Teacher's Salaries

A teacher helping his students do their work at their desk.

Teachers of all grades are teaching the next generations of children. They are a crucial part of the development of children mentally, socially, and educationally. There are so many expectations and
pressures put on teachers, however, they are paid nothing. The national average of a yearly salary for a teacher is $61,730 which is a $20,000 increase from the year 2000. However, we inflation is calculated and the salaries are adjusted, the average salary for teachers has decreased by 1.3%. Most teachers have a bachelor's degree and a lot have a master's as well. One would think by going through extra school to earn a master's degree would help provide a higher salary, that is not the case. On average, salaries of teachers with a master's degree are only increased by about $1000 per year compared to those who do not have that degree. Teaching is a necessary profession and one that is so time consuming and mentally draining. School is usually from 8am to 3pm, Monday through Friday. That is seven hours on nonstop work for teachers, but then they go home and do more planning, grading, and prepping for the next day. Yet, they are not paid a livable wage. 82% of teachers work second jobs, for example: serving, tutoring, coaching sports, basically any kind of flexible job. How are teachers supposed to find the time during the year to work these second jobs just to afford basic necessities like groceries and rent? How can people expect parents to teach their children, and sometimes expect them to raise their children, when they get an unfair and an insulting salary? 

Standardized Testing

The bubble sheet of the
standardized test.

Standardized testing is a test that measures the academic progress and skills that students learned in school. Overall, these tests are taken in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the education program and the way material is being taught to students. There are many pros and cons towards standardized testing. Some of the the pros to these tests are the following: the school has the ability to track student progress as well as help identify areas that need improvement. A few of the cons of standardized testing are the following: they can cause test anxiety and stress, one single test does not and cannot determine student's knowledge, poor scores can lead to poor self esteem, they cannot cater to all learning styles, and students will learn how to take tests rather than learning the material. 

Growing up in California, I would take the STAR test every year in elementary and middle school to "measure" my abilities and my knowledge. I am not a good test taker and I blame this standardized for that. My teachers would put so much emphasis on how we had to do perfectly on these tests because at the end of the day, these tests were also a reflection of how well the teachers are teaching. Weeks leading up to these tests we would practice taking tests and have lectures about how these tests were the most important tests, but at the same time we would be told to not stress and do the best we can. We would spend 7 hours one day taking this tests and a couple weeks later, we would get the results and I was always disappointed. I was and am a good student. I always made good grades but was always confused when I would receive these scores back and my grade was lower than all my classmates. These tests cause me so much anxiety because the time limit was a distraction for me, I would always look at the clock thinking about how much time I had left. All my classmates flipping the pages of the booklet while I was still on the second question would also create anxiety that I was not going to finish on time. These stresses and this anxiety I would feel only got worse and continued on to high school when I had to take the ACT. I did awful the first time a took this test and I am fortunate enough that my parents could send me to tutors, so that's what I did. I went to three different ACT tutors usually three or four times a week. When I would go, I did not learn material, instead I was taught tips and tricks on how to take a standardized test and pass. This is an unfair advantage for those who are not fortunate enough to get tutors. These tests should not be able to contributing factor whether or not a student will be accepted into college.