Column
State Senator Beverly Gard
April 18, 2011
Ask anyone to name the most influential people in their lives, and almost without exception, a teacher makes the list.
Teachers are the backbone of our education system. Good facilities are important and skilled administrators are also a key to successful school corporations. But if good teachers aren’t in the classroom, our schools suffer. Our students suffer. Society, in general, suffers.
Good teachers enlighten young lives, inspire career choices and at times transform students headed down the wrong paths. Good teachers often serve as the only stable influence in some of our student’s lives.
What’s happening in this session of the Indiana General Assembly in regard to education reform has been characterized by some as an attack on teachers. I beg to differ. I think it is an affirmation of teachers and the powerful impact they have on our students.
Good teachers deserve more than just the incremental bump in pay after another year of experience. They shouldn’t be trapped by a system that treats everyone the same, because not all teachers are the same, just as not all factory workers, state employees, medical personnel, students – you name it – are the same.
Education proposals in this year’s legislative session seek to reward the best and most effective in ways not possible under the current system. There’s a bit of irony to the argument against merit pay for teachers based on performance, when students who do the best work in their classrooms are rewarded with the best grades.
Shouldn’t teachers be treated the same way?
Legislation now under discussion includes a new evaluation system that will make a positive difference in teachers’ everyday lives. Novice and veteran teachers alike would have detailed, constructive feedback, tailored to the individual needs of their classrooms and students. Teachers and principals would meet regularly to discuss successes and areas for improvement, set professional goals, and create an individualized plan to meet those goals.
It’s important to stress teachers will not lose pay under Senate Bill 1. This legislation concerns raises given to teachers in the future, not current salary levels. It gives plenty of room for innovation where evaluations are concerned. Local leaders can determine the data to be used and other evaluation tools best suited for their district. SB 1 certainly does not mandate a one-size-fits-all process.
Indiana’s schools are full of great teachers who demonstrate a rigorous work ethic and an incredible talent for driving student growth. All Hoosier students should benefit from the type of instruction these teachers provide on a daily basis. To ensure quality in the classroom and at the building level, Indiana must implement a system for locally-developed, rigorous and fair annual evaluations for teachers and principals.
Not everyone can be an ‘A’ student. But everyone can improve – especially if a good teacher is leading the classroom.
Perhaps the biggest argument for teacher merit pay comes with the fact that fewer among America’s best and brightest students are choosing teaching as a profession.
The Christian Science Monitor recently reported almost half of U.S. K-12 teachers come from the bottom third of college classes. Contrast that to three of the top-performing school systems in the world — those in Finland, Singapore and South Korea — take a different approach, recruiting 100 percent of their teachers from the top third of their high school and college students.
With about half of America's 3.5 million teachers eligible to retire in the next decade, the question of who should and who will teach looms especially large. So this discussion is especially timely in this year’s Indiana General Assembly.
One of the most influential teachers in my education was Miss Battle, my French teacher at Chattanooga High School. Her constant message was always “you can do better.” She instilled a daily desire in all of us to improve ourselves. I think she probably deserved to make more money than the typical teacher salary schedule allowed her to make.
How many teachers like Miss Battle are out there today? How many will retire early because of limitations now put upon their salaries? An even bigger question is how many potential teachers like Miss Battle may never walk into a classroom, because the profession just doesn’t pay enough?
Answers to these questions may be as important as any our students face in the final examinations to come.
Like Miss Battle always said, we can do better.
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