In education policy debates, all roads eventually lead back to the issue of spending. But when it comes to money, is more always better? Not really — money does matter, but how we spend it matters much more.
Currently, spending on K-12 education is at an all-time high. Yet recent data indicate we aren’t getting the biggest bang for our buck. According to the U.S. Department of Education, per-pupil spending (in inflation-adjusted dollars) increased from $4,479 in 1971 to $8,996 in 2001. Despite this significant funding increase, graduation rates fell during this 30-year time span, from 75.6 to 72.2 percent. Test scores were also relatively unaffected by the emptying of taxpayers’ wallets: According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, between 1971 and 2001, reading scores rose just three points while math scores remained unchanged.
Clearly, we need to shift our financial priorities, but how? The truth is that whether students are learning is, and always has been, our primary yardstick for measuring educational success. So we would be wise to allocate resources for those things proven to raise student achievement. Fortunately, when it comes to boosting student performance, research consistently singles out one factor above all others — the teacher.
Sure, some teachers are better than others. All parents know that. But it’s pretty easy to underestimate how much of a difference a good teacher can make. Good Teaching Matters, a ground-breaking report released a number of years ago by Education Trust, provides some relevant data on teaching effectiveness. The report profiles research conducted in Tennessee by William Sanders with dramatic findings: low-performing students with the least effective teachers produced gains averaging 14 percentage points during the school year, while students with the most effective teachers posted gains that averaged a whopping 53 points. Middle- and high-achieving students with strong teachers also made exponentially greater improvements than their less-fortunate peers stuck with ineffective instructors.
Eric Hanushek, education economics expert, has summed up the impact of teachers in this way: “The difference between a good and a bad teacher can be a full level of achievement in a single school year.”
Clearly, teachers (with impressive skills or lack thereof) have a substantial and irrefutable effect on student performance. But lawmakers still aren’t lining up to support legislation remunerating the efforts of good teachers. Yes, North Carolina spends generously on teacher salaries — about $4 billion annually. But there is no link between pay and an individual teacher’s ability to produce results in the classroom.
Instead, North Carolina teachers’ salaries are based on their years of experience, how many degrees they have earned, and whether they are National Board Certified. National Board certification is a North Carolina teacher’s cash cow, garnering certified instructors an automatic 12 percent pay raise. This salary-padding endures despite a 2005 report commissioned by the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards revealing that certification failed to produce any significant difference in student learning. The only time our state links money with student performance is under the ABCs accountability system. But even then, bonuses are meted out based on the school’s overall performance, earning every teacher in the school — good, bad, or indifferent — the same bonus. In fact, the worst teacher in a high-performing school is rewarded with bonus money while the best teacher in a low-performing school receives nothing. This counterintuitive system virtually guarantees that teachers who produce achievement gains will stay far from the struggling schools where the students need them most, perpetuating a cycle of academic failure and diminished expectations.
Surely the time has come to change how we allocate public education dollars. Data continue to affirm what many of us instinctively know: When it comes to raising student performance, good teachers matter. Shouldn’t we pay them what they’re worth?
Lindalyn Kakadelis is director of the North Carolina Education Alliance.