.2 PROFESSIONAL HIERACHY

To understand the concept of differentiated staffing, we must think of different professional levels. The lowest level is the paraprofessional. A paraprofessional would be the student going out and becoming a volunteer in the PRIME program. They're available to do whatever the teacher needs. It could be tutoring, stapling or anything. Paraprofessionals generally have 1-2 years of college. They are different from clerks or technicians in that they aspire to be a professional, but are presently unqualified to do the full work.

The next level is the ASSISTANT TEACHER. These are students doing their practicum and occasionally teach. Usually, when assistant teachers teach there's a teacher present. Assistants are not really regarded as teachers, they are just considered knowledgeable in certain areas and utilized to make presentations when the teacher wants a break or is swamped. This is a fair and reasonable system. The next level is INTERNS. Interns are students of education during their student teaching year and have full responsibilities in classrooms. I make the distinction between interns and student teachers because the student teacher is similar to the assistant teacher but is really just training, whereas the intern is considered a predictable staff member. As a predictable member of the staff, the intern can be counted upon to do things that a regular teacher would ordinarily do (like taking full responsibility for your classes). The difference between an intern and a regular teacher is that interns have very close supervision. In our PRIME program, you'd have a PRIME supervisor who is paid $2,000 to help you during the year. During the first part of the year you actually co-teach one class with your PRIME advisor so you can see how they solve the day-to-day problems of teaching. The ASSOCIATE TEACHER is a different level, a sideways level. The associate teacher is fully prepared and credentialed, but for whatever reason chooses to only work part-time. I argue that we don't use part time teachers enough. The way schools are organized now; part-time teachers are a pain in the neck because the school is only geared to deal with full-time teachers. There are a lot of people who could be very effective part time associate teachers. For example, I would like to have the conductor of the Virginia Symphony be the orchestra teacher in a high school. That would be a great resource. That teacher would come in maybe two hours a day conducting the orchestra and helping with the advanced rehearsals. They would definitely need some staff to give support, but that could be worked out. I use this example to show that associate teachers are not low level teachers, they're just there part-time or there to do a specialized task. The FULLY PROFESSIONAL TEACHER is the person who has "been there, done that", is trained, performs well and can be counted on. Above the professional teacher is the master teacher, or mentor. You will recall, I was saying in the last lecture that I firmly believe that teachers should be paid the same as administrators. The highest paid teachers and administrators should be paid the same. The highest paid kindergarten teacher and college professor should be paid the same, the highest paid teacher and a well paid doctor or lawyer should be paid the same. For that to happen, you have to have this very special category of master teachers or mentors. In a school like Lake Taylor High School, with a staff of 125, you would have maybe six master teachers, about the same administrators. In an elementary school you might have about two master teachers. Who are they? They are leaders of their professions who are able to help other teachers and are outstanding professionals called upon as consultants. In the US, one of the reasons why things don't work well is because only 47% of the money spent on personnel in schools, on average, is spent on teachers. That means more than half is spent on administrators. What happens when your weak teachers require specialists or administrators' help? You need to hire those administrators, who are expensive and you have even less money left for teachers. Then their salaries get worse and quality of teachers gets weaker. It's a downward spiral. If there's going to be change, you have to reconceptualize the role of the senior professional teacher or mentor in the classroom. Presently, senior people get gold stars on their rooms and are maybe paid a little more. I think it is very unfortunate.

	How would paying top ranking teachers equivalent salaries to good Doctors and Lawyers help solve the problem of poor teaching?	Answer Here
	No ferret question	Answer Here