Teacher merit pay hard to arrange, Harris says

Columbus schools Superintendent Gene Harris isn't opposed to a state proposal that would set up a merit-pay system for teachers, but she said changing from the seniority-based scale now in use will create problems for districts in implementing any new system.

"I'm not anti-merit pay," Harris said, commenting on news that Cleveland's mayor and top school officials had urged the Republican-controlled legislature to put a merit-pay system in the state budget bill.Mayor Frank Jackon role in the new request, in part because he had voted against the bill the Senate 5, which would limit collective bargaining for educators and also included a merit pay component.

Harris noted that the schools participating in Race to the Top Columbus, President Barack Obama's school reform effort that requires districts to the teacher of basic pay, at least in part on student performance.

But it is more normative concerns about the state merit pay proposals, including how long the district will implement the final and if Columbus city schools will have the ability and resources to evaluate 4,000 teachers annually to determine raises.

"We really want to be thought about," said Harris. "We want to get it right."

Today, employees and public school districts are union members who pay increases based on scales. The more we worked for the district, the more he or she is paid.

Under a merit-pay system, districts would have to observe teachers in the classroom and evaluate their students' educational gains - a much more time-consuming and complicated process, Harris said.

Such a process would not only take more resources to implement, "it would take some creativity," Harris said.

Jackson, a Democrat, joined Cleveland schools Chief Executive Eric Gordon and school board Chairwoman Denise Link in sending a letter Monday asking Republican Gov. John Kasich and top legislative leaders to keep the merit-pay language as well as a handful of other provisions in the state budget.

The letter says the House provisions "move significantly toward establishing a fair and responsible way of ensuring that we are doing what is needed for Ohio's schoolchildren."

David Quolke, head of the Cleveland Teachers Union, said he was shocked by the letter, which he said was another example of politicians blaming teachers for problems in schools.

Along with a new merit-pay system for teachers, Jackson's letter urged lawmakers to include language allowing districts to dump poor-performing teachers, remove seniority as the determining factor in deciding layoffs and bar collective bargaining in charter schools.

Education changes to take place in Lincoln County — Lincoln County ...

New education reforms will change the way Lincoln County teachers are paid, evaluated, and placed on tenure.

Nevada governor Brian Sandoval is excited about the changes he recently signed into law, touting them as “groundbreaking” in a released statement .

One change calls for our district’s board of trustees (along with the rest of the state) to establish a program of merit pay, providing enhanced compensation for high-performing teachers. The program is to be implemented by 2014-2015 school year. Criteria for high-performance must focus on the academic achievement of students but may include other options and incentives, and particulars are left up to the districts.

Changing the way teachers are compensated comes with a major negotiating mountain to scale. The local teachers union is the recognized negotiating power for the district’s teachers and will have to be on board with any change in pay structure.

“It’s a huge negotiating effort on both sides,” said Steve Hansen, assistant superintendent for Lincoln County School District and principal at Pioche Elementary. Hansen added the state may need to give more concrete direction on what a performance pay structure should look, as pay scales currently differ from district to district.

In connection with defining high performance, Nevada’s school districts will also be asked to create more in-depth evaluations of teachers.

Gaining momentum in recent years is the idea that students’ test scores should be tied directly to teacher effectiveness. But while grading a teacher on student performance may sound compelling, there are many other factors that go into why a student does or does not do well in school, according to Hansen. These factors include the student’s attitude toward education as well as parental support and overall family situation.

“I absolutely disagree with teachers being evaluated on student performance only,” Hansen said.

To accurately evaluate teachers, Lincoln County School District will implement a multifaceted model. It will not only focus on state derived benchmarks and test scores but will look at students from a growth perspective, determining the amount of progress they show during a school year. For example, a fifth grader who starts the year reading at a first grade level and ends the year at a fourth grade level may not have met state standards but did demonstrate major growth.

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