1 in 4 U.S. teachers are chronically absent

So you hold the potential replacements to no standard at all? Yeah, that kind of fits with the attitude you have shown toward teachers on this board.

A teacher who misses 10 days one school year is not necessarily a "bad, unmotivated teacher." That is the problem with most of your anti-teacher posts. You show no concern for making sure the teachers being kept or fired are properly evaluated before a decision is made.

 

So make the change, but do it right. Just firing people for the sake of making a change is not good enough.

 

Sure! That bonus is called "seniority pay."

 

But they're already getting that. Why would any teacher's union agree to fines?

 

Sure it is.

This is like the "broken windows" policy. Doing nothing instills a culture of failure and complacency.

Kids know that no one gives a shit about them. Good teachers become demoralized.

You must remove the bad teachers and the teachers who don't consistently show up to work.

Showing that you care enough to do this is half the battle.

 

I don't think that is what he was saying. Also fortunate to be healthy, but I do think using 12 in a year is a lot. Guess I could see if it was something like you described, but I think there is a point where too many absences hurt job performance, and if that job is teacher it in turn hurts the students' performance.

 

Nice try. Your idea is to fire a bunch of people. A little scrutiny will be thrown at the plan.

 

Your something has to be better than doing nothing.

Beyond that, it's just circular rhetoric. "My plan is a good plan because it's a plan" is not an argument for anything. It's rhetoricz

 

If you get pregnant and go on maternity leave, you're a failure.

 

We have failure now.

We do nothing about it.

Less than 1% of teachers get fired on an annual basis in some big districts, and it's usually not because they're bad teachers.

So, yes, just about any plan is better than the status quo.

To argue that we shouldn't fire teachers who don't consistently come to work is to accept failure.

 

Full disclosure: after my time as a journalist, I was a classroom teacher for five years and likely still would be had my license from my original state been reciprocated in the two states covered by my metro area. Nonetheless, I currently work in product marketing for an talent management software company whose market is specifically K-12 and higher education.

I don't typically wade into these education discussions because I feel perhaps too close to it and my anecdotes are just that, and certainly not representative.

Example: From my experience, being absent is hard work. It takes more prep and planning than just sucking it up, showing up, and adjusting the lesson plan accordingly -- silent reading, busy work, "study hall," whatever tricks teachers have to be ready with when things don't go as planned.

I missed a handful of days per year -- not all six I had alotted, but at four or so. I was almost never sick. Instead, most of those sick days were used to play catch up on the things I just couldn't get ahead of in my scant planning hours during the week and the long hours in the evening and on weekends as an English teacher and journalism sponsor of 150 students -- planning, grading, sleep, etc.

Then I'd still show up to run practice for the which sport I coached was in season. Those days were the worst and by about 10 a.m. I regretted calling in.

 

A good question with no simple answer due to the variability of collectively bargained agreements and state-specific certification requirements.

I'll do my best to provide some context. As I said in my previous post, the company for which I work is in the K-12 software game, providing evaluation and PD tracking software as part of our portfolio.

The short answer: almost all organized opportunities occur professional development on those teacher in-service days when the kids have the day off two to four times a year without explanation. Teacher aren't using instructional time to work on PD. Again, depending on contracts, that work is being done during planning hours during the school day or, more likely, during non-duty hours and in the summer.