The Merit Pay Debate

Yesterday, at the invitation of the Richmond Teachers for Social Justice, I participated in a panel discussion of merit pay. It is a hot topic everywhere right now, and there are, certainly, two distinct camps...those for it and those vehemently against it. I fall into the latter group because I believe that while educational reform is needed in a fundamental way, I don't believe that merit pay schemes are the way to accomplish what we need to accomplish. Below, I am posting the remarks I made in my four-minute opening. I tried to put a human face to the issue by telling the true story of a student I had many years ago who would have suffered had he been subjected to today's testing crazy world.

The push for merit pay and pay-for-performance plans for teachers in recent years has been extraordinary in light of the fact that there is no proof that they work or that they have any merit of their own.

Most of you have already heard about the fundamental flaws in the merit pay debate, so let me use my time this morning to put a human face to it by sharing a true story of a little boy that I taught many years ago. This story demonstrates, I believe, all that is wrong with the merit pay debate.

My student’s name was Matthew. It was 1977. Matthew was in my class of heterogeneously assigned 6^th grade students for two weeks before it was decided that all of the 6^th graders needed to be re-grouped homogeneously based on “ability.” While Matthew had been in my class, he had demonstrated himself to be a highly motivated student. He did his homework, kept up with all of his assignments, he participated in class, and he had a solid “B+” average based on quiz scores, weekly spelling tests, and at least one major test that I had already given the class.

When it came time to re-group, I decided to keep Matthew in my class of mid- to upper- level students because he was demonstrating his ability to keep up with the work and he was clearly one of the most motivated students I had. No one was working harder or had a better attitude about his school work than he.

Imagine my surprise and dismay, then, when I started reviewing my students’ standardized test scores from the year before. Matthew had scored in the lower 20 percentile, and that seems to be about where he had always tested over the course of his school career. By rights, there should be no way he was working at the level that he was working, much less making the kinds of grades he was making. I was amazed and somewhat flummoxed. What should I do about it? Should I re-assign him to a lower group?

I decided to keep him and see how he did. A couple months later, on a snowy Parent-Teacher conference day, I met with Matthew’s mom. I shared with her what a great attitude he had. He was maintaining his solid “B+” and he was a model student. I also shared with her that I had had some concerns about him because of his low standardized test scores, but we agreed that he was perhaps one of those kids who just don’t test well.

She shared with me that during the first few weeks of school, Matthew had told her that he was “finally in the class where he belonged.” You see, in elementary school, Matthew had been assigned to classes based on his test results…but in his heart of hearts, he knew his own potential, and he knew he didn’t belong there. He saw that he had a chance to prove himself in my class, and prove himself he did.

What would have happened to Matthew in this modern day of testing craziness? I would not have been allowed the professional judgment to keep him, for one thing. His test scores would have taken care of that. He would have forever been relegated to slower classes where he did not believe he belonged.

Do we really want to communicate to our children that the only important aspect of them that we care about is the test score that they achieve on one day out of an entire year of 180? And I have to wonder…would I have wanted to keep Matthew and give him a chance to prove himself if I had thought that his performance on a standardized test was going to affect my pay for the next year? Would moving him out to protect myself and my own best interests have served him? We all know the answer to that question.

The problem with the whole merit pay proposal is that it just doesn’t work in spite of its enthusiastic fans asserting otherwise. And to top it all off, it is insulting to the millions of hard working, dedicated teachers in our classrooms to imply that they are holding back their “BEST” work because they need to be paid in bonuses instead of being paid professional salaries.

I am not arguing that we don’t need to do everything we can to promote having a great teacher in every classroom. Indeed, I believe to my very core that we owe it to every child regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or economic background to provide the highest quality education we can. It is our moral duty. It is the civil right of every child. If we want to compete globally, of course, we need to provide the best possible education for our young people. But there is absolutely no credence to the argument that merit pay or pay-for-performance plans will get us there. There are other ways to do it, but they are complex and complicated and messy, and they can’t be reduced to a ridiculous mathematical algorithm. Until we get real about what it IS going to take, this debate will simply rage on, and nothing will change... and kids like Matthew, caught in the middle while we adults wage philosophical warfare, will suffer for it.

