Reviews for Removing College Price Barriers: What Government Has Done and Why It Hasn't Worked

The average rating for Removing College Price Barriers: What Government Has Done and Why It Hasn't Worked based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-04-14 00:00:00 Troy Pribnow This book gave me a variety of mixed feelings as I read it. There were several things that I agreed with and several things that made me angry. The conditions of a typical teacher that were described were fairly accurate. Building conditions lacking, materials lacking, unfair expectations on the job, administrators who don't care, no breaks from children during the day, inability to use the restroom ALL DAY, no privacy when one might need to make a call to set up something like a doctor's appointment - and all this for a college graduate (many with advanced degrees) for less pay than most people would believe. I am in my 12th year of teacher and I hold a master's degree plus 30 graduate credits on top of it, and I make a whopping $34,500 a year for the hard, unappreciated work that I put in at my school. The building I teach in is fairly new (about 10 years old), but it is unbelievably filthy. Most of the cleaning that is done in my classroom is completely done by me. I am not allowed to make my own copies and have to wait a long time for the copy person to make my copies so sometimes I don't even get them in time to teach a lesson. We are told to use less paper, but technology is seriously lacking - I have 5 ipads for 20 students to share! I either need 20 ipads or more paper so that everyone is actively involved in a lesson. Administration does not want to deal with behavior problems and parents are asking me to do unbelievable things that is really their responsibility or their child's responsibility. I don't mind being held accountable for my job and I am fine with being observed in order to assert my proof of professionalism. I went to an excellent university and felt totally prepared for the classroom (Bowling Green State University). My Praxis series of tests required me to be knowledgeable but they really cannot begin to test teachers totally for the classroom, but they were at least an assessment of my professional knowledge and the "science of teaching." However, my question to whenever people complain about teachers and the state of education in our country is where is the accountability for students and for the parents. So many parents are checked out today and want teachers to do all the work - However, I spend a lot less time with my students during a school year than the parents do. Many other nations are succeeding over the US because the parents know they need to be part of their children's success. This is so not the case in the US! My biggest gripe with Brian Crosby was when he said high school teachers deserved higher pay then elementary teachers and middle school teachers because they worked harder and had more training. What?!? Are you kidding me?? Come to my classroom for a week Mr. Crosby and try to teach 7 year olds how to read and do double digit subtraction with regrouping. You would run screaming from my room. These skills are just as tough as you teaching algebra to your high school students. It might be easier from an adult perspective to understand the concepts I am teaching versus what you are teaching, but it is JUST AS MUCH WORK! I am an expert on child development, task analysis to teach basic skills, and knowing how to get a young child to work in a manner that is appropriate to their age. None of these skills which you need to be an expert in with your high school math students. I may not be an expert in advanced math but that does not make me any less of an expert in the classroom! Because of the elementary teachers who did all the hard ground work before you, students come to you able to sit in a seat (oh yes, this is not a natural skill!), they can properly hold a pencil, read the directions, take notes, and do all the basic math skills that you would have no idea how to even begin teaching a firstie to do. All teachers are professionals who are trained to work with a certain group of students and put in a lot of time developing lessons plans to help their students learn. Shame on you for thinking so little of us elementary teachers! (On a side note, a retired marine subbed for my class last week thinking it would be easy-peasy! All fun and games. Ha! He told me he didn't know how I do what I do on a daily basis and he had a whole new respect for elementary teachers. Teaching elementary school is harder than being a marine - he subs at the middle school too and he said this age is wwwaaayyyy easier because they have already been trained on so much more than the little guys!) As for paying teachers more, it was never really addressed as to where this money can realistically come from to raise pay. Sure it's easy to say pay good teachers more, and bad teachers less, but still where is the more pay going to come from? Cutting Title funds may appear to be an answer to you as a high school teacher, but at the elementary level title funds hire teachers to teach math and reading to at-risk, and struggling students who benefit from more intensive small group instruction. Pull that money from these students and your job as a high school teacher just got tougher!! My other angry thought with Mr. Crosby was when he was bashing school for hiring "unqualified" teachers. Sometimes teachers are hired out of their credentials but are usually made to take classes to certification. Fresh out of college I was interviewed for a position in a learning disabilities classroom and because I was certified to teach elementary education AND developmental