Testimony On Teacher Compensation Options
Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs and House Ways and Means Committee
January 23, 2007
1:30 P.M.
Clara Floyd, President
Maryland State Teachers Association
Good afternoon and thank you for granting us an opportunity to be part of this important discussion on teacher compensation. MSTA welcomes discussion on ways in which we can recruit and retain highly qualified teachers to teach in Maryland 's public schools.
Members of the teaching profession, like other professionals, have to obtain and retain certification by state agencies, professional bodies at the state and national level, and, prior to the certification phase, must meet high and rigid standards to even be considered for professional licensure and certification. Teachers have to be college graduates, successful participants in a practicum in their respective disciplines, and be successful in a probationary program and undergo extensive evaluation challenges for a state prescribed period before being awarded the mandatory teaching credential. Moreover, according to national research, more than half of teachers (57%) in the nation hold Masters Degrees, and all have completed extensive coursework in learning theory and specified subject matter areas in order to teach.
As a certified English and Reading teacher, I can tell you that teaching is a demanding job that requires high levels of creativity, adaptability, thoughtful planning and resourcefulness—much of which I learned from many years of classroom experience. While there are many experts who excel in their fields, it takes skilled, qualified teachers to translate knowledge into effective teaching strategies useful in a classroom setting.
Unfortunately, according to the most recent information from the National Education Association's research department, teachers effectively took a pay cut in 2004-05 as inflation, at 3.1 percent, outpaced the average teacher salary increase of 2.1 percent. Additionally, according to a recent study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the teaching profession has an average national starting salary of $30,377. Meanwhile, computer programmers start at an average of $43,635, public accounting professionals at $44,668, and registered nurses at $45,570. Also, a recent report from the NEA research department ( Teacher Pay 1940 – 2000: Losing Ground, Losing ), which is based on US census data, finds that annual pay for teachers has fallen sharply over the past 60 years in relation to the annual pay of other workers with college degrees. The report states that, “Throughout the nation, the average earnings of workers with at least four years of college are now over 50 percent higher than the average earnings of a teacher.”
MSTA is pleased to see the important issue of teacher compensation before your committees today. We look forward to working with you as you examine the issue of whether teacher pay is sufficient to recruit and retain high quality teachers. MSTA is especially interested in innovative solutions to recruit and retain high quality teachers in low performing schools. MSTA has a longstanding position of opposing “merit pay” schemes because we believe they are based on false or misleading principles. In theory, the premise of the pay-for-performance, or merit pay, concept is that, by offering financial incentives to teachers based on student performance, one can increase the effort made in the classroom by teachers and improve student achievement. MSTA believes this argument to simplistic, because research shows that student achievement is based on a variety of factors, not merely what happens in the classroom.
At this point, I would like to introduce Ms. Dale Templeton, MSTA's Assistant Executive Director for Affiliates and Advocacy, to discuss our position further.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to working with you.
Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs and House Ways and Means Committee
January 23, 2007
1:30 P.M.
Dale Templeton , MSTA Assistant Executive Director, Affiliates and Advocacy
Maryland State Teachers Association
Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to be part of this important discussion on teacher compensation. The discussion we are having today is focused on the goal of providing a quality public school education for every child in Maryland. More specifically, we are looking at how we find, compensate and keep high quality teachers and support staff to educate our children—especially those who attend what are often categorized as “low performing” schools.
Perhaps it goes without saying that there is no one idea, program or policy that gets us to our goal. Nor is there one factor to which this problem can be attributed. However, there is no shortage of such brainstorms that are highly touted and promoted as the next great thing.
So, when we hear some education leaders and vendors promoting alternative pay programs, such as pay-for-performance, merit pay, career ladders, etc., as the solution to teacher recruitment and retention, and improved student performance, we have some serious concerns that we will raise. But we also want to discuss with you some constructive proposals for re-thinking compensation policies.
MSTA continues to initiate and support public education strategies to make sure Maryland continues to have a world class educational system. For example, we have long supported strong certification requirements for all certified personnel working in Maryland public schools. In 2003, MSTA initiated and supported legislation to form a study committee on teacher workload—that legislation was vetoed.
Currently, MSTA, Bowie State University and Prince George 's Public Schools continue to partner to provide PRAXIS Test preparation classes. MSTA Retired members are serving as mentors to student teachers at Bowie State , and will continue supporting them through their first year of teaching. MSTA's Building Educational Success Together (BEST) is a process to assist administrators, teachers, support personnel, parents, students and community leaders in creating and implementing a unique vision of success for individual schools. MSTA is currently working with school communities in Cecil County and Kent County. Last year we worked with a middle school community in Baltimore City.
This year, MSTA is supporting two pieces of legislation to reduce class size. There is a tremendous body of research that clearly links small class size to student achievement, workload, teacher quality issues and professional development.
Our local affiliates are also on the forefront of these issues, working with local school administrations to implement programs to attract and retain the best education staff and improve student achievement.
Prince George 's County Educators Association (PGCEA) initiated, developed and implemented a New Teacher Academy with a grant from Jones of New York to create a pilot mentoring program. The academy is designed to provide teachers with the support and professional development they need during their first year of teaching. Twenty-one new teachers from various schools and grade levels worked with twenty-one teacher mentors to successfully complete the program.
