August 22, 2018 The Skanner Page 7
BACK TO SCHOOL
America’s Teachers Need More Community, Parental Support
who rent out their apart-
ments, homes and spaces
on Airbnb are teachers.
Low salaries, compared
with other college grad-
uates, may inhibit high-
ly-effective profession-
als from pursuing a
career in education; spe-
cifically for people of col-
or who currently make
up just seven percent of
public school teachers.
By Dr. Elizabeth Primas
Program Manager,
NNPA ESSA Campaign
T
he latest data from
the
Center
for
American Progress
shows that the av-
erage salary for an at-
torney is more than two
times that of elementary
and middle school edu-
cators. The Washington
Post reported last week
that nearly 1 in 10 hosts
I come from a family
of educators. My moth-
er, both of my grand-
mothers, and one of my
sisters were teachers.
However, the family
tradition of educating
children ended after
me. None of my daugh-
ters, nieces, or nephews
decided to pursue a ca-
reer in education. Data
comprised from surveys
completed during the
NNPA’s National Black
Parents’ Town Hall Meet-
Poll
associate professor of ed-
ucation at Harvard Uni-
versity and a co-author
of the report.
Nina Rees, president of
the National Alliance for
Public Charter Schools
said the findings “demon-
strate through the educa-
tional choices they make
for their children - fam-
ilies want high-quality
charter school options
for their kids.
“Above all else, parents
care that their child has
access to an excellent
school, and as educa-
tion advocates it is our
job to ensure that wish
becomes a reality,” Rees
added.
Support for publicly
funded vouchers given
to low-income families to
help them pay tuition at
private school rose from
37 percent to 42 percent
over the past year.
The Education Depart-
ment welcomed the re-
sults of the poll.
“The data consistently
show that parents want
more education options
for their kids and when
they are empowered
with options, they like it
and their kids benefit,”
said press secretary Eliz-
abeth Hill. “Education
freedom is the future.”
Meanwhile, Americans
seem to be more satisfied
with their local police
and the post office than
with their neighborhood
school. While 51 percent
of respondents said they
would give their local
schools a grade of A or
B, 68 percent gave the
local post office a similar
grade and 69 percent the
local police.
African American re-
spondents gave their
local police much low-
er marks than other
respondents, but their
views of their local
schools were even worse.
Thirty-nine percent gave
their local schools an A
or a B, while the local po-
lice force received such
marks from 43 percent
of African-American re-
spondents.
The study also found
that many Americans
AP PHOTO/CAROLYN KASTER, FILE
cont’d from pg 6
In this June 5, 2018, file photo, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos
testifies during hearing on the FY19 budget on Capitol Hill in
Washington. Support for charter schools and private school
voucher programs has gone up over the past year, with Republicans
accounting for much of the increase, according to a survey published
Tuesday, Aug. 21. The findings by Education Next, a journal published
by Harvard’s Kennedy School and Stanford University, come as DeVos
promotes alternatives to traditional public schools.
favor raising teacher
salaries and increasing
school funding in the
aftermath of teachers
walking out of schools
in six states earlier this
spring to protest pay and
other issues.
Informed about aver-
age teacher earnings in
their state, nearly half
said they support raising
teacher pay. That num-
ber was 67 percent when
respondents were not
told explicitly how much
their local teachers were
making. Nationally, the
average teacher’s salary
was $58,950 in 2017, ac-
cording to the National
Center for Education
Statistics.
“The sense of economic
insecurity for teachers
is very strong and there
is growing support for
higher pay, not just from
teachers but from the
broader
community,”
said Evan Stone, CEO
of Educators For Excel-
lence, a teachers’ advoca-
cy organization.
West said that while
many believe teach-
ers should be making
more, there is disagree-
ment over whether they
should be compensated
based on how much their
students learn or using
some other metric.
“To the extent that
the debate moves from
how much are teachers
are paid to how they are
paid, there is potential
for continued conflict,”
West said.
The Education Next
survey was based on in-
terviews with 4,601 adults
across the country. The
margin of error was 1.4
percentage points.
ing echoed this senti-
ment. When asked what
they believed is needed
to close the academic
achievement gap, re-
spondents selected com-
munity
participation
and funding over the ac-
quisition of highly-effec-
tive teachers.
Many reasons have
led to frustrations with
teaching in the United
States. Work-to-pay ra-
tio, a lack of resources,
and an increased focus
on standardized testing
has made it increasingly
difficult for teachers to
be highly-effective.
This year, teacher
strikes broke out in
several states concern-
ing school funding and
teacher pay. Teachers in
Arizona, Colorado, Okla-
homa, Kentucky, and
West Virginia left the
classroom for the state
house to protest the lack
of resources in the pro-
fession. NPR reported in
April that teachers have
begun to seek support
outside of the education-
al bureaucracy; forming
“supply shops” where
teachers can swap edu-
cational materials for
free or at a dramatically
reduced cost.
A first-year teacher
who attended the Na-
tional Black Parents’
Town Hall Meeting in
Norfolk, VA, said that
she stepped into the role
of teaching, initially ex-
cited, but found by the
end of the year she was
extremely drained phys-
ically and emotionally.
“I stepped into the role,
mid-year, with no lesson
plan. What can be done
to keep teachers teach-
ing and encourage new
teachers coming into the
program? I really want
to teach, but there is very
little support.”
Highly-effective teach-
ers require competi-
tive pay, professional
support, and access to
innovative
resources.
President Barack Obama
signed the current na-
tional education law, the
Every Student Succeeds
Act (ESSA) in December
2015 with educators in
mind. Title II of ESSA
provides program grants
to states and districts
that can be used for
teacher preparation, re-
cruitment and support.
Read the more at
TheSkanner.com
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