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December 04, 2006 Newspaper Editorials Praise Recommendations of Governor Riley's Commission on Quality Teaching, Urge Legislature to Consider Reforms MONTGOMERY - Several major Alabama newspapers have written editorials about the initial recommendations made last week by the Governor's Commission on Quality Teaching. Governor Riley appointed the 72 education and business leaders that make up the commission in 2005 to develop reforms that will help the state recruit, retain and support high quality teachers. Fifty-seven of the commission's members are currently or have been classroom teachers. The editorials from four daily newspapers appear below.
Bold education vision deserves consideration When Alabama Gov. Bob Riley said he wanted a new vision for the state that included new approaches in public education, he meant it. He appointed a special panel made up of educators and business representatives and headed by former Teacher of the Year Betsy Rogers. A year later, the panel is reporting its findings and as expected, the recommendations center on strategies employed by the business sector that have proven successful in achieving higher standards. The committee is recommending such actions as assigning mentors to new teachers, not only to help them become better teachers but to retain them in the profession. Statistics reveal that almost half of new teachers nationwide leave the teaching ranks within five years. Rogers said the group is also recommending the launch of a state pilot program that offers incentive pay, starting with schools in areas where it is difficult to recruit teachers. In the past fiscal year, Riley was able to get the Legislature to ante up $2.5 million in bonuses for schools that made significant academic progress. Schools in the local area were among those on the receiving end, and Riley rightly pointed out that the bonuses created a "pep rally" atmosphere that encouraged more improvement. What is more encouraging about the prospects of implementing the panel's findings is that they don't stop at a recommendation or two in one area. They are comprehensive in their scope. The commission also calls for recruiting top high school students for teaching, more classroom training on the college level and tracking graduates' performance after college. It offers a thorough approach to teaching that has the potential to attract high caliber students, who might have sought other professions, instead choose to go into education. And it coordinates college training with life after graduation to make sure that what is being taught in college is relevant to what teachers find in the classroom. Of course, the key to all of it is a buy-in from the Legislature, education and the public in terms of both moral and financial support. It's a start at looking at education through new eyes, a bolder vision than we have seen in the past. Let's hope when it hits the next step - the Legislature - it gets the full consideration it deserves.
Quality teaching crucial to state It is not likely that all of the sweeping recommendations for improving teacher quality presented to Gov. Bob Riley last week will be implemented. But even if only some of the more fundamental changes are actually put in place, it could go a long way toward ensuring that Alabama schoolchildren will have a better corps of teachers for years to come.
The Governor’s Commission on Quality Teaching presented the governor with a long list of recommendations last week after almost a year of work. The panel, which was led by former National Teacher of the Year Betsy Rogers of Alabama, deserves applause for its labors.
The commission, which could continue its work for the next four years, is composed of 72 educators and business people.
Among the recommendations is one that the Montgomery Advertiser’s editorial page has recommended several times over the past decade: Incentive pay for well-qualified teachers who are willing to work in low-performing schools.
The panel recommends that the incentive pay plan start with pilot projects in which the State Department of Education partner with local school systems, especially in areas having trouble attracting enough qualified teachers.
Among the panel’s other recommendations:
The creation of an Alabama Statewide Mentoring Program. This program would identify a an experienced teacher to mentor all new teachers in the state. The program would require funds to train and to compensate teachers who agree to serve as mentors.
The mentoring program would be designed to address high turnover rates among new teachers. Almost half of all new teachers nationally leave the profession within five years, according to the commission’s report.
The development of Teacher Preparation and Recruitment Pilot Programs. The State Department of Education would work with local school systems and college teacher education programs to develop programs to recruit, prepare and retain high quality teacher candidates. The programs would include a recruitment program in high schools.
The creation of better programs to measure and monitor the progress of teachers once they enter the classroom.
The adoption of Alabama Quality Teaching Standards by the State Board of Education. If there isn’t a clear understanding of the qualities a well-qualified teacher brings to the classroom, it is impossible to design programs to improve the quality of teaching.
When the study commission’s recommendations were presented to Riley last week, he noted that two of them have especially proved to be effective in the private sector -- incentive pay and mentoring.
"If all other segments of society do it and make it work, there must be some merit to that process," the governor said.
"Our ultimate goal is to guarantee that students in all schools have thoroughly prepared teachers in every subject, that they have teachers who are well-paid, supported with high quality professional development, and held accountable for results. These recommendations being presented today begin taking us in that direction," he said. The State Board of Education can start the process toward implementing these recommendations by quickly adopting the study group’s proposed teaching standards.
Then Riley and the Board of Education should urge the Alabama Legislature to fund a process to flesh out these recommendations and to start pilot projects around the state where appropriate.
This is one study that addresses issues that are crucial to Alabama’s school children and to the economic future of the state. It should not be allowed to gather dust on a shelf like so many similar studies have done in the past.
