Every person connected with the education of our students is busy! Every one of them! There really isn’t time for anyone to even try to LOOK busy – they’re all busy. The Los Angeles Unified school district has 707,000 students and over 500 schools… we’re talking busy, here.
Our federal government reports (annually) on education. For 2006 they reported that teachers, on the average, work 13 hours a week beyond their contracted time. This translates into 168 days a year… that they work for free. And this “average” time has been steadily increasing each year…
Would school standards improve this situation? Would school standards lead to school improvement? Yes and Yes.
Additionally, the federal government reports that over 70% of public school teachers say that daily routine paperwork interferes with their teaching. And this percentage has not changed since 1993 (when the government first started asking).
Sooooooooooo, this means that routine (we’ll assume necessary) paperwork (which can’t be accomplished when teaching a classroom full of students) has to be completed on a teacher’s own time. Routine daily paperwork, for teachers, translates into 168 days a year of unpaid work .. and remember, that’s an average!
Also, please don’t overlook the fact that these 168 days of unpaid work are accomplished during their 180 days/year of contracted time. This makes life a little busy.
What so sad about all of this is… that the overworked situation for teachers is that “this is just the way it is.” No one even thinks about it anymore. In fact, you’re looked at funny and suspiciously if you leave at the end of your contracted day. You’re viewed as not really caring about your students or that your teaching may not be that good!
Why? Because everyone knows that you can’t get the job done (or do it well) in the time allotted each day.
School standards focusing on school-sites, on the working environment, would reduce the amount of time teachers spend on daily routine paperwork, reduce the number of hours they spend beyond their contracted day, reduce the number of hours they work outside of their classrooms, provide more time to focus on enhancing and maximizing their students’ achievement and lead to universal school improvement.
Everyone would still be busy… just not as busy and perhaps even stay in the profession.
The Link to Teachers' Success...
Dr. Kathleen Salzano, Ed.D.
