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INSIGHTS

The best teachers make the best district; you have to pay for the best.
By David R. Legge |

WITHIN THE Dallas Independent School District, we pay our teachers as if they were babysitters and – if teachers can be believed-we treat them like babies. Both practices have to stop.

Public education in Dallas is now poised precariously between the opportunity for renaissance and renewal and the possibility of continued decay and eventual collapse. One thing can be counted on: The remainder of this calendar year will determine the future of public education in Dallas, and possibly the future of the city itself.

There are real reasons for optimism. Already in place are some of the finest teachers and schools in the country, from Skyline to W.T. White to Lida Hooe to Polk Academy. Already in place is the finest school superintendent in the state and a nationally respected administrator and educator, Linus Wright. Already in place is a program to end social promotion within the DISD -despite the howls from hundreds of parents who apparently would prefer the crippling effects of social promotion for their children to the social embarrassment for themselves of having their kids repeat a grade level.

Still another reason for hope at this particular juncture is that the Texas Legislature passed a law requiring a special school board election within the DISD on November 3. It is fair to say that the upcoming election will be the most important that Dallas voters have participated in in at least the last decade -and probably within the decade to come. Dallas voters can take an enormous step toward turning this school district around. Given a palatable ruling on the desegregation suit now in federal court plus the election of a competent, common-sense school board, this school system can be turned around.

Having said that, it must also be said that a scalpel-like approach to the problems of the DISD will not do. Too many years of social experimentation, too many millions of dollars worth of federal programs, and, in particular, too much exponential growth in the ranks of the DISD administration, have resulted in a school system that has become bureaucratically unresponsive to the basic educational needs of its students and demoralizing to its most valuable asset, its teaching staff. Nothing short of a bold, zero-based budgeting approach will now do.

Above all, the classroom teacher must become the most important employee within the DISD. Teachers are the only ones who teach, and teaching and learning should be the only function of the public schools.

Salary structures within the DISD are the opposite of what they should be: The further an employee gets away from the classroom, the more money he makes.

As of today, a beginning teacher in Dallas with a bachelor of arts degree makes $12,100 per year. A beginning teacher with a master’s degree makes $13,321. We pay policemen, plumbers, and some grocery store clerks more than that.

But even more important than money is simple dignity. We don’t support our teachers financially, and far too many principals and administrators don’t support them in the classroom. We hire Ph.Ds by the dozen – four dozen alone in the Accountability and Development Division of the DISD-and allow them to violate the sanctity of the classroom.

It is not an immodest proposal to suggest that beginning teachers start at $16,000-$ 18,000 within the DISD with the opportunity for substantial increases based on (in this order): 1) performance, 2) seniority, and 3) education.

It is worth mentioning that this need not cost the DISD (i.e. you, the taxpayer) an inordinate amount of money. Most of it is already in the $326 million budget; the DISD spends more per pupil ($2219) than any other large school district in the state. What is needed is a reallocation of funds from the administrative side of the budget to the teacher side. The DISD spends more per student on school administration than any school district in the U.S.

Nevertheless, it would be a mistake simply to pay all teachers more money, regardless of their performance and quality. Teacher testing must be coupled with higher pay, and it must take place on two levels.

First, all new teachers must demonstrate academic proficiency on an objective, standardized test, such as the rigorous National Teacher Examinations administered by the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey. Unless the applicant passes the test, he shouldn’t get the job. Currently, the DISD uses 11 criteria to evaluate a prospective teacher, including its own achievement test, but passage of the test is not a pre-condition for employment. It should be. Although objective testing addresses only one of the three most important ingredients of successful teaching, academic proficiency (the other two are communication skills and enthusiasm), it would certainly screen out such teachers as the one in East Oak Cliff who had never heard of Adolph Hitler.

The second phase of testing is analogous to the handgun problem. Already there are some 50 million handguns in place in America. If we stopped manufacturing handguns tomorrow, we would still have a handgun problem for many years to come. Likewise with our teaching staff. The unfortunate truth is that far too many of our teachers -and principals -are substandard, if not illiterate themselves.

Regardless of race, experience, affirmative action, number of advanced degrees, or whatever, these teachers must be identified through periodic teacher testing and dismissed. If litigation is necessary to clear out the substandard teachers, then Supt. Wright and the school board must be willing to spend the dollars to litigate. As long as we have substandard teachers, we will have substandard education.

Even Harley Hiscox, the quality-oriented president of the Dallas County Federation of Teachers, believes a top priority of the DISD should be to identify and remove ineffective teachers. “We’re not afraid of any fair test,” Hiscox says. “The good teachers will pass the test.”

And for those who do, we should treatthem like the professionals they are andpay them accordingly. It is fair to say thatgiven such a teaching environment, we willbe inundated with applications to teachhere, and it’s reasonable to assume that thebest teachers in the country will be amongthe applicants. If we see to it that ourteachers are well-supported, well-paid,and treated with respect, they will see to itthat recess is finally over within the DallasIndependent School District.

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