The education team is currently studying KIPP schools,
specifically a middle school in Philadelphia.
KIPP is a very innovative charter school network that seeks to increase
college matriculation and college graduation for low-income students in
predominantly urban areas. As I wrote in a previous blog, their results have
been impressive, with over 89% enrolling in college and 33% completing college
in four years. Additionally, the organization truly embodies the Kaizen
approach of continuous improvement, and aims for an eventual graduation rate of
75%.
Recently, one of our teammates, Cameron Miller, shared a
blog of a Kipp teacher, that said that the typical teacher works about 70 hours a week. Similarly, teacher retention rates are 73%. My concern for KIPP is this: while
I support the mission and the ends, I have to ask, is it truly sustainable to
ask teachers to work 70 hours a week, even if it is for a laudable goal? In our screencast on social sustainability,
Marsha Willard highlighted some potential injustices of the modern age, one of which is that our workweek, though legally 40 hours, is often 50-60 hours.
We accept this workload as a necessary requirement for getting ahead, and
perhaps take secret pride in our work capacity.
Working BGI students can relate, and I suspect many of us take a measure of our personal worth from our
regular 60-70 hour work weeks.
At the same time, do we ever ask whether this is healthy or
even sustainable?
We’ve been learning a lot about the Toyota Way, its
perpetual quest for improvement, and its ability to engage, empower and value
employees on an individual level. As we observed in the NUMMI plant case, people are foundational to the success of the program.
My hope for KIPP, BGI and all organizations, is that our
worthy ends can be coupled with sustainable model that honors, uses, but does
not exhaust its human resources.
It is necessary to empower low-income youth and equip
tomorrow’s business innovators, and truly a privilege to be a part of that
creative goal. Let’s make an effort to ensure that our means for achieving this
are equally regenerative and life-affirming.
John,
ReplyDeleteMy father is a teacher and is actually retiring this year after 35 years of hard work and dedication. Two of my best friends are teachers, I graduated from college with them, making this their third year teaching. Every time my teaching friends come to visit me, my father only has one question for them, "Have you started your Masters program yet?". He goes on to say that they better get it in something besides a teaching subject, like technology or administration. This is his advice because he says that they won't want to be in the classroom for much longer. It sounds like an old man hollering about the same thing over and over but after living with my father and hearing what the school system has developed into, I actually hear myself asking my friends the same thing when we talk on the phone.
We have all heard it before, but really, "she ain't like she used to be". From lack of resources to troubled student accusations of misconduct, to principles who are merely using your school as a stepping stone to their next position, my father has seen it all.
What does that say for our education system? You are referencing a school district that has resources, one of few compared to the rest of the United States. If there is question that those teachers are spending too much time working with and for students who actually go to college, what about the rest of the nations teachers? They spend more than 40 hours in the classroom and are looking at 50% graduation rates.
With the US education system crumbling and respect for teachers at an all time low, 40 hours is the most teachers should put in until society and government realizes how invaluable these people are to our nation's future.
I find this a particularly heart warming post - ok ok it's cause you cite me and one of my pet issues. But great point. The only thing worse than a tired burned out teacher is a tired burned out surgeon. Why do we work the people who perform the most important tasks, the hardest? it becomes all the more apparent that this is wrong when we set these people up to make mistakes that have big life changing impacts.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the observation
Marsha
John,
ReplyDeleteDon't forget there still blog posts to do this term!
Marsha