When so much has changed about the way we live, work, interact with one another, and send our children to school, it is startling – and reassuring – that something remains consistent: Teachers matter most when it comes to student performance.
Initial findings on teacher quality were published in 1966 by Johns Hopkins sociologist James Coleman and his colleagues, who reported that teacher quality significantly affects student performance.
The finding remains unchanged over the last 50 years, and today – eight months into a global pandemic – our most at-risk students and families are facing more challenges than ever before.
Research shows that teachers have two to three times more impact on students than any other school factor, including services, facilities, or even leadership. And the greater the quality of the teacher, the greater the effect on student performance. While there are many critical issues we continue to grapple with, the answer to how we can serve our most in-need students today is simple: Incentivize exceptional teaching.
Texas House Bill 3’s Teacher Incentive Allotment was passed last June with a goal to provide a six-figure salary for teachers who prioritize teaching in high-needs districts and campuses.
This structure allows:
- Local school districts to opt-in for these state dollars if they adopt a performance designation system that appraises teachers on student performance and academic growth.
- Incentivizes exceptional teachers to work on high-needs campuses with a mandate that 90 % of these dollars go directly to compensation at the campuses where these teachers work. The remaining 10 % of funds is to be used for developing teachers’ capacity to obtain designations that qualify them for increased compensation.
- Districts to receive increased funding for designated teachers in rural and/or high-needs campuses; thereby enabling equitable distribution of effective teachers to students who need them most.Teachers’ relationships with students are among the strongest characteristics correlated to student achievement.
This performance designation system allows districts to include other factors (like student, family, and teacher peer surveys) to determine which teachers are eligible to receive additional pay.
Teachers are significant relationship in a students’ life. We can all recall a teacher who infused in us a love of learning, spirit of curiosity, or buoyed our personal development.
These relationships between teachers and students are made more important in the context of today as educators transformed in-person learning to virtual platforms – a feat never undertaken by our national education system – and then teachers transitioned back to classrooms, where they assess daily the academic and social-emotional impact of COVID-19 on their students’ young lives while navigating rigorous health protocols to keep themselves and their students safe.
In addition to our students’ social-emotional, academic, and relationship impacts, consider this fact: targeted teacher salary increases have been shown to reduce dropout rates by up to 6 %.
Has there ever been a time in history when we need to motivate students more to show up (virtually or in person)?
We need great teachers. And luckily, we need to look no further than our own neighborhoods to see the positive impact of excellent teachers here in Fort Worth. Over the past few months, our local teachers visited the homes of 1,000 students alongside Read Fort Worth to deliver more than 5,000 literacy packets and sign up 1,200 families to receive weekly text messages with academically and developmentally appropriate instructional messages.
Our teachers are instructing in-person classes with face masks while also hosting live video feeds and uploading online materials to accommodate at-home learners. They are extending virtual office hours, volunteering at food drives, building customized at-home learning activity guides to boost student performance, and holding virtual office hours where students can share how they are feeling that day.
Our appreciation and recognition for the value of teaching should never be higher. When living rooms became classrooms and all parents become homeschooling teachers, the significance of this job was lived in real time in the homes of every parent across our nation.
If we took our teachers for granted before, we should not do so now. Prioritizing teacher quality has never been more important.
Our call to action is for Fort Worth ISD and the Board of Education to prioritize funding for and implementation of Texas House Bill 3’s teacher performance designation system, which will allow us to:
- Attract and retain top-flight teachers into our local public schools,
- Establish performance evaluation systems that reward excellent teaching practices, and
- Ensure our best teachers are working with our students who need them the most. We need great teachers. And we need them now.
Join us in helping to lift up excellent teachers and teaching practices in Fort Worth. Our local students and families are counting on us.
Read Fort Worth was founded in 2016 with the goal to ensure all students read on grade level by third grade to equip them on the path to success in school and life. Executive Council members: Chairman Matt Rose; Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price; Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Kent Scribner; Teresa Ayala; C. Donald Babers; Kevin Buehler; Loretta Burns; Grant Coates; Darien George; Rick Merrill; Mattie Parker; Perry Reed; Jeremy Smith. ReadFortWorth.org.