One veteran teacher’s experience with considering a job at a charter school.
This teacher applied for a job, but was stunned by the hoops and hurdles required to get it.
Your education doesn’t count, they said, only your value-added scores. If you want a higher salary, get the test scores higher.
No gym. No custodian, you will scrub toilets.
And, oh yes, once you agree to all these conditions, please write a little essay about the word “feisty.”
This teacher needs a job. What did the teacher do?
Kmareka.com 
My wife taught part time at Blackstone Valley Academy-it was nothing like you insinuate via Ravitch’s blog entry-the teachers didn’t have tenure-they were rehired year to year based on performance.My wife was already retired so it didn’t matter that much to her,but they tried to keep her on when she decided to leave-she just decided she was done working at that point.
I met a good number of the teachers there and they were a very talented and dedicated group.
They dealt with the same demographic as Central Falls HS and the Pawtucket HS’s and they had great success in graduating students who went on to college or other career paths.
I think you tend to paint all charter schools with the same brush-you’d ban them if you got your way,true?
“I had invested in an education all the way up to the level of PhD and had accumulated over 15 years in the field, I’d be teaching alongside a colleague who had never stepped foot in the classroom making not only the same salary”
For the first year, after several years of unemployment? I wouldn’t expect to jump in making more than anyone else.
“In the new economy, does experience and level of education matter?”
No. Results matter. Maybe a young teacher fresh out of school can do a better job than you, even if he has fewer credentials. If so, then he deserves the raise. I don’t have a problem with that.
And from a previous post: “I feel in spirit with those who fought the French revolution, the Cinderellas and the Oliver Twists”
Wow. Someone with a PhD bought out on generous leverage who won’t accept a teaching job that starts at $55K/year. Very Oliver Twist.