Wealth is New

I am taking a class through the Foundation for Teaching Economics entitled "Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?"  One idea from the course for all of you to consider, poverty has been the norm throughout history while wealth has not.   

The idea of wealth being as widespread as it is today is rather new.  For a long, long time almost all of humanity lived in poverty.

Helps you appreciate what you do have.  

Teacher Pay Is Not Linked with Student Achievement

How irritated would you be to know that teachers are paid based on a standard that has no correlation to student performance as measured by standardized tests in math and reading?

What I mean  is that teachers are paid based on a combination of years of experience and educational level attained.  The more years you teach and the more college credits you earn, the more money you make.  Yet no connection has been made in research demonstrating that someone with a masters degree is definitely going to be a better teacher than someone with a bachelors degree.  Some research has shown that teachers do show some improvement in teaching performance between the first year and fifth year of teaching; however, research has been unable to demonstrate meaningful improvement after the fifth year in teacher quality.  Teachers are paid based on standards that have little to do with student performance.   

I mention all this because I saw that the Manhattan Institute for Policy research released a paper on a recent study supporting these findings.  The key measure that they used to demonstrate student achievement were standardized test scores.  A quick glance at the standardized tests used in Florida, the state covered by the study, finds that they only use multiple choice questions.  Multiple choice questions cannot effectively measure skills like creativity and the ability to create new material, both of which are considered higher order thinking skills. 

So that leads me to this question, are these research findings actually telling us years of teaching experience and college credits are worthless when it comes to predicting teacher performance or is it telling us that they are worthless when it comes to predicting student performance on imperfect multiple choice tests?              

As the amount of information grows, so does our need for eachother

We consume a lot of information in the course of our day.  More so now then at any other time in the history of man.  We need each other more than ever to help make sense of it.  

A recent theme that has come out of my small group is the idea that the Bible must be interpreted and understood as a group of believers and not as individuals.  I tend to agree with that sentiment because I gain a far deeper and nuanced understanding of stories and passages after hearing the perspective of others.  I think this same idea applies when exploring and trying to learn from the volumes of information that bombards us today. 

While watching West Wing the other night President Bartlet quoted Ephesians 5: 21, "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." This presents the idea that we should be serving one another or putting the needs of others before our own.  Again, I think this is very important today because so much information is out there.  We need to find the areas of knowledge that we care about and are knowledgeable in and we need to share our insights in those areas with others who are willing to do the same.  As Seth Godin puts it, we need to find a tribe.     

Couple this with a comment posted by an acquaintance from William and Mary.  He was asking if their is evidence supporting the idea that education can enhance the ability of the human mind to process information.  I think the enhancement comes from learning together.  Yes you can learn on your own, but I don't think you do it as well as when you do it in a group. That to me is the true value of education in a public context.  We provide each other with experiences and ideas that we would not otherwise interact with.  By learning together we learn more.   

If we take the idea of approaching learning in groups, connect that with the idea of serving one another found in Ephesians, and then share that learning with each other publicly in our areas of expertise we make all of us better.  

That is why I appreciate it when friends share items on their Google reader feeds, post articles on Facebook, and blog about their experiences.  I plan to keep doing the same.  Will you join me?  

How Do We Measure Education? What are we measuring?

I want to know how you can effectively measure education? 

So lets start with a definition of education so we know what we want to measure. 

Merriam-Webster said, "the knowledge and development resulting from an educational process."

The Free Dictionary said, "An instructive or enlightening experience"

Wikipedia may have had what I think is the most thorough definition when it said, "Education in the general sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character, or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills, and values from one generation to another."

So when someone receives an education from the public K-12 system it is a series of formative effects covering a number of topics some of which are formal and some which are informal.  

So I ask the question again, how can we effectively measure education?  What is the mark of an educated individual?  

Hidden Subsidies Hold Back Teacher Compensation

I read a good blog post the other day from Justin Baeder, titled Subsidies to the Teaching Profession.  In the post he argued that " the teaching profession continues to be subsidized" by three things which are helping to keep wages lower. 

First, is what he called the charity work subsidy.  Because education is a noble profession, people are willing to "donate" their time to it.  He mentions seeing applicants for open teaching positions who have already had a successful career or who are supported by wealthy parents.  Speaking from my own experiences, I have seen former military folks in the classroom who would fit into this group as well.  I might even fall into this group a little bit as both my parents and my in-laws are very generous towards my family when it comes to things like vacations and eating out.  Their financial support in these little areas has helped make my family's quality of life better than it would be if we were just on my salary.   

Second, is the rich spouse subsidy.  He acknowledges that the term, which I adjusted slightly, might be a little offensive.  This is the idea that many teachers have spouses who work at better paying jobs.  Again I see this at play with my own colleagues.  Many are married to lawyers, doctors, and engineers who are paid well.  My own mother falls into this category.  My father makes a good living from his job which allows my mother to work as an amazing preschool teacher with out having to worry as much about what she gets paid.

Another part of this subsidy is summed up when Justin says, "For men in particular, the idea of choosing a career that needs to be financially supported by a partner's career isn't very appealing."  I admit I struggle with this idea in a slightly different context.  My wife is about to stay home full time to watch our six month old son.  Our budget is going to be tight because of this decision.  I wish that I could paid a little bit more so things wouldn't be so tight.

The final subsidy is what Justin calls the vow of poverty.  Justin sums this idea up best when he says, "Many educators reject higher-paying alternatives because they believe education to be a worthy endeavor."  I definitely fall into this category.  One of the many reasons I was drawn to education was the idea of giving back in a public capacity.  I knew what I was getting into from a compensation stand point and was still willing to take the job.  I gave up a career in Washington, D.C. to become a teacher.  

What do you think about these subsidies?  Do you think they make sense?  Do you agree with Justin that they are holding back teacher compensation?