PDF: Governor Perdue Announces Plan to Transform Teacher Pay
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue pitched a plan Tuesday to change the way teachers are paid with a model that boosts salaries based on classroom observations and student achievement.
“Our current system only incentivizes the degree, not the degree to which students learn,” Gov. Perdue said at the annual Eggs & Issues Breakfast hosted by the state Chamber of Commerce at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.
“We must encourage our best and brightest to enter the teaching profession and must reward effective teachers in order to retain them in Georgia classrooms,” he said.
The current system increases pay only for years spent teaching and for obtaining advanced degrees.
The proposal is part of Georgia’s Race to the Top application for a competitive federal grant that could provide up to $400 million for the state’s schools. It preserves the current salary structure but will allow current teachers to opt-in when the system fully is implemented in 2014, according to a news release from Gov. Perdue’s office.
Teachers who opt-in won’t get more pay for advanced degrees, but “are eligible for higher bonuses based on classroom observations and the degree to which students have grown academically,” the release states.
Rep. Tom Dickson, R-Cohutta, said some educators he’s spoken to “had concerns with the way it would tie to performance.”
He said he favors the new plan over past performance pay proposals because it would be phased in and would remain optional for current teachers.
“The school systems I represent are very forward-thinking systems. I would think there would be interest in exploring it,” said Rep. Dickson, who represents Catoosa, Murray and Whitfield counties.
Catoosa County Public Schools Superintendent Denia Reese said she’s glad the state’s pursuing the Race to the Top program but hopes the final pay model incorporates broader evaluations of student achievement.
“Typically, student achievement has been measured by a student’s performance on the CRCT (Criterion Referenced Competency Test). This test gives a snapshot, but not a full picture, of what a student has learned in a year,” Mrs. Reese said.
“I hope the final plan will include a model that includes several measures to determine students’ achievement,” she said.
Chastity Steadman, an eighth-grade math teacher at LaFayette Middle School in Walker County, compared the plan’s requirements for pay increases to those needed to earn a Georgia Master Teacher certificate, which she completed in 2008.
“The difference in the proposal and what we currently have seems to be that there is pay attached to achieving at this level,” she said. “If it were done in line with how Georgia recognizes master teachers (performance comparisons of the same students year to year), then I can say I think it would be fair.
“Pay for performance is kind of taboo and certainly controversial in education, but it’s all about performance in other professions and occupations,” she said. “If pay is implemented correctly and if the emphasis is on student achievement gains, I think it can be a good thing.”
Correspondent Ashley Speagle contributed to this story.