http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-07-29-class-sizes_N.htm
This one is different than most articles regarding this subject because there is a claim that the class sizes don't really matter as long as the teacher is effective. Seriously? Duh! I'm not a distinguished researcher from Stanford or anything but I do know from experience that a good teacher makes all the difference. So we have the solution now, right? Yes we do. How do we implement it? We make a degree in education worth more than it is right now. A degree in education does not equate to much monetarily. I personally don't measure success in terms of monetary value, yet it is hard to feel appreciated when you're having trouble paying the bills at the end of every month. I was reading the news last week and read that Education was amongst the lowest paying majors in all of the top universities. That doesn't help in implementing the solution to the problem with education. An effective teacher needs to have been trained in an effective manner, and not every teacher is. You may ask why we allow these teachers to teach our youth, and the answer is because there is a shortage of people willing to do so. As long as effective teachers are in high demand larger class sizes will be detrimental to our youth.
I think you've observed a common topic in economics called "incentives." Everyone works off of incentives- even teachers. Have you read Freakonomics? The first chapter is about teacher's in Chicago who cheated on their students' standardized tests to meet state requirements in order to receive a cash bonus.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the economics of an education degree. Have you seen the news about the "experiment" with recruiting "great" teachers for $125,000 salaries and seeing what results in the classroom? On one of our clasmates' blogs
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