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The Teacher Salary Project

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The Teacher Salary Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness surrounding the working conditions of public school teachers throughout America. The project is based upon the book Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers, co-authored by teacher and journalist Daniel Moulthrop, co-founder of 826 National Nínive Calegari, and writer Dave Eggers. The mission of The Teacher Salary Project is to address the concerns and issues facing our education system through the eyes and experiences of teachers. It proposes that teacher salary reform is an effective method of attracting and retaining top-quality teachers to the field of education. American Teacher is the feature-length documentary created and produced by The Teacher Salary Project. It is set to be released in May 2011.[1]


Teachers Have It Easy

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Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Costs and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers was released in the June of 2005 and is co-authored by Nínive Calegari, Dave Eggers, and Daniel Moulthrop. The book utilizes a large catalog of teacher testimonies in portraying the working conditions of public school teachers throughout various urban and rural areas across America. The subject of teacher salary reform is consistently returned to as many of the teacher accounts portray a job that, however rewarding, is demanding and trying upon one’s time and finances. The book follows the wide range of teacher testimonies with a chapter that investigates several districts and schools that have made successful reforms on the teacher salary level.[2]

Examples of successful reform are highlighted in Denver’s ProComp system, which was initiated in 2006 and rewarded teachers performance bonuses for education, student achievement, and for teaching in hard-to-staff and/or hard-to-serve positions; The Vaughn Next Center Learning in Los Angeles, CA for their innovative methods in evaluating teachers and rewarding them for effective performance; and, lastly, the public school district in Helena, Montana in how they were able to free up $1 million to be used in attracting and rewarding top-quality teachers.[3]

The book has appeared on the New York Times extended best-seller list and has been featured on CSPAN, and NPR’s Marketplace.[4]


American Teacher

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Summary

American Teacher is a feature-length documentary created and produced by The Teacher Salary Project. Following the format of the book Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers, the film utilizes a large collection of teacher testimonies and contrasts the demands of the teaching profession alongside interviews with education experts and education reform news from around the country. There are four principal characters in the film whose lives and careers are closely portrayed over the course of several years. Alongside the stories of these four characters is interwoven a mixture of interviews with teachers, students, families, and education leaders, as well as animation conveying startling facts surrounding the teaching profession.[5][6]

The four principal characters are Johnathan Dearman, Jamie Fiddler, Erik Benner, and Rhena Jasey. Johnathan Dearman was a public school teacher at San Francisco’s first charter school, Leadership High, before leaving the profession due to his struggles in salary as well as that of balancing time with his family. The story of Erik Benner portrays a History teacher in Texas who must work at Circuit City in order to support his family. Jamie Fiddler is an Elementary School teacher in the final weeks of pregnancy and must begin tutoring on the side when the expenses of a newborn enter into her life.[7]


Production

The film is a compilation of over three years of collecting footage from hundreds of teachers across the country.[8] The film largely focuses on four principal characters, each teaching in a different urban or rural area within America. While the film focuses primarily on these four main characters, it is further peppered with vignettes and interviews of many other public school teachers as well. American Teacher also features interviews with US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Deputy Secretary of Education Brad Jupp, the founder of The Equity Project Charter School Zeke Vanderhoek, Stanford Professor of Education Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond, and several regional and national teachers of the year.[9] The film is produced by Ninive Calegari, Dave Eggers, is produced and directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth, and edited by filmmaker Brian McGinn. [10]

References

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  1. ^ Screenings
  2. ^ Teachers Have It Easy Amazon.com
  3. ^ Gray, Ethan. "Teachers Have It Easy - We're Kidding, Of Course". Education Sector. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  4. ^ [1]
  5. ^ http://www.theteachersalaryproject.org/production_news.html
  6. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1848826/
  7. ^ http://www.theteachersalaryproject.org/production_news.html
  8. ^ http://www.826valencia.org/news/006390
  9. ^ http://www.theteachersalaryproject.org/production_news.html
  10. ^ [www.theteachersalaryproject.org/about.html]


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