TODAY• Chicago Tribune, Merit Pay For Teachers• Extra Lecture Write on Merit Pay

• ICES for LECTURE

• Multicultural Approaches to Diversity

• Tuesday, Review for Final Exam• EPS 202 Students may skip Tuesday—work

on your research papers

IDEOLOGY Shared Beliefs and ValuesViews about school reform

Progressives Conservatives

Does it matter? YES in PrioritiesIdentifying problemsKinds of solutions

• MERIT PAY SLIDES

• PLACED ON HOMEPAGE AFTER LECTURE TODAY

• TEACHER PAY RESOURCES:– E-RESERVES J. Keilman 2009 Chicago

Tribune– DARLING-HAMMOND on NCLB– FINNISH SCHOOL REFORM

Race to the TopFrom the BlueprintFull bill yet to pass

Secretary Arne Duncan

Plans to “soften sanctions”

• Provide rewards

• Raise bar—everyone ready for college

• Link merit pay for teachers to test scores

• Give teachers more autonomy

• Drastic measures for bottom 1% of schools

• Strong curriculum—teachers also need the school to have a strong curriculum that aligns with learning standards, and be supported by resources that match the standards.

Darling-Hammond recommends we focus on ways to keep more qualified teachers in the classroom. Looks to Federal Government for Leadership

• Qualified teachers—

– *Recruit more candidates in high-need fields (math, science, special education) and locations (low performing schools, provide incentives). Provide scholarships and forgive loans to students who commit time in high-needs fields and locations.

– Provide new teachers with mentors to reduce attrition (1/3 new teachers leave the profession in first five years)

Darling-Hammond recommends we focus on ways to keep more qualified teachers in the classroom. Looks to Federal Government for Leadership

• Qualified teachers—

– *Schools should provide strong professional development to teachers

– *Increase teachers’ salaries

– *Improve working conditions (more planning time, encourage more teacher collaboration)

*Highlighted in blueprint for “Race to the Top”

Duncan on qualified principals and teachers….

Great Teachers and Leaders in Every School • Effective teachers and principals. We will elevate the

teaching profession to focus on recognizing, encouraging, and rewarding excellence.

• We are calling on states and districts to develop and implement systems of teacher and principal evaluation and support, and to identify effective and highly effective teachers and principals on the basis of student growth and other factors.

• These systems will inform professional development and help teachers and principals improve student learning.

Race to the Top--Qualified TeachersHow do you read this statement about teachers? Your thoughts?

• Teachers are the single most important resource to a child’s learning. President Obama will ensure that teachers are supported as professionals in the classroom, while also holding them more accountable.

• He will invest in innovative strategies to help teachers to improve student outcomes, and use rewards and incentives to keep talented teachers in the schools that need them the most. President Obama will invest in a national effort to prepare and reward outstanding teachers, while recruiting the best and brightest to the field of teaching.

• And he will challenge State and school districts to remove ineffective teachers from the classroom.

Randi Weingarten, AFT President (1)

Responding to claim:

You can’t fire a bad teacher.

Unions protect bad teachers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQa1Qu2Uec0 (30 s ad, 2:20)

http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/American-Federation-of-Teachers-Response-Video

Duncan on qualified principals and teachers….

• In addition, a new program will support ambitious efforts to recruit, place, reward, retain, and promote effective teachers and principals and enhance the profession of teaching……

• “R2T” How will states implement?

• How will districts negotiate with unions?

• The Senate bill shortens that time, but modestly. It will still take too long to remove a teacher who can't cut it in the classroom. For starters, the House should shorten the "remediation" period — the time a consultant works with a failing teacher to improve his or her performance. That takes up to one year now. Principals should have the authority to decide after 30 school days whether a teacher will continue in remediation.

• • The Senate bill sets a higher bar for granting tenure to teachers. The House should create a tougher standard, and push for merit pay for teachers who prove their worth, who take on tougher assignments, who are proficient in high-demand subject areas. Optimally, the House would eliminate tenure for newly hired teachers, as Florida recently did.

• • The Senate bill allows the Chicago Board of Education to extend the school day and school year, a key demand from Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel. But the bill also says teachers can bargain for more pay in exchange for that extra time. The school board faces a $720 million budget gap. It needs full authority to extend time in the classroom without added expense. Chicago teachers' salaries compare favorably to other big city systems. In terms of classroom time, Chicago comes up woefully short.

• • The Senate bill requires a 75 percent vote of approval by teachers to authorize a strike in Chicago. That's a fairly high bar, but as new school leadership gets established and Chicago sorts through its financial crisis and contract talks, children need a guarantee that they will be in school. The House should set at least a five-year moratorium on Chicago school strikes.

• Performance Counts emerged from the Senate after months of bargaining

Race to the Top Includes having states and districts adopt plans to

change the reward structures for teachers.Pay for Performance of Teachers has many different options. Pay

increases:

1.Assess teachers’ instructional skills in the classroom.

2. Use test results

% of students to grade level, % students with value added improvements

3. Combination 4. Bonus Pay for observable (test results) gains by students

Race to the Top Includes changing reward structures for teachers.

Pay for Performance of Teachers has many different options:

4. Bonus Pay Some teachers receive bonus pay based on higher test results.

Recently Chicago Teachers’ Union agreed to a bonus system, see Chicago Tribune Article by KEILMAN, J. “School districts retooling how they evaluate teachers”

In recent study of this bonus pay system in Chicago showed no difference between bonus teachers and non-bonus teachers.

E-RESERVES School Districts Retooling How They Evaluate Teachers Chicago Tribune, Nov. 2009 John Keilman

Teachers are rarely fired for poor performance, rarely rewarded for excellence.

