Set minimum standards for teaching!

In this classic Kappan article, Willard Spalding considers how schools would improve if teachers set minimum standards for working conditions.

Some time ago I happened to attend a meeting of a committee which was discussing an addition to a hospital at a medical school. The school was planning to admit more students. Each student, as an interne, sees seven hospitalized patients daily. It was clearly obvious to the committee that the proposed addition to the hospital must have seven beds for each new student. But bedrooms and wards alone do not make a hospital. There must be operating rooms, x-ray rooms, offices, food service, lockers and lounges for staff, admissions offices, dispensaries and all of the other facilities which are required to care for the sick. These facilities, like the bedrooms and wards, had to meet the standards of the American Medical Association, or the hospital would not be approved and students who were internes in it would have a great difficulty in becoming members of the medical profession. The cost per bed, including a pro-rata allowance for all the other necessary facilities, was estimated to be $35,000.00. Since seven beds per student interne were needed, this meant a capital outlay of 7 x $35,000 or nearly a quarter of a million dollars per added student.

For somewhat over twenty-five years I have been employed in some phase of public education. In one or another capacity I have visited schools in many parts of the United States. In classroom after classroom equipment was old and outmoded. Books were few and many of the few were worn. The dull color of school brown was dominant in most rooms. Floors were uneven and frequently smeared with oil which kept them permanently dirty. There were often more than forty pupils in a room. Toilet facilities were meager and unattractive. Teachers had no office or work space and often no lounge for privacy. The contrast between what I had seen in schools and teacher-training during the past, and the projected new hospital, is an extremely vivid one. In recent years I have often speculated about the reasons for the differences.

I wonder what would happen if the teachers said, and meant it, we are a profession.

Just suppose, I tell myself, that the teachers of this nation, through organizations like the Division of Classroom Teachers of the National Education Association or the American Federation of Teachers, really became a powerful professional group. I wonder what would happen if the teachers said, and meant it, we are a profession. We are trained to help the young to learn. If we are to use our knowledge and our professional skill effectively certain minimum conditions must exist. Unless these do exist, the school will not be approved by us. If it is not approved, after adequate notice to the Board of Education, then no member of the profession will work in it!”

Such conditions need not be numerous. I will carry my speculation further and imagine what they might be.

Minimum conditions

Condition 1. A minimum annual salary. This is already found in the laws of many states. Its inclusion as a requirement of the profession would not be unusual.

Condition 2. Adequate provisions for leaves. Sick leaves, sabbatical leaves, longevity leaves, and maturity leaves are already provided by many school systems. Again, it would not be much change to have the profession require them also.

Condition 3. Adequate pensions. The same comments apply here.

Condition 4. Reasonable class size. Here, what legislation there is attempts to control class size by basing the contributions of the state to local schools upon a teacher-unit of from 30 to 35 pupils. The amount paid is based upon the actual number of teachers or upon the number of teacher-units, whichever is smaller. This gives relatively less money to school districts with large classes. But this type of control is not very effective. More is needed.

The better learning is in small classes

Research in education has clearly demonstrated the direct relationship between the quality and cost of public education. As per pupil costs rise, the quality of the education of each pupil improves. It would be inappropriate to cite all the results of this research here. The findings of Paul R. Mort and his colleagues of the Metropolitan School Study Council are among the best. But the most important factor in increased per pupil cost is class size. As the number of students in a class goes down, the cost per pupil goes up. There is a wealth of evidence in these studies to show that education is better when classes are smaller.

Condition 5. Adequate material. The skilled teacher, with a reasonable number of pupils, needs ample books, supplies, and equipment. If the amount spent for these items were doubled or even tripled there would be but a slight percentage increase in school budgets. Good materials of instruction are so important and their cost is such a small part of the cost of operating schools that the inclusion of this professional requirement could not become an undue hardship on the people. And how the children would profit!

There may be other necessary minimum conditions which the teaching profession might reasonably require. The length of the school day, week, and year, and attendance at professional meetings without loss of pay, come to mind for consideration. But the five which I have described are probably the major ones. What would happen if they were actually in effect? If the profession of classroom teachers refused to work unless these minimum conditions were met?

The administrator’s job would be easier

There would probably be many effects, some of them unforeseen and almost unpredictable.

In summary, it can be said that a strongly organized profession of classroom teachers could establish and maintain minimum conditions for employment.

As one who has spent many years in administering public schools, I am reasonably certain that the effects upon administration would be good. Year after year issues like those mentioned in the five suggested conditions arise to plague superintendents, teachers, and boards of education. They are a constant and continuing source of irritation and of low morale. An inordinate amount of time and energy is used in solving problems in these areas. With a firm profession, which did not allow teachers to work under unfavorable conditions, many of these problems would not arise. The time and energy which had been devoted to them would be available for other constructive work. The job of the administrator would be made easier.

The policy is familiar

The effect upon the general public is more difficult to predict, but in the long run would probably be good. The public already accepts the idea of minimum conditions for employment. The requirements of the medical profession are readily met. Skilled tradesmen set not only conditions of employment but limits on production, viz., the maximum number of bricks which can be laid in a day or the maximum width allowed in paint brushes. We have allocated crop production quotas to farmers and specified conditions under which soil can be tilled if they are ·to receive maximum rewards. Waiters in the union can only wait on so many people at the tables. Many other illustrations undoubtedly will come to the mind of each reader. There is no reason to suppose that the general public would refuse to grant the teaching profession the right to define minimum conditions for employment when it has already granted this right to so many others among its members.

In summary, it can be said that a strongly organized profession of classroom teachers could establish and maintain minimum conditions for employment. Such conditions would probably be accepted by the public. Time and energy of both administrators and teachers would be released for other constructive work. And above all else, the children who attend the schools would have far better opportunities to develop to their full capacities as men and women.

Citation: Spalding, W.B. (1952). Set minimum standards for teaching! Phi Delta Kappan, 33 (8), 387-388