There was a discussion on the DC Teacher Chic blog about whether or not teachers should come to work for DCPS.
One poster who was anonymouse, responded with, "Others stay for a variety of reasons including a short commute, inertia, a great school community where you have your niche, can't pass Praxis to work in the counties, too close to retirement to give up on it, or because it's your home and your life and your calling."
I think that sentence sums up all the reasons I can think of for why teachers stay. Oh, maybe there's one more. I think some teachers don't have marketable up-to-date skills to make it in another school system. Especially when people keep complaining about the lack of quality PD. My advice to any teacher is the same advice others have given to me. Stay five years then leave. Otherwise, you will lose your skills and grow stagnant here in DC. Of course, if like me you stay five years and decide you enjoy the job despite its troubles and woes, then stay and keep making a difference.
And take charge of your own PD.
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There's another reason now that teachers are hopefully going to stay in DC, despite all the obstacles. And that is the economy. Have you talked to any friends or family out there looking for a job? It's not pretty out there. So think twice before jumping ship. We have about 5 more weeks left.
ReplyDeleteWith so much emphasis on DCPS we often do not consider other employees are confronted with leaving versus staying on their jobs as well. On a given day, many employees contemplate leaving their jobs for an array of reasons. The grass is always greener on the other side. I think when I was younger, I was naive and really believed that I would find my fantasy job. The beauty of experience is that it teaches all of us that there is no such thing as a fantasy anything. Even if we owned our own business- it would be fraught with challenges some of which we would love to avoid.
ReplyDeleteNo matter where you work and for how long, competent or incompetent, educated or under educated, white or black, rich or poor- eventually reality sets in. What I mean by this is that the older one gets- less opportunities are typically available as we mature. One reason is that more experienced employees usually earn and demand higher salaries. Their benefit packages are also significantly higher. Why hire one experienced teacher when money is short, when you can get two for the price of a veteran, many will contend.
In public education, many school systems require newly hired employees to begin at a maximum entrance step regardless of current salary and experience. I think it is typically the equivalent of 10 years of experience. So lets say you have more than 10 years of experience, in many school systems you can only placed up to a step 10 on a teacher pay scale if you tranfer in as a teacher or related school personnel. This discourages many teachers from transfering to other public school systems after they hit the 10 year experience mark. Often times public schools do not want to negotiate or reconsider this rule unless there is a shortage in your area of certification.
Another reason you may not have considered, there are many who teach here in DC who want to work with a minority community of mostly African-American students which by the way represents the larger percentage of our student body. I came here because I wanted to work with students who have NOT BEEN typically afforded quality education like their more affluent counterparts. In addition, where I work in Ward 8 - students come from lower socio economic backgrounds and are exposed to a great deal of violence and other factors associated with poverty. People are not lined up to work in these type of schools and communities. I and many others like me hoped to make a difference in the lives of the young people in my school community. I stayed to make a greater difference not because I had to or because I lacked the skills or credentials needed to work elsewhere.
I have some more reasons. Heavy credit card debt, want to buy a house and need to have been in my job for a while, big fat student loans to pay off. But hey, those teachers still may be highly effective.
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