Ashton Crabtree

Campbell
English 1102
17 March, 2014
Why teachers are not excited about their job, is your child at risk?
Of all the pretty things that the state of North Carolina has to offer, teaching is considered
one of our uglier sides. Teaching in North Carolina has gone downhill in the past couple of years
and we have started to see some negative effects happening. Some include a very low salary,
most of which are frozen, and we have also taken away pay raises for teachers with a Masters
degree. With all of the negative aspects of being a teacher in the state of North Carolina it can be
very difficult to be a teacher, especially a good one. When teachers do not get paid what they
should it is very common for them to not perform the best they can. Teachers are a central factor
in the learning process that takes place in schools, and teachers attitudes and effectiveness can
vary depending on the incentives they face (Kingdom). Money is not everything but it can be a
major motivational tool.
The basics of teachers salaries
North Carolinas teacher pay has been based on how long a teacher has been teaching and
their credentials. If you have a Bachelors degree, on average, your starting salary will be around
$30,000. If you were to have the maximum experience and credentials possible, you could
potentially make up to $65,000. That is a very big range of salaries a teacher could have.
Teachers who have taught longer usually get paid more than the new teachers with less
kristie 3/24/14 8:35 AM
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kristie 3/24/14 8:04 AM
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ln Lhe sLaLe of norLh Carollna"
kristie 3/24/14 8:01 AM
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kristie 3/24/14 8:06 AM
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kristie 3/24/14 8:07 AM
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sLudenLs or Lhe Leachers?
kristie 3/24/14 8:08 AM
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kristie 3/24/14 8:08 AM
Comment [5]: aL Lhelr besL"
kristie 3/24/14 8:09 AM
Deleted: very good
experience. Now that the pay raise for teachers with a Masters degree has been taken away, it
makes teachers salary look even worse.
As of recently, the system of determining pay will now be based off of classroom results.
This means that a teacher will get paid according to how well his/her students perform on the
state standardized tests. Teacher incentives elicit more effort form teachers, resulting in higher
test scores (Figlio). Officials think that this is a good thing. They plan to reward the top twenty-
five percent of teachers by giving them an extra $500 a month increase in pay for four years
(Ferriter). Supposedly this is a way of motivating teachers to better themselves. I see the
opposite. The teachers who do not earn the extra $500 a month will get discouraged and could
possibly slack off. You need to reward every teacher and not just the top twenty five percent.
When a teacher knows that he/she is doing a good job at teaching and sees a younger
inexperienced teacher struggling, they are most likely not going to share their secrets. Especially
since they are getting paid more according to how well the students do, why would they share
what works for them and risk someone else besides them getting a raise? This helps no one and
just creates competition among teachers. Instead it is harming the students because their teacher
is unequipped. Should we pay teachers based on experience and educational attainment or the
number of students that pass?
Bill Ferriter, a current six grade teacher in Raleigh, said that he spent two months
teaching his students vocabulary words and facts over and over again. He says my classroom
went from being a place of inquiry where I gave kids the chance to answer their own questions
about the required content in a process that mirrored the work that professional scientists engage
in everyday to a drill-and-kill zone where memorization trumped thinking in my daily lessons
(Ferriter). When it came time for testing he outperformed county and state averages. Because of
kristie 3/24/14 8:11 AM
Comment [6]: Maybe lnclude whaL
happened LhaL Lhey Look away Lhe pay ralse.
kristie 3/24/14 8:12 AM
Comment [7]: lrom?
kristie 3/24/14 8:12 AM
Comment [8]: Why?
kristie 3/24/14 8:14 AM
Comment [9]: lmprove"
kristie 3/24/14 8:14 AM
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Lhese Lwo senLences.
kristie 3/24/14 8:15 AM
Comment [11]: lose lnLeresL ln Lhelr [ob"
kristie 3/24/14 8:16 AM
Comment [12]: maybe lnserL WlLh LhaL
sald,."
kristie 3/24/14 8:16 AM
Comment [13]: observes" ?
kristie 3/24/14 8:17 AM
Comment [14]: l Lhlnk Lhese Lwo
senLences belong LogeLher and Lhe quesLlon
followlng lL should sLand alone.
this he will most likely be up for a raise at the end of the year, but how does this help the kids?
Just because you can memorize something does not mean you have learned it. I think you should
go back a couple months after the test and retest the students to see if they truly did understood
the material or if it was simply memorization. We should not be paying teachers to get a certain
score on a test regardless if the student understands and remembers the material. We want to
motivate teachers in a positive way. Rewarding teachers based off of test scores is not a good
way to motivate teachers. A teacher should want to better themselves because they want their
kids to be better students; not to see a pay raise. They should be rewarded for that; not test
scores.
The correlation between salaries and performance
Some people do not think there is any correlation between teacher pay and teacher
performance. If you look at other countries around the world you will see that the more teachers
get paid the better they are at teaching and also the better their students are at performing in the
classroom. You will also see that a higher salary makes teachers feel appreciated and satisfied
with their job. Look at the Republic of Korea; here teachers are paid the highest salary in the
world. North Korean students have the highest reading proficiency (Brooke). This is proof that
students learn and perform better when their teacher is satisfied and believe they are being paid
enough. When a teacher has no motivation or desire to teach, the students will also have no
desire to learn.
If you needed more proof then lets look at Mexico. Here teachers are paid the least of
any teacher around the world. Their kids have the lowest average reading proficiency (Brooke).
