Contents of this issue:
Delaware’s largest district begins teachers merit-pay pilot program
Analysis suggests Michigan schools inflate self-grading system
Poll: Public offers conflicting views on No Child Left Behind Act
Schools trim budgets to stay in the black
Insurance costs hold up teachers contract talks
Saginaw school offers single-sex classrooms
DELAWARE'S LARGEST DISTRICT BEGINS TEACHERS MERIT-PAY PILOT PROGRAM
NEW YORK, N.Y. — The largest school district in the state of Delaware
announced last week that it would begin a pilot program to pay teachers
based on their students' achievement in school.
Christina School District Superintendent Joseph Wise said new teachers
salary increases should be commensurate with student achievement to
reward the most successful teachers. Middle and high school achievement
there has been stagnant, and district administrators hope the new
program will give teachers the incentive needed to improve students'
education.
The program, which will begin in September 2005, follows a similar
Denver pilot program that began last year.
SOURCES:
New York Times, "School District Ties Pay to Performance," Aug. 25, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/25/education/25teach.html
Michigan Education Report, "Teacher Pay and Teacher Quality: How Do They Relate?" Spring 1999
http://www.educationreport.org/1681
Michigan Education Report, "Increase teachers' pay the right way," Early Fall 2000
http://www.educationreport.org/3084
Michigan Education Report, "Diverse Viewpoints: Should teachers be paid based on merit?" Summer 2004
http://www.educationreport.org/6725
ANALYSIS SUGGESTS MICHIGAN SCHOOLS INFLATE SELF-GRADING SYSTEM
DETROIT, Mich. — Education experts in Michigan say that many schools in
the state pad their overall grades in the state's report card by giving
themselves high marks on the self-review section, defeating the purpose
of the state government's grading system.
The state publishes an annual report card that grades each school in
Michigan using data from the Michigan Educational Assessment Program
and from a school's evaluation of itself in several categories. According to a Detroit News analysis of the state's latest batch of school report cards, 83 percent of schools that failed federal standards for more than four years
gave themselves A's on the self-assessment portion of the grade. This
number is up from 70 percent last year.
One example is George Ford Elementary School in Detroit, which gave
itself a perfect score for its facilities just before it was closed
because the school began to sink into the ground. Ford Elementary is
"an example of why we need to firm up the system," said state
Superintendent Tom Watkins. "[Schools] better have ... appropriate
justification on why they gave themselves an A."
School administrators, however, dispute that there is distortion in the
schools' self-assessments on such criteria as the number and type of
state-mandated programs that exist in a school. "The state tells you the criteria," said Pontiac Superintendent Mildred Mason. "It is not
that we go out and give ourselves a grade. We just tell the truth as it
is. All it means is you have those [programs] in place at your
buildings."
SOURCES:
Detroit News, "Metro schools pad rankings," Aug. 30, 2004
http://www.detnews.com/2004/schools/0408/30/a01-257920.htm
Michigan Education Report, "State superintendent launches plan to grade schools," Winter 2002
http://www.educationreport.org/4083
Michigan Education Report, "State Board of Education adopts school grading plan," Spring 2002
http://www.educationreport.org/4270
POLL: PUBLIC OFFERS CONFLICTING VIEWS ON NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT
DETROIT, Mich. — Results released last week of a survey focusing on the
No Child Left Behind Act suggested that American adults have
conflicting opinions on the act's methods and results.
For instance, over two-thirds of polled adults said they believed using
test scores in math and reading were an incorrect way to judge school
performance. But almost as many agreed with the statement that schools
give the right emphasis to tests or don't give tests enough emphasis,
according to poll results. Over half said the act will bring
improvement to public schools.
The number of people who consider themselves uninformed about the law
dropped from 2003, but remained high, at 68 percent of those polled. Fifty-five percent said they didn't know enough about the law to form
an opinion on it.
The poll was administered by the Gallup Organization and Phi Kappa
Delta International, an education professionals group. It is conducted
annually with a statistically representative group of American adults.
SOURCES:
Detroit News, "Poll: Views on schools clash," Aug. 25, 2004
http://www.detnews.com/2004/schools/0408/25/a05-253615.htm
Michigan Education Report, "President signs 'No Child Left Behind Act,'" Winter 2002
http://www.mackinac.org/4082
Michigan Education Report, "No Child
Left Behind law demands 'adequate yearly progress' and offers school
choice options for parents," Fall 2002
http://www.educationreport.org/4846
SCHOOLS TRIM BUDGETS TO STAY IN THE BLACK
KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Michigan school districts are finding more ways to
save money after their income from state sources dropped during the
economic decline in the early 2000s, reports the Kalamazoo Gazette.
Many districts have opted to increase class sizes somewhat, making the
statewide average for class size larger this year than in the last
several. "Class size increases are slight, but definitely on the rise,"
said Gail Braverman, spokeswoman for the Michigan Association of School
Boards. Even small increases in class size can save districts
noticeable amounts of money.
Other districts, including some rural districts, are shortening the
school year by not starting until after Labor Day and ending the year
earlier, as well. Cost-saving measures such as combining student field
trips, having students pay to play on sports teams and limiting new
capital outlays are all popular with districts trying to stay in the
black.
