School Board News

Should teachers be paid for performance? That’s the question pondered in editorials in today’s edition of USA Today. BoardBuzz has covered this subject before here.

USA Today is for merit pay, telling the story of Meadowcliff Elementary in Little Rock, which began offering bonuses three years ago. The bonuses were meted out to staff when student test scores increased.

Increasingly, cafeteria workers sat with students to chat about school work. Even more startling, the janitor began taking his breaks in the cafeteria reading a book, just to serve as a role model.

And when test scores arrived at the end of the year showing improvement, Carter heard whoops of joy from teachers whose bonuses would help pay off their college bills. The better each of their students did, the bigger their bonuses. The janitor and other support staff were rewarded for the school’s overall gains.

Such is the power of “merit pay,” a concept long opposed by teachers and their unions.

And a member of the opposition is Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association, who expresses his dissenting view alongside USA Today’s opinion. Weaver rejects merit pay as it applies to the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (read BoardBuzz‘s piece on the subject from earlier this week here).

The No Child Left Behind Act expires this year, and the National Education Association has proposed positive changes in the law. These include expanding early childhood education, smaller classes and extra help for children who need it. But these priorities have been overshadowed by a proposed federal mandate that would base teacher pay on student test scores.

Districts in dozens of states are experimenting with plans that compensate teachers partly based on test results. Local teachers unions have helped create such programs in Denver, Minneapolis, and Columbus, Ohio.

Weaver points out that local groups, with teacher buy-in can create programs that work to the advantage of schools, students, teachers, and their communities. He also argues that the public “pay teachers for the knowledge and skills they gain, provide incentives to teach in hard-to-staff schools, and offer salaries competitive with other professions that require a college degree.” Paying teachers as professionals? A noble concept.

His argument is strong.

Federal mandates that tie compensation to test scores can’t substitute for a working environment high on trust and meaningful work. And it can’t replace a perverse pay scale where teacher wages have fallen 12% since 1993 compared with workers with similar education and skills.

We should invest precious federal dollars in giving all teachers competitive salaries, quality professional development and better working conditions. Too often, it is simpler to tinker with bonuses than to exercise the political will necessary to reform teacher quality at its core.

But USA Today counters it well.

At Meadowcliff, a poor urban school, tests scores rose about seven percentage points compared with similar schools lacking merit pay, says University of Arkansas professor Gary Ritter. Though it’s too soon to tell whether the gains can be sustained over time, it’s not too soon to declare that merit pay has earned a chance to succeed.

This discussion is sure to simmer as the NCLB reauthorization process continues. What’s your take on teacher merit pay? Leave a comment here and tell us about it.

Those of us a certain age can remember watching the movie To Kill a Mockingbird in school after finishing the book. For many of us, and certainly for students now, films are used to supplement all different kinds of lessons. But the film choice, and the lesson it supplements, can present a slippery slope for educators. This article from Edutopia magazine (published by the George Lucas Foundation) notes that using film as a teaching tool “may be a lot trickier than it seems. It can also get downright explosive.”

The article cites recent incidents where schools and school districts had to limit what was shown in classrooms.

Earlier this year, for instance, in a suburban Seattle high school, the film An Inconvenient Truth got even more inconvenient when parents complained that the school didn’t present a balanced perspective about the film’s warning of global warming. School district policy states that films presented must be accompanied by a “credible, legitimate opposing view.”

The Federal Way Public School District, in Federal Way, Wash., imposed a temporary moratorium on the film; after two weeks of criticism in the local and national scenes, the school board still insisted that opposing views be considered.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Board of Education was sued in May after a substitute teacher showed the R-rated (and Oscar-winning) film Brokeback Mountain to an eighth-grade class. The lawsuit claims student Jessica Turner suffered psychological distress after viewing the movie at Ashburn Community Elementary School. The film, according to the lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court, was shown without permission from parents and guardians.

But film can be a valuable teaching tool. So where do school districts draw the line? Filmmakers have their own ideas.

These concerns have some prominent filmmakers worried. “The one thing that each and every one of us uses every day is our creativity,” says John Lasseter, an Academy Award-winning American animator and director of such films as Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and Cars. “Teaching film is not the issue; we’re teaching creativity. We want to show kids how to imagine and create. We can use filmmaking to do that. We need to help kids nurture their creative side.”

It’s a particularly important issue to Lasseter, whose mother spent thirty-eight years as an art teacher at Bell Gardens Senior High School, in Los Angeles. “As a child, I saw the French film The Red Balloon in class. I still think about that afternoon to this day.”

Francis Ford Coppola, another Oscar-winning director, whose work includes The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, has an idea: “Maybe we should trade the secretary of education position for a secretary of youth,” he says. “We should be thinking not just about educating students, but about inspiring them.”

What’s the policy in your school district? Leave a comment and tell us about it.

More than 21 years after teacher Christa McAuliffe was to have made history being the first teacher to visit space aboard the ill-fated Challenger Shuttle, another teacher is set to make history by blasting off. Barbara Moran, the runner up to the 1986 Teacher in Space contest will be launched into space tonight.

