It bothers me that tenure even exists in education: I'm glad that the layoffs are at least going to be fair in that regard. Bill Gates said pretty much directly that it's one of the biggest factors in the poor performance of schools.
The reason tenure exists is to protect older, more expensive teachers from being the target of firings. A teacher who is tenured can still be let go if they are not performing. The district just needs to have just cause for firing them.
The reason tenure exists is to protect older, more expensive teachers from being the target of firings.
Studies show that teachers rarely improve with age or experience after their initial few years: the older teachers shouldn't be more expensive in the first place, and should be let go if they can't perform and better replacements are available.
A teacher who is tenured can still be let go if they are not performing
It rarely seems to happen, though, even when the teachers are terrible.
Studies show that teachers rarely improve with age or experience after their initial few years
I'm not sure about that. I have seen awesome new teachers and awesome old teachers. It depends on the person. Most teachers today are required to constantly partake in professional development to keep them up t date with what is happening in the "real" world.
the older teachers shouldn't be more expensive in the first place
How would you suggest that the pay for teachers work then? I understand that just being there for a long time shouldn't be the main criteria that determines a teachers salaries, but it is hard to really rate how well a teacher is doing. There are many factors including the students. If a student is given a class full of students who have many different educational difficulties they are going to look worse then a teacher with a class full of gifted students. It is already hard to attract teachers to schools. The pay isn't very high, the job includes a great deal of emotional stress, and the hours are only good if you don't do any extra-curricular activities.
Studies show that teachers rarely improve with age or experience after their initial few years: the older teachers shouldn't be more expensive in the first place, and should be let go if they can't perform and better replacements are available.
What studies? Please cite. In NYS they require continued education for teachers to keep them up to date on technology, methods, ideologies, materials, etc. Moreover, all of my observation has shown that a 20 year teacher (if they were decent to begin with - which they often are) has seen it all and keeps themselves current in the field's improvements and innovations. They are invaluable to a school, creating a group of mentors for new teachers to consult. (By the way, NYS also requires new teachers to have a mentor for their first year.) If you do well at your job and you stay there for some time, you should be rewarded reasonably for your loyalty and greater experience. Pay raises are also necessary to match cost of living. Teachers get paid diddly to begin with, they should have the hope of making a bit more to stay in the profession for more than five years. There is a teacher drain currently in which new teachers. People get into the field for 5-8 years and then leave. This is weakening the school system and damages continuity of education for any given generation of students. REASONABLE tenure is responsible for an undervalued, underpaid, but essential position.
A teacher who is tenured can still be let go if they are not performing
It rarely seems to happen, though, even when the teachers are terrible.
This happens often enough, in NYS at least. In fact, it can happen too easily in some cases (a teacher with a strong record has one yer of students that perform poorly on the Regents and the teacher gets canned, tenure or no).
I'm not sure about that. I have seen awesome new teachers and awesome old teachers.
I didn't say older teachers are bad: I said very specifically that older teachers tend not to improve. There's a big difference.
Most teachers today are required to constantly partake in professional development to keep them up t date with what is happening in the "real" world.
Bill Gates' studies showed that such professional development has almost zero impact on teacher performance.
How would you suggest that the pay for teachers work then?
The same way we pay people in other industries. Pay them more overall, be more selective in hiring, and be ready to let go teachers that don't perform within a few years of hiring. As for performance monitoring, watch the Bill Gates TED video. There are effective ways to monitor teacher performance over time: they're just different from the metrics we use now (thank you "No Child Left Behind...).
If his studies are to be believed, the single biggest factor in a teacher's performance is their past performance, and almost nothing else has any measurable effect.
If his studies are to be believed, the single biggest factor in a teacher's performance is their past performance, and almost nothing else has any measurable effect.
Ummm.. yes, the way to gauge their performance is by gauging their performance.... You want to rephrase that? I don't understand what you are trying to say.
I repeat. Watch the Bill Gates TED video. The things he has to say, and the evidence his foundation has found, affirm a lot of things that I merely guessed at for a long time. Tenure is bullshit. Good teachers are what really matters, above all else. Teacher's unions hurt education. Age and experience have almost nothing to do with how good a teacher someone is. Kids have short attention spans, and non-engaging old education styles do not work. It goes on.