The nine school districts in Kalamazoo County implemented a
cooperative-bidding system this summer that will allow them to combine
purchases to save money by buying their supplies in bulk. "More and
more of those kind of cooperative efforts are in place or in
development," said Jim Rikkers, a consultant for the Kalamazoo Regional
Educational Service Agency. "It's an attempt to keep budget cuts as far
away from instructional programs as possible."
SOURCES:
Kalamazoo Gazette, "Districts save by enlarging class size, trimming
days and collaborating on purchases," Aug. 25, 2004
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-10/
109344721361440.xml
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "The Six Habits of Fiscally
Responsible School Districts," December 2002
http://www.mackinac.org/4891
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "Will More Money Improve Student
Performance?" June 1998
http://www.mackinac.org/527
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "More Spending Not the Solution to
School Woes," December 1993
http://www.mackinac.org/137
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "Michigan's Budget Challenge,"
August 2004
http://www.mackinac.org/4964
INSURANCE COSTS HOLD UP TEACHERS CONTRACT TALKS
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — More than 1,200 teachers in Northern Michigan
are without contracts, after yearlong negotiations failed to bring
union representatives and school district officials to terms.
One of the largest sources of disagreement in the talks in the six
northern districts is the cost of insurance for teachers, which has
risen substantially in the recent past. "Our insurance this year has
gone from $989 to $1,164 per teacher per month," said Benzie County
Central Schools Superintendent David Micinski. "The total insurance
increase for the teachers is $215,958 for one year through extending
the existing contract."
The district proposed a 10 percent cap on the increase in what the
district would pay for teachers' health insurance coverage, so that
teachers would pay the remaining 7.7 percent of this year's 17.7
percent insurance hike. But Kathleen Betts, an MEA Uniserv director,
said that the union rejected such an offer last year because it was
less than teachers had received before. "Teachers historically have had
uncapped health insurance," she said. "We feel it's a benefit that
keeps people healthy and keeps people working."
The Leland district also reports that insurance is the main sticking
point in its contract talks. "It's the same as everywhere else in the
country," said Superintendent Michael Hartigan. "It's the cost of
providing quality insurance for our employees. We see 15 to 18 percent
increases every year, and they're budget breakers."
SOURCES:
Traverse City Record-Eagle, "Teachers wait for contracts," Aug. 22, 2004
http://www.record-eagle.com/2004/aug/22benzie.htm
Michigan Education Report, "MESSA: Keeping school districts from saving money on health care," Summer 2004
http://www.educationreport.org/6742
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "MEA Abuses Public School Health
Care Funds," Aug. 7, 2001
http://www.mackinac.org/9404
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "Michigan Education Special Services
Association: The MEA's Money Machine," November 1993
http://www.mackinac.org/8
Michigan Privatization Report, "Ensuring Insurance Competition,"
September 1998
http://www.mackinac.org/667
SAGINAW SCHOOL OFFERS SINGLE-SEX CLASSROOMS
SAGINAW, Mich. — A Saginaw elementary school this autumn began a
yearlong pilot program that offers single-sex classrooms to students,
bringing mixed reactions from parents, students and administrators.
Schools across the country are starting to offer single-sex classrooms,
which proponents say are less distracting for students, who then do not
have to deal with the social pressures of mixed classrooms. "John
Kerry, George W. Bush, his father and Al Gore all went to all-boys
schools," Dr. Leonard Sax, a Maryland physician and psychologist, told
USA Today. "We don't think that's a coincidence. We think single-sex
education really empowers girls and boys from very diverse backgrounds
to achieve."
Complaints lodged against the practice state that public schools should
not be allowed to offer the classes, as they might be seen as
discriminatory or unequal. "We think segregation has historically
always resulted in second-class citizens," said Terry O'Neill, a vice
president for the National Organization for Women.
Principal Janice K. Anderson, who leads the Webber Elementary School in
the Saginaw city school district, said she has heard few complaints
about the program and remains confident of its merits. "Overall,
parents have been very supportive," said Anderson. "They're taking a
wait-and-see attitude, but we can't wait to get started. We see the
potential to do some good things."
If successful, district administrators plan to expand the program to
encompass two buildings, turning Webber Elementary into an all-girls
school and making another elementary school into an all-boys school. But Saginaw Superintendent Gerald D. Dawkins said single-sex classrooms
are not a silver bullet for providing a quality education. "If we don't
change the way we instruct students, we won't improve," he said.
"Single-gender classrooms will not magically transform academic
achievement."
SOURCES:
Saginaw News, "Experiment begins with single-sex classrooms,"
Aug. 25, 2004
http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/base/news-12/
1093443618283640.xml
USA Today, "More states offer single-sex schools," Aug. 24, 2004
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/
2004-08-24-single-sex-schools_x.htm
MICHIGAN EDUCATION DIGEST is a service of
Michigan Education Report (
http://www.educationreport.org), a quarterly newspaper with a circulation of 130,000 published by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy (
http://www.mackinac.org), a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational institute.
Contact Managing Editor Neil Block at
med@educationreport.org.
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