It’s been a long 22 years in the making for Morgan. The Chicago Tribune tracks her long journey in this article.

Morgan has been looking forward since 1985, the year she was runner-up to McAuliffe in NASA’s Teacher in Space program. She trained with McAuliffe and would have been on Challenger had her friend been unable to fly.

Instead, Morgan was on the ground when Challenger broke apart. As she consoled those around her, she had no clue that her NASA profile was about to change.

Morgan would become one of NASA’s chief ambassadors–the teacher and dreamer who supported the agency even as its fatal missteps became a matter of public record.

She ultimately joined the astronaut corps, becoming a mission specialist and enduring another shuttle tragedy in 2003. Whenever she was asked about her commitment to the program, Morgan talked about her students.

“Kids were watching to see what the adults do in a terrible, terrible situation,” she said in a NASA preflight interview. It was “important for kids to see … that we figure out what’s wrong, we fix it, and we move on and we keep the future open for our young people.”

Although she’s no longer merely an elementary school teacher, but also a trained astronaut, Morgan remains committed to McAuliffe’s original goal: to be the first teacher in space.

[Her husband] said he thinks she’s “carrying on” for her friend McAuliffe and other lost crew members. She feels connected to astronauts she has known and shares their values. She wants to honor teachers, especially those who make sacrifices every day.

“Some teachers — and their students — face physical risks just showing up at school in some of the more dangerous neighborhoods in our country,” he said. “In comparison, astronauts live very safe lives, except when they fly in space shuttles, once every few years.”

Hats off, Barbara Morgan, as you blast off into space.

We’ve all heard the stories about classrooms becoming zoos. For one school in Texas, the classroom did, in fact become a zoo, but not in the way you might think. According to an article in USA Today, in this innovative approach to teaching science, fourth-graders were taken on a virtual field trip of the Lee Richardson Zoo in Garden City, Kan.

The students in the class were able to see, via video conferencing, “such zoo denizens as an owl, a snake and a bearded dragon lizard.” And Lee Richardson Zoo isn’t the only zoo offering this unique service to schools. In fact, “more than 15 of the 216 members of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) have video-conferencing programs to reach schools that don’t have the time or money for field trips. Together, they connected with more than 85,000 students last year.”

This approach “puts students in touch with experts they wouldn’t normally be able to be in touch with.” While visiting a virtual zoo is not the same as being there, “Zoo educators and teachers agree that distance learning is a new resource that should complement rather than replace traditional trips.”

You can learn about other creative ways technology is touching classrooms at NSBA’s T+L Conference in Nashville. The conference, which will be held October 17-19, offers a sessions from experts in education technology, innovators from school districts across the country, and the brightest creative minds from various fields.

The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) has released a study on teacher turnover and created an interactive cost calculator to determine just how much it costs when teachers leave.

From the Web site:

In 2007, the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) completed an 18-month study of the costs of teacher turnover in five school districts – Chicago Public Schools (Chicago, Illinois), Milwaukee Public Schools (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), Granville County Schools (Granville, North Carolina), Jemez Valley Public Schools (New Mexico), and Santa Rosa Public Schools (New Mexico).

The selected school districts varied in size, location, and demographics enabling us to explore how these variations affected costs. We examined the costs of recruiting, hiring, processing, and training teachers at both the school and district levels. Our findings indicate that the cost of turnover does vary from district to district, largely dependant upon the size of the district and the types of induction programs the district implements — but in all cases, the cost of teacher turnover is substantial.

The study and calculator offer some interesting information, especially considering that the estimated cost of teacher turnover nationally is more than $7 billion a year.

BoardBuzz always likes an article that can combine urology and education, as this story in USA Today does. We’ve covered the subject of bathroom breaks before here.

Seems bathroom policies are making quite a splash (pun intended, natch) in classrooms across the country. Striking a delicate balance is a teacher’s need to maintain control and minimize disruptions and a student’s need to answer nature’s call.

“Students make requests frequently to use the restroom when they really have intentions to do other things,” says Peter Reed, associate director of professional development services at the National Association of Secondary School Principals. “The real key is for every student to expect, when he or she is in (a teacher’s) class, that the full amount of time needs to be devoted to the learning activities for that day. You don’t have time for anything else.”

But some urologists worry about the consequences of waiting too long between trips to the bathroom. Christopher Cooper, director of pediatric urology at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital in Iowa City, says he has seen many elementary-age “normal children who have developed bad habits.” They arrive at his office with urinary tract infections, incontinence and damaged kidneys, often as a result of infrequent trips to the bathroom.

Staying out of the fray are school board members. NSBA‘s own General Counsel, Francisco Negrón says, “You likely would not find a policy anywhere in this country that deals with bathroom breaks. School boards as a rule just don’t involve themselves in that level of classroom-management detail.”

What do you think about this dilemma?

The San Francisco Chronicle carried a story on Monday which stated that a federal appeals court said that “essentially” public school teachers do not have free-speech rights.

