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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, July 13, 2006

Make teaching pay off — big time

By Greg Toppo
USA Today

Worried that the United States could lose ground in global competitiveness, a group of academic and business leaders wants to increase the pay of public school teachers immediately by as much as 20 percent and up to 50 percent in the foreseeable future.

The proposal was announced yesterday by The College Board's Center for Innovative Thought, which proposes a national "Teachers Trust" paid for by federal, state and local governments as well as private enterprise.

The goal: to retain capable veteran teachers and entice more bright young people into the classroom.

It would finance the trust through matching public grants, similar to those that helped build the U.S. interstate highway system. A special assessment on corporate windfall profits would provide more money. Direct private contributions would tempt teachers into hard-to-staff schools and disciplines such as math and science.

"If we don't have great people going into teaching, we don't have world-competitive schools," said former West Virginia governor Gaston Caperton, who heads The College Board, the nonprofit that owns the SAT and the Advanced Placement program.

Several panels over the past few years have proposed innovative ways to pay teachers, but the idea of a national trust is unique, as is the push for private-sector contributions to supplement salaries.

With its promise of higher pay, the trust could persuade young people that there is "real economic opportunity as a teacher," said former U.S. senator Bob Kerrey, now president of The New School in New York.

"Local school districts on their own, where there are shortages, are going to have a very difficult time recruiting unless there's some source of funding to raise those salaries," he said.

Acknowledging that salary isn't the only factor in teacher turnover, the group also wants to improve working conditions and foster mentoring of younger teachers.

Among other recommendations:

  • In return for higher salaries, teachers would work 11-month contracts and accept more pay — or less — based on school and subject assignment, professional development and student performance.

  • Teachers would work through a three-tier career ladder — roughly delineated as "beginning teacher," "professional teacher" and "instructional leader." The last would require a master's degree or professional board certification and require mentoring younger teachers.

    That makes sense, said Marcy Vancil, an award-winning veteran elementary school teacher in Urbana, Ill. "It is absolutely critical that we spend a great deal more time mentoring new teachers," Vancil said. "I don't think we have powerful programs that really allow a teacher to work alongside a master teacher."

    The group also pleads for a "cease-fire in the holy war" between traditional and alternative teacher-preparation programs, allowing candidates to enter teaching from teachers colleges, alternative school district programs or nonprofit training through groups such as Teach For America.

    Though Vancil likes many of the proposals, she says other problems, such as class size and school leadership, are just as important. She also balks at a few proposals, such as extending the teacher contract year to 11 months.

    "I work an 80-hour week as it is," she said, "and I spend much of my summers bettering my skills, (on) new strategies, searching for new materials.

    "There doesn't ever seem to be enough time for that."

    Tom Blanford, associate director of the National Education Association's teacher-quality department, applauds the proposed trust. "We would love for people to be beating down the doors to become a teacher. ... We would like to have 10 applicants for every position," he said.

    But he warns that tapping unpredictable windfall profits could create "a graveyard of school reform initiatives" whose funding ends when profits evaporate.

    "To the degree that there is soft money involved, what can be given can be taken away," he said. "That's not good for kids, and it's not good for teachers."