It is not just in the United States that teacher salary is not what it should be; it is a world-wide
kristie 3/24/14 8:20 AM
Comment [15]: Maybe lnclude an example
afLer Lhls sLaLemenL.
kristie 3/24/14 8:20 AM
Deleted: really and
kristie 3/24/14 8:20 AM
Deleted: learn
kristie 3/24/14 8:20 AM
Deleted: they just memorized it the night
before
kristie 3/24/14 8:22 AM
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achlevemenLs, because lL can noL be
deLermlned lf lL was memorlzaLlon or
undersLandlng Lhe maLerlal."
kristie 3/24/14 8:23 AM
Comment [17]: WhaL would be some
poslLlve ways Lo encourage Leachers raLher
Lhan ralslng Lhelr salary?
kristie 3/24/14 8:27 AM
Comment [18]: lf posslble, Lry flndlng
some people who belleve Lhls. Maybe look up
some blogs abouL your sub[ecL.
kristie 3/24/14 8:27 AM
Deleted: and happier
kristie 3/24/14 8:27 AM
Deleted: about
kristie 3/24/14 8:28 AM
Comment [19]: lnclude Lhe salary
kristie 3/24/14 8:28 AM
Deleted: right here
kristie 3/24/14 8:29 AM
Deleted: feel
kristie 3/24/14 8:29 AM
Deleted: that
kristie 3/24/14 8:32 AM
Comment [20]: l Lhlnk you can rephrase
Lhls. Cn Lhe oLher hand, Mexlcan Leachers
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Leachers around Lhe world" someLhlng along
Lhe llnes of LhaL comblnlng Lhe nexL
seneLence.
kristie 3/24/14 8:33 AM
Comment [21]: lnsLead of clLlng Lhem aL
Lhe end of Lhe senLence maybe you can say
Accordlng Lo 8rooke, ..." and you can apply
LhaL Lo all of Lhe clLaLlons you dld aL Lhe end.
problem we need to fix if we want our students to comprehend and learn what is being taught.
Lets face it; they are our future.
Teachers salaries are not enough
Every year it seems like there is a cut in the schools budget. In reality though, something
somewhere has to get cut and money has to go somewhere else. Education cannot afford to be
cut anymore. According to a new survey, teachers on average spend $448 of their own money to
buy their classroom and students instructional materials and supplies (Durand). If education is
the number one priority then we should be supplying teachers with all the materials that is
needed to effectively teach. Can you think of another job that requires employees to purchase the
materials they need for their job? That extra money they are spending could be spent on rent or
groceries. The National School Supply and Equipment Association have found that teachers pay
for 77% of the school supplies needed for their classroom (Durand). These materials should be
coming from the government. The materials the teacher does not buy is supplied from parents,
the school, and other school funds.
Education plays a tremendous role in our lives. Teachers teach the basics to everyday
life; without them we would not know how to do basic math or how to even read. We end up
being with teachers for more hours a day than we are with our own parents. For what their job
entitles, teachers deserve to be paid more than what they are currently being paid. Education
reform advocates in the United States frequently argue that other than the intrinsic rewards of
teaching, there is no incentive for teachers to do a good job (Figlio). Not only would the salary
increase motivate them more to be a better teacher but you will also see the success of their
students increase as well. The bottom line is that education matters and we need to take it more
seriously.
kristie 3/24/14 8:34 AM
Comment [22]: resolve"
kristie 3/24/14 8:34 AM
Comment [23]: deslre"
kristie 3/24/14 8:34 AM
Deleted: truly
kristie 3/24/14 8:34 AM
Deleted: know
kristie 3/24/14 8:35 AM
Deleted: what we are teaching them
kristie 3/24/14 8:36 AM
Comment [24]: maybe elaboraLe on Lhls
sLaLemenL, lL can probably add more lengLh Lo
your paper (:
kristie 3/24/14 8:36 AM
Deleted: just
kristie 3/24/14 8:37 AM
Comment [25]: 8ephrase Lhls senLence,
seems a llLLle Loo wordy, be more speclflc.
kristie 3/24/14 8:38 AM
Deleted: will
kristie 3/24/14 8:38 AM
Deleted: they could possibly
kristie 3/24/14 8:38 AM
Deleted: need
kristie 3/24/14 8:38 AM
Deleted: do their job
kristie 3/24/14 8:38 AM
Deleted: to do
kristie 3/24/14 8:39 AM
Comment [26]: l don'L Lhlnk Lhls ls relevanL
Lo Lhe Loplc.
kristie 3/24/14 8:40 AM
Deleted: What
kristie 3/24/14 8:41 AM
Deleted: supply
kristie 3/24/14 8:40 AM
Deleted: comes
kristie 3/24/14 8:42 AM
Deleted: us
kristie 3/24/14 8:43 AM
Deleted: e
kristie 3/24/14 8:43 AM
Deleted: a lot
Works Cited
Brooke, Pamela. Does Increasing Teacher Salaries Yield More Learning?
www.womenadvance.org. Woman AdvaNCe. 7 July 2013. Web. 7 February 2014.
Durand, Maria. Teachers Spend own Money for Supplies. www.abcnews.com. ABC News. 31
August 2013. Web 7 February 2014.
Ferriter, Bill. Three Reasons North Carolinas New Plan for Paying Teachers is a Bad Idea.
www.teachingquality.org. 21 October 2013. Web. 7 February 2014.
Figlio, David N. Individual teacher incentives and student performance. Journal of Public
Economics 91 (2007): 901-914. Print.
Helms, Ann Doss. North Carolina Teacher Pay Stranded by Shifts in Education Laws.
www.newsobserver.com. 17 August 2013. Web. 7 February 2014.
Kingdom, Geeta Gandhi. Does performance related pay for teachers improve student
performance? Some evidence from India. Economics of Education Review 26
(2007): 473-486. Print
Milburn, Caroline. Why our best teachers are worth $150,000. Newsbank. 21 May 2012. Web.
10 March 2014.