In 2010, right after Toyota recalled 8 million cars and lost $2 billion in sales due to several fatal car malfunctions, imagine if executives had responded by tripling the price of all of their vehicles. Knowing that consumers associate cost with quality, company leaders may have theorized that tripling the price would help boost confidence in their product.
Would there be a Toyota today?
According to Amanda Ripley (of Smartest Kids in the World fame), this is how we should fix teaching.
Would there be a Toyota today?
According to Amanda Ripley (of Smartest Kids in the World fame), this is how we should fix teaching.
Make education schools harder to get into and more difficult to graduate from, and the field will become so prestigious that the low pay won’t matter. Of course, ed schools do need to improve — they need to change what and how they teach, they need to increase rigor, and they need to stop pretending like everything is fine. But in the current environment, given everything else currently happening in the education space, substantially increasing the difficulty of teacher training programs could be disastrous. If Toyota had made the boneheaded move of increasing prices when they were in the middle of a PR firestorm, they would have gone bankrupt. Similarly, as the public sees teachers on the news crying out over low pay, the elimination of tenure, increased accountability, “unfair” testing, and a loss of agency in the workplace, it would be foolish to make entering the field more difficult. Not when math and science teachers have an attrition rate 50 percent higher than other professions already, and 100 percent higher in high-poverty areas. Not when we have shortages of foreign language and special education teachers, forcing many districts to hire poorly trained aides as a stop-gap measure. Not when we have better options for improvement.
If the education community would like to see teacher quality improve, the first thing it needs to focus on is increasing the quality of ed schools. While some equate quality with difficulty (or high SAT scores), they’re not the same thing. In June, the National Council on Teacher Quality released a report on teacher preparation programs. Of the 18 standards it graded programs on, only one was devoted to selection criteria. The other 17 are focused on topics related to teaching — such as classroom management and early reading instruction — which few programs teach well. Schools should focus there first.
Next, districts need to pay teachers more. In Finland, teachers make less than doctors and lawyers, but Ripley argues that this is OK because respect serves as its own form of compensation. I don’t disagree, but there’s a difference between making less than other professionals and making less than their secretaries. Skilled professions in the United States are compensated far more handsomely than those in Nordic countries, including Finland (figure is PPP adjusted). Finnish teachers may have their countrymen’s utmost respect despite lower compensation, but their salaries are not dramatically lower. Between the average primary school teacher in the U.S. and the average general practitioner is $115,000 per year — 250 percent the average teacher salary ($46k). Or to put it another way, enough to buy a Tesla Model S.
If the education community would like to see teacher quality improve, the first thing it needs to focus on is increasing the quality of ed schools. While some equate quality with difficulty (or high SAT scores), they’re not the same thing. In June, the National Council on Teacher Quality released a report on teacher preparation programs. Of the 18 standards it graded programs on, only one was devoted to selection criteria. The other 17 are focused on topics related to teaching — such as classroom management and early reading instruction — which few programs teach well. Schools should focus there first.
Next, districts need to pay teachers more. In Finland, teachers make less than doctors and lawyers, but Ripley argues that this is OK because respect serves as its own form of compensation. I don’t disagree, but there’s a difference between making less than other professionals and making less than their secretaries. Skilled professions in the United States are compensated far more handsomely than those in Nordic countries, including Finland (figure is PPP adjusted). Finnish teachers may have their countrymen’s utmost respect despite lower compensation, but their salaries are not dramatically lower. Between the average primary school teacher in the U.S. and the average general practitioner is $115,000 per year — 250 percent the average teacher salary ($46k). Or to put it another way, enough to buy a Tesla Model S.
To attract high-quality candidates to the teaching field, Ripley is right that the position needs greater prestige and respect. But harder tests and higher entrance requirements won’t provide it. Instead, the job needs to be improved. Society needs to stop pushing people away from the profession by heaping on responsibilities that don’t make any sense and don’t help kids. The reform community needs to get over the idea that they’re gallant knights saving bookish little princes and princesses, and teachers need join them or be slain in their quest of toppling Finland and Singapore. Teachers are the front line, they are the ones who actually get to save the princes(ses). They should be accorded the respect that deserves.
Then, and only then, will we see the field of teaching rise in prestige. Ripley simply has it backwards. Better products demand higher prices, and better jobs attract greater candidates. Toyota didn’t make their cars harder to buy when customers became worried about quality; they improved themselves. If a car company can get it, I dare say so can the rest of us.
Matt Richmond is a research analyst for a DC-based think tank. Reach him via email or Twitter.
Then, and only then, will we see the field of teaching rise in prestige. Ripley simply has it backwards. Better products demand higher prices, and better jobs attract greater candidates. Toyota didn’t make their cars harder to buy when customers became worried about quality; they improved themselves. If a car company can get it, I dare say so can the rest of us.
Matt Richmond is a research analyst for a DC-based think tank. Reach him via email or Twitter.
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