“A Teacher’s Worth Around the World” – Not So Proud To Be An American

Posted by Robyn Gee on April 21, 2011

The image below is a very pretty infographic.

But it doesn’t paint a pretty picture of the U.S. education system. President Barack Obama has acknowledged that the U.S. is behind in science and math, and wants to “out-educate” our global competitors. Therefore, I read this infographic through the lens of trying to figure out which listed factor coincides the most with student achievement level (the last chart that measures test scores). That’s the element we want to change – so that’s the one we’re trying to understand.

In the Class Size vs. Cost of Teacher Salary Per Student chart, the U.S. and Korea spend equal amounts of money, but Korea has a much larger class size (26) than the U.S. (15).  You might think that the U.S. has an advantage here.

Not according to these charts.

Korea ranks second on the chart for test scores in reading, science, and math – while the U.S. falls towards the bottom.

AND teachers in Korea are getting paid more over the course of 15 years of experience. While Korean teachers work an average number of hours and have the highest salaries over 15 years of experience, teachers in the U.S. work the highest number of hours, and after 15 years of experience, their salaries are close to the bottom of the list.

In many parts of the U.S., school districts have turned to merit-based pay for teachers – where your salary varies in relation to your students’ test scores and improvements. In this situation, your years of experience would be irrelevant to your pay — but this graphic shows that even based on seniority, the U.S. doesn’t pay teachers that much.

The U.S. only tops the charts in terms of the number of hours our teachers work – this is a hard reality to swallow and I’m inclined to think about the factors that aren’t shown on the infographic: the rigor of our standards, the cultural status of being a teacher in each country, and the diversity of each population.  Diversity matters – because while the U.S. class size might average 15, there could be ten different native languages and multiple ability levels in that class. But I don’t want to make excuses – we can definitely do better.

Via:Master-Degree-Online.com

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1. American Abroad: A Young Teacher In Japan
2. Letter To A Young Teacher
3. College Admissions and Asian American Applicants
4. Being A Problem: Arab American Edition
5. New York Times Flowchart: Clicking With A Budget In Mind