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Teachers Say Yes to Pay Tied to Scores
NewsMax.com Wires Saturday, Aug. 18, 2007
WASHINGTON -- While the words "merit pay" drew hisses and boos at a recent
teachers' union convention, educators are endorsing contracts that pay
bonuses for boosting students' test scores.
The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers
oppose linking a teacher's paycheck to how well their students do on tests.
But that is not stopping Rob Weil, the AFT's deputy director of educational
issues, from helping local unions hammer out contracts that include new
merit-pay plans.
"We don't have a message on a board that says, 'Hey, thinking about this?'"
he said. But he said the AFT feels obliged to assist chapters that have
decided to go this route.
Teachers usually are paid according to a century-old career ladder that
rewards seniority and levels of education. The system was designed to ensure
fair compensation for women and minorities. The average starting salary
today is about $31,000.
"They don't make enough money, especially the good ones - especially the
great ones," said Louis Malfaro, the teachers' union president in Austin,
Texas, where nine schools are part of a pilot program to overhaul how
teachers are paid.
Malfaro said Austin's approach is modeled partly on Denver's, which links
salaries to students' test scores and other measures. Malfaro says the
Austin effort will expand slowly and be evaluated methodically to avoid the
kinds of mistakes made elsewhere.
"Our approach has been a slow, deliberate and steady one," Malfaro said.
"This is a highway with wrecked cars all over it."
Florida recently had to retool a merit-pay plan after a large number of
districts opted out, citing teacher concerns. A plan in Houston came under
criticism because it was put in place over teachers' objections.
Vanderbilt University education professor Jim Guthrie said the involvement
of teachers is essential.
"I just put myself in their shoes. All of a sudden you are going to change
all the rules and you're not going to talk to me?" said Guthrie, who is
assisting districts that got federal grants to implement merit pay.
Weil, the AFT official, said teacher compensation has to be bargained
locally. He also said the new plans should make good professional
development available to increase the chances that teachers will raise
students' achievement.
Union opposition to merit pay stems partly from failed efforts of the 1980s.
In those cases, principals generally were given the power to decide who
would get the additional dollars.
"They often had no basis of any objective measure of performance," said
Susan Moore Johnson, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of
Education. "So what sometimes happened is there would be different awards
made to different individuals and they would become public, and people would
be appalled at the individuals who were given the awards or not given the
awards."
The 2002 No Child Left Behind law has placed a greater emphasis on using
objective data in schools.
The law requires annual math and reading tests. The scores of students in
certain grades are compared year to year. Lawmakers want to change the law,
which is up for renewal, to encourage schools to measure individual student
progress over time instead of using snapshot comparisons of certain grade
levels.
Once schools track that, they could look at which teachers consistently are
moving students along, say children's advocates. Some places, including
Tennessee, already are doing this.
But teachers say many factors affect test scores, including some that are
beyond their control; for example, family income and level of parental
involvement.
While individual student scores already are tied to teachers' pay in Denver
and elsewhere, Austin's program relies on test scores to reward all teachers
for school-wide gains.
Johnson, the Harvard professor, said that is fair. "It's becoming clear to
do math well, you have to read well. So if students do well in math, do you
give that math teacher the bonus? Or do you give that bonus to the reading
teacher two years before?"
Malfaro said Austin's approach will encourage teachers to collaborate
instead of competing. To further encourage that, some teachers will serve as
mentors. As in Denver, principals and teachers will work together to set
goals at the start of the year.
"If this is just about making money a different way and isn't about forcing
systemwide change, then I think it fails to live up to its potential,"
Malfaro said. "Then I think it's just going to be one more education fad
that kind of came up, got kicked around for a few years, and then faded out.
And that would be a shame."
The Austin school board approved more than $4 million annually to fund the
pilot program. A districtwide plan would cost at least $30 million annually,
which voters would have to approve, Malfaro says.
A study of the pilot program in Denver, before it was expanded, showed that
the changes improved student achievement. That probably helped persuade
voters to support a $25 million-a-year tax increase to pay for expanding it
to the entire school system.
The federal government, foundations and states also are helping finance new
teacher-pay programs.
The chairman of the House education committee, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif.,
says he wants the revised No Child Left Behind law to include money for a
new merit-pay effort.
Among states, Minnesota is out front on the issue. The Minnesota Legislature
passed a law two years ago encouraging districts and teachers to develop new
pay plans, partly linked to student test scores.
There is excitement about the change in the three dozen or so districts that
have undertaken it, says Randi Kirchner, professional pay systems
coordinator for Education Minnesota, a union that operates at the state
level.
Kirchner acknowledges some national union leaders do not support pay plans
linked to student scores. But she says the Minnesota system is more
acceptable than some others because student scores are just one of many
measures used and teachers have a strong say in whether the new plans are
put in place and what they look like.
"We didn't just sit on the sidelines," she said. "We chose to be actively
involved, so Minnesota would have a workable system that focuses on the best
ways to improve teaching and learning."