VEA Members Walk for Friends of Public Education

Saturday, October 17th was the day that the Virginia Education Association selected to walk for our friends who are running for office in the General Assembly, for Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General. We might have been able to pick a worse day weather-wise, but we would have had to work at it. In spite of the drizzly rain and chilly temperatures, however, dozens of our members turned out to canvas neighborhoods for our friends.

In Fairfax, we kicked off the day with a Rally for Creigh Deeds, our recommended candidate for Governor. Creigh joined us at the FEA Office and dozens of volunteers were there to cheer him on and gear up to either walk neighborhoods or work phone banks.

A huge thank you goes out to the FEA for their offering of the FEA office for the event. It was a great collaborative effort as not only did the FEA step up, but I was able to attend representing the state affiliate, and we were honored to have our Immediate Past President and current NEA Executive Committee member, Princess Moss who joined us for the event.

In addition to having Princess with us, another NEA officer also volunteered his Saturday. NEA Executive Committee member, Len Paolillo of Massachusetts walked with House of Delegates representative, Paul Nichols and members of the Prince William Education Association. I know that there were other walks that were being conducted all over the state, and I look forward to receiving reports from folks as to how their day went.

In addition to attending our own Rally for Creigh Deeds on Saturday morning, I also attended a rally at the Mason District Park in Fairfax where Governor Tim Kaine was traveling with Creigh and Jody Wagner, the candidate for Lt. Governor. We are also recommending Jody for that office along with Steve Shannon who is our recommended candidate for Attorney General.

The day was miserable weather-wise, but the good feeling being generated by our hopes that Creigh can come from behind one more time and prevail in this election was palpable. As Creigh himself said yesterday, we have 17 days and he's only 7 points down. As I have been saying for weeks now, I believe that our VEA members can make the difference in this race. We must make the difference. We know that Creigh is committed to taking Virginia forward--not taking us backward. We know that Creigh is committed to making Virginia's public schools the best in the nation. We know that his rhetoric matches his record. We know we can count on Creigh.

The day was topped off with the great news that the Washington Post has also recognized that Creigh should be the next Governor of Virginia. They offered an endorsement for Creigh in their "Mr. Deeds for Governor" article late last night.

We have just over 2 weeks to go.

Election day is November 3, 2009.

We have a lot of work to do, but we CAN do it.

Until next time.

Kitty

Pre-Legislative Dinners Begin Along with Budget and Resolutions Hearings

The past couple of weeks have been such a blur of activity that I can hardly remember everything I have done and everywhere I have been. This week, Meg Gruber, VEA Vice President, and I started our round of the state in conjunction with VEA Director of Government Relations and Research, Robley Jones, and his Assistant, Doris Boitnott for the purpose of gathering input on the budget and resolutions and presenting the VEA's 2010 Legislative Agenda. We were in Hampton on Monday night, Norfolk on Tuesday night, and in NOVA on Thursday night. I would like to thank everyone who turned out for these important events. It's always appreciated when our members take time out of their busy schedules in order to demonstrate their commitment to the association.

I am proud of our Legislative Agenda. We have worked hard to create a balance of issues that are important to all of our members. We address funding, we continue to address parity and the lack of it for our ESP members, and we are committed to opposing legislation that would be detrimental to public schools. We have also come to recognize that we need to prepare to fend off any and all attacks on our Virginia Retirement System (VRS). We are very concerned that the downtown in the economy is going to serve as too great a temptation to our legislators who may see that pot of money as a convenient fund to raid. We at the VEA will not allow that to happen, but our members need to understand the importance of protecting that benefit for the educators of Virginia.

Today, we held our All Committee Day at the Crossings in Glen Allen. We hosted just under 100 of our committee members and staff who convened for the purpose of reviewing their various committee's charges and creating recommendations that will be taken to the VEA Board of Directors for consideration.

We also got an update on the upcoming election. It is only a few weeks away, and I am increasingly concerned that our members are suffering from election fatigue. We worked so hard last year for President Obama, and it has been hard to work up the same kind of enthusiasm this year even though the state election in Virginia in 2009 is a critical one.