Ummm.. yes, the way to gauge their performance is by gauging their performance.... You want to rephrase that? I don't understand what you are trying to say.
A teacher who performs well in his first two years will continue to perform well. A teacher who does not perform well in his first two years will likely never improve significantly. Teachers tend to either start out highly effective and remain so, no never attain any level of effectiveness. A poorly performing teacher should probably be fired early and readily, as there is little chance that they will ever improve regardless of any professional development they undertake.
The sole correlating indicator of teacher effectiveness across several metrics is past/initial performance. This includes indirect and external metrics. Good teachers begin good and improve. Poor teachers never improve.
A teacher who performs well in his first two years will continue to perform well. A teacher who does not perform well in his first two years will likely never improve significantly. Teachers tend to either start out highly effective and remain so, no never attain any level of effectiveness. A poorly performing teacher should probably be fired early and readily, as there is little chance that they will ever improve.
Granted, this is the trend that has been shown assuming the current system. There is possibly some way we can train teachers so that they will be good from the get-go, and much of what Bill Gates is doing is trying to find out how to do that. Regardless, his foundation has shown through scientific study that it isn't happening now.
Granted, this is the trend that has been shown assuming the current system.
Yes. He also points out that teachers' unions have basically fought every measure that could change this, which is part of the reason why our system is as broken as it is now. We have either work within the system to improve the output, or rebuild the system. Currently, neither is possible in most public schools.
When the FBI has to raid your peanut processing plant, you done fucked up.
Why didn't the peanut company just shut down for a week and clean the factory? It surely would have lost them less money in the end compared to what's happening to them now.
When the FBI has to raid your peanut processing plant, you done fucked up.
Why didn't the peanut company just shut down for a week and clean the factory? It surely would have lost them less money in the end compared to what's happening to them now.
Yup. It sure would have. That's what you're supposed to do, and we have regulations in place that mandate that to happen.
The problem is that the FDA isn't always very effective at what it does, partly because of our screwed up food safety system, partly because of certain attitudes from certain people in the FDA, and partly because their funding has been gutted over the past 8 years. They suffer from the NASA problem: they underperform, so you cut their funding, causing them to underperform even more.
As for PCA, the decision to ship the product (even before receiving test results) was purely motivated by profit. If you operate all the time and ship out everything you make, you make a tidy profit. A week-long shutdown, for pretty much any manufacturer, costs a hell of a lot of money, enough that some people are willing to risk killing people for the sake of maintaining a profit. That's why we can't have the private sector regulating itself - it generates a massive conflict of interest. In this case, PCA gambled and lost big time.
Due to one of our guards having to retire for health reasons and another one breaking his ankle, I should be pretty safe at my job. The only thing I hate about it is that we (security) are now being used more for catching people doing minor infractions so they can build a case to dismiss someone.
While the company where I work isn't actively laying people off, they're not exactly beating the bushes to hire new people, which is pretty crappy considering the number of people we've lost to attrition and firings in the last year. I know it's not for lack of applicants. I have to walk past the receptionist area to get to the nearest bathroom and there hasn't been a day this week where there hasn't been someone sitting in the chairs out there while filling out an application. Management haven't haven't flat-out said, "we're going to start giving people the axe", but they've pretty much insinuated that if things get worse then they're going to start canning people, based on productivity levels. Morale was in the crapper for months before the recession really started to hit and the higher-ups just don't give a hoot now that it's become worse. We're all supposed to put on a happy face, toe the line, step up to the plate, and act like nothing is wrong. Any complaints we have are supposed to be brought to our supervisors so they can address them, but we all know that if we speak up then it's not "a" problem, it's "your" problem, because no one else wants to put their neck on the chopping block. Even if more than one person were to bring up the same issue, I don't think it would be addressed; all the managers are too busy blowing smoke up each other's asses to actually see what is going on around them. We're not employees to them, we're just numbers on a spreadsheet. Good times, I tell you. Methinks it's time to start shopping my resume around. I may just have to look in to relocation if the opportunity presents itself.
