Thursday, January 24, 2008
Another Item for the "Resource File"...
Earlier this month, Education Week launched a new report card today, grading the states across six areas of education performance and policy. While the U.S. posted a grade of C overall, the average state earned a D-plus on public school achievement, the poorest showing of any graded category. Marks were also low for state efforts to improve teaching, where 10 states earned a grade of D or lower.
One of the six areas included in Education Week’s report card, the teaching grades cover state efforts to increase accountability, provide incentives for talented people to enter and stay in the profession, monitor and allocate the distribution of talent, and build the capacity of teachers and principals to improve student learning. South Carolina earned the highest grade in the category, an A-minus.
In addition, a new analysis by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, which is used as part of the state report card, finds that the average U.S. public school teacher makes only 88 cents for every dollar earned by individuals in 16 comparable professions, such as accountants, architects, occupational therapists, and registered nurses.
The analysis is included in the report, Quality Counts 2008: Tapping Into Teaching, Unlocking the Key to Student Success, which also found that workers in other occupations have a greater chance to earn above-average salaries than teachers, whose wages are more compressed. A state-by-state assessment shows that teacher earnings fail to reach the parity mark in 40 states and the District of Columbia. The least-competitive teacher salaries were found in North Carolina and Missouri, where earnings are less than 80 percent of those for comparable workers.
The report and special web-only features are available at the edweek.org website:
Earlier this month, Education Week launched a new report card today, grading the states across six areas of education performance and policy. While the U.S. posted a grade of C overall, the average state earned a D-plus on public school achievement, the poorest showing of any graded category. Marks were also low for state efforts to improve teaching, where 10 states earned a grade of D or lower.
One of the six areas included in Education Week’s report card, the teaching grades cover state efforts to increase accountability, provide incentives for talented people to enter and stay in the profession, monitor and allocate the distribution of talent, and build the capacity of teachers and principals to improve student learning. South Carolina earned the highest grade in the category, an A-minus.
In addition, a new analysis by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, which is used as part of the state report card, finds that the average U.S. public school teacher makes only 88 cents for every dollar earned by individuals in 16 comparable professions, such as accountants, architects, occupational therapists, and registered nurses.
The analysis is included in the report, Quality Counts 2008: Tapping Into Teaching, Unlocking the Key to Student Success, which also found that workers in other occupations have a greater chance to earn above-average salaries than teachers, whose wages are more compressed. A state-by-state assessment shows that teacher earnings fail to reach the parity mark in 40 states and the District of Columbia. The least-competitive teacher salaries were found in North Carolina and Missouri, where earnings are less than 80 percent of those for comparable workers.
The report and special web-only features are available at the edweek.org website:
- The full Quality Counts 2008 report and online-only commentaries by key education researchers, policymakers, and practitioners on ways to strengthen the teaching profession: www.edweek.org/go/qc08.
- “State Highlights Reports” for every state feature detailed, state-specific data on the Chance-for-Success and K-12 Achievement indices, as well as the other areas in which states receive grades: www.edweek.org/go/qc08/shr.
- A “Grading Calculator” lets readers calculate grades for states based on weighting schemes that they devise themselves: www.edweek.org/go/qc08/calculator
// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 3:20 PM 
