Michael Braun's Blog

I’ve been thinking lately about the current debate in education: how should teachers be rewarded? The New York Times recently featured this topic on their “Room for Debate” blog. I think it’s an important issue as it pushes teachers to perform, even on speculation that there might be some sort of results-based pay initiative. Obama is on record supporting it, and it’s been a political talking point for years. “Fix education by paying good teachers more.”

The problem, of course, is trying to figure out how to measure which teachers are doing the best. Test scores are the most frequently mentioned possibility, but this encourages teachers to teach to the test. It can also restrict creativity in the classroom, as lessons on original thought, debate, reason, and independent learning must be shelved in favor of rote learning. Teacher performance could also be measured via periodic reviews, but what reviewing body is impartial enough to be trusted? Principals may play favorites, just as happens with any manager. Other groups may be too busy, or not trained enough, to do an accurate job. Further, just what makes a good teacher? Popular teachers may be poor at instruction, and strict, unpopular teachers may have fine methods but poor delivery.

The issue is further complicated by the quality of students in the school district. Learning happens at school and at home. For a student coming into the classroom with little school-applicable home learning, it may take an excellent teacher to simply bring that student up to average. More likely, the student will have an average teacher who struggles to find any way to help the student learn. When the student is out of school for the summer, those classroom gains may erode, leaving the student as far or farther behind when school begins again.

Any plan that aims to compensate teachers based on the performance of their students must take these issues into account. It must consider the problems of teaching to a test. It must reward based on creativity of teaching, as well as performance. And it must take into account the students’ baseline knowledge and ability. Such a plan might look like this.

1. Teachers must be paid to work for one month of the summer. During this time, teachers from the same grades must get together to develop their years’ curriculum and goals. They must also develop, with assistance, a basic outline of a test that will measure students’ progress at the end of the year and measure incoming students’ knowledge at the beginning of the school year for the next higher grade (e.g., fifth grade teachers make an end-of-year test for fifth graders and an incoming test for sixth graders). This test outline is then reviewed by an independent panel who assesses whether it fits curricula standards for all subjects. This body then produces the actual test, which should contain many similar elements across schools in the district and statewide, if the state has set curriculum.

2. Teachers are allowed to review the test before the school year starts, to help incorporate any missing material into their lesson plans. They also submit a brief explanation of where each test element is taught in their lesson plans. This helps with later accountability.

3. At the beginning of the year, students take the incoming test. This helps establish a baseline performance level for all students. These results are not shared with teachers, as the test measures learning from last year. This information is used to calculate how much students’ retained over the summer. This retention rate is one factor used when considering teacher pay.

4. At the end of the year, students take the outgoing test. This information is used to measure overall learning from baseline to end-of-year. It is also used to determine which students should be held back. If a student is behind his classmates at the end of the year, then his promotion should be questioned. If that student made substantial progress compared to baseline, he might move on; if he made little progress, then he might be held back.

5. Over the summer, administrators take multiple factors into account when considering teacher pay/bonuses. Teachers who had high retention rates, had the largest improvements over the course of the year, beat averages for learning increases for their grade level, and received high marks for creativity in the classroom, should be considered to receive bonuses. Teachers who had little progress in learning and who received poor evaluations should be considered for dismissal.

There are many problems with this plan, especially cost. But if the subject is teacher bonuses/pay increases, then cost is already anticipated. If we are committed to rewarding teachers for their performance, then we should also be committed to the costs of doing this program correctly. Without that, we can guarantee some teachers will make more money, but we can’t guarantee it will help students at all. Especially for at-risk kids, this is a gamble we can’t afford. Do it right and rewards are a good thing; do it wrong and everyone suffers.

Pardon my long absence from this blog! Lauren and I have had a wild, whirlwind wedding weekend, as our friends Steph and Amos got married – to each other! But there’s more than that, so keep reading.

On Friday, I once again subbed at Camp Shalom. I got home around 4:30, showered, and packed. Lauren and I loaded up the car and hit the road by 5:30. Destination: La Crosse, equidistant from the Twin Cities, Wausau, and Madison, three places Amos and Steph would have guests arriving from. Quite fortunately, also where my mom lives. We arrived by 8:15, had dinner with my mom and Mark, and then hit the hay.

Saturday, the big day, started with breakfast, finishing up a gift, and some shopping. Lauren wanted to see if she could find a dress or better skirt. Luck was with her, as she found two beautiful dresses at Kohl’s. We showered, had lunch, and hit the road to drive to a small church outside Blair, WI. The church was founded, in part, by Amos’ great great grandparents. It was a hot day, but the church wasn’t too oppressive. The ceremony was very nice. We milled around afterward, talking to the few people we knew. After that, it was back to La Crosse to board the La Crosse Queen, a paddle boat that cruises on the Mississippi, for the reception. There were two cruises, the second docking around 11. Though the party continued after that, at a local, ground-based establishment, Lauren and I returned back to my mom’s, thoroughly satisfied with our party experience.

Sunday, we packed up and left relatively early. After we got home, I did some laundry, cleaned up some, and got ready for the week. Today (Monday), I have my last interview with a fifth grader about middle school. That means the project is finally complete! I’ve done 30-35 interviews, about a third of those that will be used in the data. It was an exciting project to be a part of. Now, we’ll see how the data comes out!

Anyway, congratulations again to Steph and Amos! It was a great weekend and so much fun celebrating with you two.