disabilities they would hire me on the contingency that I took classes and was certified in LD wihin a year of being hired. He made it sound like schools were just hiring warm bodies, not teachers working to earn a credential. I also would have falling into this bashing when I moved from Ohio to Pennsylvania. In order to be able to teach in PA, I was awarded emergency status and was not recognized with the credentials I held in another state. I then had to take a year to wait for the PRAXIS test to roll around for me to take to get my PA certification. I wasn't unqualified, but rather I had moved to a new state and had to jump through the hoops to get a certificate in another state. Just because I left Ohio, it didn't mean I was no longer a valid, and qualified teacher, but I did have to play the licensure game as do many professionals do who go from one state to another. Again, shame on your for making this sound so shady! I have never worked with a teacher who was uncertified as the way you were suggesting. Sure it happens, but you made it sound like an awful epidemic. Also, many substitute teachers receive emergency status and this is not necessarily a bad thing - we need way more subs than we have for teachers.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-02-23 00:00:00 Wally Tulk A provocative solution Brian Crosby understands what is happening in our public schools. Our public schools really are facing a crisis of unprecedented proportions, especially in Crosby's (and my) home state, California. He understands that a society that pays its prison guards more than its teachers has its values distorted. His solution is a noble one, one that will work, and he outlines in considerable detail the steps necessary for its implementation in this easy to read, well thought out presentation. However, I am sorry to say that I don't think the $100,000 teacher is going to happen any time soon. Why? Mainly because there is a perception on a significant part of the public that teachers have it easy because they only work 180 days a year and therefore shouldn't be paid more. As a former teacher myself, one who retired young from the profession because of the inequities experienced, I can tell you that this perception is grossly mistaken for any number of reasons, but is true in at least one sense. To put it bluntly, it is true for the teacher who doesn't care, for the teacher who just wants to get a paycheck, for the teacher who has tenure and sees his or her responsibility as not extending beyond that of a glorified babysitter. And this goes for administrators who only want glorified babysitters. Crosby understands this and that is why his program is designed to weed out the teacher who doesn't care and reward the teacher who takes pride in teaching and wants to help his or her students succeed. That teacher IS a $100,000 teacher, if only we knew. The salient point of this book then is a realization that the problem of adequate public financial support for education and for upgrading the teaching profession will not be solved until the present tenure system is abolished. As Crosby expresses it, "...no matter the lousy job one performs, once tenured (after a two or three years of teaching), one is in it for life." (p. 106) The immediate effect of this system is to tie the hands of administrators. They cannot easily influence poor teachers, nor can they get rid of them. Conversely those teachers who really care and give their best to their students are not rewarded and so they leave the profession in frustration. As Crosby points out on the very first page of the book, "One-fifth of all new teachers quit within three years" and "Half of all new teachers quit within five years." An unintended consequence of the present system is to make teachers and administrators adversaries. Administrators want teachers to do more, but teachers are not rewarded for doing more, so they (the ones that stay) resist. In addition, typically the school principal leads the negotiating committee for the school district against the teacher's union. So instead of working together for student achievement, teachers and administrators become adversaries. This dissipates their ability as educators. In the long run the effect of the tenure system is synergistic in a negative sense in that it tends to attract and keep only mediocre teachers poorly supervised by mediocre administrators who are at odds with one another. Although this truth is well-known to everybody in the profession, suggestions for abolishing the system will not sit well with the various teacher's organizations since they are addicted to tenure and cannot kick the habit. An enlightened and energized public is necessary to help them. This in essence is what Crosby is calling for. His solution must be taken seriously because there are standing in the wings other "solutions" to the problem including the privatization of education through something like a voucher system. Vouchers will lead to the end of public education in America, that is, to the dismantling of a system that was largely responsible for the fabulous economic growth of this country. Privatization will then lead to a further economic polarization of society. Those who have the wherewithal will be able to afford a good education for their children; those who do not, will not. In any case, teachers and their professional organizations should be aware, that the time of the mediocre teacher and the adversarial system between mediocre teachers and mediocre administrators is coming to an end. I hope that the public sees the light in time and the reforms outlined by Crosby become a reality. --Dennis Littrell, author of the mystery novel, "Teddy and Teri"