• Elgin School District is using observation of practice– Clarity of lesson– Classroom management

To provide feedback to improve teaching.

• PROCESS OF TEACHING, NOT SCORES

• http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/july-dec10/teachers_09-21.html

• Tennessee institutes bonus pay for teachers. See analysis at the link above.

EPS 201/202 Library Book Collection ProjectMichie will identify a school that doesn’t have a library. Donated books will be given to individual teachers at this school—If you

want to donate a book (new or used in good condition) —choose your favorite or a newer children’s book, or a Caldecott winner.

Give your donated book to me or your TA before the end of finals week. Thanks to those who donate!

Final Exam 5 questions (20 points each), 3 hours, Study Guide available upfront or on our homepage.

Final Exam 228 Natural History Building, 8 – 11 AM, Thursday, May 12

• Conflict Final, Friday, May 13, 1:30-4:30, be sure to notify your TA this week if you qualify for the Conflict Exam (Location for conflict: 242 Education).

• Today--Tuesday, May 3 LAST MAKE-UP LECTURE WRITE for those who need it, MAX POINTS = 10 Get pink sheet.

Bookstores will buy back TOZER, APA MANUALS,

AND MICHIE (NOT custom book by Spring)

School Districts Retooling How They Evaluate Teachers

Chicago Tribune, Nov. 2009 John Keilman

Evanston-Skokie School District—

– Highest increases in pay will depend on classroom teaching style and student test scores, compare test results in September and again in May.

TEST SCORES AND OTHER FACTORS

Evanston-Skokie School District—teaching style plus test scores

Teachers earn excellent if:

• Move one low scoring child to grade level• And most of the class shows one full year of growth

no matter where they start.

• Allows some scores to be excluded if child has extended absences due to illness

Scores of tests are combined with traditional evaluation to produce a final appraisal of excellent, satisfactory, or unsatisfactory. Teachers must earn one excellent over several years to earn the highest pay boost.

• In Chicago 30 schools are trying incentives for higher test scores

– Bonus pay

Unions are beginning to agree with merti pay plans IF scores are a small piece of the evaluation of teachers.

Pay for performance

Many educational professionals see this

trend as “unstoppable.”

Work with teachers

• R2TT raising concerns that too many good teachers are driven out of the profession because they aren’t rewarded for the great strides their students make.

• DUNCAN: Let me be clear. Teacher compensation should never be based on just one test score. That absolutely makes no sense whatsoever.

Work with teachers

• Duncan has been careful to emphasize that performance pay systems are complex, and need to be developed in cooperation with teachers, not imposed on them.

Research shows that “involving key stakeholders in any pay-for-performance effort is vital to future success,” says Susan Freeman Burns, program manager at the National Center on Performance Incentives in Nashville, Tenn.

Would you work harder for a $15,000 bonus if you raised your students’ test scores?

In the future, there is a chance that raises and job security could be based largely on some form of test scores.

All salary increases

Job termination

• Unions are not perfect

• Management is not perfect

• Unions give teachers some voice in their profession.

Extra Lecture Write1. What is collective bargaining?

2. Comment on the Tennessee bonus pay research. What did you learn?

Question 3 coming up.http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/july-dec10/teachers_09-21.html

• http://learningmatters.tv/blog/on-the-newshour/race-to-the-top-teaching-for-dollars-pt-4/5123/ (6)

• http://learningmatters.tv/blog/on-the-newshour/race-to-the-top-teacher-unions-friend-or-foe-pt-3/4329/

One approach by Illinoishttp://www.ieanea.org/featured/teachers-support-education-reform-package-that-puts-kids-first/

• The education reform package known as SB 7 was passed by the state Senate on April 14, 2011 and sent to the Illinois House for consideration. Still has to pass the House.

• SB 7 was developed during months of discussions involving a wide variety of education stakeholders including IEA, the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Chicago Teachers Union, along with school administrators, the state board of education, lawmakers and others, including the education reform groups Stand for Children and Advance Illinois.

• “A sprawling education-reform package that could lengthen the school year in Chicago, give school districts new powers to oust poorly performing teachers and impose new obstacles on teachers strikes passed the Senate Thursday without dissent.”

Merit pay for teachers

Bonus pay can be based on:– Higher performance on tests scores of

teacher’s students (show growth during the school year),

– Assessing classroom teaching– Adding in the overall performance of the entire

school– Involvement in professional development

• What do teachers fear? Shift from bonus incentives to firing teachers that the score lowest.

Texas merit pay program did not improve achievement

• A recent attempt at merit pay failed in Texas. In 2006, the Texas Educator Excellence Grant was established with the hope that it would produce academic improvement. However, by Nov. 2009, the $300 million spent on merit pay for teachers in 1,000 schools serving low-income students had not achieved its goal, and was quietly retired.

• Supporters of TEEG maintained that bonuses were too small and were awarded to groups of teachers at a particular school, rather than to individual teachers. This strategy vitiated competition between teachers that was deemed by supporters to be indispensable to improved performance.

• http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/walt_gardners_reality_check/2010/04/skepticism_about_dc_merit_pay_agreement.html

• Teachers mistrust the idea of merit pay—especially when it might be based on just one item---achievement test scores.

• http://learningmatters.tv/blog/on-the-newshour/race-to-the-top-teacher-unions-friend-or-foe-pt-3/4329/

• Who will decide what defines high quality teaching and merit pay structures?

R2TT will challenge States and school districts to remove ineffective teachers from the classroom.

When a teacher struggles in the classroom, what should be done?

• http://learningmatters.tv/blog/on-the-newshour/race-to-the-top-teacher-unions-friend-or-foe-pt-3/4329/

• Merit pay for teachers (6)