Teachers

Sometimes, in his off hours, Yie Eun-woong does a bit of investigative work. He uses the Internet and other means to track personal data and home addresses of foreign English teachers across South Korea. Then he follows them, often for weeks at a time, staking out their apartments, taking notes on their contacts and habits. He wants to know whether they're doing drugs or molesting children. Yie, a slender 40-year-old who owns a temporary employment agency, says he is only attempting to weed out troublemakers who have no business teaching students in South Korea, or anywhere else.

Finally, there's legislation that proposes reasonable solutions to the tortuous procedure for firing the worst teachers in California. The teachers who routinely screen movies instead of giving instruction, who denigrate their students, ignore them, harass them or even physically abuse them - yet who can appeal the firing process for years, during which the schools still must pay their salaries. Several reform-oriented bills went overboard to fix this. Under one, teachers suspected of abusive behavior would have had no avenue to appeal their dismissal.

Re "In vote, teachers slam Supt. Deasy," April 12 For Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. John Deasy to refer to the vote of no confidence by teachers as "nonsense" is in itself nonsensical. When more than 9 out of 10 teachers cast a vote of no confidence, it should give a sensible person pause. It is essential to bear in mind that it is teachers who are actually in the trenches teaching children. They are the ones who most directly impact students. If teachers feel alienated and demoralized, it's difficult to believe those negative feelings wouldn't somehow filter down to students and affect them adversely.

Re "A good teacher is hard to keep," Opinion, Aug. 19 Sujata Bhatt describes how too many teachers fail to receive validation or support from their schools or districts. I have organized professional development workshops for more than 2,000 educators. I ask at each workshop if the teachers (usually 60 or more) feel appreciated at their school. One teacher may raise a hand. Administrators could easily validate excellent teachers with brief email messages of support and by honoring those teachers who go the extra mile to attend workshops to become even more effective.

Re "Teachers, tests and fairness," Editorial, Dec. 5 Those who evaluate teachers should consider whether those teachers, current and prospective, actually like children. Teachers who know how to encourage children will get good results. I spent half of my elementary and high school years in a small town in South Dakota. After flunking the first grade and spending the next several years failing, I had a fifth-grade teacher who loved kids and encouraged me. That small school had unsophisticated teachers who loved the kids.

For seven years, the Los Angeles Unified School District has paid Matthew Kim a teaching salary of up to $68,000 per year, plus benefits. His job is to do nothing. Every school day, Kim's shift begins at 7:50 a.m., with 30 minutes for lunch, and ends when the bell at his old campus rings at 3:20 p.m. He is to take off all breaks, school vacations and holidays, per a district agreement with the teacher's union. At no time is he to be given any work by the district or show up at school.

Two decades of empirical research in education have confirmed at least one fact that just about everyone already knew: There are good teachers and bad teachers. The difference between your child being assigned to Mrs. Smith's class or to Ms. Johnson's down the hall can be as much as a grade level's worth of learning by the end of the school year. The wide variation in teacher quality suggests that some teachers deserve higher salaries than others, and indeed today's public school systems have a tiered system of rigid salary ladders in which teachers are given extra compensation for factors commonly thought to be related to effectiveness.

A state legislative committee on Wednesday rejected a proposal to allow school districts to train teachers and administrators to use guns to protect campuses against armed intruders. Only one member of the seven-member Assembly Education Committee voted for the bill introduced by Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (R-Twin Peaks) in response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. “What we're talking about is protecting kids,” Donnelly told the committee regarding AB 202. Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan (D-Alamo)