Time for higher pay? Teachers are more likely to work second jobs

After the school day ends, many teachers are heading to second jobs to make ends meet, Takepart.com reports. According to a new study from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the sad truth is that teachers are more likely than non-teachers to work multiple jobs. The report provides a variety of reasons why educators, who on average make $56,039 per year, might be more likely to seek a supplementary income. Teachers, according to the study, were more likely to be married and have dependents. Where as 45 percent of non-teachers were unmarried with no dependents, only 35 percent of teachers were in the same category. The responsibility of having to provide for others makes additional income appealing. The study also found that STEM teachers were more likely than other teachers to work a second job. Earlier this year, President Obama announced that he wants to spend one billion dollars to hire more STEM educators who would be enticed by receiving an additional $20,000 on top of their salaries…

Click here for the full story

…Read More

One of the most powerful educators in America

Civil rights leader Kenneth Clark once said to Howard Fuller, “Did my work even make a difference?” Like Clark, who was instrumental in the Supreme Court’s decision to desegregate schools in 1954, education advocate Howard Fuller has asked himself this same question, Takepart.com reports.

“If you really care and you live long enough,” Fuller, 71, says, you look back over your body of work and wonder what impact it has made.

Looking at Clark and Fuller’s bodies of work, it is not hard to see that both have made a major impact on education in America. For the last three decades, Howard Fuller has fought for education equality and school choice. He served as the superintendent of Milwaukee schools where he was a strong proponent of the voucher program, and is a Distinguished Professor of Education and the Founder and Director of Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University. The Institute empowers low-income families to choose the best education options for their children……Read More

Failing public schools: Should they learn from thriving charters?

What makes a charter school succeed and how exactly can we transfer these ideas to failing public schools? These questions are examined in Roland G. Fryer’s widely talked about report, “Learning From the Successes and Failures of Charter Schools,” Takepart.com reports. Fryer is the CEO of EdLabs and an economics professor at Harvard University, the report was published as part of The Hamilton Project (the Brookings Institution). The report has been touted as a great way for modeled successful charters to “cross-pollinate” with failing public schools. Critics, however, have said charters are being favored as education policy over reforms that might be more cohesive with the traditional public school system. Fryer studied data from 35 charter schools of varying success levels in New York City to determine what separated the high achievers from those that failed. What he discovered was intriguing. The usual measurements, such as class size and amount spent per student, were not as important to reading and math scores as other school-wide implemented practices…

Click here for the full story

…Read More

The way teachers are getting school supplies may surprise you

Each year, American teachers pay $3 billion out of their own pockets on classroom supplies. Yes, $3 billion, reports Takepart.com. Teachers in many parts of the country barely make enough to pay bills, much less have extra money to funnel back into the classroom. But fortunately more people—and politicians—are waking up to this critical economic problem in the classroom. Republican Florida Governor Rick Scott outlined his new education plan last week ahead of the state’s January legislative session. He wants to give every teacher in Florida a debit card to assist in school supply costs that would be funded by private and public investment.

“Teachers are the lifeblood of our classrooms and they help students obtain the skills and talents they will need to get a job, build a family and live their version of the American dream,” Scott said last week in a speech about his plans for Florida’s education system…

Click here for the full story…Read More