And most of us who work for a quality company of any size receive evaluations at least annually. Even our kids receive report cards four times a year. That the teachers union only wants their members evaluated every three years, or preferably not at all, is a good indication of their true objectives.

Or your skills and effectiveness changed over time. Unless you have the consistency of a robot.

Dear Glen,
I received exemplary and "exceeds" in almost everything...Then two new young Administrator and Resource Teacher came on board 2010- present and all of the old time teachers have been given jobs they never did before, for example, they offered me to teach hs science and math when for his school year when my certification is in esol, english, and can teach social students all levels due to taking literacy exams in these topics...but they want me to teach science and math now...My teacher evaluation went from exemplary to just meets..and next year they will go to not meets and fire me so i cannot get my 30 year pension...this is a crime..it is happening to many others...

Mr. McCarthy:

Take it up with your union. Your three examples are nearly synonymous, so what is your complaint?

This is exactly why teachers need unions.

We do contribute to our retirement -- the school system matches it and it's a mandatory deduction. We do pay social security taxes (for all the good that will do any of us since the system is practically bankrupt). I don't know anyone who has retired before 60 except people on disability. Benefits are minimal for anyone who is part-time, like the bus drivers and crossing guards. And $20 a day? Are you kidding me? $400 a month is about 1/3 of what most teacher's aides take home.

Amelie Krikorian says: "We do pay social security taxes (for all the good that will do any of us since the system is practically bankrupt)."

Which is why every union member should write to President Obama TODAY and demand that Social Security payroll deductions be returned to their previous levels now, and increased this summer to an amount necessary to fully fund the Social Security trust fund.

Greg Brandon says: "West Virginia pays their public K-12 teachers better: 82.2%. Mississippi pays their teachers better: 74.4%. Arkansas pays their teachers better: 74.0%."

But Greg Brandon does not say that Fairfax teachers are leaving to go to West Virginia, Mississippi, or Arkansas. Fairfax teachers are not leaving to go to Prince William, Montgomery, PG, or DC either. In fact, the only significant group of teachers who leave Fairfax to teach somewhere else are the spouses of military. We'd all like more money, especially tax money because it's free in some people's minds. But money is not the reason that quality teachers stay in Fairfax. It is a reason why non-quality teachers can not be persuaded to to choose a career more suited to their talents.

One thing school systems should do is base administrator compensation on the federal government pay system. The federal government has many top-notch administrators on the SES schedule, but many public school districts pay administrators many times more. Why?
A few years ago, I contacted the superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of New York, which then had more than 115,000 students, with a higher poverty rate than FCPS. I asked her how many administrators did the system have. Fewer than 30 professionals. I'm not suggesting this translates one-to-one, but FCPS needs to cut administration and put the money into teacher compensation.
FCPS claims it cannot outsource janitorial and food service for student safety, but has agreed to put elementary students in office buildings at Tysons. See any inconsistency? I sure do.
Keep up the good fight.

Dear Kim,
I am one of those "older, higher-paid teachers and now fighting this issue with FCPS.

Dian, I am so sorry about what you are going through. It must be very painful. I hope your union can help with this. In spite of their current bad name, this is exactly what they are for.

"and waist the students time"

Teaching English may not be a good fit for you, even after all those years. I imagine you are not working in a "traditional" high school, as quality ESOL instructors are worth their weight in gold there.

I was asked to be a chemistry, biology, physics and hs math teacher and I could not believe what I was being asked to do just so they could mark me up as not being able to do my job and then give me poor reviews...I have excellent reviews until this team just came on board to "make big changes in the nontraditional schools!"

Dian, We all know that instructional vacancies rarely are advertised or filled in February. Yet if you check FCPS CareerQuest, today you will see three ESOL instructor openings, two at the secondary school level. If you are not willing to support the objectives of your leadership team, everyone might be happier if you apply to transfer to one of these ESOL jobs. Best wishes, whatever you decide.

Jerry, the position would still be under the same admins who are trying to get rid of seasoned teachers..period. The FCPS is trying to have major internal restructuring /significant organizational changes ...to meet their organizational goals..If I work in any other FCPS I still am making more than they wish to pay...They want to hire people and keep them on a year to year basis...I have a lawyer trying to fight Age Discrimination...Harassment at the workplace at this time...through 17 months of getting set up to unwarranted or invalid criticism, blame without factual justification, being shouted at or being humiliated, excessive monitoring or micro-managing and being given work unrealistic deadlines as to go from one school site located in Alexandria and then get to Reston in 30 minutes!!!

Along with all the other "perks" that come with being a teacher -- having to stay after contract hours or arrive before school starts to meet with parents, not being able to go to the bathroom except on lunch break (which is only about 20 minutes), being required to attend evening school events, being required to get re-certified every five years (and pay for it)... not to mention the fact that we are being blamed for kids who cannot learn how to read even when those children have a tested IQ between 55 and 70 (for those of you unfamiliar with the IQ range, average students fall between 90 and 110, roughly). We do it because we love the kids despite their parents and the federal government trying to impose mandates on us without ever having done our jobs.

Marilyn, your idea is good in theory, but I definitely don't want my kids taught by someone who thinks so poorly of teachers, even for a week!

Marilyn, I was referring to your suggestion that people who criticize teachers "spend a week in our shoes". Don't want 'em near my kids, thanks!

Marilyn...sounds like you are in the wrong job. Good luck with your job search.

If only you might post a link to it for us.

