{"id":22970,"date":"2014-11-14T10:08:49","date_gmt":"2014-11-14T15:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=22970"},"modified":"2014-11-14T10:24:27","modified_gmt":"2014-11-14T15:24:27","slug":"opinion-for-better-teachers-larger-classes-and-higher-salaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2014\/11\/14\/opinion-for-better-teachers-larger-classes-and-higher-salaries\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: For Better Teachers, Larger Classes And Higher Salaries"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sarasota<\/a>

John O'Connor \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Sarasota County middle school math teacher Brenda Fuoco, in 2013.<\/p><\/div>\n

Maybe a charter school in New York City has discovered “The Answer” to Florida\u2019s K-12 education challenges?<\/p>\n

If so, the school has done so by setting aside Florida\u2019s focus on keeping class sizes small and by instead adopting a strategy that our state has so far ignored \u2013 recruiting star teachers with high salaries and an attractive working environment.\u00a0 In particular, the school\u2019s spectacular results in math achievement should provide the standard by which Florida\u2019s efforts to prepare students for careers in STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — fields are judged.<\/p>\n

The New York City charter, which teaches grades 5-9, is called The Equity Project (TEP).\u00a0 It pays its teachers a $125,000 salary \u2013 with bonuses based on student achievement.\u00a0 The salary seems extravagant in part because the cost of living in New York City is so high.\u00a0 An equivalent salary in Tampa would be $71,000, according to Bankrate.com \u2013 still considerably higher than the average Florida teacher salary of about $46,000.<\/p>\n

In addition to the high salary, the TEP teachers have time to plan and collaborate, and a six-week professional development program is built into each summer.\u00a0 The teachers take a large role in school-wide decision-making.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The teachers also assume many administrative tasks, eliminating nearly all administrative positions and thus freeing resources for teaching.\u00a0 The average class size is large at 31 students, much larger than Florida\u2019s constitutionally mandated limit of 22 for middle schools.\u00a0 Once again, this frees up resources for other uses, including supporting the high salaries.<\/p>\n

The application process for teaching positions at TEP is rigorous, and about half of the first-year teachers who survive the application process either resign or are not rehired for the second year.\u00a0 The typical teacher hired by TEP already has six years of teaching experience.<\/p>\n

The school is located in a challenging New York City neighborhood and has a student population that is nearly identical to those of the traditional public schools in the same vicinity.<\/p>\n

\"Florida<\/a>

Florida State University<\/p>

Florida State University physics professor Paul Cottle.<\/p><\/div>\n

The results?\u00a0 A study by Mathematica Policy Research shows that students who attended the school from 2009 to 2013 \u2013 for four years – learned 5.6 years\u2019 worth of math<\/a> \u2013 1.6 years\u2019 worth of math more than their peers at neighboring traditional public middle schools.<\/p>\n

The math achievement gap between Hispanic and white students was mostly eliminated.\u00a0 Students also learned considerably more science (about 0.6 years more) than their peers at nearby middle schools, and their achievement in English language arts was also greater than at the neighboring schools by 0.4 years.<\/p>\n

These results aren\u2019t particularly surprising.\u00a0 We\u2019ve always known that great teachers can have a tremendous impact on students.<\/p>\n

And the fact that the most dramatic improvements are in math isn\u2019t surprising, either.\u00a0 Researchers at Michigan State University recently demonstrated<\/a> that middle school math teachers in the US are weaker at doing math themselves than their counterparts in nations with which we compete like Taiwan, Singapore and Poland.<\/p>\n

New bachelor\u2019s degree graduates in mathematics generally earn considerably more than starting K-12 teachers, making it difficult for a young person with strong math skills who wants to start a family to choose a teaching career.\u00a0 TEP\u2019s $125,000 salary not only solves that problem, but also makes middle school teaching the best financial option for many with strong math skills.<\/p>\n

So here is the next big question:\u00a0 Would educational decision-makers in Florida \u2013 legislators, Department of Education leadership, teachers\u2019 union officials and even parents and taxpayers – be willing to replicate this school on a large scale?<\/p>\n

Would we be willing to pay early career teachers $71,000 in Tampa to get the same results as the TEP school did in New York City?\u00a0 Would legislators, school board members and taxpayers be willing to support that?<\/p>\n

Maybe we should limit that $71,000 salary to early career teachers in schools like TEP that host large numbers of high-needs students.\u00a0 Would teachers\u2019 unions be willing to allow a large pay differential between schools with many high-needs students and those with less challenging student bodies?<\/p>\n

And maybe we should further focus these high salaries on math teachers, where the high salaries at TEP appeared to have the most impact.\u00a0 There\u2019s another conundrum for the teachers\u2019 unions.<\/p>\n

In fact, both of those salary differential schemes would be challenging for Florida\u2019s charter schools, which are not known for paying higher salaries than the traditional public schools.<\/p>\n

Are parents willing to allow class sizes of 31 students to help provide the resources needed for these higher salaries?<\/p>\n

Maybe TEP has found “The Answer” to Florida\u2019s K-12 challenges.\u00a0 If so, we are all going to have to look in the mirror and ask ourselves whether we are ready to make the investments and sacrifices it will take to accept it.<\/p>\n

Paul Cottle is a physics professor at Florida State University<\/a> and writes about education issues at his blog, Bridge to Tomorrow<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maybe a charter school in New York City has discovered “The Answer” to Florida\u2019s K-12 education challenges? If so, the school has done so by setting aside Florida\u2019s focus on keeping class sizes small and by instead adopting a strategy that our state has so far ignored \u2013 recruiting star teachers with high salaries and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":18870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[1009,1169,1078,1082,1079],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22970"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22970"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22973,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22970\/revisions\/22973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}