Mike Mathieson
September 7, 2021
A report came out last week that math and reading scores for 9-year-olds plummeted on the National Assessment of Educational Progress due to kids not attending school regularly over the last two years. The low scores erased 20 years of progress that had been made up till now. Chalkbeat reported:
This year’s results mark the first drop in math scores since officials began administering this national test in the 1970s. Reading scores dropped for the first time in more than 30 years.
I guess the good news in all of this is that attending school matters. The bad news is evident.
Last week I posted an article asking the DPS Administration and School Board to work on a plan to annuitize as much of the CARES money as we can so we can pay bonuses to attract new teachers, and additionally pay teachers more – even past the two-year CARES money funding cliff. This would involve prepaying as many long-term bills as possible, so we have money in our budget to pay teachers more… longer.
The bonus part is easy - we don’t have to worry about long-term money to pay bonuses, because that’s essentially what the CARES money is for – use it now to attract more teachers so we can catch students up after scores dropped due to the academic setback from Covid. That’s what the federal government wants and expects us to do with the money. In March U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said, “I have always known that a well-prepared, well-supported, well-compensated, and diverse educator workforce is the foundation for student success.” He urged districts to “use ARP funds to address the teacher shortage”. I can’t stress this enough – this is what the money is for – to help kids catch up from the lost learning time over the last 2 years.
I’ve received two main criticisms from my article, one from each side of the issue:
1. We won’t be able to annuitize near enough money to continually pay teachers $10,000 more per year.
My response is that you might be right, but we surely won’t if we don’t try. We are a low economic district and from the studies I’ve read, we don’t need new school buildings, but we need to attract new teachers and retain the good ones. The money is available to us now, so hopefully someone in the state legislature will help us and champion our cause. If we can pay $10,000 more per teacher per year than our surrounding districts, we will have a hiring advantage. Once again, annuitizing the CARES money really comes down to finding ways to prepay as many bills as possible, so we have more money for several years to come. Let’s explore:
Create a list of all the maintenance requirements over the next 10 years, and do them now.
Outsourcing the IT Department, prepaying a large portion of the contract, as many Districts around the country have done, to reduce future bills. (Outsourcing should not reduce the IT workforce – the employees will just work for someone else.)
Outsource maintenance with the same intentions. This is probably the only way we can get the amount of work done for maintenance over the next decade done now.
There’s got to be more – this is our list from an hour of brainstorming.
And then, as soon as possible let’s give each existing teacher a $10,000 bonus if they agree to stay two year. If they don’t stay two years, then they must pay the $10K back. This simple bonus alone will probably end up costing about $4 million - the exact same amount the School Board President, Andrew Taylor, told Brian Beyers they have targeted to spend on playground equipment. I think we have enough for both, but if pushed, I’ll give the money to what matters most – the teachers. And then with the money saved from the annuitization plans, let’s pay every teacher $10,000 more per year starting next year. Another bonus plan might involve the number of sick days used by each teacher, which would also help with our substitute teacher problem. I realize all of this would need to run by the Teacher’s Union, but I don’t see them turning down additional money. Maybe we can only make it five years with this plan, but that will be a pretty good five years. The Philadelphia Enquirer reported,
New Mexico recently increased teacher salaries by 20%. Teachers in Mississippi received an average salary increase of $5,100. In Georgia, lawmakers awarded teachers a $2,000 bonus as a way to increase retention.
Let’s join the other districts advancing the cause of attracting and retaining teachers and hopefully end our districts low retention rate problem.
2. What you’re saying makes sense and the meta-study (chart below) you provided makes me wonder why we got rid of RTI in the elementary schools! What gives?
My response: What the %^&*!!! I wasn’t aware of that, but after asking around, it seems the decision was made because of our lack of substitute teachers. Retired teachers were taking the RTI (response to intervention) jobs, which left less of them available to take the usual day-to-day sub jobs. I sympathize with the district administration here but isn’t this cutting off your nose to spite your face. We have money now. RTI falls within the bounds of Tutoring, Feedback and Progress Monitoring, and Small-group instruction – three of the most effective methods of helping low SES kids succeed.
So, here’s another out of the box plan to save RTI in Decatur Public Schools. Hire 20 new December 2022 college Education graduates from around the state (and beyond, if necessary) with the provisions below. Hiring at the end of the fall semester may provide an advantage and allow us to get graduates we may not have had the opportunity to grab. (There are hopefully education graduates at this time of year!)
Two of the new hires will be placed in each of the ten buildings that have elementary school age kids.
They will get a $10,000 sign-on bonus that has be paid back if they don’t stay two years.
They get a slow introduction to teaching – they will be doing 2 years of RTI. This is a great way to get into teaching without the sometimes-overwhelming aspect of getting thrown in front of 28 fifth graders on your first workday out of college!
This plan will cost approximately $1.8 million (20 x $10,000 bonus + 20 x $40,000 salary x 2 years) out of the $72 million dollars in CARES money. RTI is exactly what the CARES money is for. Let’s broaden our thinking, please.
And finally, here’s another small push for someone to consider the World Khan Academy (like) experience in Decatur Public Schools. If we focus on things that matter – promoting the best learning environment, and possibly even attracting new students to the district – this seems to me to be a low-cost game changer for our district.
Next up:
Duane is working an article looking at what we can take from Roland Fryers research about incentives expectations and how it might lead toward more success.
And I am looking into the research regarding paying teachers more for hard to fill positions. Hope Academy currently has 19 openings compared to zero or one for a few other schools. Should we pay more for hard to fill positions?