State to pursue school reform grant

By Diane Knich - The (Charleston) Post and Courier

CHARLESTON -- State Department of Education leaders said they will apply for a portion of $4 billion in federal stimulus money for school reform available to states, and they think they have a shot at getting it.

The U.S. Department of Education isn't yet accepting applications for the money, which will be available through a competitive federal grant program called “Race to the Top.”

But when applications are accepted, the department has said it will favor states that support charter schools and that have put in place programs that tie teachers' pay to their students' academic performance.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan has control over which states will get the money, and it could go to as few as 10 to 20 states.

Betsy Carpentier, the state's deputy superintendent for education, said South Carolina has several key strategies already in place that could help it land a grant, including:

High academic standards

The governor's support to join a multi-state initiative for uniform standards

Highly qualified and effective teachers equally dispersed among different types of schools

A solid charter school program and efforts to make those schools more effective

A pilot pay-for-performance program for teachers

“All of these are things I think will give our proposal a leg-up over other states,” Carpentier said. If South Carolina gets a grant, she said, half of the money will go to implementing reform programs statewide, and half will go to school districts that agree to participate in reform efforts.

One of the most controversial attributes the federal government is looking for in states to which it will award money is the pay-for-performance programs for teachers.

National teachers' unions oppose basing teachers' pay on their students' performance on standardized tests, and say student achievement is much more than a test score.

Kent Riddle, chairman of the Charleston Teacher Alliance, said survey results indicate that Charleston County teachers are not in favor of such programs.

Teachers were asked whether they were in favor of using incentive pay to reward teachers whose students show improvements on the state's standardized tests. Of the 812 teachers who responded, 53 percent were opposed, 29 percent were in favor and 18 percent were unsure.

Charleston County has worked hard to make teaching a collaborative effort, and such programs focus only on individual effort, he said.

Mark Bounds, the state's deputy superintendent for educator quality and leadership, said a typical problem with such programs is that pay components are put in place before a solid “value-added” model that's fair to all teachers is developed.

The state, over the past seven years, has tested a program called the Teacher Advancement Program, which Bounds said is having remarkable results. All teachers in the state get pay increases based on experience levels and credentials, he said.

The program started in a handful of schools and has grown over the years to include 42 schools, none of the them in the tri-county area.

Under the program, 30 percent of a teacher's rating for bonuses is based on how his or her students perform on standardized tests compared to other students with similar demographics, 40 percent on classroom observation and 30 percent on how the school does overall.

There's an almost perfect correlation between a teacher's rating on how his or her students perform and classroom observation of that teacher's instructional techniques, Bounds said.

The average teacher in the program receives an annual bonus of between $1,500 and $2,500, he said.