It hasn't helped that both campaigns have taken a negative turn. Unfortunately, negative campaigns work which is why candidates use them.

At the VEA we have stuck to the facts, and we are proud of the ads that the VEA sponsored and aired in the Richmond and Tidewater regions. The polls have demonstrated that our ads have been effective, and they have stuck to the facts.

I wish I knew what magic words to use to get our members energized enough to work as hard as they can in these final days. I also wish I could count on everyone going to the polls on November 3 and taking their family, friends, and colleagues with them to vote for Creigh Deeds, Jody Wagner, and Steve Shannon along with our other friends of education.

Somehow our members have got to start making the connection between politics, education policy, and the association's political power. We have talked about it to some degree, but we have a long way to go before we are ready to fully embrace our full potential as a political power player. Our friends and opponents see it...but our own members fail to understand and/or appreciate their own important part in developing the political landscape of Virginia.

Having said that, I urge every individual who is reading this post to volunteer to do something for one or more of our recommended candidates between now and November 3.

Next Saturday, October 17 would be a great place to start. All over Virginia, the VEA will be sponsoring walks for our candidates. In Fairfax, I will be joining Past President and current NEA Executive Director Princess Moss at the Fairfax Education Association building in downtown Fairfax for a rally for Creigh. Others will be convening at different locations around the Commonwealth for walks, canvassing, and drumming up support for our recommended candidates. Please consider participating. It will only take a few hours, and it could be the effort that we need to turn the tide on the polls and tip the advantage toward our recommended candidates.

No matter what you do, please plan to vote for our recommended candidates on November 3. For Governor, we recommend Creigh Deeds. For Lt. Governor, we recommend Jody Wagner. And for Attorney General, we recommend Steve Shannon. For specific targeted races, please check out our election related web site at http://www.veaelection09.com.

Until next time.

Kitty

"Kitty Boitnott, Ph.D., NBCT" Web Site in Transition

If you are a regular follower of the blog that I have been maintaining as President of the Virginia Education Association, you will notice a transition taking place in the next few days. I have asked that the original site that I have been using be taken down for a while so that I may use my iWeb program for campaign purposes (it is time to run for re-election if you can believe it) and I will be switching out for this Blogspot web site as the link from the VEA web site for the purpose of chronicling my duties and activities as VEA President. I'll apologize right now for any inconvenience or confusion that may be caused during the transition. The iWeb site is the one that I have advertised as my campaign site, and it seemed to me that I should ask that it not be provded as a link from the VEA web site while I'm in campaign mode.

In the meantime, I haven't had time to post anything on the iWeb site regarding our 2009 NEA Convention in San Diego, but I have posted pictures on my Facebook page.

This week, I am headed for Portland, Oregon for a meeting of state presidents, so I am not sure when I might get a chance to post reflections on the NEA Convention. I sincerely apologize for the delay. It will seem like "old news," I know, before I get a chance to write anything about what we did in San Diego, but between catching up on work after being out of the office for 9 days and getting ready to leave town again for another week, finding the time and energy to write anything coherent has, so far, escaped me.

I have been busy on our behalf, however, as I have posted a response to a criticism of the NEA NBI E that the Family Foundation decided to post last week, and I wrote an article for the Washington Post in response to their unabashed (and unwarranted) enthusiasm for charter schools. It was published in the Sunday, July 12 edition.

I was also interviewed this past week by a reporter who wanted to know more about the damage that vouchers could do to our public schools system. In short, I have been pretty busy since arriving back from California, and while I haven't had time to post to my blog, I have been hard at work on behalf of our members.

If you are interested in today's article from the Washington Post, just follow this link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/11/AR2009071102327.html

Until next time.

Kitty

Thoughts on 21st Century Skills

I was interviewed for an article in School Library Journal a couple of months ago. The article was posted on June 8 in the SLJ's "Extra Helping" section.

I am very interested in promoting the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, so I am providing a link to the article for any one who might be interested.

Enjoy!

