Master Teacher Corps in the Works
The White House last week unveiled a plan to create a "master teacher corps" that could give selected math and science teachers an additional $20,000 in annual wages. Corps members would provide mentoring, curriculum planning, and school-turnaround assistance for at least four years, administration officials said.
The idea embodies some of the Obama administration's most cherished concepts--pay for performance, competitions among local jurisdictions, and asking Congress for money. The administration is devoting $100 million to the project now, with 35 school districts already lined up to help select 50 winning teachers. President Obama is requesting $1 billion next year to increase this initial micro-corps to 10,000 teachers.
The request probably won't work because Republican-led Congress is unlikely to sign off on such a project. Republicans are more interested in creating flexible block grant programs that consolidate the current federal teacher programs and allow states and school districts to use the money for their own teacher improvement programs. A spokeswoman for House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline, R-Minn., pointed to two bills that have passed the committee already with that goal.
Without the needed funding, the administration's vision of a competition among math and science teachers and merit pay for the best of the best is likely to fall flat relatively quickly. But the spirit of the idea is still there. It involves teachers in curriculum improvement and tutoring and it encourages school districts to be innovative. The plan also highlights one of the administration's top education priorities--growing the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.
Is there value in a searching for and rewarding master teachers? Is $20,000 enough to compensate them for the extra work of leading turnaround efforts? What are the pitfalls of such a program? Will there be morale problems among other teachers? What about bureaucratic headaches? Does this plan elevate the status of teachers?
August 8, 2012 3:51 PM
The Keys to Teacher Retention
By Michael Haberman
The Master Teacher Corps is an excellent model for addressing some of the key issues plaguing the teaching profession: better compensation, more professional development, and rigorous evaluation.
Pay:
According to the United Federation of Teachers, first year teachers earn a median salary of $31,333, 33% less than the median salary of someone with a bachelor’s degree. On average, teachers work more than ten hours a day, but despite their considerable efforts, one in five teachers work part-time jobs just to make ends meet. Last week, The New Teacher Project released a study called The Irreplaceables, which cited low compensation as one of the reasons the nation’s best teachers leave their classrooms each year.
Evaluation
We’ve still yet to develop a comprehensive method for evaluating teachers that takes into account what they’re doing well—and what they need help with.
Currently, teachers are most often rewarded for their longevity, not their success. The Master Teacher Corps will help to rect...
The Master Teacher Corps is an excellent model for addressing some of the key issues plaguing the teaching profession: better compensation, more professional development, and rigorous evaluation.
Pay:
According to the United Federation of Teachers, first year teachers earn a median salary of $31,333, 33% less than the median salary of someone with a bachelor’s degree. On average, teachers work more than ten hours a day, but despite their considerable efforts, one in five teachers work part-time jobs just to make ends meet. Last week, The New Teacher Project released a study called The Irreplaceables, which cited low compensation as one of the reasons the nation’s best teachers leave their classrooms each year.
Evaluation
We’ve still yet to develop a comprehensive method for evaluating teachers that takes into account what they’re doing well—and what they need help with.
Currently, teachers are most often rewarded for their longevity, not their success. The Master Teacher Corps will help to rectify this by recognizing and rewarding the nation’s teachers who are having the greatest positive impact on student outcomes. By evaluating teachers on their “demonstrated effectiveness” in the classroom, their content knowledge, and their contributions to the “continuous improvement of teaching and learning both within their schools and across the community of STEM teachers,” the Master Teacher Corps evaluation system could prove to be a model for schools across the country.
Professional Development
Teaching is a profession—one that should be evaluated and rewarded. And like any other profession, we must provide our teachers with the skills and career opportunities that they need to flourish.
Right now, that professional development is lacking. More often than not, teachers don’t have a higher position to aspire to, and they often don’t have the training to meet new standards. As 45 states are set to launch the new Common Core, only 51% of teachers said they were only somewhat prepared, and 27% said that they were highly unprepared to meet these new measurements of student/teacher success. In New York City, we recently spent $100 million on professional development without any indication on whether or not it worked.
The Master Teacher Corps offers an effective model for providing ongoing professional development by educators and for educators. Equally important, the Master Teacher Corps offers teachers a professional goal to aspire to: becoming a Master Teacher symbolizes the extent of a teacher’s contributions, and shows that we respect their successes.
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July 23, 2012 10:04 AM
Bravo for Rewarding Excellence
By Chester E. Finn, Jr.
You're dead right about the three "cherished concepts". This specific plan will probably crash and burn on account of the difficulty in reaching agreement on the third, namely funding from Congress. But the first two concepts deserve plaudits, the more so coming from a Democratic administration. When it comes to reforming education, in my view, competitive grants are far better than block grants and formula grants. Let places that actually WANT to make a given change apply for the wherewithal to do so. And bravo for Messrs. Duncan and Obama for sticking with the principle of paying excellent teachers more--and for distinguishing between those who are really good and those who aren't. During an election season, such a plan also brings the administration twin political benefits: seeking more money of any sort for teachers will play well with that part of the "base"; differentiating among them won't thrill the teachers themselves but will likely appeal to at least a few people who don't love the teacher unions and do believe in recognizing and rewarding merit. John Kline offering up flexible block grants instead isn't apt to get raves from many folks.