Teachers Say Yes to Pay Tied to Scores
NewsMax.com Wires Saturday, Aug. 18, 2007
WASHINGTON -- While the words "merit pay" drew hisses and boos at a recent
teachers' union convention, educators are endorsing contracts that pay
bonuses for boosting students' test scores.
The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers
oppose linking a teacher's paycheck to how well their students do on tests.
But that is not stopping Rob Weil, the AFT's deputy director of educational
issues, from helping local unions hammer out contracts that include new
merit-pay plans.
"We don't have a message on a board that says, 'Hey, thinking about this?'"
he said. But he said the AFT feels obliged to assist chapters that have
decided to go this route.
Teachers usually are paid according to a century-old career ladder that
rewards seniority and levels of education. The system was designed to ensure
fair compensation for women and minorities. The average starting salary
today is about $31,000.
"They don't make enough money, especially the good ones - especially the
great ones," said Louis Malfaro, the teachers' union president in Austin,
Texas, where nine schools are part of a pilot program to overhaul how
teachers are paid.
Malfaro said Austin's approach is modeled partly on Denver's, which links
salaries to students' test scores and other measures. Malfaro says the
Austin effort will expand slowly and be evaluated methodically to avoid the
kinds of mistakes made elsewhere.
"Our approach has been a slow, deliberate and steady one," Malfaro said.
"This is a highway with wrecked cars all over it."
Florida recently had to retool a merit-pay plan after a large number of
districts opted out, citing teacher concerns. A plan in Houston came under
criticism because it was put in place over teachers' objections.
Vanderbilt University education professor Jim Guthrie said the involvement
of teachers is essential.
"I just put myself in their shoes. All of a sudden you are going to change
all the rules and you're not going to talk to me?" said Guthrie, who is
assisting districts that got federal grants to implement merit pay.
Weil, the AFT official, said teacher compensation has to be bargained
locally. He also said the new plans should make good professional
development available to increase the chances that teachers will raise
students' achievement.
Union opposition to merit pay stems partly from failed efforts of the 1980s.
In those cases, principals generally were given the power to decide who
would get the additional dollars.
"They often had no basis of any objective measure of performance," said
Susan Moore Johnson, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of
Education. "So what sometimes happened is there would be different awards
made to different individuals and they would become public, and people would
be appalled at the individuals who were given the awards or not given the
awards."
The 2002 No Child Left Behind law has placed a greater emphasis on using
objective data in schools.
The law requires annual math and reading tests. The scores of students in
certain grades are compared year to year. Lawmakers want to change the law,
which is up for renewal, to encourage schools to measure individual student
progress over time instead of using snapshot comparisons of certain grade
levels.
Once schools track that, they could look at which teachers consistently are
moving students along, say children's advocates. Some places, including
Tennessee, already are doing this.
But teachers say many factors affect test scores, including some that are
beyond their control; for example, family income and level of parental
involvement.
While individual student scores already are tied to teachers' pay in Denver
and elsewhere, Austin's program relies on test scores to reward all teachers
for school-wide gains.
Johnson, the Harvard professor, said that is fair. "It's becoming clear to
do math well, you have to read well. So if students do well in math, do you
give that math teacher the bonus? Or do you give that bonus to the reading
teacher two years before?"
Malfaro said Austin's approach will encourage teachers to collaborate
instead of competing. To further encourage that, some teachers will serve as
mentors. As in Denver, principals and teachers will work together to set
goals at the start of the year.
"If this is just about making money a different way and isn't about forcing
systemwide change, then I think it fails to live up to its potential,"
Malfaro said. "Then I think it's just going to be one more education fad
that kind of came up, got kicked around for a few years, and then faded out.
And that would be a shame."
The Austin school board approved more than $4 million annually to fund the
pilot program. A districtwide plan would cost at least $30 million annually,
which voters would have to approve, Malfaro says.
A study of the pilot program in Denver, before it was expanded, showed that
the changes improved student achievement. That probably helped persuade
voters to support a $25 million-a-year tax increase to pay for expanding it
to the entire school system.
The federal government, foundations and states also are helping finance new
teacher-pay programs.
The chairman of the House education committee, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif.,
says he wants the revised No Child Left Behind law to include money for a
new merit-pay effort.
Among states, Minnesota is out front on the issue. The Minnesota Legislature
passed a law two years ago encouraging districts and teachers to develop new
pay plans, partly linked to student test scores.
There is excitement about the change in the three dozen or so districts that
have undertaken it, says Randi Kirchner, professional pay systems
coordinator for Education Minnesota, a union that operates at the state
level.
Kirchner acknowledges some national union leaders do not support pay plans
linked to student scores. But she says the Minnesota system is more
acceptable than some others because student scores are just one of many
measures used and teachers have a strong say in whether the new plans are
put in place and what they look like.
"We didn't just sit on the sidelines," she said. "We chose to be actively
involved, so Minnesota would have a workable system that focuses on the best
ways to improve teaching and learning."
