The Garden City Telegram

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Teacher pay at issue in report

Published 9/16/2008 in News : Education

By EMILY BEHLMANN

ebehlmann@gctelegram.com

Some Kansas teachers, including two from southwest Kansas, are calling upon the state and local school districts to restructure the way teachers are paid, a change they say can improve student learning.

The educators' ideas are outlined in the new report "Improving Student Learning Through Strategic Compensation." The report encourages teacher compensation based on the knowledge and skills of teachers, the level of their students' learning, the leadership they demonstrate and their market value.

The report, based on the recommendations of 16 teachers from across the state, was released by the Center for Teaching Quality national advocacy group and was developed by the center's Teacher Leaders Network in Kansas. Educators consulted included Cynthia Corn, a social studies teacher at Kenneth Henderson Middle School, and Garrett Panzer, the technology lab facilitator at Lakin Middle School.

It recommends a break from the common current teacher compensation system, which establishes a salary schedule based on a teacher's level of education and years of experience. Marsha Ratzel, a Kansas City, Kan., math and science teacher who worked on the report, said during a conference call with reporters that the system is problematic because longtime teachers eventually hit a ceiling on the salary schedule, and they're "not compensated in any way for that involvement and expertise you bring to the profession."

Improvements would help ensure Kansas schools retain quality educators, the teachers said.

"We're all working for the same goal, and that's to improve student learning," Panzer said. "How we get there -- making sure we get quality teachers in the classroom -- that's where the argument comes."

One teacher-generated suggestion of how to get there is to reward teachers who demonstrate that their students are learning, the report states.

That doesn't mean, however, that the state or individual school districts should adopt a typical "merit pay" system that only considers students' standardized test scores, Corn said. The tests alone aren't a good measure because students enter a teacher's classroom at various levels.

"That's not a litmus test of a good teacher," she said.

Corn said she thinks a teacher's effectiveness should be judged on students' growth over the year, not their performance on a single test. She suggests a system that sets individual goals for each student, then determines whether they're being met.

Paying for performance, in some way, has been discussed at USD 457 and nationwide, Garden City board member Gail Dunford said. But she said it would be tough to quantify student learning if not with standardized tests.

Student learning can be measured in a lot of different ways, Ratzel said. She said a lab requiring her students to demonstrate their knowledge by completing tasks is a better measure of their learning than a multiple choice test. Comparable assessments could be created in other subject areas, too, she said.

The teachers' report states that other factors in teacher compensation should include their knowledge and skills and the leadership roles they assume.

For instance, Panzer said he thinks teachers should be compensated for earning National Board Certification, a process that involves meeting national standards through study, expert evaluation, self-assessment and peer review.

"Their criteria is very stringent on what they view as a quality teacher," he said. "They should be compensated more for it, and school districts should be highly encouraging it."

Some school districts offer extra pay for national certification -- $1,000 a year at USD 457 Garden City -- but Panzer said he thinks the compensation should be equal across the state, so teachers don't risk losing the extra pay just because they move to another district.

On the other hand, Barnett Berry, president and CEO of the Center for Teaching Quality, said individual school districts also could develop incentives for qualities it needs in its teachers, such as a district in western Kansas, where there is a high population of students who don't speak English, paying teachers extra if they train to work with English language learners.

"There's a lot of different ways to do this the right way," he said.

Another suggestion from the teachers' report was to pay higher salaries to those who teach in high-needs schools, subjects and assignments.

Ratzel said she supported the idea of varying pay based on market value because she sees people like her daughter, a math major, turning away from teaching since she can make a lot more money using her degree in another way.

"We have to figure out a way to overcome the hurdles when we're competing against people in those content areas," she said.

Dunford, who serves on the district's teacher contract negotiating team, said this morning that differentiating pay based on subject area could be beneficial.

"If that's what it's going to take for us to get those positions filled, I'm in favor of pursuing it, but we have to work with something that's palatable for both parties," she said.

The idea was brought up briefly, then dismissed, at the most recent round of negotiations, and Corn and Panzer both said they disagree with it. Corn said paying more to a math or science teacher because they're in high demand indicates to educators in other fields that "your class doesn't really matter as much."

At a previous meeting, some Garden City board members also expressed concern with paying more for hard-to-fill positions. If the board were to increase pay for certain positions, it would have to come out of the same pool of money that could be used to give all teachers a raise, board member Bruce Reichmuth said at the time.

Instead of differentiating pay by subject area, Corn said the state should make education a more appealing field by paying all teachers more. She said the initiative should come from the Kansas State Legislature, which can provide schools with more funding earmarked solely for teacher pay.

Several of those involved in the report said they don't expect change to come quickly, but Berry said that when it's teachers making the recommendations, policy makers might be more likely to listen than if advice is coming from labor economists and unions.

Corn said she hopes the report attracts teachers' attention, and they start pushing for change.

"Kansas has to start competing," she said, if the state wants to hold on to the teachers it has now and draw more to the profession.

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