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6652250.html

VEA Celebrations

The Virginia Education Association members whom I represent have much to celebrate this week along with the beautiful weather which is prevailing this weekend. First, we got planning time for elementary teachers passed in the 2009 General Assembly session! This was no small feat, and it is a goal that we at the VEA have been working toward for at least 36 years!

Another big legislative win was the passage of a fairer grievance procedure for our Extra Support Professional (ESP) members; and a third major victory was the inclusion of enough funds in the budget to make whole the funding needed to make sure that all of the eligible national board certified teachers in Virginia get the full amount of the incentive funds that they had been promised.

It was quite a session to say the least. Many thanks go all around to our Government Relations staff, our UniServ Directors who do double duty as lobbyists during the session, and our local presidents and Board members along with our members at the grassroots level who took action and wrote and called their legislators when we needed them to. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You proved that collective action does make a difference.

The week wound up with my attendance at not one but two major education conferences. The first was a day-long summit held by the Learning First Alliance. For more information about the Learning First Alliance, click on the link and peruse to your heart’s content. (http://www.learningfirst.org/) The second, much larger conference was sponsored in large part by New York’s public broadcasting station (PBS) Thirteen WLIW21 along with corporate funding from Chase Bank and a number of other groups including the National Education Association and the New York State United Teachers. More than 8,000 teachers, administrators, and educators attended the two-day event which was the fourth annual celebration of its kind. Nationally renowned speakers and authors attended, and the level of conversation around the kinds of changes that we must undertake in this rapidly changing global environment with regard to public education were both invigorating and inspiring.

Many of the sessions were focused on the changing world and our need to change the way we school youngsters in a very fundamental way. The tide of opinion regarding education reform is changing fundamentally in this era of rapid change, and there is a definite sense that educators are tired of being left out making important policy decisions. Indeed, from what I heard, they are more than ready to take their power back--at long last. I believe that it is truly an awesome time to be an educator in this country.

Educators & Politics: An Unlikely But Necessary Match

The election for the highest office in our land is fast approaching. Given that this has been the longest presidential campaign in history, it hardly seems possible that it will all be over in a little less than one month.

The National Education Association and its state affiliates have recommended the candidate that we believe has offered the best platform on public education, and our members have been working hard to participate in the process in order to bring about the outcome that we believe is in the best interest of the students we teach and the personnel who work in our public schools.

The fact that the NEA and its state affiliates are working so hard for their chosen candidate doesn’t sit too well with some people, but that is okay. We live in a country that is based on the principles of democratic discourse and debate. What isn’t okay is when disagreement leads to name calling and the debasement of those who disagree. There are those who would apparently like to bully educators into silence during these final weeks of the election. Fortunately, that isn’t going to happen; but it is a sad day, indeed, when certain individuals will rely on any tactic necessary—including personal attack—on those who have the temerity to disagree with them.

I urge my fellow educators to participate in this election to the fullest extent that they can. Many teachers tend to shy away from political action because it is sometimes unpleasant. I used to be one of those individuals. I didn’t believe that teachers and educational support professionals should “dirty their hands” with politics. We should somehow be above all that.

What I finally came to understand is that educators are impacted by political decisions that are made on the local, state, and federal level every single day. From the moment we arrive at school until we leave, every aspect of our work day is driven by a political decision of some sort—from the curriculum, to the number of children we can have in our classes, to the number of minutes we can have for planning time—or not, depending on whether we even get a planning time.

If we don’t start participating in a more meaningful way in the political process, educational policy decisions will continue to be made without our input. That has been happening for far too long, and it is time for us to wake up to our true power and start exercising it in a meaningful way through the political process that is available to us. Will that make everyone happy? No. Is it the right thing to do? You bet. Educators and politics may be an unlikely match, but if we are to take back control of our own profession, it is one that is absolutely necessary.

Don't Give Up on Public Education

During this, my first official week as president of the VEA, I was asked to write an op ed. piece for the Richmond Times Dispatch. The request came as the result of recent coverage of Delegate Chris Saxman’s announcement of a new “bipartisan,” nonprofit organization promoting school choice and a recent Washington Post editorial offered by Sen. Joe Lieberman on the public schools in Washington, D. C. I was asked to write about something “good” about public schools in an effort to provide a balance.