I think I'll have to move back to California, and do some geekeries out there. I've got a few interviews scheduled with web companies. The Bay Area seems to be the only place not going under.
Okay, this is the closest thread I can find without making a new one.
I have an interview in a few hours, and it's pretty laid back. (This is a recruiter who I'm meeting at Starbucks to have the interview, who has already sent my resume on to the company. It's kind of a formality.) Anyway, the interview is cake, except for this one thing.
Hypothetical Situation 1: A user calls in a panic saying that there’s 15 minutes until class starts and they need to log into their PC to copy a file over to a thumbdrive for a lecture. They are mentioning that their computer is going through a cyclic-reboot (it’s not even getting to Windows splash screen). Due to time constraints and lack of remote administration accessibility you must take care of situation immediately and in person. Can you walk me through the entire process from entering the office door through resolution? What would you look for as far as troubleshooting goes (Hardware/software)? Why?
The hell? In 15 minutes I can barely get to his computer. Procrastinating bastard. This one has me stumped. I figure that by the time I get there I'm going to have maybe 5 minutes to get it fixed. That's barely enough time to do what I was planning on, which is re-seat the ram and any PCI/AGP cards, but I don't even know if that's proper procedure. Can anyone give me some insight on this? The only other thing I can think of making it cycle would be a dead mobo, in which case he's fucked because I don't have the time to get the data off of the Hard drive.
Edit: Is this one of those, we know you can't fix it but we want to see what you do, questions?
This is what's killing me about this job market. There's plenty of jobs for well established IT people with a niche, but good entry level jobs are hard to come by.
The hell? In 15 minutes I can barely get to his computer. Procrastinating bastard. This one has me stumped. I figure that by the time I get there I'm going to have maybe 5 minutes to get it fixed. That's barely enough time to do what I was planning on, which is re-seat the ram and any PCI/AGP cards, but I don't even know if that's proper procedure. Can anyone give me some insight on this? The only other thing I can think of making it cycle would be a dead mobo, in which case he's fucked because I don't have the time to get the data off of the Hard drive. Edit: Is this one of those, we know you can't fix it but we want to see what you do, questions?
While it might be one of those "You're screwed, we just want to see how you approach it" questions, I'd say the situation is recoverable. Priority one is to get the twit out the door to his class with his presentation in hand. They didn't say what you could and couldn't bring with you when you go on-site to look at it, so I'd tell them I'm bringing a previously-prepared Linux live CD with me. Boot to live CD, mount the PC's main drive, mount the thumb drive, copy the file over and send the doof who waited until the last minute to get a copy of his presentation on his way while you investigate further. Other direction to take it would be to see if it's looping before Windows tries to boot or if it keeps cycling back to the "windows could not be started" screen. If it's the latter, try Safe Mode to get the doof his presentation and then dig further after they leave. If Windows won't boot at all, see option 1 with the live CD. Actual troubleshooting of the issue would require seeing what errors it was puking up before it reboots or actual observation of the behavior, POST beeps, etc. Most sudden boot loops are caused OS/Driver conflicts, which then goes back to boot it into Safe Mode and see what happens. Hardware-wise, you're on the right track with checking the RAM and the video card but like you said you wouldn't have time to do anything with them by the time you got there. If it was a mobo-based problem then it probably wouldn't even POST at all, it'd just sit there.
Yeah, I was thinking about using a Live CD. I keep forgetting that I'm not working with other people looking over my shoulder. When I worked under some IT guys at my school, they didn't want you to do anything that wasn't by the book, but I have a feeling this is an environment where I can do what I need to to get the problem fixed. I've just got to get into that mindset.
Anyway, as for the other solutions, I was totally skipping a safe-mode step in my head. I really don't know why. Luckily, she told me to just send in a word file with all of the answers to the questions, and that this wasn't actual interview, these are the pre-screening questions so that this middle-man company that's recruiting me can see what I would say and help me get better answers.
