February 20, 2007

OP-ED by Ken Swanson
President, Illinois Education Association

Response to the Chicago Tribune Editorial Series

To the Editor:

The Chicago Tribune performed an important public service with From Here to Excellence, the extensively researched and extremely well-written editorial series on education funding.

Speaking as both a sixth grade teacher and as president of the Illinois Education Association, I would like to share some thoughts about the series.

Common Ground

Like the Tribune, we believe high-quality induction and mentoring programs for new teachers and principals are crucial. We need quality administrators in every school who are highly skilled in objectively evaluating both non-tenured and tenured teachers.

We welcome the Tribune's support for limiting class sizes to 15 students per teacher in kindergarten through third grade classrooms. The research is clear that poverty-impacted children, in particular, benefit from smaller class sizes.

The research is also clear that frequent assessments of student learning provide powerful feedback to students, teachers, and parents, enabling adjustments to improve student learning. To that end, we are working collaboratively with a number of our districts to help teachers get the time and training that will allow them to assess these data together and learn from one another.

Bureaucratic barriers to better schools and improved student learning must be eliminated, which is why our organization favors expanding the number of public charter schools. Our experience shows teachers, working with the administrations through their association, can improve education quality.

Areas of Concern

That said, the series raises several points with which we take issue.

On the subject of "tenure," let's remember that full due process rights are granted only after a teacher has demonstrated professional skill over several years. While we are unalterably opposed to giving up due process, we support the development of a system that works faster and more efficiently. For example, in many districts where local associations have collaborative relationships with management, administrators and employees work together to help struggling teachers either improve or exit the system with dignity. Moreover, we welcome state law changes to allow teachers to take more responsibility for the quality of the profession through processes like peer review.

Second, we are unalterably opposed to "merit pay" schemes to determine teacher compensation. The salary schedule system found in nearly all Illinois school districts is an objective and fair system, compensating teachers based on years of experience and hours of graduate credit. Local teacher associations can, through the collective bargaining process, voluntarily explore alternative approaches to enhanced compensation, including ways to better connect pay with improved student learning.

In fact, many of our locals and their districts already are working to implement rigorous evaluation systems based on new research. We think there is a lot of promise in this work; however, tying teacher pay to standardized test scores is not a good idea, because standardized test results do not account for differences in children and their communities. One size does not fit all, which is why the Educational Testing Service said student test results "should not be used as the sole or principal basis for making consequential decisions about teachers (concerning salaries, promotions and sanctions, for example)."

Finally, on the subject of retirement plans, Illinois' $42 billion pension liability shortfall, the largest in the nation, is entirely the result of the state failing to properly fund state employee pensions over the last 30 years. Retirement benefits for Illinois teachers have always been reasonable and the "pension reforms" imposed two years ago reduced the state's costs. Most teachers do not receive Social Security, so their pension is their sole means of support.

A two-tiered teacher pension system would undermine the state's ability to attract and retain quality teachers in the future. Indeed, research indicates converting new teachers to a lesser plan would actually result in a greater cost to the state.

Looking ahead

We embrace the general thrust of the Tribune series in calling for significant changes and improvements in how the Illinois public education system is funded and, in exchange for this "Investment in Excellence," expecting our public schools to improve performance by using research-tested best practices.

We accept shared responsibility to be accountable along with administrators, school boards, our local communities and our state government for improving student learning so that Illinois has a world-class education system second to none.

We have been, and continue to work with, partners and other stakeholders to find common ground and make common cause to solve these fundamental problems this legislative session.

As the Tribune series stated so eloquently, it is time to put narrow, parochial interests aside and finally do what is right for all of our students and for the future of Illinois.

Sincerely,