Stotsky: questions from the audience

Councilor Lukes: was trained as a teacher "education courses long on puff and short on substance"
"can't teach somebody how to be a teacher...have to prove themselves in the battlefield of the classrooms"
tenure, seniority, contract provisions
"once we hire those teachers, and they prove to themselves and to us that" they can't do it
one party politics in Massachusetts, power of teachers' unions
I seem to have missed her question here, which was on the importance of actual classroom experience in evaluating teachers, and being able to get rid of those who are not doing a great job

Stotsky: "teachers to have the rudiments of teaching under their belts"
"they also have to do student teaching...prospective teachers evaluated before they even leave their programs"
"academic departments tend not to want to get involved in teacher training...they have to take a hand in it"
Romania: academic area trains the teachers of that academic area
"countries that take from their best pool" diminishes the need for evaluation of teachers

Steven Eide (from the Research Bureau)...change of teacher colleges: it would seem like you would view this as a good thing...don't want teachers sequestered away

full undergraduate content, then pedegogical content for secondary teachers (this would be something like the MAT degree)
Germany: high school graduates go to a three year program for early elementary

Another question: "if we start attracting stronger high school students..won't it increase pressures" to increase salaries
what about in other countries...

Stotsky:"not aware that they get any higher salaries"
"in most other countries teachers get far more respect than they get in this country"
"I think that entering salaries are comparable to those in other professions" (really? Can I suggest she actually research this?)
I'll post on this at greater length later, but let me say this: as one who was graduating from what I think even Professor Stotsky would see as a "elite" institution, I--and those of my peers who were headed into any social service sector--were regarded as a bit crazy, in part because it would take us so much longer to pay back our college loans. Note that some of the countries cited by Professor Stotsky pay full freight either for all who get to college or for those training to be teachers.


City Manager O'Brien: "talking about shifting of priorities...what is that salary package..it's not just wages...in ten or fifteen years, that burden is going to break us"
If that's the reality, where does that reprioritization take place? Measurement to return on investment?

Stotsky: "I cannot say that I have expertise to answer that question...the obstacles that we face afterward, have to be addressed in some way..openly...I don't know how much of affect all of those things have on people deciding to go into teaching"
problems for retaining quality teaching is a separate issue (I'd argue not; getting a continuous stream of highly educated, minimally experienced teachers is not going to improve education in this country)
"the entering salaries are not the obstacle...they have to be addressed by other political options" (right, like the socialist system that exists in Finland that provides for pensions and health insurance at the national, rather than local, level)
(and see here for evidence that entering and continuing salaries may very well be the obstacle; there's some solid research on that issue)


"if we are indeed hoping to attract the best and the brightest...do silos or firewalls exists...to maintain students" :are there methodologies for getting those kids back in class....

Stotsky: cites KIPP "I've never understood why public schools couldn't use those incentives or disencentives" (well, that the students have opted in, might possibly have something to do with it)
"not quite like being in a Puritan dock" she says with mirth. "These are things under their control"
"that is at the heart of the academic achievement of these schools, they could not work without the psychological incentives and disincentives in these schools"
(setting aside the cruelty of what goes on in some such schools--which I have difficulty doing, but nevermind--the idea that a second grader's parent's decision to send her to particular school has nothing to do with her attendance is removed from reality. There are kids in this city who fight on their own to get themselves to school at very early ages. Do they sometimes not make it? Yes, they do. They also don't have someone waking them up, getting them breakfast, making sure they have their homework, sneakers, coat, and getting them out the door on time. To pretend that this is not the reality is insulting and troubling.)