Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for October 2, 2006 MERIT PAY

For some schools in Texas...it's just not their cup of TEA!

From the Dallas Morning News...

Critics say merit pay plan fosters inequity, but most campuses take the cash

By TERRENCE STUTZ / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN - More than two dozen Texas schools have rejected state grants to set up a merit pay program for their teachers, deciding it was unfair to pit teacher against teacher in dividing up thousands of dollars in bonus money.

Although the vast majority of the 1,161 schools that were awarded grants are expected to take the money and run with merit plans this year, teacher resistance to the idea has remained strong. Critics predict that the nation's biggest incentive pay program will not produce the academic gains that proponents suggest.

Gov. Rick Perry and legislative sponsors, on the other hand, contend the concept will work just as it has worked in business.

"It's time to start treating teachers as individual professionals and not as just a monolithic profession. When you reward excellence the same as mediocrity, all too often mediocrity becomes the standard," said Mr. Perry, who has been promoting the program at news conferences in schools across the state.

But his sales job has not worked at schools like Bellaire Elementary School in Hurst or Highland Park Elementary School in San Antonio, where teachers voted to send $90,000 in grants back to the state.

Bea Cantu, principal at Bellaire, said that just two of 47 teachers at the school voted in favor of a plan that was developed to distribute the bonus money. The law creating the program - passed in a special legislative session in May - calls for merit-pay plans in low-income areas, with bonuses to be distributed based on standardized-test scores.

Potential distraction

The law requires teachers at each campus to give input and ultimate approval on the program, and at Bellaire, the teachers thought the potential disruption wasn't worth it.

"A lot of our staff felt this would be a distraction to what we have our minds set to do - raise TAKS scores and improve student achievement," Ms. Cantu said.

"Our teachers have a team spirit, and many felt this money would just pit teacher against teacher," she said. "They don't want to risk the negative influences of this program on that team spirit."

Her opinion was shared by fifth-grade science teacher Tammy Woods, who also cited the amount of paperwork required by the state to participate in the program.

"Most of us felt our time would be better spent working with the kids to improve their skills rather than working on the incentive-pay plan," she said. "We also felt there would be hard feelings no matter what happened because not everyone who worked to accomplish our goals would be rewarded.

"In our minds, the bonuses were not worth the amount of time required [to operate the plan] and the animosity it would cause among our teachers."

Strong participation

Debbie Ratcliffe of the Texas Education Agency said there won't be a firm figure on the number of schools that have opted out of the Texas Educator Excellence Grant Program until the end of this week, but she emphasized that the number so far is a small percentage of the campuses invited to participate.

"We're still looking at a 98 percent participation rate right now," she said, noting that schools in smaller districts may have lacked the staff to prepare grant applications and develop plans.

But at Highland Park School in San Antonio, third-grade teacher Gracie Oviedo said the staff operates as "one big family" and didn't like the idea of singling out some teachers for bonuses.

"Our attitude was - either we all get it or no one gets it," she said. "We want to work together as a team and make our school successful. ... This program values personal gain over the successes of our school."

Teachers at the schools also cited the fact that the incentive pay will be based primarily on scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills - raising the stakes even higher in the state's student assessment program, already used to grade school performance and determine whether students in some grades should be promoted.

Biggest merit pay plan

Although the concept is largely untested in public schools, the Legislature created the biggest merit pay plan in the nation, earmarking $100 million for teacher bonuses this school year and another $260 million next year.

The state grants this year have targeted schools with a high percentage of low-income students that also earned one of the two highest performance ratings from the state - exemplary or recognized. Bonuses are supposed to range from $3,000 to $10,000 apiece, with at least 75 percent of each school's grant distributed to classroom teachers.

A total of 1,161 campuses meeting the criteria were awarded grants this summer, representing about 15 percent of the regular schools and independent charter schools in the state. Grant amounts ranged from $40,000 at many elementary schools to $295,000 for one of the largest high schools in the state.

Actual bonuses, which will be based on TAKS scores next spring, will be paid out after the school year ends.

Each school must approve its own plan for handing out the bonuses, meeting guidelines set by state Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley. Those plans must be filed with the Texas Education Agency by Thursday.

But TEA officials said Friday that 21 schools have already notified the agency they won't participate in the program, which is voluntary. And several other schools � including at least nine in the San Antonio school district and Bellaire Elementary in Hurst - recently bowed out after polling teachers on their local plans. Two other San Antonio schools had earlier said no to the program.

Teacher leaders in the state's two largest school districts - Dallas and Houston - said they were unaware of any schools in their districts turning down the grants. Dallas has 78 schools receiving grants, the largest a $230,000 grant for W.T. White High School.

"It is a voluntary program, but it is surprising that teachers who often complain their pay is too low are passing up an opportunity to share in performance bonuses that reward them for a job well done," said Kathy Walt, a spokeswoman for Mr. Perry.

Pointing out that the average teacher salary in Texas last year was just under $42,000, Ms. Ratcliffe of the TEA said it is "hard to believe anybody would say no to these bonuses. But it's their call."

Susan Thillen of the Lake Worth district, where a $75,000 grant for Howry Middle School was turned down, said there were several reasons for the decision, including the fact that half the teachers who worked at Howry last year moved to a new middle school in the district this year and could not receive bonuses.

Equity concerns

She also cited equity concerns about some teachers getting a bonus and others getting nothing even though all were involved in the school's success. The bonuses are supposed to go to teachers in core subject areas.

"Is a science teacher more important than an art teacher?" Ms. Thillen asked.

Linda Bridges of the Texas Federation of Teachers said one problem is that teachers were never really consulted about the program before it passed the Legislature in May.

"We don't have a lot of faith this will be a positive experience for teachers," she said.