If you read your hometown's newspaper regularly, you're bound to see an op-ed or editorial every so often on an educational topic. Today, your odds were much higher--many dailies featured guest opinion pieces on teachers from superintendents, mayors, and wonks, and a few regular columnists chimed in as well. Let's dig in for this first installment of the Ed-Op Round-Up. (We've termed it "Ed-Op" for "Education Opinion"--and because it's kinda neat that it's the inverse of "Op-Ed.")??
Editor's Note: The views of these authors and publications do not necessarily reflect those??of the trustees, officers or staff of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
The Tennessean:??This Tennessean editorial looks back to??President Obama's March 10 speech on education??in which he "caught Democratic loyalists off-guard with a strong call" for merit-based pay. It continues:??
This is truly a matter in which teachers and their union should take the lead. Teachers know best the challenges facing education, and they know it would be wrong to base merit pay solely on test scores. But if government officials are offering more money for salaries, professional organizations could set the standard. It requires the courage to take a few risks. ... The key is for educators to agree to be part of positive change, rather than cling to a system that is well-intentioned but is no longer good enough.??
The Tennessean: In the first of two follow-up guest columns, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean agrees??with the paper's editorial.
We need to reward teachers who are committed to their craft and who are willing to be evaluated by their performance and the academic performance of their students. Compensation needs to be based on more than just years of service or advanced degrees. We need to pay teachers for taking tough assignments and for the degree to which they help close student achievement gaps. ...??And if we're going to ask more of our teachers, we need to give them the proper support. We need to have strong professional development tracks for our teachers, and we need to better identify, train and support our principals and others who hold leadership positions in our schools.
The Tennessean: In a guest op-ed that serves as the counter to Mayor Dean's support of merit-based pay, Erick E. Huth, president of the Metropolitan Nashville Education Association, points out the problems he sees with that type of compensatory construct.
In 2009, educational researchers have become very adept at developing complicated methodologies for measuring what has become known as "teacher effect." Some of those same researchers will acknowledge teacher acceptance of any performance pay plan is imperative to its success. As a consequence, the methodology must be simple enough to be understood by the average teacher, yet rigorous enough to measure something meaningful.
The Indianapolis Star: Andrea Neal, former editor of The Star's editorial pages and current Indianapolis teacher,??compares and contrasts the two payment systems??and cites a pilot study done in five schools in Little Rock, Ark.:
After two years, the schools achieved average gains of seven percentile points in math and reading scores. At the same time, scores of students in comparison public schools without merit pay fell. Keys to success, the researchers said, were a straightforward formula for determining merit and incentives for collaboration, in this case a reward component based on schoolwide achievement. Also, "Education officials cannot expect teachers to shift their behavior toward excellence for the proverbial peanut bonus." The Arkansas bonuses ranged from $1,800 to $8,600. ...??The Arkansas study found enough immediate impact to justify merit pay. ??
The Philadelphia Daily News: Stepping away from the merit-based pay debate, we see Arlene C. Ackerman, superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia, talking about the simple importance of good teachers for minorities:
Regardless of how we measure teacher quality, poor minority children tend to get MORE than their fair share of teachers with less experience, less preparation less skill and too many "out-of-field" certifications. ...??As the school administration works to overhaul hiring practices and timelines, recruitment and retention strategies, along with planning for talent development, we are also talking with the union about innovative ways that will help us improve teaching and learning for all Philadelphia school children.
The Seattle Times: Danny Westneat, a staff columnist, writes about Seattle parents' reaction to a recent firing of 165 young teachers under a "last hired, first fired" strategy.
[The organizers of the petition] are fed up with calcified bureaucracy. They see how schools in Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., are being shaken up by market-oriented approaches. Such as charter schools. But in Seattle, no politician seems willing to question the system. So it is left to parents. ...??The latest issue--the last-hired, first-fired seniority policy--has become a hot button because many schools are set to lose two or three of their youngest, most energetic teachers.
The Boston Herald: Today's final entry in the first-ever Ed-Op Round-Up comes from Charles Chieppo, the principal of Chieppo Strategies, a public policy writing and advocacy firm. He criticizes the Massachusetts Teachers Association and lauds KIPP:
Compare the MTA's professional development courses to those offered by Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), a national network of mostly charter middle schools. "Analytical Writing," "Using Data to Verify Causes before Implementing Solutions" and "Writing Science Curriculum" represent its options. Is it any wonder that a recent Boston Foundation study found that the city's charter public schools dramatically outperform their traditional counterparts???