Gartner DMReg Article - Calls out Iowa

[CycloneErik]

I think the key word in your post is "usually," because TA training is central here. Some depts. have pretty solid training, while others merely turn the grad. student loose and hope for the best. There is also a big difference between using a TA in connection with a class taught by a prof. vs. using a TA to teach a section all by him/herself. In this latter case, you would want a serious training period to take place and have careful monitoring of the TA by a full-time faculty person, at least for the first term of teaching.

Agreed. This is a solid idea and overlooked overall.

I don't know what you're the T.A. of but the salary is a LOT less than a third of the salary of the professor (girlfriend was a head T.A. and I know what she made from Iowa State). Most of the T.A.'s do a decent job...a lot of it boils down to students not caring at all.

Let's say I was making a very conservative estimate on that one, just so the #s did sound like I was carried away. But the point stands. T.A.s are cheaper.