US Schools Work Teachers Harder, not Smarter: New Research
Published February 13, 2009 @ 09:58PM PT
Check out this staggering tidbit from new research by Linda Darling-Hammond, et. al.:
U.S. teachers average far more net teaching time in direct contact with students (1,080 hours per year) than any other OECD nation. By comparison, the OECD average is only 803 hours per year for primary schools and 664 hours per year for upper secondary schools. U.S. teachers spend about 80 percent of their total working time engaged in classroom instruction, as compared to about 60 percent for these other nations’ teachers, who thus have much more time to plan and learn together, and to develop high-quality curriculum and instruction.
In most countries, about 15 to 20 hours per week is spent on tasks related to teaching, such as preparing lessons, meeting with students and parents, and working with colleagues. By contrast, U.S. teachers generally have from 3 to 5 hours a week for lesson planning, which is done independently.
Are you listening, Sec. Duncan?
If so, why are you praising KIPP charters as the "proven, scale-ready" answer? KIPP gives its teachers more time for extra duties how, again? By taking more time from teachers on nights and weekends.
And what are the unions, parent organizations, and politicians going to do with this knowledge?
The research itself, in short and longer form, is available for free download here. Darling-Hammond focuses this time on international v. U.S. comparisons concerning professional development practices. The take-aways are as instructive as those in her earlier research on comparative curriculum, standards, and assessments of OECD and other nations.
Remember Obama's pledge, in his inauguration speech, to listen to other countries in his new foreign policy approach?
Maybe he needs to advise his Education Secretary to listen to other countries too. They're outperforming us, after all - so maybe they can teach us.
(See other posts on Darling-Hammond here.)
Image by Old Shoe Woman on Flickr.
Share this Post
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
StumbleUpon
Delicious
EmailRelated Posts
-
Weekly Web Roundup, 090201
-
Weekly Web-Reads Round-Up
-
Kumbaya? Or "Overton Window"? - The New Ed Policy Meme
Comments (21)
Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.
Author
-
Clay is an American high school Humanities teacher, technology coach, and Apple Distinguished Educator who has taught for the last eight years in Asian international schools. According to law, he's married to his wife. According to his wife, he's married to his Mac.
Featured Education Actions
-
-
-
Eliminate Violence Against Women
1739 People
-
Eliminate Violence Against Women
Excellent points, esp about listening to other countries. I think we should be listening to other countries across the board. I think 'our' own gov should also be listening more to the People, at home AND abroad. We are falling farther behind on all of the things that really count, like Education, Health Care, Human Rights, Peace, Environment, Clean Green Energy, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness for ALL!
Posted by Ani L. Schwartz on 02/13/2009 @ 10:10PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
It's one thing I'm still hopeful Obama will do (and am certain he will do better than Shrub did).
Posted by Clay Burell on 02/15/2009 @ 02:05AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
I agree as I currently work for charter school modeled after KIPP. I work from 7:45 to 4:00 daily and every other Saturday, all for school. The students do not respond any differently than students who attend regular schools. I am overworked and completing more administrative tasks at this school. Thanks for sharing the research!
Posted by LaQuisha Hall on 02/14/2009 @ 03:58AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
LaQuisha, outside of the Saturdays (not good!), your M-F hours are pretty much what I'm used to in private international schools.
How big are your class sizes? Where? Are you expected, like KIPP teachers, to take phone calls at home, etc? Paid more or less than union wages?
So many questions....
Posted by Clay Burell on 02/15/2009 @ 02:03AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
My school is a start up in Baltimore City, Maryland... We have approx. 25 kids per class--before it became dangerous, with many kids fighting until someone bleeds.... Now, kids are being pulled by their parents. We do not even meet the quota of students anymore, which is sad because parents put their "scholars" in our school because they were told it would be different from the other Baltimore City Public Schools.
Our school days are considered extended... other city schools end at 2:40 (gosh, I miss those days!). We are not expected to take calls at home, but the admin is hard on us for calling parents. We have to call them a certain number of times before we can refer them to the administration (not sure what because I stopped sending the kids to the office due to no consequences).
Our school would actually be ideal if we had more support and real Professional Development. We have so many duties aside from teaching (lunch duty, hall duty, etc.) that we have to plan at home. My husband does not even want me to teach anymore!
I would like to hear your thoughts on this, since you are the expert! :D
Posted by LaQuisha Hall on 02/15/2009 @ 03:28AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Wow, interesting. I did not know that. Makes me want less to teach in a U.S. school. I like my time for doing diverse things. Independent research and lots of planning time would be necessities for me if I were a teacher.
What can we do to change this?
Posted by Luella - on 02/14/2009 @ 08:02AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Good piece Clay! Teachers, parents and students are all suffering in this overly standardized world of public education. I cannot imagine trying to be an adult managing a classroom full of youth, many who might not want to be there, and being required to conduct myself based on strict standards and focused on improving test scores rather than learning directly.
Posted by Cooper Zale on 02/14/2009 @ 10:31AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
It's not a pretty prospect, is it?
Good to hear from you, Cooper. (Did you see the Sudbury guest-post? We're creeping closer to unschooling these days.)
Posted by Clay Burell on 02/15/2009 @ 02:01AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
We have so much to learn from other countries rather than touting how great we are that it is pathetic. As James Loewen demonstrated in his book Lies My Teacher Told Me, texts books deliberately suppress facts believed to reflect poorly on the country so that students do not have the facts to understand how we got here nor why we need to change.
