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Teachers Paid Much Less Than Their Peers

Manipulate the numbers as you wish, but truth is the profession is shortchanged

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Just wondered if any of you (besides Linda D-H have ever been in the teaching profession)? It is fairly obvious that you have never considered the hours put in to what a successful teacher accomplishes in regards to their pay. I believe you would find that it is WELL under minimum wage and hourly most would be appalled that anyone even enters the teaching field for such ridiculously low pay. Many (not in the field) are SADLY misled about the hours teachers keep and their "summers off", but if these same people were aware of the evaluations the state and district put on their teachers you would be overwhelmed. I realize we choose our careers, but I did not choose crabby parents, unrealistic state standards, concepts that are completely unattainable (No Child Left Behind), and others who have NEVER worked with students that aren't where the state claims they should be and who have things going on in their homes that keep them from learning to determine my measly paycheck.

liana of IN 4:24PM November 23, 2011

Of course they are overpaid. You're a teacher, so we know what you will say.6o years ago teachers were underpaid. Not now.

Sid Siegel of FL 10:16PM November 15, 2011

Larry, fortunately money is not my primary motivation for teaching. In fact, for years those in the profession have been so grossly unrewarded in the pay department, nobody goes into teaching for the money. But I'm not complaining. I would rather make crappy pay and do work I know is worthwhile than make millions and do work I find to be meaningless. So I made a decision: make lots of money and wrestle with my conscience for the rest of my life (I saw all kinds of unethical things being done in the name of corporate expediency when I was in the private sector), or be bored out of my skull as a well-paid corporate paper-shuffling drone; or teach and find joy in doing something I believe in and just live with the low pay. I am a part-timer by choice. It also gives me time to pursue my true love, which is writing. Guess what? I also do that largely for free. But a book makes a nice second income, at least for as long as it's selling.

But just because I'm willing and able to make that choice doesn't mean the system of underpaying teachers is right.

Consequently, you miss the point. What we are saying is that there is nothing close to decent pay for teachers. You offered as "proof" to counter our claim your neighbor that you always see at home, suggesting he barely works for a living. What a truck I could drive through that argument. For example, how do you know he isn't independently wealthy and inherited money from his parents? How do you know his wife isn't the one who makes the bulk of the money in that family? Maybe he teaches online courses via Skype and the Internet. That's easily done at home. So when he's home, he is working. That's why I suggested you try talking to him to get the truth rather than making a bunch of assumptions about what he's NOT doing. Fact is, you have no idea, only a bunch of guesses about what he does and about where he gets his money.

In contrast, to counter you, I gave you the specific example of myself--being someone actually in the field, unlike you--and I can attest that my experience is pretty much in line with the experience of all adjunct faculty nationwide. I've taught in three different states, and all four colleges I've taught at exploit adjunct faculty; it's a nationwide practice; some colleges do it less than others, but they all do it because we're cheap labor.

Your quite uninformed response to that is to blame ME for picking the wrong school district--as if that somehow were to support your ludicrous claim that teachers are paid well (except for stupid old me). The school district has nothing to do with it. As I said, the exploitation of adjunct faculty is a nationwide problem. You might try researching the issue.

I also suggest you go back to school and learn what red herrings, hasty generalizations, and ad hominem arguments are. Apparently you missed that day of lecture when you took composition and rhetoric.

Joyce Luck of CA 3:32PM November 10, 2011

Joyce Luck of CA,

It sounds like you are a better teacher than a contract negotiator when it comes to your own employment. You made the decision to teach at the community college and I am sure you were presented with the pay structure and YOU choose the go ahead and work there. So who is responsible for YOUR situation? Answer YOU.

Larry of CA 2:56PM November 10, 2011

Professor Darling-Hammond,

I respect you and your years in the profession. But I am really saddened by your constant and incorrect low blows at Teach For America. Despite your attempted hit at us, your implication is completely off base. As I'm sure you know (but irresponsibly failed to report honestly), entering year three, our teachers remain in their Title I placement school a higher rates than teachers from any traditional background. Moreover, 2/3 of our alumni stay in education well past their 2 corps years, meaning that the vast majority of us do not head to Wall Street or some equally high-paying gig. Most of us end up professionals in the least-lucrative, yet most noble field there is. The implication made by your Goldman reference is therefore completely false.

What's more is that you took an opportunity in an otherwise astute overview of the teacher pay issue, to take such a cheap shot. I would have assumed it was beneath you, or at least, deemed not germane to an article about something totally different. But yet again, you take the opportunity to take an immature and childish side-swipe at your most hated TFA, and for that, Dr. Darling-Hammond, I am disappointed. It's a poor reflection on you and your dedication to education. You don't have to like TFA, but I would hope the you'd respect the many education professionals who came from that pathway and are now, frankly, your colleagues in this fight.

EduFirst of DC 8:46AM November 10, 2011

Larry:

I teach part-time at a community college. I make a staggeringly wonderful $89 per hour. People say, "Wow! That's a lot."

That's not the end of the story.

I am paid for only "contact hours." That is, I'm paid only for those hours during which I am in the classroom. That amounts to 8 hours a week, plus one extra hour of tutoring in our Writing Center. (9 hours is the maximum part-time load--anything more than that and the law states the district would have to hire me full-time. Needless to say, about 75% of the instructors at our community college are part-timers, not full-timers. We are the backbone of the institution and we are exploited.)

I am NOT paid to do the following: prepare for classes, grade papers, confer with students when I'm off campus either in email or via phone calls, make up tests and quizzes, grade those, attend dept meetings etc etc etc. On the weekend, especially if a paper is due on Monday, I will also find myself answering emails from students who have questions. It's not a lie to say that teachers essentially don't get a break--or much of one--during an entire semester.

I get NO health insurance whatsoever. As a part-timer, my pension is a pittance. After working in my district for 13 years, I think I have accumulated about 10K in CASTRS, hardly enough to retire on.

I have two master's degrees, I'm a published writer, I write a popular blog, I worked in the private sector for five years as an editor, and no one would say I'm not qualified or not an excellent teacher.

I am not paid for holidays, spring break, summer break, Christmas break, or any break. If I want to get paid during the summer, I teach during the summer. (Instead of making assumptions about your lazy neighbor, consider that the majority of K-12 teachers work during the summer boning up on new developments in their field, attending conferences, updating their lesson plans and so on.... the things that they don't have time to do during the school year.)

Teachers are grossly underpaid. Period. I suggest you stop making assumptions about your neighbor and have a conversation with him about what he actually does. Your eyes just might open.

Joyce Luck of CA 6:59PM November 09, 2011

Well Ms. Linda Darling-Hammond does your wage comparision include all the benefits; medical, dental, retirement, and time-off; holidays and Spring, Summer, Fall breaks?

All I know is that the teacher down the street is home every single tim eI com ehome from work and he is there when I leave for work. They have three cars, pay for the lawn, the pool, and is always going to far away lands on his time off.

So yea, why don't we raise my property taxes so we can pay them more money because they are doing such a great job? Maybe if they stop paying their union dues they have a little more money in their pockets.

Ms. Linda Darling-Hammond are you just playing the union tool or does the title fit?

Larry of CA 4:57PM November 09, 2011