The Flight of Teachers from America

An interesting phenomenon is one in which experienced, talented, scholars and educators leave public education in the United States to teach in other countries and overseas.  This past year, I had two friends, both Fulbright scholars, leave the US educational circus after excepting teaching positions in private schools in Asia  (Vietnam and Korea).  I was left to wonder why two very talented and experienced teachers would resign positions and leave for a teaching future in another country without knowing the language of their students.  This appears to be happening more and more frequently as the educational system in the US becomes mired in antiquated testing, poor administration, overbearing school boards, and governors who force their own agendas on the public education system to the detriment of students and teachers.

Education in general is facing a crisis, not only in how teachers and students are evaluated, but in the actual number of experienced, qualified, and knowledgeable teachers available.  As the educator population enters into retirement age, there is a lack of qualified and experienced teachers to fill the open positions.  This may be hard to imagine, but once it is put into perspective, it highlights the reason for the lack of teachers and the reason many experienced and talented individuals leave for positions in other countries.

A small village school in rural India outside of Kalkota

In a profession that is constantly under attack, teachers are undervalued and underpaid, and put under more scrutiny than almost any other professional, it is little wonder that many leave within the first five years or decide to teach in other countries.  In almost every other country, teachers are valued as professionals, treated with respect on par with other professionals, and share in the educational development process.  Teachers in the United States are a very highly educated and trained group of professionals.  Every teacher has at least a bachelor's degree with many holding masters and doctoral degrees as well.  Teachers are expected to be experts, bring real-world experiences to the classroom, and prepare students for a future that is not even imagined.  Many parents place the blame for lack of achievement, not on the student, but on the teacher.  Almost every failing in the educational system has been placed at the feet of the teachers.  Yet, when the battle goes wrong in a conflict, it is the general who accepts the responsibility for failure, not the individual soldier.  Why in teaching is it always the teacher who must shoulder all the blame and the responsibility, yet not the success?

Teachers are on the front line every day, all day.  We accept our share of the burden for the successes and failures of our students, but we also realize that some things are beyond our control.  Parents are equally responsible for the successes and failures of their children.  Politicians react and attempt to impose controls on education instead of identifying the root causes and placing a focus on fixing the problems.  The answer is not always more high-stakes testing and teacher evaluations.  There is a need for individual solutions, more local controls, and identifying solutions that meet the diverse and varied needs of our students.  I am not sure of the solutions, but I do know that it will require input from everyone, changes for everyone, and that rather than assigning blame for the failures.  We need to update an 1800's education plan for a 21st century world.  This requires change and commitment to give those changes time to come to fruition.  It may take 5 years or 10 years, but time is needed for the changes to have an opportunity to work.  There is not one right system of education, however, taking bits and pieces from those systems that work, such as in Finland and Japan, but not the whole system does little good.  It is like taking an arm or a leg without the brain or the rest of the body.  And what works in one place does not always work in another place.  Education is about the whole child, music, arts, science, language, history, photography, creative expression, analysis, critical thinking, exploration, creativity, and everything in-between.

So why is education so poorly supported and teachers despised in America?  I am not sure, but I think it relates to the issues above.  As one posting online recently stated,

Moving on can mean staying in the international circuit and advancing to a new school, or returning home to teach. From my perspective of having experienced both, I would say continuing to move within the international circuit is far less taxing than formulating plans to return home. The biggest hurdle I experienced moving home was securing employment in a public school after a decade overseas.
A colleague from the UK once told me that working overseas was a distinct plus for them when they returned home. They said employers there liked to see the overseas experience on an applicant’s CV. I did not found this to be the case in the U.S. As a matter of fact, I think to American employers, overseas experience makes you look a bit “flaky” or could this just be American provincialism? When I hear the words, “I’d love to hear about your experiences in Africa, Saudi Arabia, Romania, etc.”, I know I can say good bye to that job.

It is apparent that in America, it can often be detrimental to state employment overseas.  However, those schools that value diversity and seek to meet the needs of a diverse student population generally welcome those with experience overseas.  I feel that for one to relate to students and understand a diverse population, you need to have multifarious experiences.  That may mean teaching for a time overseas, traveling over summer break to experience local cultures and customs, getting outside of your comfort zone, or seeing life from another angle.  It is these experiences, and time spent in the "outside" world that bring increased value to an educator's worth in the classroom.

A deaf student in India

My hope is that as education reforms and changes progress in the United States, we take into account all that has been tried before, learn from our mistakes, and truly keep the interest of the children at heart.  Not corporations, not big business, but the children.  Parents and teachers need to be involved together in the education of their children and work together to make positive changes that will lead to positive outcomes.  Politicians and legislation ARE NOT the solution....it is a grassroots, local school board, parents, and teachers working together that are going to create a better system of education for our children.  I am not sure of the solution, but we definitely need to work as a whole to keep educated and talented educators here in the US to ensure that our future generations of adults are successful well-rounded contributors to society. At the core, I believe is a need to improve respect for teachers, value teachers for what they do, and everyone have a vested interest in the success and well-being of our students.  Anything is possible when we all work together to achieve greatness.  It is not about dreams, it is about goals that we make happen.  What does it say about the educational system in the US when teachers feel the need to leave to earn a living and have respect doing a job they love?

The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries

This is a posting in response to the NY Times article a few months ago (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/opinion/01eggers.html) discussing the impact on our students and future of low teacher salaries. 

The first portion of the article has an excellent statement regarding the current view of educators and education in America today compared to the military and soliders.  Basically, we don't blame the soldiers when we do not get results in military operations.  We do not blame their rate of pay for faulty planning.  Instead, we blame the planners of the operations, the generals, the JCs, the defense department. 

In education we do just the opposite, we blame the teachers.  Not the lack of resources, not the educational system, not standardized tests and teaching to the test, but the teachers!!!  Instead, legislators and the public blame the teachers and further cut resources....at a certain point (and for many of us we are there), there are no more resources to cut.  Most parents can barely handle 3 kids all day during the summer.  Today, teachers are facing 35-40 students per class at least 5 times a day.  That's a lot of students and with minimal resources we are supposed to prepare them for a future!!!  Have you tried to conduct labs with no supplies, with resources for 15 of your 35 students each period?  What about getting them ready for the state tests?  Is it about teaching to the test or preparing students for the future?  Do we want students who are good test takers or students who can think critically and do well on the tests?  Yes there are strategies to teach students to think critically and do well on tests, but often teachers are hampered by national, state, and district "guidelines" and policies.

According to the article and other research, the average teacher's pay is about equal to that of a bartender (without many tips) or a toll taker.  Teachers are making 14% less than professionals in other occupations with similar educational requirements. 

"In real terms, teachers’ salaries have declined for 30 years. The average starting salary is $39,000; the average ending salary — after 25 years in the profession — is $67,000. This prices teachers out of home ownership in 32 metropolitan areas, and makes raising a family on one salary near impossible."
Nearly every teacher must work a second job in order to make ends meet and every year, some of the best teachers leave the profession.  According to multiple sources, the driving causes are long hours, low pay, lack of support, resources, and respect. Perhaps it is not enough to have a call to teach when you are teaching 150-200 students a day for low pay and at the end of the year called a bad teacher when test scores don't increase enough (even if they are way below and increase substantially).  According to national research, 20% of urban district teachers quit each year and 46% of teachers nationwide quit before their fifth year costing the United States $7.34 billion yearly.
We must focus on fixing the system, not placing the blame on the teachers on the front lines.  It will take effort from all sectors to improve our educational system.  The public school system is not broken, but we must focus on making it better.  We must look at those systems around the world, in places like Korea and Finland, that are working and be willing to change our own.