Advanced Placement Lesson

6 Replies to “Advanced Placement Lesson”

1. Yes, it is depressing. But it is also consistent with union ideology. This is why, as I said yesterday, unions cannot professionalize their profession. That’s what professional organizations do. And a professional organization would have gladly accepted that grant. But a union won’t.

2. I am speechless. I don’t know if there are words in the English language that would adequately express how I felt as I read the article.

3. I am not shocked at all because the comments are so union but so ludicrous.

   “Marso said. ‘We have a fair and equitable contract with the district, and to have a third party come in and start paying certain teachers more money than other hard-working teachers goes against what a union is all about.’”

   Marso is in full protection mode. Protect the status-quo and her salary. This is a major reason report after report states math and science skills are dropping in this country. In general it is more difficult to get a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematical (STEM) degree and yet we continue to say work hard them come and get the same pay as other people. The protection of older workers and older ideas are the reason I could not continue reading yesterday’s Education Sector discussion (http://www.educationsector.org/discussions/discussions_show.htm?discussion_id=940701). There are example of time when union protection helps teachers doin teh right hing but the myth that all teachers need these protections at the cost of student learning and performance is ridiculous.

   I know this is one example but the AP was giving money away here!

4. Would the teachers have been OK with the training WITHOUT the money? The issue shouldn’t be the money, it should be the teaching improvement.

   Too bad the union didn’t come back with some sort of a counter-proposal: “If we come to the training and we recruit students to AP tests and our students do well in those tests, then the UNION gets the money to distribute to its members.” Maybe there were negotiations that aren’t discussed in the short article.

5. You people are not thinking this through. The school administration determines who teaches AP courses, not the teachers. If only AP course teachers then get outside bonuses it becomes devisive to the cooperation of teachers. That is not good for the kids at all. What if textbook companies wanted to sponsor specific teachers?

6. The union probably would have opposed the training offer…or at least demanded teachers that participate be paid their daily rate at the district’s expense. Perhaps, the grant should have been offered to pay teachers to attend the training.

   I would hope that the school administration would be choosing teachers based upon qualifications that make sense for the AP positions, not something stupid like seniority. I would also hope that teachers would be above petty infighting, but we are perpetually stuck in school aren’t we?