History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
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Why U.S. teachers work the most but U.S. students stay average
- 06-28-2011
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By Ujala Sehgal/The Atlantic
Among 27 member nations tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, U.S. teachers work the longest hours, the Wall Street Journal reports. This seems particularly impressive as the U.S. has long summer vacations, and primary-school teachers only spent 36 weeks a year in the classroom, among the lowest of the countries tracked. Yet the educators spent 1,097 hours a year teaching, in the most recent numbers from 2008. New Zealand, in second place at 985 hours, had schools open for 39 weeks a year. The OECD average is 786 hours. Moreover, the hours from the OECD survey are only the time spent in the classroom. According to data from the comparable year in a Labor Department survey, U.S. teachers work in total an average of 1,913 in a year -- close to the average American's full-time hours, which are 1,932 hours a year. (more...)
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