This report is not backed up with any facts. Its just more Republican propoganda. They only talk about teacher tenure policies. They say nothing about the quality of teachers, their credentials prior to accepting a position, the licensing procedures, PRAXIS req's, number of teachers w/waivers, number of job applicants for every vacant position, etc. This study says were not retaining quality teachers but there are two things wrong with that statement, they don't give any hard numbers as far as a retention rate, and they don't say what makes a quality teacher. If you want to talk about improving education. you must be an honest broker, not just a mouthpiece for right-wingers who would just as well destroy all public schools.

While "Josh" is certainly entitled to disagree with the National Council on Teacher Quality's analysis of Maryland's teacher policies, we must take exception to his assertion that our report is not backed up with facts. Our analyses are based on state policies as they appear in statute and regulation. Not only did we publish the exact citation for each analysis, but we also offered the state multiple opportunities to review our findings, and we published the state's responses to each goal in the report.

While our Yearbook does discuss state policies concerning teacher tenure, that is but one of 15 areas reviewed. Other topics addressed include state data systems, licensure, compensation and benefit structures and mentoring for new teachers.

Our conclusion is that the state could do much more to help districts identify which teachers are effective, and then encourage them to continue teaching. It is puzzling that "Josh" finds this contrary to improving education; we certainly don't.

I agree that this study looks very biased but I've only seen the article about it not the report itself.

At the same time, I think it's true that we can do a lot better on teacher recruitment, and that many completely undeserving teachers receive tenure. There are also plenty of comfortably employed teachers who have no business educating young people.

I know of an extremely successful lawyer who chose to quit practicing law for the opportunity to teach in Baltimore City. She did not even make it to the interview stage. Meanwhile there are a couple of unqualified people who were recently accepted into the program due to fraternity/sorority connections.

I forgot to mention in my last post that the program I was referring to was the Baltimore City Teaching Residency (BCTR).

Holy PR team. Now that is a communications office that is on point! Having a representative from the study post to a blog 88 minutes after something negative was written? Goodness, that is a rapid response group.

Corey, I thought the whole frat/soror thing got circumvented with the arrival of TripleA. I can't believe that's still happening.

I completely agree that we don't do enough to keep effective teachers. This is especially important in a school system of children that are in desperate need of stability. Being a teacher in Baltimore City is a job that many people can't or won't do. Once you find someone who can and will, you should do everything possible to try and keep them there.
However, it seems to me that new teacher recruitment is out of control. Yes, we need more teachers. Every year my school starts out with several vacancies. But we don't need just warm bodies to fill the void. We need people who really want to be there. I firmly believe you can't teach in these challenging schools if you don't have a certain drive for it. My students need someone who isn't horrified by them, doesn't pity them, and isn't on a mission to "save" them. I'm kind of over seeing these new teachers come in with their laptops and $250 gift cards only to leave a month later because they had no idea what they were getting into.

BCPSS, I mean City Schools, is in no place to get rid of ineffective teachers or institute strict tenure requirements. If it were, then there would not have been 16 Filipinos out of the 34 teachers in the classroom I was in during professional development this past Thursday. BCPSS is lucky to have a warm body in each classroom. This is due to two main reasons. The first is that most people do not want to go to work each and every day and be cursed, threatened, assaulted, or possibly attacked by a child and see that the child received no consequence for that behavior. The second is that effective veteran teachers receive little to no incentives to stay in the classroom. The free laptops, gift certificates, signing bonuses, and upper level classes are given to new teachers who will most likely quit the profession within five years. Meanwhile, the effective veteran teachers are stuck teaching the low level HSA tested courses while watching their pay go up only because of the pay scale.

PR team? I thought you were quite good at that for AAA and Dixon. At least she id's herself

Larry,
To be real you had that many because they are surplus teachers that schools won't hire. They are collecting some of the highest $$$ but principals won't hire them unless they have to, or they are forced on them.

In this time of tight budgets is it really wise to continue to bring over 100's of teachers to Bmore? They are top of scale and the cost of recruitment is high. Who's getting rich off this?