This may be the story Susan was referring to:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/virginia-lurches-to-the-right/2012/02/17/gIQAyywHMR_story.html
Question is if we are in need of jobs, etc., why are they all concerned with social issues?? We need to work on getting jobs in this country not employing sex police in our bedrooms.

Amen to that. Is it OK for us to find out what all these critics do for a living and criticize how THEY are paid, what kind of a job they do, etc, without having done their jobs? People assume they know what a teacher does because they were once students. It's as appropriate for someone to say they understand plumbing because someone repaired a leak in their house once. A student only sees the surface of what goes on; even the parents only get the slice that applies to their child. They never understand that there are 30 other kids in that same class all with different agendas and needs and that there are outside issues (constant testing, IEPs, conferences, training) affecting each lesson every day. I think parents really assume that a teacher walks into the classroom without having to spend at least half an hour the night before preparing a lesson plan and materials for each of the four core subjects, not to mention grading what was submitted that day (30 students submitting four to six worksheets at least!).

Tim -
I don't think you get it. The opinion you hear is a crushing statement of "we don't care how hard you think you have it". You chose the occupation. If you don't like it, choose an occupation to which you are better tempermented. You are allowed to complain. Your knowledge, however, is incestuously tainted. It is YOUR opinion, as the recipient of tax payer funding, that is irrelevant. If you don't like the demands of your job, quit.

So, Chris, are you planning to teach the kids? Because someone has to. We don't object to teaching kids, what we object to is the stupid bureaucracy that has sprung up pretending to improve teaching. Testing more often DOES NOT ensure kids will do better, it just takes away time from learning. If you don't have a kid, you really know nothing about this discussion. If you have a kid and can say that you don't care how we feel about our jobs, then you also don't care if your child's teacher is doing his or her best for your child because someone who is treated poorly does not work their hardest. Do you have a job and is your understanding of your job incestuously tainted, or do you think you understand your working conditions better than someone who has never done your job?

Chris, I'm not sure you comprehend the concerns that have been raised. My opinion is based on a comprehensive career for almost three decades of teaching. My opinion is drawn from being in the classroom, at conferences, at the school board meetings, in the parent/teacher conferences, and working with the full spectrum of professionals in the field of . Your opinion seems to be based on nothing but your own limited view of a field you really know very little about. It's ok to feel as you do but since you offer nothing but a childish solution of "get another job," don't be surprised when your opinion is dismissed.

Tim - my opinion is hardly dismissed. It is reflected in your paycheck, and you are whining about it. Contemplate this... your thirty years of "participation" is PRECISELY the problem. You've made the system worse not better, with your bitter selfish viewpoint. People like you have turned education into a politicized racket. Get the hint. Your experience is irrelevant. You are an education industry insider, not a teacher. Your desire to condescend is misplaced. You are NOT dictating the discourse, but are a servant to the public master. If you don't like it, you are in the wrong profession. Now, take the intricacies of your compensation and examine them through THAT prism.

Dana - Student assessment is a part of most teachers efforts to continually improve. What form it takes depends on the teacher and the subject. But, having said that, student assessment is not, nor should it be, a component of the teacher's formal evaluation. Patients might talk about bedside manner but are not qulaified to evaluate a doctor's professional skills. Now, having said that, if we would like kids involved in teacher evaluations, then I'd like to see teachers give parents grades for how they support their children.

Another thing I've noticed in my three years: No matter how good a younger teacher is, and I'm good, it's no substitute for experience. Administrators like us because we follow the party line. But let's face it... nobody has become a significantly better teacher through district-mandated "professional development," the pseudoscientifc obsession with "data" nor through more "stringent" evaluation processes. These are technocratic solutions that only create jargon to justify bureaucratic government and curriculum positions. And contractor fees. Meanwhile, schools get worse and worse, and students do less and less.
I have gotten better by watching other teachers and collaborating, especially those with more experience than me. But most of them have their heads in the sand now, and I don't blame them.
Schools are significantly worse than they were when I attended, and it's due to meddling by those who "can't" and I'm not talking about teachers.

Gabriel has a point. Evaluations are subjective and done by people who have not been in the classroom in a long time. Plus, an administrator walking into your classroom to spend fifteen minutes observing you can hardly have a realistic idea of how well you teach. In that fifteen minutes you might have a single student crisis (I teach SpEd, so I get that a lot) that prevents you from teaching anything to the rest of the class. Or the office might call and ask you to send a student up for dismissal -- something that disrupts the whole class for at least 10 minutes. Fifteen minutes really isn't much to base someone's future on.

Teaching to the test is hardly the choice or the fault of the teachers. It's a result of the No Child Left Behind act and a bureaucracy that increasingly demands data on a daily basis. Out of a school year of 180 days, probably a third of that time is taken up by various types of testing: e-carts three times a year (lasting the better part of two weeks each time), DRA, WIDA, NNAT, CoGat, Word Masters, and let's not forget the SOL's on top of the testing the teachers have to do on the material they are teaching. It would be one thing if the mandatory tests replaced the teacher's tests but they are in addition and often address retention of old materials. The best part of teaching was always coming up with new and creative ways to impart knowledge to the kids, but those creative lessons take time to plan and time to implement; our time now is hemmed in by committee meetings and data collection. Who the heck cares what kind of T-score a new student has? It doesn't say anything relevant about his comprehension of what you are teaching because all it does is compare his grade to the grades your students have without comparing what he has been learning elsewhere... yet teachers are expected to waste time calculating it.

Rich - come to my class sometime... In fact, try visiting ANY class and observe it for a week. I think you'll discover a vast majority of teachers are going much deeper than what you so cynically describe.