Just for the sake of leading in, it is negligent to talk about education these days without mentioning the changes being made in the controversial program known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Enacted in 2001 by then-President George W. Bush, the bill was best known for giving teachers and administrators headaches from coast-to-coast.
While the reasoning behind the bill made sense, it was never a realistic proposal. Over the 13-year course of the plan, schools were required to incrementally improve their standardized test scores every year. What many people do not realize is the pattern of the improvement. Most of the gains were slated for the years 2011-2014. On a graph, the improvement curve looked like the first half of the Griffin roller coaster at Busch Gardens. For those who do not live in the Williamsburg, Virginia area, let’s just say the curve was about to become very steep. And the numbers were not good. In my region of Virginia, only six of 37 schools in Newport News met the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals, while only five of 31 accomplished the feat in neighboring Hampton. Even more suburban systems such as York and Williamsburg-James City had percentages in the 30-40% range.
Arne Duncan, the current Secretary of Education, has been given a lot of money and freedom to run his department. He will probably go down as the most powerful DoE leader ever. His initial plan called “Race to the Top” pitted states against each other for Federal funds. This plan was met with mixed results, usually criticized by the states losing out on money.
His plan to rework the entire NCLB plan to include room for more classroom creativity and less “teaching to the test” should be met as a positive sign in American schools. The jury will remain out while this is reworked, but the stage is now set for a true meaningful change to be made in our educational system. Many hope that Duncan and his associates take advantage of this opportunity.
With this in mind, I’d like to make a modest proposal with regard to the teacher salary plan.
Are teachers underpaid? It depends on where you live and who you ask. In Virginia, the starting salary ranges from about $33,000 in the most rural divisions to the following in its larger divisions. These numbers are based on a 10-month scale having a bachelor’s and master’s degree.
(Data found on the websites of the various school systems through the Virginia Department of Education website at http://doe.virginia.gov)
Starting Teacher Salary With a Bachelor’s/Master’s
Alexandria….. $ 43,632/ 50,047 Arlington………. 43,910/ 48,412 Fairfax Co…….. 44,440/ 49,928 Harrisonburg…. 39,214/ 41,764 Norfolk………….. 38,012/ 41,053 Richmond……… 39,712/ 41,697 Roanoke………. 36,604/ 37,967 VA Beach…….. 38,597/ 41,097
The bottom of the scale begins to widen after the first 5-10 years, but here’s what the same teacher can expect to be making after 20 years, and the final number is the highest possible salary on the teacher scale for a standard contract:
Alexandria……75,299/ 92,313, 99,063 with a Masters plus 30 credits Arlington……..65,256/ 87,450, 101,298 with a Doctorate Fairfax Co….. 74,395/ 79,884, 93,015 with a Doctorate Harrisonburg..47,377/ 49,927, 67,229 with a Doctorate Norfolk………..59,854/ 64,642, 70,460 with a Doctorate Richmond….. 49,818/ 52,307, 71,664 with a Masters plus 30 credits Roanoke……. 52,197/ 53,562, 60,851 with a Doctorate VA Beach…… 54,098/ 56,598, 70,014 with a Doctorate
There is an obvious disparity among the regions within the state, but outside of Northern Virginia, a teaching position pays equivalent to a GS-7/8/9 government job. Here’s what the GS scale in the Washington DC Metro area looks like
7 42209 43616 45024 46431 47838 49246 50653 52061 53468 54875
8 46745 48303 49861 51418 52976 54534 56092 57649 59207 60765
9 51630 53350 55070 56791 58511 60232 61952 63673 65393 67114
10 56857 58752 60648 62544 64439 66335 68230 70126 72022 73917
11 62467 64548 66630 68712 70794 72876 74958 77040 79122 81204
12 74872 77368 79864 82359 84855 87350 89846 92341 94837 97333
The arguments here become obvious. To the full-time government employee, it’s “well, they have summers off!” For the teachers, the cry is “we have to do all this extra unpaid work and we never have enough time!”
Both arguments are valid and true. The typical teacher contract consists of a 195-200 day work schedule, with additional requirements to complete 180 hours of professional development during the term of each license (5 years). Taking two graduate courses can satisfy this requirement, but at least half of this can be accomplished through regular faculty meetings and division-wide development training.
Considering that eliminating summer school is not an option (by the way, teachers can make between $1500 and $5000 extra depending on the pay plan – usually $22-30/hr. – and length of term – four to eight weeks), what can be done?
Notwithstanding any upcoming merit pay plans, my solution is to add 20 mandatory days to the teacher contract. The first 10 days would be added to the end of June and involve a student remediation session. This could be used as a way for some students to avoid summer school, if used properly. If a student meets certain academic benchmarks, they can stay home. This time can also be used for debriefing and reflection among the teachers and staff. Under the current contract structure, teachers pack up on the last day and leave without having an opportunity to look back at the past year and determine where ideas went right or wrong. With remediation, it could be possible to reduce the amount of time and resources needed for a summer session.
The other two weeks would be added before the current check-in date in mid to late August. These two weeks would be devoted to professional development and school meetings. The current argument from teachers is that they come to school for 5-8 days of preparation and spend most of the time in meetings (school-wide, division-wide, grade level, content level, team level, etc…). There is not enough time to plan one’s lessons, decorate the classroom, get to know the new teachers and make general preparations for the first day of school. My proposal suggests getting the professional development out of the way first, and then allowing for the 5-8 days to be used strictly for class preparation, which is the most important element of education. It will lead to a much smoother transition into the school year and alleviate some of the time teachers have to spend working at home, or the late afternoons/evenings in the school building.
For working these extra days, teachers would be paid based on their current contract, but generally this would result in a 10% raise.
Of course, there are a number of elements to be added into the mix, with the first being funding. However, my belief is that this covers a lot of angles including higher teacher pay, meeting greater community expectations, more classroom time, more potential face time with troubled students and a greater sense of teamwork within a school building.