Friday, August 23, 2013
The Jayne Mansfieldization of American Education.
According to a study by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Freedom, while the total school population has increased by 96% from 1950 to 2009, the total number of administrators and other non-teaching personnel has increased by 702%, and, while the total number of teachers has increased by 252%, the number of teachers as a percentage of total school staff has decreased by 28% and teachers are now just 50% of the total educational make-up. Yeah, I would say that the situation has gotten just a tad top-heavy/out of control.
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Why do these data points not really suprise me? Education is following the same trajectory as business. Our educational system will eventually figure out why the inverted pyramid eventually cracks under it's own weight.
In the meantime, until it does the nation suffers.
I was actually a little surprised, Les. Yes, I thought that it had gotten a little more bureaucratic over time but I had no idea that the ration was over 7:1. And, yes, absolutely the nation will suffer.
Will, has it done the same in private schools?
Time for a math check. If admin et. al. increases 701% while in the same time teachers increase 252%, that is a ratio of about 2.8 to 1, not 7 to 1, still probably larger than necessary, but let's not exergerate too much.
Jerry, I was referring to the student to administrator growth ratio of of 7:1 (702% to 96%).......dmarks, I don't know. I highly suspect that it hasn't, though.
So much for the good old one room school. Regarding private schools, as mentioned earlier, there is some evidence they do utilized a lower admin/teacher ratio (and apparently attract good teachers tired of the public school hassle, even at reduced pay and benefits.
Apparently, charter schools in some areas have even higher admin bloat.
I've never figured out what administrators do, other than have meetings and drink coffee.
Sorry, I misinterpreted your ratio. While I think more teachers per student is a good thing, I don't see the benefits of such a large increase in administrators.
BB: thanks. I was suspecting that private schools and non-traditional public schools (charters) kept pace.
I caught Rick Atkinson on C-span
recently; he wrote 'The Liberation
Trllogy about WWII, and happened to mention the ratio of generals to troops. That ratio parallels the
school admin bloat phenomenon, which reflects, IMO on RN's comment that such may be endemic
in many, if not most sectors of
society.
I just saw that interview last night actually. Good point.
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