RE: Personnel Development

Brian Miller said: What if a teaching career was not DESIGNED to be 30 years, but reinvented to be 10-15 year spurts with options for vertical and horizontal movement within the system? What if young teachers were encouraged to diversify early in their careers to avoid burnout later? What if school districts actively sought veteran teachers by recruitment, offering them a raise in their district instead of a pay cut? To say we cannot afford these ideas is sheltered, myopic thought. Where there is a will, there will be a way. 

Your comments have challenged some of my own thinking.  I have been focused on what the state could do through a career ladder approach to retain our best teachers IN THE CLASSROOM rather than forcing them to choose between classroom teaching and additional compensation.  Your notion of expanding the concept of the career ladder to include such professionals as counselors is creative and could refresh the energy of todays teachers.  I still worry, however, how we protect the interest of students when good teachers choose to transition to counseling and advising -- a valuable position within the schools but one step removed from the classroom?  We currently have too few good teachers and too few counselors in our schools.  How might we address these dual needs and still consider this expanded concept of a career ladder?

Brian also mentions the possibility of offering raises to experienced teachers leaving to accept employment in another district.  Too frequently this occurs now with the result being a migration of experienced teachers from lower to higher performing schools.  Should the state encourage linking such raises to attracting experienced teachers from high performing schools to lower performing schools?