5 more Columbus schools will begin bonus program

The Columbus Dispatch

11/6/2006

Jennifer Smith Richards

Car salesmen earn a commission for each car they sell. Business executives earn bonuses based on company profits. Factory workers are sometimes paid according to how many widgets they assemble.

“It works in every other endeavor, why not this?” asked U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings while in Columbus recently.

Although teachers unions traditionally have opposed merit pay as counterproductive, the federal government has faith that financial incentives for teachers will lead to better results for students.

So two weeks ago at Columbus’ Southmoor Middle School, Spellings awarded a five-year, $20 million grant to the Ohio Department of Education to expand merit pay in Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Toledo public schools. Columbus will receive the most money, $12.5 million.

The Teacher Incentive Fund, a federal grant program, eventually will hand out about $85 million to states and districts.

“Teachers do want and deserve compensation for doing well,” said Jean Chamberlain, a teacher who helps lead a merit pay program at Columbus’ Easthaven Elementary.

At Easthaven and Parkmoor elementary schools, Champion Middle School and South Urban Academy, Columbus teachers can earn a bonus of as much as $2,000 per year for improvement.

The bonuses are based on three things: the skill of the teacher, as observed and evaluated in the classroom, student improvement on tests and the school’s improvement. Traditionally, teachers’ pay is based on their education level and years of teaching. Three of the four Columbus Public Schools trying the merit-pay plan, called the Teacher Advancement Program, improved test scores on last year’s exams, the district said. The federal grant will fund the program in five additional middle schools next school year.

Merit pay has long been controversial.

Proponents say it’s a powerful type of school reform that can reduce teacher absenteeism and turnover and can help weed out the weakest educators.

But critics say merit pay can make schools divisive places and often kills morale.

The National Education Association, the national arm of many local teachers unions, including the Columbus Education Association, spoke out against the new federal grants.

“These grants will promote unhealthy competition in a profession that thrives on teamwork and collaboration,” President Reg Weaver said in a statement. “Real learning is the casualty when teachers shift their focus from quality instruction to boosting test scores.”

State education Superintendent Susan T. Zelman supports Ohio’s pay-for-performance efforts because they’re “a multiple measures approach” - they’re about more than financial rewards.

Each of the pilot districts’ plans include a large-scale professional-development component and chances for teachers to move up to better-paying teaching jobs.

In Columbus, teachers who participate must give themselves over to “master teachers” who lead weekly sessions in which they demonstrate exemplary lessons. Then, the master teachers observe in classrooms and offer feedback.

So far, the Columbus merit pay program has been limited to schools that have been overhauled because of years of poor academic performance.

“The best part (of the TAP program) is the professional development,” said Heather Patterson, who teaches sixth grade reading and language arts at Champion Middle School.

Having help to become a better teacher is worth more than the $2,000 teachers can earn if students and the school do well on state tests, said Edna Thomas, the program’s director in Columbus.

“Most people forget about (the money),” Thomas said. “They know if they perform, they get a bonus. But our teachers are here for their own professional and personal growth that results in student achievement.”

The TAP program also has given the struggling schools a chance to examine more closely what’s working and what’s not.

At a recent meeting at Champion, teachers learned how to help students better answer open-ended questions, which now account for a greater portion of the state exams.

“Now, the whole school is using the same strategy. We’re using common language,” said Judy Andria, one of the master teachers there.

With the injection of federal grant money, Columbus will expand its program to Southmoor, Starling, Medina, Eastmoor and Clinton middle schools next school year. Likewise, Cincinnati will expand its TAP program.

Toledo will use a homegrown pay-for-performance system that also has a professionaldevelopment component. Cleveland is developing its own plan, too. jsmithrichards@dispatch.com

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