:16 +0000

“I’d love it if all these folks who think teachers are overpaid and lazy would go get their credential and come on into OUSD and help us out. Recession or no, there will be spots for you — the country is facing a huge teacher shortage over the next decade as the Boomers retire. C’mon, Pedro, come get all this “easy” chedder!

I’m calling your bluff, haters. Show us how it’s done!”

No one is ever forced to teach, and if you don’t want to teach, then avail yourself of your right to not be a teacher. There are plenty of young,smart,caring, energetic teachers who just got pink-slipped because of seniority. I’m sure some of them would do your job just fine without any loss of productivity.

By: del

del — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 01:24:38 +0000

Colleagues: I sincerely hope people do take up the offer and accept the greatest job in the world and wish to work with the greatest kids in the world! However, Pedro also makes the “easy cheddar” and has been doing so for so long that he’s retiring this year, leaving me as the oldest teacher at the school. He & I were talking about our strike experience and he was refreshing my memory of the strike in ’77 (a great story about the district offering 3%, OEA refusing, striking for 4 weeks, and then taking a 1% raise! I was still in school). I told him about public perception (the blog), showed him on my computer while we waited for our tutees to finish their essays and math, and he posted (he even used my e-mail!). He’s been county teacher teacher of the year, a professor in teacher ed programs at Cal, etc etc etc. Nice guy, too, great sense of humor.
However, colleagues, I must implore you to model the expected behaviors we share. Just as you do not HATE the students you assign homework to, Pedro & many others do not hate you but will point out factual inaccuracies in your claims. No one is claiming it is easy or that teachers are overpaid, but in the face of criticism those are your claims. This as the instant reaction to all criticism is (in this colleague’s opinion) distasteful and seems to lack maturity. I know your jobs, I love your jobs. I know your pay and your pain, and I have for decades. Many others do too. As teachers, we need the support of the community to help these kids. The way to foster and grow this support is to openly discuss facts, NOT refer to criticism as hate (this should be a pet peeve of all teachers anyway) and to do exactly as Truth Hurts says above: demand more without misrepresentation or threats.
Hopefully the fact finding will be embraced by all sides so that we can go back to TEACHING!

By: Nextset

Nextset — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:48:02 +0000

I see the teacher pay numbers and I wonder what kind of (college degreed and credentialed) people would work for such pay in the Bay Area? What is wrong with these people who are the OUSD teachers? Why do they put themselves and keep themselves in these working conditions for that pay?

I see a future where public school teachers in Oakland are paid 50% greater to handle far more students (across a large geographic area) through computerization – working out of an office building. Most to all contacts being done through the computer and webcams, computer marker boards, headsets and related equipment, assignments being uploaded as PDF Files, Testing and other in-person things occurring at regional meetings. This is the only way you can get the productivity up enough to make possible the larger salaries.

And it’s already here, just not at OUSD.