Earlier this week, D.C. City Council approved a contract with the Washington Teacher’s Union which guarantees higher pay for teachers who show significant impact in the classroom. After 2 years of intensive debate, Chancellor Michelle Rhee has finally cemented her innovative ideas around tying teacher pay to new systems of evaluation into a school system that for decades has been in desperate need of change. While most union contracts of large cities rely mainly on tenure for paying teachers, the new D.C. contract will use growth scores as one benchmark of higher teacher pay. As many other urban districts go back to the bargaining table to approve their own union contracts, some are wondering if the D.C. model can be replicated across the country.
Some of the tenets of the new teacher contract include:
-21.6 % salary increase through 2012, which includes a raise they did not receive while the new contract was being negotiated.
-Raises the average salary of a D.C. teacher to $81,000 from $67,000.
-Includes a volunteer pay-for-performance system that could increase teacher salaries by an additional $30,000 if students achieve better than expected growth in test scores.
-Creates “teacher-centers” where teachers can receive additional profession development support and resources.
Cleveland is one of those cities that is in desperate need of examining how it attracts, retains, and incentivizes highly qualified teachers. As it stands now, Cleveland has one of the most restrictive teacher contracts in the nation. Teacher seniority and other defunct contract provisions stand in the way of any real reform that would allow the district to eliminate ineffective teachers. For Cleveland to create a word-class education system, teachers unions, education leaders, and policymakers need to think hard about creating a teacher evaluation system that rewards success and fosters real accountability, not just seniority.
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