Special Education Teachers

[ColoNoCoHusker]

To the original post, it's a great subject and I'm going to respond with my true feelings on the subject and please don't take them as cold hearted at all because I truly appreciate everyone who does what your wife does. The wife of the coworker right next to me is a special ed teacher and I hear what they do and go through.

...

it's not the school that is placing the huge emphasis on a particular group of students, but the federal government....all political parties. They expect all students to be at a certain point, well the low performing kids need the most.

BTW, I thought your reply was well balanced and very mature in the fact that even though I have a special needs child I didn't feel the least bit offended. I think it's completly normal and understandable to bring this up.

Case in point is the fiasco in Jeffco School District's Special Education program... The recently ousted E.D. came to Jeffco after being terminated from Adams 14 School District for creating an openly hostile environment towards minority staff & students... When focus is put too much on federal requirements above the needs of the students & community, everybody loses... I can handle adults getting the raw end, but nothing is more criminal (imo) than compromising the potential of any child.

http://www.jeffcostudentsfirst.org/blog/2015/2/13/jeffcos-great-opportunity-special-education

I agree with ETR re: BRB's comments. Touchy subject stated well & very understandable.

 

[NUinID]

I have the utmost respect for teachers. (There are a half dozen or so of my extended family members who are teachers.) But I swear, teachers complain about low pay more than any other profession I can think of. And I can't for the life of me understand why. I mean, in college there must have been fifty different majors that paid more than teaching. Yet, for as long as I can remember college kids major in teaching, and then spend the next forty years complaining about the low pay.

That said, public schools are incredibly wasteful with $$$. If schools didn't waste so much money on stupid stuff they'd have more money to pay teachers. /end rant

As someone who taught school for 21 years I will say that for myself I made a pretty decent living for most of my teaching career. My wife and I both taught school and our combined income was low 6 figures when we quit.

The problem is that to earn more money you must take graduate classes and earn an advanced degree. These classes are taken at your own expense. Most teachers spend at least part of their summer taking a couple of classes. I have a masters degree in curriculum and instruction for one reason only. So I could make more money. It really didn't make me a better teacher. My wife hated taking more classwork so she earned about 65% of what I earned.

I also coached 3/4 of the school year, which boosted my pay.

Teachers are no different than other people, they want to make as much money as they can.

One more thing, when I started teaching in 1990. Teacher pay was pretty low. I can still remember what my first contract was for, 16,325 was my base salary. I coached the whole year and that boosted my pay up to about 18,500. I took home about 1050.00 a month after taxes, retirement, and paying 25% of my heath insurance.

That was pretty low starting pay. Today teachers in Nebraska make around 35,000 starting out. Not great but very livable.

 

[huKSer]

I have the utmost respect for teachers. (There are a half dozen or so of my extended family members who are teachers.) But I swear, teachers complain about low pay more than any other profession I can think of. And I can't for the life of me understand why. I mean, in college there must have been fifty different majors that paid more than teaching. Yet, for as long as I can remember college kids major in teaching, and then spend the next forty years complaining about the low pay.

That said, public schools are incredibly wasteful with $$$. If schools didn't waste so much money on stupid stuff they'd have more money to pay teachers. /end rant

Got any examples? I am just curious what you have in mind. And teachers who gripe about the pay - they knew going in what the pay was. I always thought that instead of a 9 month (actually its closer to 10 now) contract, we should get an 11 month contract (with a pay raise) and do all the staff development crap in that one month and **get ready for this** let us teach the rest of the time.

To chime in with NUinID - my first contract in 1980 was $9875.

 

[NUance]

I have the utmost respect for teachers. (There are a half dozen or so of my extended family members who are teachers.) But I swear, teachers complain about low pay more than any other profession I can think of. And I can't for the life of me understand why. I mean, in college there must have been fifty different majors that paid more than teaching. Yet, for as long as I can remember college kids major in teaching, and then spend the next forty years complaining about the low pay.

That said, public schools are incredibly wasteful with $$$. If schools didn't waste so much money on stupid stuff they'd have more money to pay teachers. /end rant

Got any examples? I am just curious what you have in mind. And teachers who gripe about the pay - they knew going in what the pay was. I always thought that instead of a 9 month (actually its closer to 10 now) contract, we should get an 11 month contract (with a pay raise) and do all the staff development crap in that one month and **get ready for this** let us teach the rest of the time.

To chime in with NUinID - my first contract in 1980 was $9875.

