A good teacher friend who works at the same school as I recently slipped a flier into my school mailbox. The flier had information from Educational Testing Service (ETS) who is seeking people to score the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment (RICA) test. This is a test that those seeking to become credentialed teachers in California must pass before getting their teaching credential.
The flier read, "Ms_teacher, I submitted your name as a potential candidate to be a scorer. Hope you don't mind." I, of course, am always flattered when people think of me for things like this because it pleases me that others' think of me in such a positive way. However, my plate is pretty darn full right now, so I was kind of on the fence as to whether or not I would take up this new opportunity.
On Friday, there was a packet in my mailbox at home from ETS. I opened up the packet and read the information about becoming a reading scorer for the RICA. It all looked very interesting and I'll admit, I was intrigued. I love learning new things and being able to add more to the old resume is usually a good thing.
Then I read how much ETS is willing to pay fully credentialed teachers who must have at least three years of teaching experience before becoming a scorer. Care to take a guess? The rate is $15 an hour.
The problem I have with this is that I am a professional. I have a bachelor's degree (four years of college), a teaching credential (two years plus two years of BTSA) and a master's (two years). I have also taught for seven years. This to me sounds like an unreasonable rate to pay a professional. However, I know the reason why they would pay such a low amount.
Our society expects teachers to do more with less because we are "teachers." After all, we are teachers because we want to touch the life of a child, right? The expectation is that not only will we teach, but we will also buy much of the materials out of our own pockets so that no child will do without. In my District, professional development is very rarely, if ever, covered. The expectation is that if we care about the kids, then we'll pay for it ourselves.
I'm saying NO to this particular
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7 comments:
$15 an hour! That is ridiculous.
The way teachers are treated is such an insult. Why is it that we are expected to make so many sacrifices? Yes, we do it because we love the children and education, but what about our children? We have families to support too.
And we are treated as nonprofessionals in other ways too. For example in the district I used to teach in, there has been a lot of uproar over teacher's dress codes. The system went to uniforms and some parents advocated that teachers also be required to wear a uniform because some don't dress professionally. In any other industry, if an employee did not dress appropriately, he or she would be dealt with privately. Because for some reason we are not thought of as professionals, some groups apparently think that we can't figure out professional dress and ALL need a uniform to help us out.
Yeah, that is absolute crap.
Pathetic! My daughter makes that for babysitting three children for an hour. Don't you just fantasize about a global strike?
I think $15/hr. is about what Sylvan pays their tutors. I won't work in teaching for less than my contractual hourly wage. Our district offers something like $32/hr for "teaching" Saturday School or Summer School" and "extra stuff" past the regular school hours. I won't work for that. My attitude is if you want my experience, devotion and skills, pay me my full rate, not nickels and dimes.
Now, I can see some teachers at the bottom of the pay scale who need money doing such work. And maybe they should, to get an idea of the value of their education, experience, training, etc. so that they don't work for peanuts again.
Unfortunately it wouldn't be quite a "global" strike, considering that teachers in at least some other countries ARE paid as professionals, not as doormats like so many schools/organizations/community members seem to think in the U.S.
Congratulations! If more teachers would refuse, maybe they would see the need to pay the appropriate amount. If they find people willing to do it at that rate, they won't see a need to raise the amount.
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