BoardBuzz understands all about having a good hook. You know, attracting the reader with powerful and sassy lines that grip? BoardBuzz uses them all the time. So, while we can’t disparage using a hook, we can disagree with the substance of the bait.

First, let’s be clear. The court did not rule that teachers have no free-speech rights. As the article goes on to point out, the court said, “”The Constitution does not entitle teachers to present personal views to captive audiences [did anyone mention these were elementary school youngsters?] against the instruction of elected officials.”"

And, second, the court’s opinion reflects that reality of public schools, because, as NSBA General Counsel Francisco Negrón states, teachers are “not at liberty to design a curriculum.” That is the job of the school board, né “elected officials.” Some school boards may want to give greater latitude to their teachers to express personal beliefs. But, because teachers hold positions of authority with the ability to influence and sway young minds, considerations of appropriateness to grade level and age are also relevant.

And, as Negrón points out in an era of high-stakes testing and federal naggi…, er, accountability, making sure teachers stick with the program is more important than ever. For more on NSBA’s position checkout NSBA’s brief here.

But, even this oh-so-sound logic escapes the Chronicle, which appears convinced by the voices of legal analysts claiming the ruling is “a stark reminder that the law provides little protection for schoolteachers who express their beliefs.” It seems to BoardBuzz that the best way for teachers to engage their school administrations, school boards and, indeed, their communities in curricular matters of interest is openly and frankly. They can speak publicly at school board meetings, voicing their professional and personal concerns on academic choices. They can petition their elected officials. They can rally. Now that’s free speech in action. But, preaching to captive students about one’s personal views? That ain’t free speech. It’s cheating students of their right to an education free of personal drama.

Wrapping up our week of celebrating teachers, BoardBuzz takes a different twist on teacher heroes that we think is worthy of discussion. Our friends over at Teacher Magazine have scratched the surface of some teacher discontent over the exposure of teachers who save the world a la Erin Gruwell, portrayed in Freedom Writers, and Ron Clark, portrayed in the Ron Clark Story.

This apparently began when Tom Moore, who teaches history in a Bronx high school, published a recent op-ed in the New York Times in which he said, “The great misconception of these films is not that actual schools are more chaotic and decrepit. … No, the most dangerous message such films promote is that what schools really need are heroes. This is the Myth of the Great Teacher.” Extended excerpt here.

In his piece, Moore “finds it difficult to recognize himself or his students in recent films about teaching post-desegregation urban poor; describes decrepit conditions, poor security and student misbehavior that is far worse than anything on screen; objects to teachers being blamed for what system does not provide; and says no maverick teacher in real life can create safe, adequately staffed school with highest expectations for all students.”

His opinion got teachers to talking and Teacher Magazine, in partnership with the Teacher Leaders Network, has published some of these comments here.

Asked one Michigan teacher: “How do we find a way to portray what life in a real classroom does look like? How do we find a way to be everything to our students without sacrificing our own lives?” A teacher from Atlanta noted: “I am frustrated with the mythology of the ‘great teacher’ who sacrifices his or her entire life for the kids. I tell new teachers all the time: Your job is not your life. Your job is your job… Healthy, well-adjusted teachers fit teaching into their lives, not life into their teaching.”

Interesting, no? Talk amongst yourselves and let us know what you’re thinking.

NSBA‘s Past President Jane Gallucci shared a story of an amazing teacher during her remarks at NSBA’s Annual Conference in San Francisco last month. This story comes from U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), whom she heard speak at a New York State School Boards Association breakfast at NSBA’s Federal Relations Network Conference in Washington, D.C.

In her youth, Rep. McCarthy had always wanted to be a nurse because she’d had a boyfriend who was seriously ill, and she knew she wanted to make a difference. But Carolyn found that she couldn’t pass the math course she needed to get into nursing school. She took the class over and over every year up to her senior year in high school, but she still couldn’t pass it. During her senior year, she got Mr. Reinhart as her teacher. Mr. Reinhart got to know Carolyn and knew how much she wanted to be a nurse. He worked with her and encouraged her. He even affectionately nicknamed her Cookie.

She worked hard and took the final, but when she finished, she knew she had not passed. Then, Mr. Reinhart stepped in. He called her up to his desk and told Carolyn that he knew she knew the math, even though her test didn’t reflect it. Carolyn was one of those students that we all have in our districts who was just terrible at taking tests. Mr. Reinhart saw something special in Carolyn and passed her anyway.

Carolyn went on to go to nursing school and achieved her dream of becoming an RN. One night, while on duty as a charge nurse, she received a patient on her floor who had had a heart attack and was brought into the hospital dead on arrival. The doctors had revived him, but he didn’t have much hope of survival. However, the man did hang on until the morning, only to have another cardiac arrest. Throughout the night, Carolyn used all her nursing skills to try to save her patient.

When the patient woke in the morning, he later told Carolyn that he saw an angel come to him and save him. He looked up into her face and said, “Cookie, you are my angel.” Carolyn looked back at him and said, “Yes, Mr. Reinhart, I saved your life. And now I think we’re even.”

One teacher can make a difference–imagine the difference all of them can make. Tell us the story of your one teacher by leaving a comment.