A relative of mine lives in a small, rural town. Their high school class size has shrunk by 25% over the past twenty years. Inexplicably the school administration persuaded the school board to build a new high school. Since there wasn't any open lot in the town that was large enough for a high school, they had to build the new school a half mile out of town. Now all kids in town must be bused to the new school instead of walking. The lot they chose to build on has problems with the soil so the brand new foundations leak water. The school itself isn't much larger than the old one, so if the population increases they'll need to expand. The property taxes sky rocketed in that little town as a result of new school building, so people are reluctant to move to that town. This is just one example of stupid, wasteful spending. It seems like any time there's a school construction project they pay top dollar for the build. Much more than a business would end up paying.

 

[QMany]

I have the utmost respect for teachers. (There are a half dozen or so of my extended family members who are teachers.) But I swear, teachers complain about low pay more than any other profession I can think of. And I can't for the life of me understand why. I mean, in college there must have been fifty different majors that paid more than teaching. Yet, for as long as I can remember college kids major in teaching, and then spend the next forty years complaining about the low pay.

I agree. I have respect for the profession and have family that are teachers and school nurses, but they seem to b*tch about their pay more than any other profession I can think of. I would like to see what they make per-hour compared to other professions, when you consider they get off summers, winter break, spring break, every odd holiday, etc. In Kansas, they also have great benefits and pensions (pre-Brownback).

 

[QMany]

You mention IEP, but I assume you are referencing special education in regards to disabilities. IEP also encompass gifted children, and the gifted teachers in my school districts growing up had to have the easiest jobs by far. When it comes to special education, I think it goes along with society's misunderstanding and mistreatment of those with disabilities and special needs. Most don't understand how much goes into the care and education of some kids.

 

[BigRedBuster]

I have the utmost respect for teachers. (There are a half dozen or so of my extended family members who are teachers.) But I swear, teachers complain about low pay more than any other profession I can think of. And I can't for the life of me understand why. I mean, in college there must have been fifty different majors that paid more than teaching. Yet, for as long as I can remember college kids major in teaching, and then spend the next forty years complaining about the low pay.

That said, public schools are incredibly wasteful with $$$. If schools didn't waste so much money on stupid stuff they'd have more money to pay teachers. /end rant

Got any examples? I am just curious what you have in mind. And teachers who gripe about the pay - they knew going in what the pay was. I always thought that instead of a 9 month (actually its closer to 10 now) contract, we should get an 11 month contract (with a pay raise) and do all the staff development crap in that one month and **get ready for this** let us teach the rest of the time.

To chime in with NUinID - my first contract in 1980 was $9875.

OK...you hit on something I have a question about.

In our school system, every Wednesday is a half day for the kids because the teachers have teacher inservice/meetings. Why can't they do that in the summer? Now that my kids are in HS and have their own cars, it's not that big of a deal. But, before that, it was a pain in the a$$ trying to figure out who is going to get them, take care of them, where they are going ...etc. Meanwhile, sports practices were at the same time so these kids that live out of town have to figure out what they are going to do for 3 hours.

I just have never figured out what they need to do every week for 3 hours that they couldn't learn or do for a month in the summer.

 

[NUinID]

I have the utmost respect for teachers. (There are a half dozen or so of my extended family members who are teachers.) But I swear, teachers complain about low pay more than any other profession I can think of. And I can't for the life of me understand why. I mean, in college there must have been fifty different majors that paid more than teaching. Yet, for as long as I can remember college kids major in teaching, and then spend the next forty years complaining about the low pay.

That said, public schools are incredibly wasteful with $$$. If schools didn't waste so much money on stupid stuff they'd have more money to pay teachers. /end rant

Got any examples? I am just curious what you have in mind. And teachers who gripe about the pay - they knew going in what the pay was. I always thought that instead of a 9 month (actually its closer to 10 now) contract, we should get an 11 month contract (with a pay raise) and do all the staff development crap in that one month and **get ready for this** let us teach the rest of the time.

To chime in with NUinID - my first contract in 1980 was $9875.

OK...you hit on something I have a question about.

In our school system, every Wednesday is a half day for the kids because the teachers have teacher inservice/meetings. Why can't they do that in the summer? Now that my kids are in HS and have their own cars, it's not that big of a deal. But, before that, it was a pain in the a$$ trying to figure out who is going to get them, take care of them, where they are going ...etc. Meanwhile, sports practices were at the same time so these kids that live out of town have to figure out what they are going to do for 3 hours.

I just have never figured out what they need to do every week for 3 hours that they couldn't learn or do for a month in the summer.

States mandate so many hours of in service every year. If you want to have all the in service hours take place in the summer time than you would need to extend their contracts and pay them more. Teachers are contracted to work a certain number of days each year and are paid for that time. Qmany teachers are not paid for working in the summer the money they earn is just parceled out over 12 even payments.

