US Secretary of Education Duncan Visits Wilde Lake High

I had the opportunity on Tuesday to meet Secretary Duncan and Alexa Posny, assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services, on a visit to Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, Md. During the visit, Duncan and Posny observed classrooms and joined in a discussion with students, parents and community members about the importance of inclusion and closing the achievement gap for students with disabilities. The discussion was facilitated by Patty Daley, director of special education from the Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) and James LeMon, principal at Wilde Lake.

During the discussion, Duncan and Posny probed students with a variety of questions aimed at drilling down to the reasons why students at the high school have been so successful, with a particular focus on the tremendous gains that Wilde Lake has made in the achievement measures of its special education students. Secretary Duncan observed that the faculty here is “absolutely committed to making sure that every student fulfills their academic and social potential.” When Alexa asked the students on the panel what makes special education students so successful at Wilde Lake, one student shared that the cultural stigma of being a special ed student had been eliminated and declared that it had been taken over by the notion that, “I am a student!” We know that Wilde Lake takes this belief very seriously, as more than 90 percent of their students spend more than 80 percent of the school day in a general education setting. 

Through the discussion, we learned that the staff at Wilde Lake, led by Principal LeMon and supported by Patty Daley, has taken extraordinary measures to establish and promote a culture of acceptance and individualized instruction within their school programming. They have taken purposeful steps to engage families in a meaningful way, even including them as stakeholders in professional development activities. The school community has a strong belief that each individual is a stakeholder. They routinely analyze student data, make instructional decisions based upon this data, and identify targeted interventions aimed both at supporting students who are falling behind and enriching those who need an extra push. They use research-based instructional practices to maximize the learning for all of their students, citing the use of Classroom Focused Improvement Process (http://www.blogger.com) as one example. This targeted, “laser” focus of both Wilde Lake and HCPSS, led by the district’s superintendent, Dr. Sydney Cousin, has enabled an effective mainstreaming environment for all students with disabilities, recognizing that they can and should succeed. They have developed an expectation that all students are self-advocates.

Assistant Secretary Posny noted in her opening remarks that, “There is a greater tragedy than being labeled as a slow learner, and that is being treated like one.” Students with disabilities at Wilde Lake are not treated like slow learners, but are treated as equal partners in education with the same expectations for success as their peers. Truly, the mantra “I am a student!” is a pervasive part of the culture, and in that regard Wilde Lake should be a model for all schools across the country. (Source: Greg Mullenholz, a Teaching Ambassador Fellow with the U.S. Department of Education.)

Teacher Pay Study Asks the Wrong Question, Ignores Facts, Insults Teachers

As millions of Americans search for work, and millions more scrape by to make ends meet, researchers affiliated with two Washington think tanks -- the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation -- have recently announced a "finding" that defies common-sense: America's teachers are overpaid by more than 50 percent.

The new paper from Jason Richwine and Andrew Biggs fails on several levels. First, it asks the wrong question. Second, it ignores facts that conflict with its conclusions. Lastly, it insults teachers and demeans the profession.

Instead of asking whether teachers are overpaid, Richwine and Biggs should have asked what it would take to recruit and retain highly effective teachers for all students. Surveys show that many talented and committed young people are reluctant to enter teaching for the long haul because they think the profession is low-paying and not prestigious enough.

McKinsey & Co. did a study (PDF) last year comparing the U.S. to other countries and found that America's average current teacher salaries -- starting around $35,000 and topping out at an average of $65,000 -- were set far too low to attract and retain top talent.

The McKinsey report found that starting teacher salaries have not kept pace with other fields. In 1970, beginning New York City lawyers earned $2,000 more than first-year teachers. Today, a starting lawyer there can earn three or four times as much as a beginning teacher.

Money is not the reason that people enter teaching. But it is a reason why some talented people avoid teaching--or quit the profession when starting a family or buying a home. Other high-performing nations recruit teachers from the top third of college graduates. That must be our goal as well, and compensation is one critical factor. To encourage more top-caliber students to choose teaching, teachers should be paid a lot more, with starting salaries more in the range of $60,000 and potential earnings of as much as $150,000.

Great teachers stand at the summit of one of the hardest, most challenging, and most consequential professions for our children and the country's future economic prosperity. They deserve our respect and should be well-remunerated. Nevertheless, through tortured analysis, and in some instances a disregard of their own data, the authors of this new study reach a predictably contrary conclusion.

Traditionally, economists have analyzed teacher pay the same way they analyze pay in other professions--they have compared the pay of teachers to workers with similar education and work experience. Like many before them, Richwine and Biggs found that teachers did indeed receive lower pay than similarly educated workers -- almost 20 percent lower.

I agree that educational credentials are not the best measures of teacher effectiveness -- but the researchers go on to assert that teachers should not be compared to workers with similar educational credentials because teachers do not score as well on the Armed Forces Qualifications Test. Setting aside the fact that the AFQT does not measure teacher effectiveness, it is insulting and demeaning to argue that teachers are not smart enough to receive market compensation comparable to their peers based on the results of a test that most of them took as teenagers.

The researchers also ignored a chart in their own paper showing that teachers have similar overall benefit packages to private employees. Unhappy with those findings, they then exaggerated the value of teacher compensation by comparing the retirement benefits of the small minority of teachers who stay in the classroom for 30 years, rather than comparing the pension benefits for the typical teacher to their peers in other professions. 

Finally, they appeared to create out of thin air an 8.6 percent "job security" salary premium for teachers -- despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of education jobs were lost in the recession and teachers continue to face layoffs. 

By the end of this decade, more than half of America's 3.2 million teachers are expected to retire. That demographic shift presents a stiff challenge and a special opportunity. States, districts, and schools have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to modernize the teaching profession and expand the talent pool. But doing so will require dramatic change in the way we recruit, train, support, evaluate, and compensate teachers.

I agree with Richwine and Biggs on one point. If teachers are to be recognized and compensated as professionals, states and school districts must shift away from a blue-collar assembly line model of compensation--and do more to reward effectiveness and performance in the classroom. A performance-based compensation model will enable great teachers to earn more, justify higher salaries, and raise the stature of the profession.

Americans need and deserve an honest, open debate about the teaching profession, framed by evidence, not ideologically-tilted studies like this one. The debate in Washington today should be about how to judiciously invest in education. How can we best modernize schools with crumbling infrastructure so they can teach 21st century skills? How can we keep teachers in classrooms, instead of on unemployment lines? And yes--even when budgets are tight--how can we make teaching a more attractive career and elevate the profession?

The answer to these questions cannot be to cut teacher pay and put tens of thousands of teachers out of work. Even in a time of fiscal austerity, education is more than just an expense. It's an investment in the future.

Arne Duncan is the U.S. Secretary of Education

This post was updated on November 10, to more accurately reflect the authors of the study.

Secretary Duncan will be coming to Wilde Lake High School this week. I have been invited to attend a briefing that he will conduct this coming week. I am looking forward to the opportunity to meet him and hear the message he will deliver.