I keep forgetting that I'm not working with other people looking over my shoulder. When I worked under some IT guys at my school, they didn't want you to do anything that wasn't by the book, but I have a feeling this is an environment where I can do what I need to to get the problem fixed. I've just got to get into that mindset.
One thing to remember about the real world is that it is NOT a certification exam. The "by the book" solution to a problem will likely end up taking you twice as long as the quick and dirty hack that will get the user up and running until you can fully repair their system. Always try to think outside the box and be wary of people who get stuck in a "but that's the way we've always done it" mindset. Glad I could be of assistance!
Well during my companies 3rd round of layoff's they finally hit my branch laying off 25 people out of 228 people. Gotta say being at work during a layoff is not fun I recommend calling out sick. Fortunately Laura and I were safe.
Comments
REASONABLE tenure is responsible for an undervalued, underpaid, but essential position. This happens often enough, in NYS at least. In fact, it can happen too easily in some cases (a teacher with a strong record has one yer of students that perform poorly on the Regents and the teacher gets canned, tenure or no).
If his studies are to be believed, the single biggest factor in a teacher's performance is their past performance, and almost nothing else has any measurable effect.
The sole correlating indicator of teacher effectiveness across several metrics is past/initial performance. This includes indirect and external metrics. Good teachers begin good and improve. Poor teachers never improve.
When the FBI has to raid your peanut processing plant, you done fucked up.
The problem is that the FDA isn't always very effective at what it does, partly because of our screwed up food safety system, partly because of certain attitudes from certain people in the FDA, and partly because their funding has been gutted over the past 8 years. They suffer from the NASA problem: they underperform, so you cut their funding, causing them to underperform even more.
As for PCA, the decision to ship the product (even before receiving test results) was purely motivated by profit. If you operate all the time and ship out everything you make, you make a tidy profit. A week-long shutdown, for pretty much any manufacturer, costs a hell of a lot of money, enough that some people are willing to risk killing people for the sake of maintaining a profit. That's why we can't have the private sector regulating itself - it generates a massive conflict of interest. In this case, PCA gambled and lost big time.
EDIT: Here's another article about the president of the company refusing to answer questions in front of a Congressional committee. There are some nice quotes in there, where he complained about how much it was costing him to hold up product.
Kodak.
I think I'll have to move back to California, and do some geekeries out there. I've got a few interviews scheduled with web companies. The Bay Area seems to be the only place not going under.
I have an interview in a few hours, and it's pretty laid back. (This is a recruiter who I'm meeting at Starbucks to have the interview, who has already sent my resume on to the company. It's kind of a formality.) Anyway, the interview is cake, except for this one thing.
Hypothetical Situation 1:
A user calls in a panic saying that there’s 15 minutes until class starts and they need to log into their PC to copy a file over to a thumbdrive for a lecture. They are mentioning that their computer is going through a cyclic-reboot (it’s not even getting to Windows splash screen). Due to time constraints and lack of remote administration accessibility you must take care of situation immediately and in person.
Can you walk me through the entire process from entering the office door through resolution?
What would you look for as far as troubleshooting goes (Hardware/software)? Why?
The hell? In 15 minutes I can barely get to his computer. Procrastinating bastard. This one has me stumped. I figure that by the time I get there I'm going to have maybe 5 minutes to get it fixed. That's barely enough time to do what I was planning on, which is re-seat the ram and any PCI/AGP cards, but I don't even know if that's proper procedure. Can anyone give me some insight on this? The only other thing I can think of making it cycle would be a dead mobo, in which case he's fucked because I don't have the time to get the data off of the Hard drive.
Edit: Is this one of those, we know you can't fix it but we want to see what you do, questions?
This is what's killing me about this job market. There's plenty of jobs for well established IT people with a niche, but good entry level jobs are hard to come by.
Anyway, as for the other solutions, I was totally skipping a safe-mode step in my head. I really don't know why. Luckily, she told me to just send in a word file with all of the answers to the questions, and that this wasn't actual interview, these are the pre-screening questions so that this middle-man company that's recruiting me can see what I would say and help me get better answers.
Thanks for the help.