Where We Stand » Teachers

Teachers: Segment Two from Full Episode

chie witt — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:03:45 +0000

As many as 50 percent of teachers in the U.S. leave the profession within their first five years.
Students of high performing teachers progress three time as fast as those with low performing teachers.
The U.S. pays teachers less – as a percentage of the country’s GDP – than 25 other developed countries.

THE QUESTION: WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO GET GREAT TEACHERS INTO THE SCHOOLS, AND KEEP THEM THERE?

Teachers: TAP: Teacher Advancement Program

lisa gray — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:17:06 +0000

After 13 years of classroom experience, fourth-grade language arts teacher Nancy Johnson – featured in “WHERE WE STAND” – thought she knew pretty much everything about strategies for good teaching. That was before her school, Pleasant Hill Academy in Cincinnati, introduced TAP – Teacher Advancement Program.

A year into TAP, Johnson says she’s built more confidence in the classroom, and is better at communicating critical skills to her students. “Their thinking has improved so much because I know what I need to do in order to get them there. And before, I really didn’t know,” she said.

Research has shown that good teachers are the most important school-related factor for student learning and success – but to date, the U.S. has fallen short when it comes to recruiting and supporting good teachers. In an average school year, approximately 1,000 teachers quit each work day, and another 1,000 move from one school to another. Of these teachers, 56 percent leave because of job dissatisfaction and a desire to change careers. (USDOE) . Worse, almost 50 percent of newly hired teachers leave the profession after the first five years (NCTAF, 2003).

Supported by a mix of government and public funds, TAP was created in 1999 to respond to these challenges. Its goal, simply stated, is to recruit and retain good teachers, provide them opportunities to advance professionally, and offer them better pay.

Today, approximately 200 schools in 13 states have TAP in place. As part of the program, the days teachers used to devote to professional development have been replaced by daily 90-minute “cluster” meetings led by master teachers.

A recent study by the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching measured student achievement gains with TAP schools and teachers to non-TAP schools and teachers. Results show that in all TAP states, TAP teachers outperformed non-TAP teachers in producing an average year’s growth or more in their students’ achievement. The study also shows that more TAP schools outperformed non-TAP schools in producing an average year’s growth or more in both reading and math achievement.

In addition to raising student achievement, the study found that TAP teachers experience higher quality professional development as well as more support and collaboration than non-TAP teachers. TAP schools have also seen a reduction in teacher turnover rates, at the same time attracting new teachers from higher-income schools to teach in high-need schools.

Where state support is lacking, some groups have designed their own teacher advancement programs. One example is the CLASS Project run by Oregon’s Chalkboard Project. The CLASS Project was created by Oregon teachers with the goal of higher student achievement. Similar to TAP, the CLASS Project includes new roles for teachers as leaders and mentors, offering the opportunity of more pay.

Currently three school districts participate in the program, Forest Grove, Sherwood and Tillamook. The independent route of teacher professional development has become a viable option for those against mandated merit pay initiatives.

TEACHERS – Additional Facts:

There are currently 3,220,300 elementary and secondary public school teachers in the U.S.
The median age of teachers has risen from 33 in 1976 to the mid-40’s today, indicating that there are more teachers nearing retirement age, with fewer young new teachers to replace them. (NIET)
Secondary students in high-poverty schools are more likely than those in low-poverty schools to have a teacher who has not majored or even minored in the subject. (NIET)
36 percent of all secondary school teachers who teach math do not have certification or a major in math. Nearly 60 percent of chemistry, physics, earth and space science instructors do not have certification or a major in the subject. (NIET)
Average annual salary for elementary and secondary school teacher in 2007 – $47,950. (BLS)
Thirty-four states require that all teacher candidates hold content-specific bachelor’s degrees to receive certification. As of 2005, 15 states have no content area degree requirement in place. (USDOE)

Teachers: Merit Pay

lisa gray — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:16:42 +0000

If there’s one thing almost everyone can agree on when it comes to education, it’s the importance of great teachers. What few seem to agree on, however, is how to best compensate them.

While the idea of paying teachers for their performance might sound simple, the concept is rife with controversy. What if principals who dole out bonuses play favorites? What if one teacher is unable to raise test scores because of disciplinary issues in the classroom, while another – without major classroom challenges – raises them easily? And should merit pay be given to individual teachers and administrators, or to schools as a whole?

There are no easy answers, which is why teachers and their unions, for the most part, have long opposed merit pay – instead supporting the standard compensation model used by the majority of public schools. This “single salary” plan differentiates pay on concrete measures of success, like classroom experience and/or degrees held.

“If you think of merit pay as basing salary on a single test on a single day or a single evaluation from your principal, or another administrator, then I think a lot of teachers will think that’s not fair,” says John Wilson, Executive Director of the National Education Association.

Still, a growing number of schools nationwide are beginning to experiment with merit pay – some with the cooperation of local unions. And the Department of Education is behind the push, awarding approximately 40 federal grants to schools that have incentive pay plans. Private groups, like the Milken Family Foundation (which created TAP – Teacher Incentive Program) are also supporting merit pay plans across the country.

Both of the 2008 Presidential candidates back merit-pay. Sen. McCain has said he supports the use of federal dollars for merit-pay programs. And Sen. Barack Obama recently made headlines when he endorsed the concept in front of the National Education Association. “The most controversial aspect of any discussion of teacher compensation is merit pay,” Obama said, adding: “What I want to do is work with teachers, and where we can work with teachers to come up with ways to set those kinds of professional standards… But I’m not going to do it to you; I’m going to do it with you.”

If there’s any sticking point when it comes to merit pay – it’s the question of how to define and evaluate good teachers? And will more money draw the best out of the profession? The questions remain.