I'm trying to decide which country I should get my certification/credential in. Which country do you think is better in terms of salary, job market, work/life balance, and respect for the profession? Thanks! P.S. I would include Canada but I hear the job market is really, really poor :/
Depending on who you are. If you are an American, then do America! Don't do the EC-4th though. It is saturated with teachers who want to teach, but can't because there are so many already waiting and waiting. I do not know anything about the UK and how their jobs are, so nch. Good luck, Rebel1
It is hard to tell which is best. From what I read and experience your salaries in the US can vary so much depending of State, district, school etc. Some of my teacher friends in Chicago earn double my UK salary whereas others are on far less than me. The UK is very tough at the moment. Our government is trying to deprofessionalise teaching such that the new schools they are opening (Academies are former district schools now made independent and Free Schools are what you call Charter schools) do not have to employ qualified teachers! Thus they can recruit anyone and pay them whatever they like from the minimum wage upwards. These schools also do not have to follow the National Curriculum and so the only subjects they are expected to teach are English and Maths, the rest is optional! They are also changing teacher contracts so that they can employ anyone on temporary contracts, change hours and times etc without notice and can also fire staff on a whim. They have also reduced our pensions, increased our pension contributions and extended our working lives from 65 to 68 years. Our esteemed Government are also changing the way teachers are trained so that training, such as it will be, shall take place in the schools not in universities or colleges!
I don't know anything about the current situation of the UK educational system, but this sounds a lot like what's happening here in the states. Charter schools are the new fad and teacher positions are few and far between in many disciplines. However, I rarely see news stories about education in the UK whereas the media seems saturated with education topics about the US. Is this just my bias as an American, or is there really less reporting from across the pond despite similar conditions?
As I am a teacher I suppose I look for stuff about education. here is loads in the press etc over here at the moment for all sorst of reasons, most of them because of an idiot called Michael Gove who is our Secretary of State for education. The latest was the fact that out national results for our GCSE exams (taken by all students at age 16) fell for the first time in 27 years last week! The reason they fell was because Mr Gove put political pressure on the exam boards to raise the pass garde levels at the last minute. This students who had been working at a grade C (The 'pass' grade) based on their previous 18 month's work we suddenly downgraded to a D (fail) because the grade levels were raised. Kids who took the same test in January got a C, kids who didn't take it until June who got the same marks got a D. Schools are judged on these exams and we are under massive pressure to raise achhievment. However Gove wants to force any school that is not improving to become an Academy and so has a vested interest in lowering our results! If you want to find out what is hot in UK education then join the forums on www.tes.co.uk
Right. Googles says that DoD is Department of Defense. So are you talking about schools run by the military for the children of military personel? I don't know much about them but this website may help you http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceFor/ServiceCommunity/Education/SCE/SCESchools/ I beleive that this is a shrinking establishment as our overseas bases close or are reduced..
My goodness, it's amazing just how similar the situations are in both nations. We're also rated on test scores and whether or not we make adequate progress (against a bar set way too high). Fail too many times and they start changing staff, taking over administration, and eventually close the school and open a Charter school in it's place. Looks like we need true education reform across the planet, not just the country
The similarity may be down to the fact that Mr Gove often has Duncan Arne over to his offices and impliments what he tells him!
