Master’s Degree = No Salary Increase. Is it worth it?
We are home safe and sound after the birth of our precious baby boy. Everyone is adjusting to life with a baby in the house again. All is well!
This is so NOT what I needed to be reading right now. There is an urge to halt paying extra salary to teachers who earn an advanced degree in education and teaching. The reason being is that there is no correlation between a teacher getting an advance degree and student achievement improvement. In fact , in the article “Halt Urged to Paying Teachers For Earning Master's Degrees” by Stephen Sawchuk, Raegen Miller states that it is known that the relationship between the advanced degree and student achievement is NON-existent. It is thought that funding for compensation policies that are tied to improvement in student achievement would be a better use of money.
This is very upsetting to me. One of the main reasons I decided to earn my masters degree was for the pay increase. Our school recently added a master’s lane to our salary schedule. I was non-renewed as a music teacher at my school for the present school year. I was offered my same job back, just at a 60% load/pay. I thought I would get my masters degree to help alleviate the loss of income from the down sizing move made by my school. Surprisingly, our school is one of a very few around the area that even have a master’s lane in the salary schedule.
I don’t really understand this movement. What other profession would discourage advance education to improve employee job performance. I just can’t think of any. It really seems so counter- productive. We as teachers are always required to maintain our licensure by taking professional development classes. If you read the first paragraph in my link for professional development it gives a great definition of what PD should be and why it is important. We need so many of these credits each year to uphold our license. I don’t know about you, but the classes I have taken for professional development reasons tend to be fluff or worthless in reality. Usually, for me, the classes have nothing to do with my discipline. I just pick one that is offered and hope for the best. Wouldn’t it be a much better idea to have legitimate, serious education in the form of a master’s degree to improve our teaching profession? For years I had no interest in advancing my education as a teacher simply because there was no monetary reward for it. It was as if my school actually frowned upon teachers getting them. After a very bold move on behalf of the school board, a master’s schedule was added to our salary schedule. Only then did I entertain the idea of an advance degree. But it seems like we are back to square one if this idea of no pay for advance degree catches on. That would be a shame, to say the least. What do you think?
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I too, was encouraged to earn my Master's degree because of the increase in pay. I don't know of any schools in Maine that don't give a pay increase. My district will also pay a good percentage of my tuition. I saw little value in a basic Master's of Education other than to remind me of what I already knew. I chose VCSU to get my degree after seeing an advertisement in the ITEA conference program. The reason for my choice is I could get a Master's in the specific area I teach. STEM is a new idea for middle school and I felt I needed more education in teaching technology and design. I do anticipate the degree will make me a better STEM teacher.
ReplyDeleteAt the school I teach at, many encourage teachers to get a masters degree. Why? Because it benefits the students! That's the reason for additional education is to become better teachers....why not acknowledge it? It makes no sense to do this in the profession of teaching. Like you mentioned, who else loses out on a pay increase when they earn a higher degree? Every year we need to further our knowledge of teaching through credits because of the government. So why slap us in the face even more for not paying us what we're working so hard to accomplish? UGHHH!! Great blog!
ReplyDeleteIt is sad to think our political leaders believe our education has no impact on the education of our students. I don't know about you, but everything I learn in my master's classes and at conferences and so on get put to use in my class. I have gotten some valuable lessons and ideas from this university and can show where it is helping me out. The government is trying to halt our pay increases though. In Georgia, you can no longer receive a pay increase for a Specialist in Leadership if you are not clearly in a leadership or administrative position. So many teachers are receiving degrees in other concentrations than there own with no aspirations to move into them, they just want the pay increase. I believe that is a fair remedy, move to that position or don't get a pay increase. I have always been a proponent of continuing education, but apparently those in control don't. Way to hold us back!
ReplyDeleteI, too, am working on my Master's for a pay increase. Unfortunately, there is doubt in my mind whether the pay increases I receive will actually pay for the cost of the advanced degree since I have been teaching so long.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I personally question whether an advanced degree does in fact make you a better teacher. I believe I became a good teacher through experience and hard work. As a Career and Technical Education teacher, I have received more information I can use in my classroom by attending conferences than by taking classes. I agree that most of the professional development provided by our school district have been mostly fluff.
I will admit that I am early in my degree program, so I am still hopeful that I will find some things that will help me in my classroom. However, this topic goes along with the debate about merit pay. Does an advanced degree truly make a better teacher? If so, teacher pay should reflect this. I would play devil's advocate, however, and say that experience is a huge part of becoming a good (or great) teacher. Maybe we should put more compensation on the level of experience, if there is agreement that experience improves teaching. Bottom line, we need to better compensate teachers for their efforts.
My district has a masters lane. You also move up in the pay scale for every 15 credits you accrue above masters. But I find myself sitting here and wondering if I am doing it for the pay? I might sound corny but I started my masters to become a better teacher. I know the money is nice, but I just consider the pay increase to help pay for my advancement in education. I do feel teachers need to be compensated for their efforts. If they are going to put their time in to become a better teacher, they need to be paid for it. But often times, I have heard of teachers who get their masters just for that, a pay increase. They do not care what they get it in; they just want it to be easy. I couldn't imagine doing that not even for an increase in pay.
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