Obama and Duncan – Time to Rethink Seniority, Tenure, and Merit Pay
The agenda of the Obama administration continues to cast a wide net. While much of the recent focus has been on the need for affordable healthcare, the president and his advisers are moving forward on a number of educational fronts.
A great deal of time is being spent on the notion of making higher education more accessible to Americans. That has led to new provisions regarding the repayment of federal loans (undertaken prior to Obama taking office) and to a proposed overhaul of the financial aid application form, the FAFSA.
But while those steps are significant, none are likely to be as critical for education as the administration’s recent push to overhaul how public school teachers are paid. In a major speech to the members of the National Education Association today, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan insisted it was time to not only rethink teacher seniority and tenure, it was time to tie those elements and pay to teacher performance.
Federal Funding Behind the Changes
While the emphasis on performance pay is not new, Duncan’s speech today provided clear indication that the U.S. Department of Education will likely continue to put federal money on the line as part of the process for fueling changes. In a move that is actually reminiscent of past Republican party planks on education, Duncan today indicated that it was time to use accountability measures such as student data as part of the teacher evaluation process.
Duncan spoke of the need to improve the quality of the teaching in America and insisted that it was time to eliminate the prior practices that treated teachers “like interchangeable widgets.” More importantly, Duncan alluded to the current seniority and tenure rules as a system design that puts adults ahead of children.
Said Duncan of the format: “We are not only putting kids at risk, we’re putting the entire education system at risk.”
Much as those in the healthcare profession are not enamored by the recent proposals to that industry, the calls for compensation and evaluation changes for teachers were not entirely welcomed by NEA members in attendance today. According to reports, those members booed and hissed when Duncan addressed those topics during his speech.
A Major Shift for Democratic Party
In an effort to appease those members, Duncan insisted that he would seek these reforms in a collaborative way, working with teachers to implement the structural changes. That stands in stark contrast to the Bush administration and Secretary of Education Rod Paige’s, my way or the highway approach, during the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act.
Yet the uproar may be just as strong especially since the proposed changes represent a significant shift for the party that has traditionally been most in line with educators in the past. Current teacher payment and retention policies, all previously supported by Democratic leadership, focus strictly on years of service and degree status earned. The only bonuses currently going to teachers go to those who have earned National Board certification.
And in reality, over time, Obama and Duncan may soon find they have a bigger fight on their hands as Democrats in Congress begin pushing back, taking more traditional positions on the teacher pay issue as they hear from those outraged NEA members. However, there is no doubt where Duncan and Obama are drawing the line at this point.
Both insist it is time education found ways to reward teachers according to the quality of the instruction they deliver and not the credentials they have earned.
Flickr photos courtesy of House Committee on Education and Labor and House Committee on Education and Labor.
3 comments
Regarding the Higher Education new provisions, it is interesting to see that the major changes and “provision” are being done on the financial aid side. It is great that the efforts are being concentrated into giving students the economical resources needed to have a chance at a higher level of education, but at the same time, there are problems on the other side. Although now there is a higher demand of students to Community Colleges, South Florida finds itself in a crisis where the Institutions cannot provide service to these incoming students (http://tinyurl.com/nmuhek) – bottom line, your fixing one side, while the other side of the equation, is still broken.
Regarding Public Education, the only thing I have to wonder is… how are they going to collect the data, in order to provide these “performance bonuses”? Is it going to be the standardized tests that keep limiting the “teaching time” to a rather “test-taking teaching”? If this is the case, it will not matter if there is tenure, seniority or more merit, bottom line the education is still going to suffer. Although you have teachers that may be able to reach students more efficiently, they are reaching them to teach how to take a test.
How they define and measure “teacher performance” is probably the most important aspect of all the new legislation and no one has put forth a solution yet.
I’m all for revamping the way that education is managed/delivered, but until a current student or teacher knows what high quality “teacher performance” looks like…we’re all outta luck.
I work in the education system as and Instructional Assistant.
I have worked in this field 13 years. I am highly educated with
an emergency credential. I have chosen not to be a teacher
for personal reasons. I have worked with many teachers in
Special Education. I feel tenure should be eliminated.
I have seen bad teachers keep their jobs because of tenure
while, very good and dedicated teachers have been given pink
slips because of their seniority.
I don’t believe we should get rid of seniority because that would
not be fair. Many would use this as a way to favoritism. But, I do
believe teachers have to prove themselves. In the years I have
worked in Special Education, I have worked with many teachers.
I would say that only 2 merited their position. There
are teachers out there making 72 thousand a year. They
do what they want, they do not put their time in,
and they treat the Instructional Assistants poorly.
Instructional Assistants are the backbone to the system.
I have seen very few IA’s with poor performance.
This needs to all change for the benefit of the students
in the Special Education System.
This is my opinion. So many employees in the school
system feel the same but are afraid to voice their opinion
for one reason or another.
Another issue: I have worked with many good principals.
I have had one principal in the last 13 years that is
unapproachable. That should not be. The principals
in the school systems need to be researched as well.
There are principals out there who need a required coarse in
social skills and what is right and wrong to say.
These are my opinions that i thought should be heard.
Thank you so much for your dedicated time.
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