i TEACHER PAY HITS CENTER STAGE
TEACHER PAY HITS CENTER STAGE
BY MATTHEW STONE
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 03/15/2009

AUGUSTA -- A teacher pay debate is taking shape in Maine's Legislature, and President Barack Obama has already taken a side.

Rep. Brian Bolduc, D-Auburn, has filed legislation that would outlaw tying teachers' pay to student performance on test scores and other "measurable" factors. And Sen. Carol Weston, a Montville Republican, is pushing a proposal to encourage performance-based pay for teachers.

It's impossible to judge teachers' job performance accurately and determine their salaries fairly based on student test scores and student evaluations of their instructors, Bolduc said.

"It's the criteria we use to determine who is performing well and who's not performing well," said Bolduc, who is certified as a high school social studies teacher. "If it's not done right, it won't be done fairly."

Weston agrees that student achievement shouldn't factor into teacher pay. Her bill -- still in its draft stages -- would set up a range of pilot projects in districts interested in exploring merit pay systems.

"Right now, the best teacher and the worst teacher are all treated the same," Weston said. "What we're saying (in the legislation) is if you're a really great teacher who has ideas, ambition and you want to do these extra things, then let's compensate you."

Maine's teacher pay debate -- which has yet to visit a legislative committee -- is evolving as the Obama administration largely presses for a shift away from traditional teacher salary scales that reward years of service and higher education levels.

He reiterated his support for merit pay in a speech Tuesday to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C. And the $787 billion federal economic stimulus package, which Obama signed into law last month, sets aside $200 million in grants for states and school districts developing new pay models.

"In Washington, D.C., now there is tremendous expectation from the U.S. Department of Education and the Obama administration that performance pay systems will be developed," Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said of Bolduc's bill through a spokesman. "It would be short-sighted to prohibit it at a time when there is so much expectation around it."

Through his bill, Bolduc said, he would like to spark conversation about how best to pay teachers, while assuring that test scores are not factored into their salaries.

"When you're an educator, you have your good days, you have your bad days," Bolduc said. "Some of it's in your control. Some of it's not in your control."

Ultimately, the Auburn Democrat said, "if we can have the state come up with some objective criteria, that would be kind of a guiding post for school districts to implement" performance-based pay.

But developing a list of criteria for judging teachers' work could quash the innovation needed right now to develop a variety of teacher pay systems, said Stephen Bowen, director of the Center for Education Excellence at the conservative Maine Heritage Policy Center.

"Let the districts experiment and see what they come up with, because there are a lot of models out there," he said.

Bowen, who has published research on performance pay, recommended that Maine apply for a share of the $200 million available in federal stimulus grant money to spark that experimentation.

"Certainly the president and Congress have made it abundantly clear that they want to look at these pay systems," he said. "This is a promising reform idea and I think it's a shame to just forbid any district that wants to look at it."

The Maine Education Association, the union representing Maine teachers, has yet to take positions on the proposals from Bolduc or Weston, said executive director Mark Gray.

"We have always opposed a merit-based pay system that ties teacher salary increases to student test scores," he said.

But, Gray said, that doesn't mean the union isn't open to new approaches.

"Tying salaries specifically to student test scores is inappropriate, but we think there's a variety of innovative salary scales that we would be interested in," he said.

In 2007, for example, Portland Public Schools began moving teachers who enrolled in college courses and workshops to higher salary brackets under a new union contract.

"Their salary scale is built in a way to financially motivate teachers to improve their skills and pursue professional development opportunities," Gray said. "Better teachers will lead to better student outcomes."

Larry Morrissette, who teaches music at Maranacook Community High School in Readfield, said a merit pay system needs to use a range of standards for judging a teacher's performance. "Finding those objective measures is the challenge," said Morrissette, president of the Maranacook Staff Association. "I think whatever is used has to be broad-based. It has to measure more than one or two specific criteria."

While merit pay might have momentum on its side, some districts could resist due to the cost of implementing new salary systems.

After the new contract took effect in Portland, for example, pay raises exceeded 2007-08 budget allocations by more than $500,000. Reimbursements for college courses rose $226,000 above budgeted amounts.

"There's quite a lot of cost up front in getting those off the ground," said Bowen.

And "it doesn't do any good to create a scale that a local community can't afford," Gray said.

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com

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