An article in the New York Times discusses a recent development in Branson which is also a nationwide first: a privately financed airport.

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Teachers Have Chance to Be Rewarded for Excellence

By Janese Heavin
Show-Me Institute

SAINT LOUIS — Teachers in Saint Louis would have the opportunity to earn more money under a proposal approved by the Senate last week.

Senate Bill 42, the “Teacher Choice Compensation Package,” allows Saint Louis Public Schools to award performance-based stipends to teachers who participate in the program. Under the proposal, the state would appropriate $5 million every year to fund the stipends.

Bill sponsor Sen. Jane Cunningham (R-Chesterfield) originally had hoped to implement the plan statewide, but compromised with a Saint Louis pilot plan. She’s optimistic, though, that merit pay is an up-and-coming trend that will benefit all schools.

“This is something that’s sweeping the nation,” Cunningham said. “There are already examples of school districts that have used merit pay, and it’s already yielded positive results. People who are bucking this trend can’t do it forever.”

Under S.B. 42, Saint Louis educators can choose either to participate in the plan or to remain on a traditional salary schedule.

Teachers who opt into the compensation plan give up tenure in exchange for stipends worth up to $15,000 a year. The money will be given based on evaluations by administrators, parents, and students, and on value-added test scores. Those scores will be weighted to reflect a classroom’s demographics, with more weight added for teachers who educate at-risk populations.

Cunningham believes the system will not only help teachers earn more money, it will have positive side effects.

“Teachers who don’t opt out of tenure and opt into the Teacher Choice Compensation Plan cannot get extra money,” she said. “The outcome is going to be that it’s going to get around in the parent community which teachers are on the compensation plan and which are on the salary schedule. Anyone who wants the challenge and is willing to take a risk is a teacher parents are going to want their children to have. Other teachers will be status quo, and that’s not going to be a teacher that families want. I think it’s going to weed out people who don’t want to perform. … Those who are mediocre are going to have a light shone on them, and those who are outstanding performers are going to have a light shone on them, too. The people who will benefit are the kids.”

The bill still needs approval from the House, but Cunningham is confident the measure will be adopted.

“It has a good chance,” she said. “Shame on any House member who would turn this away. This is where we need to be going in education right now.”

Merit pay legislation has been unsuccessful in the past because of strong opposition from teachers’ unions, Cunningham said. This year, she credited initial passage of the bill to support from Senate Pro Tem Charlie Shields, Sen. Jeff Smith, a Saint Louis Democrat, and Saint Louis Superintendent Kelvin Adams, who touted merit pay as a needed reform during an educational Senate seminar earlier this legislative session.

Currently, Ladue is the only public school in Missouri using a performance pay model. Although that system is being updated, Ladue Associate Superintendent Marsha Chappelow said the more than 50-year-old pay plan remains popular among community members and teachers. Chappelow said she would have appreciated a performance pay model, too, as a new teacher starting out in a district that used traditional salary schedules.

“Starting out as a new teacher, I don’t think I understood the salary schedule,” she said. “In other businesses, pay increases are a way to recognize people who go beyond what’s expected of them. I would have liked that as a new teacher. … In other districts, your performance and evaluation sit over here and your compensation sits on the other side. They should be connected.”

Cunningham served on the Ladue Board of Education prior to her legislative career, but said her experience there wasn’t the driving force behind her determination to make merit pay a statewide system.

“I believe if people perform, they should be rewarded for it,” she said. “If they don’t, they shouldn’t. It’s old-fashioned common sense and work ethic.”