I think part of the reason that teachers complain about the pay is that they have been conditioned to do it. During the 70's and 80's the media really latched onto low teacher pay and that being how to attract quality teachers is to start paying them more. So it is almost ingrained in teachers to complain about it. Teacher salaries are public record, so everyone can find out what a teacher makes. I remember growing up that our local newspaper would actually publish every teachers salary in the newspaper. Teacher pay in Nebraska is actually not too bad anymore when you consider the benefits that go with it.

Someone said that 50% of teachers leave the profession within 5 years. That is probably true, but I don't think pay is the big issue. I think the big issue in losing teachers is that they find they just don't like it.

 

[huKSer]

I have the utmost respect for teachers. (There are a half dozen or so of my extended family members who are teachers.) But I swear, teachers complain about low pay more than any other profession I can think of. And I can't for the life of me understand why. I mean, in college there must have been fifty different majors that paid more than teaching. Yet, for as long as I can remember college kids major in teaching, and then spend the next forty years complaining about the low pay.

That said, public schools are incredibly wasteful with $$$. If schools didn't waste so much money on stupid stuff they'd have more money to pay teachers. /end rant

Got any examples? I am just curious what you have in mind. And teachers who gripe about the pay - they knew going in what the pay was. I always thought that instead of a 9 month (actually its closer to 10 now) contract, we should get an 11 month contract (with a pay raise) and do all the staff development crap in that one month and **get ready for this** let us teach the rest of the time.

To chime in with NUinID - my first contract in 1980 was $9875.

OK...you hit on something I have a question about.

In our school system, every Wednesday is a half day for the kids because the teachers have teacher inservice/meetings. Why can't they do that in the summer? Now that my kids are in HS and have their own cars, it's not that big of a deal. But, before that, it was a pain in the a$$ trying to figure out who is going to get them, take care of them, where they are going ...etc. Meanwhile, sports practices were at the same time so these kids that live out of town have to figure out what they are going to do for 3 hours.

I just have never figured out what they need to do every week for 3 hours that they couldn't learn or do for a month in the summer.

I don't like half day inservice myself - the class periods are too short to do much. I think it has to do with counting it as a school day. It would be better for the parents if instead of a half day every week we did a full day every other week. As far as early release we are finally doing late start so there isn't a big gap where the athletes have nothing to do.

 

[BigRedBuster]

I have the utmost respect for teachers. (There are a half dozen or so of my extended family members who are teachers.) But I swear, teachers complain about low pay more than any other profession I can think of. And I can't for the life of me understand why. I mean, in college there must have been fifty different majors that paid more than teaching. Yet, for as long as I can remember college kids major in teaching, and then spend the next forty years complaining about the low pay.

That said, public schools are incredibly wasteful with $$$. If schools didn't waste so much money on stupid stuff they'd have more money to pay teachers. /end rant

Got any examples? I am just curious what you have in mind. And teachers who gripe about the pay - they knew going in what the pay was. I always thought that instead of a 9 month (actually its closer to 10 now) contract, we should get an 11 month contract (with a pay raise) and do all the staff development crap in that one month and **get ready for this** let us teach the rest of the time.

To chime in with NUinID - my first contract in 1980 was $9875.

OK...you hit on something I have a question about.

In our school system, every Wednesday is a half day for the kids because the teachers have teacher inservice/meetings. Why can't they do that in the summer? Now that my kids are in HS and have their own cars, it's not that big of a deal. But, before that, it was a pain in the a$$ trying to figure out who is going to get them, take care of them, where they are going ...etc. Meanwhile, sports practices were at the same time so these kids that live out of town have to figure out what they are going to do for 3 hours.

I just have never figured out what they need to do every week for 3 hours that they couldn't learn or do for a month in the summer.

I don't like half day inservice myself - the class periods are too short to do much. I think it has to do with counting it as a school day. It would be better for the parents if instead of a half day every week we did a full day every other week. As far as early release we are finally doing late start so there isn't a big gap where the athletes have nothing to do.

Now, that would be a step in the right direction. Let the kids sleep in while the teachers are at inservice. No gap between school and practices.

 

[Bigred_inSD]

South Dakota pays their teachers squat, if you two were considering a move be sure to also check out the cost of living and new salaries. I didn't know we paid the Special Education teachers more, and I have no problem with that. Its one thing that this state seems to be doing right.

 

[Eric the Red]

I have the utmost respect for teachers. (There are a half dozen or so of my extended family members who are teachers.) But I swear, teachers complain about low pay more than any other profession I can think of. And I can't for the life of me understand why. I mean, in college there must have been fifty different majors that paid more than teaching. Yet, for as long as I can remember college kids major in teaching, and then spend the next forty years complaining about the low pay.

