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In the area I taught, median pay was about $60k/yr. After 20 years and getting more advanced degrees, you could get to $80k/yr. Most of the teachers I worked wi

In the area I taught, median pay was about $60k/yr. After 20 years and getting more advanced degrees, you could get to $80k/yr. Most of the teachers I worked with worked more hours per year than just about any software engineer I know. Only very lazy or very tenured teachers were getting the fabled summer vacation or winter break. I have more income, more vacation, and better hours as a developer than I ever did as a teacher

dorchadas 8y ago
Yeah, the pay is an issue. Sure, I make great money for a single young male living in an low COL area, but there's no room to scale. My mom retired from teaching in the same district I'm currently in with 31 years experience. She was only making 15k more than I started at. There's no chance to increase pay apart from going administration (and even then it's not a huge increase) or getting more degrees (and there's a limit to those).
sopooneo 8y ago
Similar situation. After leaving teaching for development I spent the first two years in something like a state of grace. I loved teaching, but my gosh, the stress levels weren't even in the same universe.
barry-cotter 8y ago
https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/EDFP_a_00133 https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/EDFP_a_0013... > Using data from the American Time Use Survey, I find that teachers work an average of 34.5 hours per week on an annual basis (38.0 hours per week during the school year and 21.5 hours per week during the summer months).
- sethammons 8y ago
  I don't understand the numbers. A typical highschool teacher is on campus from 7am to 3pm minimum. That is 40 hr/wk. That allows a 30min break for lunch and typically one hour "planning period" that is insufficient for handling all lesson planning, grading, and assessment stuffs. I'm left questioning the validity of the responses to the ATS. Multiple teachers I've talked with report earning less than minimum wage after counting all the everything they do. For the ATS responses to be counted, the "households that have completed all eight months of the Current Population Survey (CPS)." That feels like a pool of respondents that will self select out very busy people.
- germinalphrase 8y ago
  Anecdotally, I routinely work 50-60 hours a week as a high school level English teacher a suburb of a major metropolitan city. That’s excluding my 20 minute lunch period.

dorchadas 8y ago

Yeah, the pay is an issue. Sure, I make great money for a single young male living in an low COL area, but there's no room to scale. My mom retired from teaching in the same district I'm currently in with 31 years experience. She was only making 15k more than I started at. There's no chance to increase pay apart from going administration (and even then it's not a huge increase) or getting more degrees (and there's a limit to those).

sopooneo 8y ago

Similar situation. After leaving teaching for development I spent the first two years in something like a state of grace. I loved teaching, but my gosh, the stress levels weren't even in the same universe.

barry-cotter 8y ago

https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/EDFP_a_00133 https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/EDFP_a_0013... > Using data from the American Time Use Survey, I find that teachers work an average of 34.5 hours per week on an annual basis (38.0 hours per week during the school year and 21.5 hours per week during the summer months).

sethammons 8y ago
I don't understand the numbers. A typical highschool teacher is on campus from 7am to 3pm minimum. That is 40 hr/wk. That allows a 30min break for lunch and typically one hour "planning period" that is insufficient for handling all lesson planning, grading, and assessment stuffs. I'm left questioning the validity of the responses to the ATS. Multiple teachers I've talked with report earning less than minimum wage after counting all the everything they do. For the ATS responses to be counted, the "households that have completed all eight months of the Current Population Survey (CPS)." That feels like a pool of respondents that will self select out very busy people.
germinalphrase 8y ago
Anecdotally, I routinely work 50-60 hours a week as a high school level English teacher a suburb of a major metropolitan city. That’s excluding my 20 minute lunch period.