I am providing a copy of what I submitted for you in case you don’t get to see the editorial in print. It is entitled, “Don't Give Up on Public Education.”

“During this past school year, I became aware of the fact that one of my students—a new Latina in the fifth grade—had a problem sometimes getting to school on time. She periodically overslept and missed the school bus. Her parents, who spoke little English, were unable (or unwilling) to drive her to school, so she would call the school office to ask if someone could come get her. As far as I know, someone always did. Another child was reported to the principal because he kept falling asleep in class and just didn’t seem interested in his schoolwork. The teacher had talked to him and he wouldn’t tell her why he was so listless, so the teacher asked the principal if she might try to get to the bottom of what was going on with him. After much coaxing, he finally admitted—embarrassed but worn down—that he was hungry. It wasn’t yet the end of the month, and there was no food in the house. As a result, he had been coming to school for several days in a row with no breakfast and no morning snack. The principal pulled a snack from the stash she kept in her office and told him the next time he came to school with no breakfast, he was to come straight to her.

Public schools are succeeding every day in ways that go beyond academic achievement with students like these by offering not only a free and appropriate public education, but also a safe haven. We at the VEA absolutely believe that we owe it to our children to ensure that they have every opportunity to succeed in the 21st century. That is, in fact, what we are all about and what we advocate for every single day. We vigorously disagree, however, with proponents of school choice programs on how to provide that opportunity to each and every child. I believe that the promise of vouchers and tuition tax credits programs is a false one for too many of the children who need our public schools the most.

Instead of dreaming up so many different ways to abandon our public schools, wouldn’t it be more helpful and productive if folks spent the same amount of time and energy trying to work for meaningful reforms within the system? Politicians want to blame teachers for being in the way of school reform, but I would suggest that teachers haven’t yet been asked to be a meaningful part of the solution. Instead we are just being blamed for the problems caused in large part by policies that were adopted as short term fixes for long term problems. Practicing educators would love to be part of the conversation around how to fix some of the problems that exist in the current system—just give us a place at the table and listen to us for a change!

Let us be very clear. Public schools are not perfect. They never have been. But our public schools should certainly not be abandoned by the very public they strive to serve. The fact of the matter is that with all of its various problems, public schools in America need to be defended and protected because it is there that the vast majority of our nation’s citizens learn about what it really means to be an American. In our public schools, the principles of freedom and democracy and what is fair and right are taught as part of the core curriculum. Everyday, the ideals of our nation are taught not just from textbooks but from the practice of bringing together diverse members of the community with every effort made toward getting along and learning together. In spite of their problems, both real and imagined, public schools are the best hope that we have for producing more than just a select few students who are ready to tackle the challenges of the 21st century. I believe that our last real hope for the future lies with our public schools and its preservation and promotion. I urge the readers of these words to get involved in the public schools in their communities and make contributions and changes there—where every child has a reason to hope that someone cares deeply enough to protect his or her right to a free and appropriate public school education.”

Courage, Activism, and Doing What's Right

At the 2008 NEA convention, during a Teacher Quality forum, John Wilson, the NEA Executive Director spoke of the need for educators to display both “courage and activism.” More specifically, he said, “Courage, activism, and doing what’s right...that’s what we [at the NEA] need to be about.” He went on to say that “We need to seize this opportunity—as our nation faces a critical choice that will not only impact us for the next eight years but will impact us well into the foreseeable future—to connect the “promise of policy with the practice of politics.”

As the newly elected President of the Virginia Education Association, I plan to remind our members that we are--our association is--in fact, all about courage, activism, and doing what’s right. I absolutely agree with Mr. Wilson that the time for connecting the promise of policy with the practice of politics has come.

As a result, when I visit local associations and regional events that are coming up around the state this fall, members and nonmembers alike will hear my call to have courage; to stand up for what is right; and to become activists not just for public education but for social justice on behalf of their students and their profession. By doing so, I believe that we can collectively change the course of history in our country for the better. The time has come; the time is here; and the time is now.