December 17th, 2015                     

Todd Rehm is a "Republican political consultant and pollster based in Atlanta and editor of GaPundit.com, the most-read political newsletter in Georgia, which focuses on Republican politics, state and local government, and elections. He is a graduate of Emory University and veteran of 20 years of political campaigns."

The following is an excerpt from Todd's December 16th daily newsletter:

Tying teacher pay to student progress is likely to be a contentious issue in the coming session of the General Assembly.

Last week, Gov. Deal announced he would ask for some form of  merit pay for teachers from the legislature.

Gov. Nathan Deal said he's ready to ask lawmakers to make a "significant" step toward tying the teachers' pay to their performance in the classroom, setting up a showdown with educators' groups who have long opposed the policy.

But it's unclear how much political capital he's willing to put on the line for the controversial proposal. Equally unclear is whether lawmakers - all of whom face re-election next year - will be willing to sign on for the battle, knowing full well that they will get blow-back from teachers.

More comprehensive changes have been stalled by critics who question, among other aspects, how teachers will be evaluated and how any pay increases would be funded.

"We're not going to go to a fully merit-based pay system, but I do think there is a portion of the teachers' pay that should go to how good a teacher they are," Deal said after a recent policy conference. "Now, getting the education community to support that is sometimes difficult."

The governor's Education Reform Commission made merit pay one of its top recommendations despite numerous meetings with teachers who didn't mention it as a priority.

Allene Magill, executive director of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, called Deal "misguided" in supporting the merit pay part.
"Clearly, Gov. Deal believes that educators - individually and collectively - are withholding their best effort and therefore need financial incentives to prod them toward improvement," she wrote, in a statement Monday that went out to the group's 90,000 members. She said merit pay is ineffective because it fosters competition instead of teamwork among teachers and because a teacher's effect on a child is difficult to measure.

On Tuesday, Sid Chapman, the leader of another teachers group, announced a gathering at the Capitol at 1 p.m. Thursday of a new "alliance" opposed to both the Education Reform Commission's recommendations and the Opportunity School District, a constitutional amendment that will appear on the ballot in November. It would allow the state to take over the state's lowest-performing schools to try to get them on track.

Molly Phillips, a former teacher whose husband still teaches, wrote a poem about the issue. It's worth reading in its entirety.

"I try to support our governor when I can and, when I can't, I tell him very respectfully that he and I disagree. I told him as recently as yesterday at 2 o'clock that I cannot go with him on this yet," said Ralston. "I support his efforts to move education forward in Georgia, and, when you say merit-based pay or pay for performance, it sounds very good but I am going to have to become a lot more convinced than I am to support including that piece."

As a conservative I understand the idea that "you get what you pay for," and that continuing to pay for failing school systems is tacit approval of the results. But the problem is that teachers will become more expensive in any case due to a shortage.

In North Carolina, enrollment is down nearly 20 percent in three years.

"The erosion is steady. That's a steady downward line on a graph. And there's no sign that it's being turned around," says Bill McDiarmid, the dean of the  University of North Carolina School of Education.

Why have the numbers fallen so far, so fast?

McDiarmid points to the strengthening U.S. economy and the erosion of teaching's image as a stable career. There's a growing sense, he says, that K-12 teachers simply have less control over their professional lives in an increasingly bitter, politicized environment.

The list of potential headaches for new teachers is long, starting with the ongoing, ideological fisticuffs over the Common Core State Standards, high-stakes testing and efforts to link test results to teacher evaluations. Throw in the erosion of tenure protections and a variety of recession-induced budget cuts, and you've got the makings of a crisis.

The job also has a PR problem, McDiarmid says, with teachers too often turned into scapegoats by politicians, policymakers, foundations and the media.

That trend appears to affect Georgia as well.
During the 2007-08 school year, 12,436 students received teaching certificates for the first time, according to the Georgia Professional Standards Commission. Two years later, the total fell to 8,520, and it has remained about the same each year since.