ALL public text books must meet the standards of the Texas State Board of Education before being manufactured. Thus, whatever changes that board, controlled by conservative fundamentalist Christians, ask for, they get or the book won't be bought. This is how ideology gets built in to our texts. The Organization of American Historians have protested to Congress over the skewing of American History in education.
And ideology holds too much sway over the classroom; conservatives want to get destroy tenure to get rid of professors whose ideas they find dangerous. Freedom to question, to investigate is at risk; I know not only from studying the oppression of teachers with critical ideas but also from having spent 30 years teaching at both the college and h.s. level.
Posted by lana matthews on 02/14/2009 @ 12:22PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Lana, I'm ready to fall down with sleepiness, but didn't want this comment to slip down the cracks.
I'm on the last chapter of Loewen's Lies (rev. ed.) as we speak. Your connecting of it to the teacher tenure issue crystallized a little something for me.
If you haven't seen my Smart Mobs for Science action against the Texas creationists (it's in the "Featured Posts" sidebar on the main Education page), you should check it out. I think it paraphrases Loewen's point similar to yours in the comment above.
I'd love to hear more about your life as a teacher, the things you've seen and stories you've heard along the lines of your comment.
I hope I get the chance.
Bed time. Thanks for the great input.
Posted by Clay Burell on 02/15/2009 @ 01:59AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
I'm not sure I agree with this, but I'm speaking form personal experience. While I'll agree I probably spent at least 1080 hours in direct contact with students, I would not call that only 20% of my time as a teacher. I probably spent almost as much time planning, grading, tutoring, researching, etc. We'll call that time about 1,000 hours. That's 1080+1000 = 2080, approximately the same amount of time as any normal full time job in America.
Posted by Robert Jones on 02/14/2009 @ 06:02PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Robert, don't you think the point of the comparison with teacher hours and PD in the U.S. v. better-performing countries is the point here?
I don't see how your comparison of your calculation of total hours worked with "any normal full-time job in America" (are there any of those left, by the way?) sheds any light on improving teaching and learning.
Straighten me out?
Posted by Clay Burell on 02/15/2009 @ 12:47AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
I agree with Clay... those who are not teachers do not fully understand the amount of hours we put in. If you work at a bank, you day may end at 4 or 5 pm. However, when you go home, you do not have to plan for the next day, be worried about if the two kids who do not like each other are going to fight the next day, consider how they are going to deal with an irrate parent who keeps calling the school for you, etc. There is much, much more emotional stress being a teacher.
Try getting cussed out by a kid three times less than your age and who knows they will not get into trouble when sent to the office, who does not have a desire to learn anything except how to upgrade their cell phone then post your comments...
Posted by LaQuisha Hall on 02/15/2009 @ 03:34AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Working harder or Smarter, all sounds good to me, because no body is complaining, unlike here in uganda where teachers are expected to work harder while they are paid pea nuts. In fact some sturbon people here user the word "Teacher" as a synonym for Poverty!
Posted by Isaac Wanasolo on 02/15/2009 @ 05:23AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Isaac, I'll admit to being no expert on many things, including Ugandan education. But your assertion that "nobody's complaining" in America suggests you're not very expert on education in the US either.
Teacher poverty is an issue in the US too, by the way.
Posted by Clay Burell on 02/15/2009 @ 06:00PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
This isn't a surprise, really, but I am grateful to Clay for pointing it out. I've long said that if I had more hours in my day to dedicate to teaching and learning, I would be a better teacher. But of course it always comes down to the same issue: $$. It's a human resources problem -- schools will not pay to have more teachers doing what they see as "less" work, even if it actually does translate to better work.
In fact, at two of the past three schools I have taught at, teaching contact hours have increased per week, and not decreased. Isn't that sad?
Posted by Adrienne Michetti on 02/15/2009 @ 05:36AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
I hear you, Adrienne, but what's key in this research is that some school systems do pay to have more teachers in the classrooms - it's just that those systems are in other (and better-performing) countries.
But again, I hear you: getting America to "hear that" - to listen, again, to countries doing things better - is no easy task.
Posted by Clay Burell on 02/15/2009 @ 05:57PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Isaac, the grass is greener on the other side. What you are talking about seems to me to be a different issue and certainly doesn't make the U.S. system perfect or free from criticism.
Posted by Luella - on 02/15/2009 @ 05:45PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Which factors are the most important in evaluating a quality education? Here in California kids are having serious attention and discipline disorders. When we compare and contrast school systems, how do we account for the needs of the children in the local area and maintain a universal standard?
Posted by tamsin mcewen on 02/15/2009 @ 06:44PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Great question, Tamsin. I read it just as I was reading this other international comparison:
"If you look throughout this country, one of our national embarrassments is the fact we have the greatest number of children in poverty amongst advanced, industrialized nations--one out of five."
That's why the "Broader, Bolder Approach" is so vital.
Posted by Clay Burell on 02/15/2009 @ 08:17PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
That stat came from here, by the way: http://www.med.umn.edu/img/assets/23812/PEDSKONOPKA_Noguera_Lecture_Feb07.pdf
Posted by Clay Burell on 02/15/2009 @ 08:23PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.