Dear Representative Derby,
Let me first introduce myself. I am a High School Mathematics teacher for ________ Public School in SE OK. I am currently in my 24th year of teaching and have really enjoyed the career path I have chosen. I realize that I am not from your district but hope you will read this letter anyway (I am sending a copy to my representative as well) as I really want to commend you for your efforts regarding the problems with education. I think you are spot-on in your assertion that administrative costs are getting out of hand and that must be addressed.
Politically, I am a conservative Democrat. I am pretty vocal politically, and many times my views are not what my peers want to hear. Coincidently, I addressed educational problems with a friend the other day. While some of it is fresh on my mind, having read some of your proposal with HB 1289, let me share.
I don't have all of the answers but I do have some suggestions that would most definitely help, IMO. And I don't propose that all of it would be easy. I keep hearing that we aren't competitive when it comes to test performance and I can't help but agree. Statistics bear this out as well. Why don't we model some successful systems then?
Many on the liberal side of the political aisle think throwing money at the educational system will fix the problems of poor student achievement leading to low overall test scores, the standard that most seem to want to look at to see the measure of success of an educational institution or an overall system. I both agree and disagree with this line of thinking. Teacher pay in several states needs to increase...but there must be stipulations (more on this later).
Also, the educational system is top-heavy. In Oklahoma we have over 500 school districts, each with at least a Superintendent, a grade-school principal and a high school principal. The answer is not consolidation. With the vast size of many of the rural districts bussing would be a nightmare. A way of freeing up existing educational money that can be used in various ways is to eliminate the Superintendent for every school. Good principals are extremely important to the success of a school and there needs to be at least one at each school site. Some states have one Superintendent per county. In our state that would take the number of Superintendents down from 532 to 77. That is a savings of about $5.7 million. I am sure more savings can be found in similar areas such as schools that only need one principal.
Teacher pay can be increased based on a number of things. Before I go into merit pay let me suggest a few. In my state, teachers who teach in urban areas should be paid more than teachers teaching in rural areas. They encounter more students per day and, especially on the Jr. High and High School level, are more inherently at risk. I could not imagine (in fact I wouldn't be) teaching at a school where metal detectors and security guards are the norm. Also teachers in "shortage areas" (such as Science or Math) should be rewarded with a somewhat larger base salary. If they are successful they can build it up from there. I do not say this to boost my own salary as a Math teacher but if we are going to attract people who have the skills to teach science or mathematics we must try to somehow sweeten the pot so they will not take those skills to another field of work or worse, to another state.
Now to the subject of merit pay. I am not against merit pay at all. Bad teachers shouldn't be rewarded the same as good ones. But before merit pay or evaluation based on testing is implemented some fundamental changes need to be made...especially at the Jr. High and High School levels...but really to the overall system from Kindergarten forward. Here are but a couple of suggestions:
1. Eliminate social promotion. If a student cannot perform 3rd grade level work satisfactorily this year, what makes a person think he'll be able to do 4th grade work satisfactorily next year? Looking at areas of concern I see this as the number one problem in the school in which I teach. Use retention in the lower grades but if this isn't successful then re-direction is a must.
2. Do what the most successful educational systems in other countries do, use ability grouping by the 8th grade, if not before. Take it even further and utilize our Tech Schools to provide alternate education for non-college bound kids. Whether we like it or not, not all kids are going to or are cut out for college. We still need plumbers, policemen, firemen and such and they don't need to know the Pythagorean Theorem or Quadratic Formula.
Do this and then we can talk about merit pay. I do worry that already teacher evaluations are being changed to include the standardized test performance of students...and they've been in charge for less than a month. If they try to institute merit pay also without making some needed changes then people just think there is a shortage of Math and Science teachers now. I am not asking for them not to institute pay or evaluation based on merit, just create a leveler playing field before they do.
One of the first reports I read from new State Superintendent Barresi is that we are not competitive...and she is right. The report bears this out and it is as clear as it can be. To quote one of her suggestions from the article: “She challenges teachers and administrators to increase the difficulty at school.” This is great and I would love to do it but cannot as long as I am forced to teach to the “middle” because we expect all 13 year olds to be on the same level.
Read more:
http://newsok.com/oklahomas-new-edu...es-are-too-easy/article/3526762#ixzz1C5AI5Uf2
Will the above suggestions cure every ill of Public Education? Of course not, but I think they are some valid suggestions to help along the way to making us competitive again.
If you have made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read some of my thoughts.
Sincerely,