During the 2008-09 school year, more than 7,200 people completed Georgia teacher-preparation programs, according to a federal report; three years later, 6,405. Nationally, there's been a similar decline, federal data shows.

Some districts, like Atlanta and Gwinnett, say they're not seeing a shortage. It's more evident in Middle and South Georgia, educators there say, because teachers leave in search of better pay and bigger-city life in metro Atlanta.

State Rep. Amy Carter, a teacher herself, said the problem is not solely about money. She said some teachers leave the profession because they're frustrated by issues like a lack of support from administrators. "It's more about the quality of life," said Carter, a Republican who teaches at Lowndes High School in Valdosta.

Under Georgia law, each public school district in the state was required to choose an education model to follow - SWSS, Charter or Status Quo. Newton officials elected to pursue the SWSS model, which will allow the school system to seek waivers for state requirements for class size, expenditure control, teacher certification and salary. In exchange, the school system agrees to have more academic accountability to the state BOE.

Deputy Superintendent Craig Lockhart explained during his presentation the waivers would give the school system flexibility to better serve students and be more effective financially.

"In years past, we would try to get waivers in class size with the purpose to be able to hire fewer teachers to serve more students, and this follows the exact same train of thought here where there maybe ways where we can save funds in order to meet our basic need," Lockhart said.

Newton and Rockdale county school systems are among the 132 school systems that have chosen the SWSS model with 72 school systems already approved.

When 132 of 180 school systems have sought waivers from state standards and 40% of all systems received waivers, the state standards are much less meaningful.

Earlier this year, an award-winning and prominent  teacher gave this career advice to students interested in teaching.
When asked what she would tell a student considering a career in teaching, [Nancie Atwell] said that she would discourage them unless they could find a job in a private school.

"Public school teachers are so constrained right now by the common core standards and the tests that are developed to monitor what teachers are doing with them," she said. "If you're a creative, smart young person, I don't think this is the time to go into teaching unless an independent school would suit you."

"The new common core curriculum and the tests that accompany it are tending to treat teachers as mere technicians," she said. "They open the box and they read the script, and that's not what good teaching is about. It's an intellectual enterprise, and that's been stripped from it by the current climate."

"In U.S. public schools, these [challenges] include a tight focus on standardized tests and methods, which I feel discourage autonomy and encourage teaching to the test," she said. "I empathize with aspiring teachers and I strongly believe that they need to be aware of and prepared for the particular challenges of the current climate."

In neighboring Alabama, a state Teacher of the Year recipient cited bureaucratic issues as her reason for leaving the classroom. She's not alone, as the  2014 National Teacher of the Year as chosen by "LIVE! with Kelly and Michael" on ABC also left the profession, citing bureaucratic pressures.
"It's overwhelming," Starr said. "I've never felt so overwhelmed in my life. Nor do I think, the kids - especially the freshmen. They're the ones who are getting hit hard. They have to start the (new state tests) this year in math, English language arts and science.

"The sad thing is I love teaching. I love our district. I love our kids," Starr said. "It's not the teachers' fault. It's not the administrators' fault. But our kids are going to suffer because of it.

A survey of teachers (note:small sample size) showed  55 percent would not recommend a new graduate become a teacher.

Some teachers  fear violence in their schools. Dedicated police resources for schools may help address violence, but note that the  starting pay for an Atlanta Police officer with a college degree is $42k per year, while a  starting Atlanta Public Schools teacher with a college degree starts at $44k, and it's not hard to imagine some teachers deciding to become police officers instead.

Those teachers who don't have to worry about the affect of parental absence on their students' lives and test performance may face pushy "helicopter parents."

Teachers personal lives may be under higher scrutiny due to the ubiquity of social media.

Good arguments can be made for and against merit pay for teachers. It may even work. But unintended consequences are inevitable, and in my opinion, the teacher shortage and trends that will exacerbate the problem pose an existential crisis for our public school too.
          

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