Prince George 's County Superintendent Dr. Deasy has already reached out to PGCEA to discuss strategies for improving student performance in Prince George 's County. Several years ago, Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA) and the school board negotiated a Peer Assistance and Review Panel (PAR), which continues to work well in Montgomery County. The PAR program promotes collegiality among educators and administrators and helps teachers evaluate and implement strategies to improve the delivery of classroom instruction. MCEA continues to be an equal player in all discussions regarding school and staff restructuring, teacher workload and professional development initiatives.
The foundation of our ideas today, as we discuss teacher compensation, is formed from two fundamental positions. The first is that the single salary schedule is the fairest, best understood and most widely used approach to teacher compensation. It rewards the things that make a difference in teacher quality: knowledge and experience.
Second, the best and most effective venue for crafting education employee compensation plans is the local bargaining table. Those at the bargaining table are typically the most knowledgeable about, and responsive to, the concerns of the educators and support professionals who teach the community's children.
With that as the context, I would like to talk briefly about some of the key reasons why many alternative compensation plans typically fail to work.
First and foremost, there is no strong body of evidence that pay-for-performance plans help to attract and retain high quality teachers. What's more, there is precious little empirical data to show that such plans improve teacher performance and student achievement. In fact, they tend to have a negative impact on educator morale. They force teachers to compete rather than cooperate, especially when they are judged against their colleagues instead of an objective standard. And the more limited the pot of pay-for-performance money, the greater likelihood you will have of declining morale. That's hardly a recipe for improved student achievement.
But let's consider several other consequences of these programs. They can be quite costly, and quite difficult and expensive to administer. Even the best approaches require long-term financial commitments to be effective.
Finally, and perhaps most disturbing, these plans often completely overlook the fact that an educator has no control over the learning resources and environments that are available to the student outside of the classroom. Therefore, a compensation program that equates standardized test scores with student and teacher achievement does a grave disservice to both.
Considering all of that, what factors will make a compensation initiative work well for students and education employees?
The first step is to take a step back and provide entry-level salaries and career earnings comparable to those of other professions and occupations with similar education, training and responsibilities. The initiative should be structured to provide compensation levels that encourage classroom teachers to remain in the classroom and support personnel in the educational setting. It should ensure that initial placement and advancement on the salary schedule are nondiscriminatory and that it neither directly nor indirectly limits the number of education employees eligible for any additional compensation.
Here we come to a fundamental and essential point: the criteria for determining additional compensation must be clearly stated; there must be sufficient resources in the budget to compensate all those who meet the criteria; and the school system should make clear how the criteria relate to the district's educational goals.
Beyond that, an effective compensation initiative should be based on objective factors, such as preparation, academic degrees, experience, professional growth, responsibilities and skills. Broadening the knowledge and skills of educators is essential to meeting today's higher standards and the demands of the 21st century learning environment.
All education employees should be afforded a fair opportunity to meet the standards and receive the additional compensation. Conversely, the plan must not diminish the professional status of those education employees who do not receive the additional compensation or in any way suggest that such education employees are not qualified for the positions they hold. In fact, we maintain that participation in any alternative compensation program should be voluntary.
Tuition reimbursement and financial support for professional development opportunities should be a key component of any compensation strategy. Pre-service, internship, and professional development, mentoring and other early-career assistance can be structured to help teachers during the crucial first five years, and will be helpful in reducing attrition and improve recruitment.
Finally, the success of any compensation proposal will depend on whether long-term full funding is available to sustain the program. The allocation of funds to provide the additional compensation must not limit increases in the basic compensation for all education employees. It is extremely important that great care is taken when designing and implementing a compensation system so that one district is not attracting teachers from another district and exacerbating the problem.
Compensation, in and of itself, is not the answer to the recruitment and retention problem, not in Maryland , not anywhere in the country. There are other factors that play a significant role. These factors include workload issues, especially the administrative burden on new teachers in chronically low-performing schools. Professional development is another critical factor in ensuring that teachers in hard-to-staff schools have adequate resources and tools at their disposal to address the needs of the students they are charged with. But because a disproportional number of new and inexperienced teachers are ending up in schools where the needs of the students are disproportionately higher, they need adequate supports, like strong mentors to help with classroom management in overcrowded classrooms, and also to help them navigate the administrative nightmare of paperwork that undermines their enthusiasm and best efforts in the classroom.
I would like to wrap up by re-stating our words of caution about getting caught up in the hype around alternative compensation incentives like pay-for-performance proposals. There is no boilerplate language that everyone is looking at and, far from being some kind of panacea, it can be a minefield that worsens the situation for students and educators. At a minimum, it distracts us from approaches that are more likely to have a positive impact in every classroom—smaller class sizes and more thorough induction and mentoring programs and expanded professional development opportunities.
On behalf of the 67,000 members of MSTA, I have tried to give you, in these few minutes, a fuller picture of pay-for-performance compensation proposal—their serious weaknesses, as well as a number of ideas for making them work more fairly and effectively.
