by Lee Nachtigal
Science Teacher Retention: It Takes More Than Money:
[Via AAAS News - RSS Feed]
Science Teacher Retention: It Takes More Than Money
High school science teachers value control over their lesson plans and prestige in their school districts more than salary increases, according to a survey discussed at AAAS.
[More]
I am very willing to believe that it would be lot easier to retain science teachers if they did not have to put up with some of the control of curriculum by non-scientists or administrators. But then that really only happens because administrators do not really respect the science teachers.
So the two problems go hand in hand. But then, that is because our education system is based on an out-moded approach where finding and disbursing information is hard and must be carefully taught by authority figures.
Today, information is easy to find and much of what a teacher really needs to do is facilitate the filtering of this information. Science teachers may actually have a better grasp of this since to a large extent that is what science training does.
But I would imagine that few administrators do understand this and this continuing conflict will only drive more science teachers away. especially since so much of education today is purely driven to pass the math and reading/writing standards of state-wide tests.
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July 2, 2009 at 7:10 am
It use to be that Catholic high schools had great science departments. Mainly because the Mother Superior usually had an advanced degree in math or science. I have no idea if that is any longer true, but it sure was a great idea.