Amen, Larry, amen. Those of us who have stayed in the system, gotten training, trained new teachers, put up with the student foolishness and such are continually amazed at the money thrown at brand new teachers. Laptops--heck, most of us don't even have a computer to use in the classroom. $250 gift cards--when will seasoned teachers see those--never! AAA has done a good PR job at attracting the new ones but like you said most of them don't stay because they aren't prepared to deal with the situations they are placed in. BTW, the reason that new teachers aren't placed in HSA classes is--and I quote--they don't understand how important those classes are. One more line of BS that is perpetrated on teachers who choose to stay. I have said for many years that stability in the system is one of the most important things we could do for our kids. No one seems to care.

Would someone settle the issue of salaries of teachers once and for all! I thought there was a union(ineffective though it may be) which at the very least negotiates salaries based on years of public school experiences, certifications, and degrees. I believe it is time for total transparency about all teacher and classroom level postions. No names but honest data. Teachers come to BCPSS in a variety of ways,programs etc but should all be placed equitably on the pay scale. I feel a law suit coming! Equal pay, no matter age, gender or ethnicity. We have a union pay scale. Are we not all placed in the same way? Many of us have already paid huge dollars for further education and certification while others seem to locate low cost of free programs. Those programs need to be spelled out clearly to all employees. And while I am ranting, why does Baltimore spend enormous amounts of money on advanced degree for employees and then rarely recruit those very teachers to advance to higher postions? Instead outside groups are brought in to place new administrators and teachers.What then is the BCPSS investment in course work for? Just to maintain certificates?

VT and others: I agree with you, here. There's got to be some way to maintain the workforce across the system. When I look back at my TFA corps class (now in their 4th year of teaching), I'd say that (in the classroom) we have about 25-30% retention from 4 years ago. That's actually not bad considering we started with around 95. The rate increases dramatically when we include people still "involved in education" (where I would fall along with a large number of others). In this case, we're at about 60%.

Now, when we look at who's still teaching in classrooms, the picture becomes more clear. I think I only know about 5-6 of the 25-30% who are in their placement schools (of those, a number are at some of the higher performing schools like New Era). The rest have either moved to a Charter (i.e. Afya, KIPP, etc), or have moved to high-performing citywide schools. I think this is worth investigating in more detail. I would bet that BCTR is in a similar situation.

Serious: you're right!

Ineffective teachers need to be retrained or removed from any teaching situation, regardless of where they are teaching.

Based on my experience, the city schools are certainly not doing enough to retain good teachers (especially at the 4-5 yr mark) and are doing nothing to get rid of poor teachers.

Theophilus,

I couldn't agree more. We waste our time sitting in Professional Developments that aren't geared towards any specific needs of the teaching community instead of making workshops for teachers in need of retraining. I've been certified since day 1 of my teaching career and always tried to be a great teacher (even on my worst days). Nearing the end of my 4th year I'm looking for either a great new school in Baltimore or (more likely) another system to work for. It's easy to work for BCPSS if you're the kind of teacher that sits at a desk and ignores the problems in front of you... that's why so many of the bad ones stay. It's hard to try and change EVERYTHING at once, and after 4 years I feel drained and unappreciated.

When I first became a teacher (1974), I taught in a City school (Lake Clifton). My kids were great, once they realized I'd actually come there to teach them. But the administration was horrifying-- no help, no concern, just tow-the-line, even though the line had no value to students. I left after a year because I was refused transfer to Dunbar, which I had heard was run better. I tried to apply to other schools, but was locked out; finally giving up. A few years ago (2000), I tried again. Went to Baltimore County (Dundalk Hgh). The kids could have been ok if the disrupters had been removed; they weren't. And, once again, the administration was uncreative, unmoveable, and politicized. I left after a year. But I needed work and Baltimore City was, it said, desperate for teachers. I applied. Mind you, I also have 15 years of experience teaching post-secondary English & Speech, and am a City resident. They did not hire me. I've gone back to community college where one is actually allowed to teach and where students actually come to learn. The sad thing is that they come with their high school degrees, thinking they know things, and they don't. Over the last year, as we've received our first group that has come all the way through middle & high school under NCLB, we find that they are less prepared than ever. More than 70% of my last four classes have needed extensive remedial work just to be able to identify nouns. Best schools in the country? I doubt it. (And, Larry, I know just what you mean. The teachers who give out daily "dittos" and sit at their desks reading a newspaper are, somehow, the teachers who get all the administration's appreciation. I feel for the kids.)

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