Providing incentives for teachers deserves serious consideration One of the main reasons this newspaper urged voters to re-elect Bob Riley this year is the governorˇ¦s staunch support of education. Although resources are limited -- Alabama continues to fall short of the mark in support of public education -- the improvements in state schools that Riley has implemented or advocated are substantial. They include the Alabama Reading Initiative, the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative and distance learning programs, among many others. Now, Riley has an opportunity to make even more educational upgrades by actively advocating recommendations from a group of 72 outstanding teachers. The governor formed the Commission on Quality Teaching last year to recommend ways to improve schools. On Tuesday, the commission made its first report. Its recommendations, in some cases, are controversial. In particular, a proposal that the state offer incentive pay for some educators is almost certain to draw fire from the politically powerful Alabama Education Association, which has opposed such initiatives. The fact that the recommendation now on the table comes from a blue-ribbon panel of professional teachers may make it easier for the governor to sell it to the Legislature, however. It's an intriguing plan. It would offer higher pay to teachers who agree to work in schools that are hard to staff because their students are more difficult to teach or because of their locations in isolated rural areas or tough inner-city neighborhoods. Moreover, the commission wants to offer higher pay to teachers already on the job in high-performing schools if they meet or exceed the school's standards. Nine states, including Florida and California, now offer financial incentives to teachers to work in hard-to-staff schools, according to Education Commission of the States, a Denver-based organization that researches education policy. Interestingly, the teachersˇ¦ union in Massachusetts is trying to win state approval for higher pay for teachers in inner-city schools. There are legitimate concerns about how far states should go in offering incentives. Merit pay linking teacher salaries to studentsˇ¦ test scores is probably a bad idea. So is paying math and science teachers more than others because educators in those subjects are in demand. But better pay could be a powerful and positive incentive to get good teachers into problem schools. We hope the Legislature will be open enough to give this recommendation at least a fair hearing. Other recommendations from the commission are worth considering as well. They include pairing new teachers with veteran educators for a two-year, on-the-job mentoring experience; retooling college-level training programs to allow prospective educators to spend more time in K-12 classrooms; and revamping state standards to ensure that teachers are thoroughly versed in their subjects, have the skills needed to teach them effectively, and understand how students' cultural, ethnic and social backgrounds and special needs affect the way they learn. The blue-ribbon panel will continue to make recommendations for the rest of Rileyˇ¦s second term. Its initial report is an impressive beginning.
Those who can, teach THE ISSUE: An education commission has come up with good ideas to improve education in Alabama. But they’ll mean nothing unless they get to the classroom. A commission formed by Gov. Bob Riley isn’t proposing anything radical to improve schools in Alabama - just a few common-sense ideas that, in a perfect world, probably wouldn’t even spark much debate. But this isn’t a perfect world. It’s Alabama, home of the Alabama Education Association. The teachers’ union has a history of snuffing out even common-sense proposals that it perceives as a threat to its sovereignty. So Riley already knows the recommendations of his Commission on Quality Teaching will face battles in the Legislature, the AEA’s safest of havens. That is a shame. The commission is made up of 72 teachers, most of them veterans and all with great track records. Their recommendations, if implemented, would not just be good for students, which should be enough, but also for teachers. Among them: Provide incentive pay for teachers who work in especially challenging rural and urban systems - and for teachers who excel in their work at great schools. Pair new teachers with veterans for two years to help them learn the ropes. Revise teacher education programs to require more hands-on learning in real school classrooms than in university settings. Adopt standards aimed at making sure teachers know their subjects and know how to teach them. Why would these ideas be objectionable to anyone, least of all an organization that represents teachers? Good teachers aren’t threatened by accountability, and those who are going to be great teachers aren’t threatened by additional training. (No, they welcome it, and their students are the better for it. Few things do more to help schoolchildren than professional development of their teachers.) And what teacher would mind getting a little extra reward for doing an outstanding job or tackling a tough assignment? Yet, incentive pay for teachers has been opposed by the AEA in the past, and Riley doesn’t anticipate a big change of heart simply because the idea has a stamp of approval from his Commission on Quality Teaching. But he hopes state legislators will at minimum listen to the proposals and give them a chance. "At least allow this to be debated," Riley said. As the governor points out, the stakes couldn’t be higher. "Unless we continue the reforms we have had over the last two or three years, we are never going to move Alabama to the point where we are going to lead this nation," Riley said. Indeed, we’re dooming ourselves to the back of the pack unless we’re willing to adapt our schools to the realities of a hyper-competitive world. Today’s students (and, for that matter, today’s adults) are going to need to be lifelong learners if they want to compete and succeed in the future. Training and rewarding good teachers are a huge part of that challenge. To have any meaning, though, the commission’s ideas have to get off the shelf and into the classroom.
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