Sensible Compensation Policies That Add Up
By Brenda Welburn, Former Executive Director of the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE)
Welburn was a moderator and resource expert on improving educator effectiveness through evaluation and compensation reform at The Hunt Institute’s 2014 Holshouser Legislators Retreat. (To learn more about this issue, see The Institute’s special re:VISION series on educator effectiveness here.) She served as the executive director of NASBE from 1994 until 2012 and is known as an association manager and legislative professional with more than 35 years of experience in policy development and analysis in education and human service issues. Below she shares her insight on teacher compensation.
The movement of tying teacher compensation to student achievement has gained momentum throughout the nation, but not without serious debate on how to achieve the goals of the movement without adversely affecting the teaching profession and the learning environment.
To some it seems like a simple premise; those who perform at the highest level should receive the highest rewards. Yet for years policymakers have wrestled with the dilemma of how to support accountability plans that measure proficiency, while acknowledging the significance of student growth and progress among those students with the greatest deficiencies. To do this in a way that rewards milestones in progress – without impeding the goal of genuine student competency – is no easy task. One teacher’s class may have higher test scores, while another’s shows more measurable growth. The idea that student achievement in isolation can be the sole determinant of a teacher’s effectiveness, and thus their compensation package, does not reflect the reality of practice.
Read More →If Tests Aren’t Working for Teachers and Families, They’re Not Working
By Aimee Rogstad Guidera, Executive Director, Data Quality Campaign
Guidera was a panelist and resource expert on testing and assessments at The Hunt Institute’s 2014 Holshouser Legislators Retreat. (To learn more about this issue, see The Institute’s special re:VISION series on educator effectiveness here.) She is also the founder of Data Quality Campaign and leads the efforts to encourage policymakers to increase the availability and use of high-quality education data to improve student achievement. Below she shares how effective student assessments are crucial to improving student outcomes and educator effectiveness.
Read More →Holshouser Continues Legacy of Bi-Partisan Collaboration
By The Hunt Team
Last month, Ginny Holshouser Mills delivered an impassioned welcome to North Carolina legislators during The Institute’s Holshouser Legislators Retreat – named in honor of her father, Governor Jim Holshouser. She recalled her father’s steadfast commitment to public education and bi-partisan collaboration as he worked tirelessly to improve the lives of North Carolina’s students. Her captivating remarks left all in attendance inspired and thinking about the importance of teamwork for the greater good. The following are excerpts from her speech.
“When he was in office, dad was serious about education, rural healthcare, the environment, and economic development. But after leaving office, dad dedicated most of his public service time to the areas of education and economic development. Why? Because he believed that education mattered more to the future of our state than any other area, and without it, there would be no way to build the North Carolina economy for generations to come. In short, education matters. And, dad thought that there were some things that mattered more than others.
Read More →RECAP: The 2014 Holshouser Legislators Retreat
By The Hunt Team
Sweeping education legislation in 2013 has resulted in monumental changes for teaching and student assessment in North Carolina’s public schools. Local school districts are working hard to implement these new policies and are calling on policymakers to re-examine the pace of change, the efficacy of these reforms, and the expectations being placed on classroom teachers.
Last month, The Hunt Institute convened North Carolina legislators in Greensboro, NC, for the 2014 Holshouser Legislators Retreat amidst this backdrop of trepidation and change. This bi-partisan group of 60 policymakers spent two days with national and state education experts discussing key topics such as teacher effectiveness and compensation, student assessments, school accountability, partnerships that promote college and career readiness, and the role rigorous standards play in securing North Carolina’s economic future.
Read More →“Racing to the Top” to Prepare Turnaround Principals … What’s Next?
By Kathleen M. Brown, Ed.D.
Four years ago, North Carolina was awarded one of only 12 federal Race to the Top (RttT) competitive grants, bringing nearly $400 million to the state’s public school system. Approximately $17.5 million of these funds were specifically earmarked to “increase the number of principals qualified to lead transformational change in low-performing schools in both rural and urban areas.” As such, the policy objective undertaken by North Carolina’s Regional Leadership Academies (RLAs) was to recruit and prepare more than180 “turnaround principals” serving more than 30 counties in three vastly different and very distinct regions of the state -the Northeast (NELA), the Piedmont Triad (PTLA) and the Sandhills (SLA). Findings to date indicate that:
Read More →There’s a Lot Left to Learn From Jim Hunt
By The Hunt Team
Sacramento Bee Associate Editor Foon Rhee shares his views on the political careers of California’s Governor Jerry Brown and North Carolina’s former Governor Jim Hunt in the op-ed, Editorial notebook: Jerry Brown could learn a thing or two from Jim Hunt, who took a similar path. A former reporter for The Charlotte Observer, Rhee discusses the parallel roads taken by these two longest serving governors in their states.
Read More →North Carolina is Underinvesting in Education
The following is an excerpt from Governor Jim Hunt’s speech for The Thomas Willis Lambeth Lecture given on September 26, 2013 at The University of North Carolina At Chapel Hill.
By The Hunt Team
Looking ahead, it is important for us in North Carolina to study and enact school reform ideas that are well proven. Setting high standards for our students makes sense. And I commend Governor (Pat) McCrory for endorsing the new college- and career-ready Common Core State Standards for North Carolina. Assessing teacher effectiveness, by means that include data on their students’ learning gains, makes sense. And some “pay for performance” as a part of compensation for teachers is a good idea.
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