The motivation of American teachers appeared to be on the rise since the birth of President George W. Bush’s legendary educational reform act (“No Child Left Behind”). However, the incentive for educators to transfer subject matter knowledge to their students has plummeted to an all-time low. For those educators who strive to impart knowledge to their students, there is little encouragement to do so. Lack of administrative reward appears to be the
underlying cause for educators who have become complacent in their instructional delivery.
As a career student, I have noticed this decline in educator incentive. I was curious and spoke with several college professors at local southern California universities. They attributed the lack of incentive to a tenure complacency.
These educators state that once you reach the monetary security granted by tenure, you are safe so why bother with exerting the energy needed to push your students to learn. You will still receive your paycheck whether you work hard or not.
I propose that administrators challenge educators to improve their skills which can be measured over time by how the students perform. Educators or administrators can measure the historical standard deviation of a class over a period of time. I believe that if you measure a teaching career from the beginning to present, combined with continuous improvement of teaching skills, you can show a positive progression toward the 90th percentile. Instructor incentive can be measured by the standard deviation movement of historical grades and represented as a function expressed and symbolized as:
Where I = incentive, C= class repetitions, R = the number of repetitions and where n, I, x are used as the standard symbols in calculating the standard deviation. When teachers use this method of self-measurement, they will be able to track their incentive and be motivated to improve their teach skills in spite of their tenure security.
SciPro Hawk1
Introducing an exciting new state of the art software instrument called SciPro Hawk1 data mining and statistical analysis software. This is easy to use, affordable and works in conjunction with Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. The SciPro Hawk1 will allow you to manage your classroom data and perform statistical analysis of your teaching skills. The SciPro Hawk1 can compile your historical final grade data and place it into an Excel Spreadsheet as well as graph the entire population results.
Throughout your teaching career, the SciPro Hawk1 can compile your students’ grades and perform a graphical analysis by plotting the summation of class by class grades and presenting the results in a normality distribution curve. This process will identify the location, spread, variances and the occurrence of outliers in the population final grade marks. Your students’ achievement can be tracked as a group allowing you to measure your teaching skills and help identify areas where teaching enrichment may be needed.
As a result, you will be able to:
- Objectively track your teaching progress
- Measure your teaching skills, and
- Observe your population of grades as a whole move the standard deviation to the right with improved skills and approach the 90th percentile.
Impress your administrators by making apparent and your teaching skills obvious. By using the new SciPro Hawk1 data mining software instrument you can watch your students’ capacity to learn continue to rise.
Progress is now at the tip of your fingers. Purchase of the new data mining software at www.dsldataminingco.com/store and contact your campus supply administrator or business service director.
By: David Stephens,
DMS,BSEE