That said, public schools are incredibly wasteful with $$$. If schools didn't waste so much money on stupid stuff they'd have more money to pay teachers. /end rant

Got any examples? I am just curious what you have in mind. And teachers who gripe about the pay - they knew going in what the pay was. I always thought that instead of a 9 month (actually its closer to 10 now) contract, we should get an 11 month contract (with a pay raise) and do all the staff development crap in that one month and **get ready for this** let us teach the rest of the time.

To chime in with NUinID - my first contract in 1980 was $9875.

OK...you hit on something I have a question about.

In our school system, every Wednesday is a half day for the kids because the teachers have teacher inservice/meetings. Why can't they do that in the summer? Now that my kids are in HS and have their own cars, it's not that big of a deal. But, before that, it was a pain in the a$$ trying to figure out who is going to get them, take care of them, where they are going ...etc. Meanwhile, sports practices were at the same time so these kids that live out of town have to figure out what they are going to do for 3 hours.

I just have never figured out what they need to do every week for 3 hours that they couldn't learn or do for a month in the summer.

Collaboration takes place among same grade level teachers, trainings and lesson plans.

If you want to move to an 11 month contract for teachers your property taxes will go up to pay for it I suspect.

 

[Eric the Red]

I have the utmost respect for teachers. (There are a half dozen or so of my extended family members who are teachers.) But I swear, teachers complain about low pay more than any other profession I can think of. And I can't for the life of me understand why. I mean, in college there must have been fifty different majors that paid more than teaching. Yet, for as long as I can remember college kids major in teaching, and then spend the next forty years complaining about the low pay.

That said, public schools are incredibly wasteful with $$$. If schools didn't waste so much money on stupid stuff they'd have more money to pay teachers. /end rant

Got any examples? I am just curious what you have in mind. And teachers who gripe about the pay - they knew going in what the pay was. I always thought that instead of a 9 month (actually its closer to 10 now) contract, we should get an 11 month contract (with a pay raise) and do all the staff development crap in that one month and **get ready for this** let us teach the rest of the time.

To chime in with NUinID - my first contract in 1980 was $9875.

OK...you hit on something I have a question about.

In our school system, every Wednesday is a half day for the kids because the teachers have teacher inservice/meetings. Why can't they do that in the summer? Now that my kids are in HS and have their own cars, it's not that big of a deal. But, before that, it was a pain in the a$$ trying to figure out who is going to get them, take care of them, where they are going ...etc. Meanwhile, sports practices were at the same time so these kids that live out of town have to figure out what they are going to do for 3 hours.

I just have never figured out what they need to do every week for 3 hours that they couldn't learn or do for a month in the summer.

States mandate so many hours of in service every year. If you want to have all the in service hours take place in the summer time than you would need to extend their contracts and pay them more. Teachers are contracted to work a certain number of days each year and are paid for that time. Qmany teachers are not paid for working in the summer the money they earn is just parceled out over 12 even payments.

I think part of the reason that teachers complain about the pay is that they have been conditioned to do it. During the 70's and 80's the media really latched onto low teacher pay and that being how to attract quality teachers is to start paying them more. So it is almost ingrained in teachers to complain about it. Teacher salaries are public record, so everyone can find out what a teacher makes. I remember growing up that our local newspaper would actually publish every teachers salary in the newspaper. Teacher pay in Nebraska is actually not too bad anymore when you consider the benefits that go with it.

Someone said that 50% of teachers leave the profession within 5 years. That is probably true, but I don't think pay is the big issue. I think the big issue in losing teachers is that they find they just don't like it.

You are correct!!

Half Of Teachers Leave The Job After Five Years. Here's What To Do About It
The high turnover rates are sometimes due to layoffs, “but the primary reason they leave is because they’re dissatisfied,” said Richard Ingersoll, an education professor at the University of Pennsylvania whose research on teacher retention was published in the report. Teachers say they leave because of inadequate administrative support and isolated working conditions, among other things. These losses disproportionately affect high-poverty, urban and rural schools, where teaching staffs often lack experience.

 

[Scratchtown]

The turnover rate has much more to do with national standards and the taking away of creativity, telling teachers what they can and can't be.

It's funny because in college all we heard was to diversify your teaching to reach all kids. Yet, the schools tell all teachers to use the same methods.

 

[huKSer]

The turnover rate has much more to do with national standards and the taking away of creativity, telling teachers what they can and can't be.

It's funny because in college all we heard was to diversify your teaching to reach all kids. Yet, the schools tell all teachers to use the same methods.

New teachers (less than 5 years) benefit from having a dictated framework as opposed to admin saying "Here's your room, see you at the year end check out" Chicago school district was more successful in retaining teachers with a very rigid structure "At 10:07 all 5th grade teachers will be on page 47 of the book".

The problem as Coach says, is with the veteran teachers who had the experience with diversifying, teachable moments, etc and still "got the job done"