Teachers ride wave of changes

Reform could be headed for Peach State teacher pay, regardless of whether Georgia wins the Race to the Top competition.

Student achievement-based teacher pay is part of Race reforms.

In Race to the Top, states are competing for $4.35 billion in federal dollars, with money going to states showing innovation in educational reform.

Ringgold High School principal Sharon Vaughn said teachers aren't afraid of accountability, but she worries that reforms that base pay largely on student achievement could hurt some good teachers.

"We're still thinking about student achievement as assigned by a test score," said Ms. Vaughn, who was a master teacher when she taught in Tennessee a few years back.

While most of the discussion over Race to the Top has focused on low-achieving students, Ms. Vaughn said the issue cuts two ways.

"We have to face the fact that some school systems are already bumping at very high percentages of students' achievement," she said. "It's much more difficult to go from 95 percent to 97 than it is to go from 40 to a 45."

Gov. Sonny Perdue has proposed teacher pay reforms that are based on classroom observations and student achievement as part of Race to the Top requirements. If those reforms pass, they will be in place whether or not the state qualifies for Race funds, said Georgia Association of Educators President Jeff Hubbard.

On Jan. 12, when he introduced the pay reforms, Gov. Perdue said the state "must encourage our best and brightest to enter the teaching profession and must reward effective teachers in order to retain them in Georgia classrooms."

Gov. Perdue's policy adviser, Erin Hames, said Georgia's pay reform plans will include the use of "multiple measures and looking at growth over time" in judging teacher effectiveness.

But educators are casting a wary eye on the proposed changes.

Ms. Vaughn said reform proposals must consider other influences on student achievement.

WHAT IS AN EFFECTIVE TEACHER?Federal definitions* Race to the Top: A teacher whose students achieve acceptable rates of progress -- one grade level per year* NCLB: A teacher who has a bachelor's degree and full state certification and proof he or she knows the subjects being taught* Georgia Master Teachers program: Teachers who have at least three years of experience in the classroom on a Georgia Clear Renewable Certificate and evidence that links classroom instruction to student achievement and progressSource: Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education

"A teacher in an affluent community and a teacher in a poor community would not have the same playing field," she said.

She's also concerned that it's not clear how reforms would affect teachers in subjects such as health, physical education, foreign languages or art, where progress is not based on test scores.

Whitfield County High School math teacher Tom Appelman and Walker County Middle School math teacher Jamie Bloodworth worry that teachers won't seek to help students who may need the most attention.

If a student is unmotivated to improve, a teacher may decide to work with others who want to learn, they say, improving the teacher's chance of getting a raise.

Using student achievement to judge teachers "makes it harder to motivate those teachers to work with those kids who are not as motivated to achieve," Mrs. Bloodworth warned. "And that's where a lot of our focus needs to be."

Upcoming Events