For Teachers, Why Does 'Moving Up' Mean 'Moving Out'?.  

By Anthony Rebora on July 3, 2012 4:03 PM

Ariel Sacks recalls an interesting exchange from the day she went down to the district office to submit her materials for her very first teaching job:

The middle-aged woman who processed my paperwork was friendly in that way only New Yorkers can be, and chatted me up a bit. When she gave me the thick envelope with the certificate and other information in it, she told me, "I can see you're a bright one. It won't be long before I see you you back up here with a district job."

Eight years later (and still a teacher), Sacks ponders the implicit and widely-held expectation that talented and ambitious teachers will inevitably leave the classroom for school admin. positions. One step toward improving the teaching profession, she suggests, would be to uproot that assumption:

Are we still sending the message to teachers that moving up is moving out? That the educational office trumps the classroom every time? In pay, working conditions, and status? That needs to change. 

What a great question!  I will be starting my 12th year of teaching this coming fall!  I am starting to see that teachers 'move up' because of the pay scale, especially since retirement is based on the last 5 years of pay.  This really discourages teachers from staying in the classroom.