"Tina" wrote

Jim, in places like New York, more specifically Long Island, with its
thousands of teachers, some earning -- ready for this? -- $100,000

Holy ****, batman ! ! ! I think I'm living in the wrong place! I make
well less than half that, and I have about 25 years experience!

Really, in many places, that is battle pay. I don't know how rough the Long
Island schools are, but I would guess that they are not too bad, as compared
to large inner city schools.

Teaching in a small rural school does have its good points. The kids are
generally not well motivated, but I think that is a sign of the times.
Other than that, they are generally good kids.

plus a year (speaking of effective union negotiations!) the number who
are discharged after being tenured is very very small. Those who are
jailed for sex with students do lose their jobs though.

I know of no other profession where people at the one percentile of
effectiveness are retained and given the same salary increases as
those at the 95th percentile.

One percentile does not mean much, if you had a staff of all highly
dedicated and qualified teachers. Even in a situation like that, someone
would be classified as the one percentile, for that school.

I do understand what you are saying; I'm not blind. There are some teachers
in almost every school that need to get up to speed. The problem goes back
to the administration, I feel, for not getting after the teachers that are
not doing what they need to be doing.

Although I live and work in NC, I don't know that much about the
public school system here. The little I do know about it is often
awful, but this is not the venue for that discussion.

Yes, you are right about the venue. I know there is room for improvement,
about any place you go, though, so let's leave the discussion at that.
--
Jim in NC